I like to listen to some Japanese music along with the rest of my library but I've found that the head unit is unable to process Japanese characters. Is there a character set I can possibly install/setting I need to play with to fix this? I'm sure others are having this problem too and I'd appreciate any insight.
I understand that but for all the songs I have it would be quite the ordeal. That's why I was hoping there was a firmware update or character set I could install to speed up the process.
I haven't heard of any. Mine doesn't even display accents for French and Spanish (even though the headunit has a French and Spanish display language option). My smart fortwo's radio was able to display those characters and even the "degree" sign. Mine is a Denso 7" unit (Gen 6 headunit)
This lack of functionality really is disappointing. The head unit can clearly render the characters in the JDM model along with other localized characters in international markets, so why limit such a basic feature if it's marketed as a technologically advanced machine?
Sadly, I doubt it, but have you asked Toyota? What do Prius in Japan do? It may be a software pack they could install, but then everything would be in Japanese.
I'm planning on having my car serviced soon so I'll ask my dealer if I have any options, but I agree the possibility is very slim.
My reason for thinking "no" is because computers use the ASCII system for defining characters. Some unique characters have their own ASCII code assignment, but often assignments change from language to language, so just like a font set, you'd sacrifice one language to have another. The system would need a subroutine that can distinguish one language from another and assign the correct symbol(s) and not just the corresponding ASCII number assignment.
Well, yes and no. ASCII is one type of text encoding, but there are newer forms of encoding, like UTF-8 (Unicode), that work much better internationally, and you would not have to sacrifice one language for another. But I'll bet you're right in thinking that this is probably an encoding issue, not a character set issue. To read the Japanese characters, (1) the firmware would need to be programmed to read the encoding, and (2) the text would need to be in that encoding. If the firmware is only programmed to read the text based on the locale, then there's not much you can do. But it's possible those MP3 tags are in some locale-specific encoding, in which case you may have luck by converting them to UTF-8.
Funny to come across this post since I recently became annoyed by this. You see, I enjoy listening to music from all over the world. Every time I play Korean or Japanese music the song title or song artist is blank if the song is listed in its native characters. I was a bit disappointed that my Prius cant display Japanese characters even though the car is Japanese and built in japan. Recently we purchased a Hyundai to replace our recently totaled Nissan. The car is built in Alabama but will properly display Korean characters in its infotainment screen. If Hyundai can do it, I see no reason for Toyota not to.
My Prius is non-nav, so it's never displayed song titles... but this is something I definitely would find annoying and I'd be interested in finding out why. Are you listening to MP3 song files? What is their source (ie. are they from CDs, from iTunes, from Amazon...)? What OS are you using?
Funny thing is, the head unit displays different things depending on source. If it's MP3 CD, it shows Filename, Folder, Artist. (yes filename, not song title. This annoys me the most) If it's Audio CD, it shows Track, Disc (title), Artist If it's BT/USB, it shows Track, Album, Artist If it's SAT, it shows the Title (program or song title or score if you're listening to a sports game), Name (Artist or feature like a phone number for contests)
Welp.... I suppose I just dated myself then. (lol) Forgot about unicode. If you're as anal-retentive as I am, there's a "simple" fix. All of my MP3s are named after the song title. Of course, I don't always see the song title because I use a numeric coding system to ensure all my music remains properly grouped on any PC directory. 3 digits for artist, 2 digits for album, 2 digits for track, then the song name. So, it looks like this "0010101 - First Track Title" If I was a superhero, I'd be called Captain Anal.
I am just wondering if Toyota has done anything regards this issue, specifically on new Prius (like 2020 prius/ prius prime). I know other Japanese/Korean cars are displaying Asian language correctly. for example, this is from a rental car from a trip.
