IPOD on-screen control with navigation: your experience

The iPod integration with the navigation system is a joke, plain and simple, and has been discussed in a couple of other threads. It's only useful for listening to a limited number of playlists (or, as you point out, songs/artists/albums starting with a letter early in the alphabet). The fastest way to scroll is using the right dial on the nav system, but it's not that much of an improvement. (You'll also find yourself frustrated by the fact that the songs in your playlists aren't necessarily in the same order they are on your iPod.) My only other tip is to unplug your iPod from the USB connector and use the aux connector instead. Better yet, replace the entire navigation system with something from a company that knows how to design one.

 

When the iPod is connected, is the display and controls on the iPod locked out? I was hoping to still be able to do track ratings while it's plugged in.

 

Yep, it's locked out >_< ... I just got my new Prius IV 2 days ago ^_^ ... and also fighting this iPod / Nav issue >_< .... Worse is that I'm a Chinese and I'm tons of songs with Chinese characters, and they are shown as BLANK in the Nav screen. I like the iPod dock integration for controlling next / previous songs using the Wheel controls / Nav controls, but I also like to know what songs I'm actually listening to. So I'm struggling to either use the bluetooth or the usb cable ...

 

Do you mean the bluetooth or the aux cable? The aux cable is going to be your best bet, especially if you use a product that combines a charger with a true aux out (instead of headphone out). For example:

http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-LiquidAUX-Auxiliary-Remote-iPhone/dp/B0011UK2HE
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WKW6HS


Incidentally, if you look at the customer images for the first product (hover over the thumbnails under the main image) there are 3 or 5 photos showing the product in a 2010 Prius, including the remote clipped onto the steering wheel.

 

Thanks cpatch for the recommendation, I ordered the Kensington LiquidAUX Auxiliary Car Kit with Remote for iPod; iPhone 1G, 3G: Electronics and it's coming Tuesday .

 

I wish they can come out a multiple language to fix the Chinese or which ever other language problem. I have a lot of Chinese mp3 and podcast and I guess I will face the same problem when I get my IV

 

Just a side note, if you have a lot of songs / podcast, it's not very usable with the Nav system anyways. I went with the Kensington solution because I can pause / skip songs with the remote control, and I (or the passengers) can change songs / playlist quickly on the iPhone. Of course you can see all the Chinese characters as well on the phone ^_^ ...

 

Ha! So true!

 

Yeah, I've given up using the on-screen navigation system for the iPod, which is a shame because seeing the name of the currently playing song on the screen is very cool.

But it's basically unusable for a bunch of reasons:

- The amount of time it takes to scroll through songs/artists/playlists is so unbelievably time-consuming. I have 800 artists, and I think it would take 10 minutes to get to the bottom of my artist list.
- While you're scrolling through songs/artists/playlists, the audio system interrupts your currently playing song to try to play whatever you're currently scrolling through -- even though you haven't made a selection yet.
- The only way to shuffle "all songs" on your ipod is to choose the playlist that the Prius creates with the name of your iPod, but then it always starts with the same song. Weird.
- No way to assign star ratings to your iPod songs through the navigation system.
- If you're using an iPod touch, you're used to being able to jump to the currently playing album. Can't do that through the navigation system.

I have a few more complaints about it too, but I can't remember what they were right now!

So now, I have resorted to having my iPod plugged into the auxiliary jack, and I have it sitting in a mount that I got from proclipusa.com, and I control the iPod directly from the iPod itself.

 

These are my two main gripes also. I've gotten around the time-consuming scrolling by just making more playlists, but it's still really annoying that the system will start playing songs that you're scrolling through. I've noticed that your song won't be interrupted if you push the scroll button quickly enough, but who really wants to deal with that?

 

Interesting -- I hadn't noticed that before!

You know, the Prius' phonebook lets you quickly jump to different parts of your phonebook alphabetically... there's little buttons for "ABC", "DEF", "GHI", etc. They should bring those buttons to the iPod interface, which would help make navigation slightly easier... as long as the current song isn't interrupted every time you press one of those buttons!

 

Yeah, as far as I can tell the interruption occurs because a few seconds after the next screen of songs loads, the top one is automatically selected. If you press the button to scroll to the next screen before the selection occurs, you won't be interrupted.

 

Hmmm. Interesting. I do not have an I-Pod, but a Cowon S9 personal media player (PMP) and the USB connection gives me the options you discribe above. Howevr, it lists my folders by Album title and I would rather search by Artist. I have only had my new Prius IV for one day so maybe I will figure it out.

 

It's still slow...try using the dial next to the upper right of the screen (I forget what it's labeled) to scroll through and you'll see just how slow. The problem is that the interface isn't caching the contents of the iPod but instead is requesting the song info in groups. Other iPod interfaces will read the entire contents of the iPod when you first connect it (which can take a while) and then store all the info in memory for quick access.

 

Here's my finding of using ipod classic through usb for a week
I have about 500 artists on my ipod and everything is properly tagged, genre, playlist, composer..etc

scrolling down means you're going through the list one by one
scrolling up lets you fast scroll the screen is too slow to respond, but you'll see the number goes down must faster (not recommended if you are the driver/only person in the car)
You can make playlists from A to Z
You can also go to genre, say rap, and it'll show all the artist under rap and you can select/play the artist.

I don't think there's any other ways besides changing out the whole system..but I'm actually pretty happy with it. This car is just so much better in so many ways than my old car (BMW X3 04), knowing there are obvious imperfections, I just can't complain

 

I wanted to let everyone know that VAIS Technology is working on their VML device for the new 2010 Prius owners. I have been in touch with them asking questions about use, function and availability. If their engineers can get the initial version going with just the initial setup it will seriously help us factory ipod connection gen 3 Prius owners.

I will be acting as somewhat of a beta tester for VAIS on the initial VML and if all goes well it will be available for everyone in mass, soon! The VML will allow for near instant ipod data availability on screen illeminating the wait and load crap. Also the device will preven the annoying default function of selecting the first item in your list. The device will be firmware upgradable too so future updates, features and bug fixes can be applied without removing the device.

I'm told I should be getting a test device very soon and will be documenting installation and use with write-ups and even some pictures and videos! Keep tuned and look for my posts in the upcoming future! VML to the rescue of factory Prius owners!

 

I am in keep me posted I want the with the HHD Thanks.

 

Which model are you getting? Is it the SL2i-UP?

 

Any way Toyota could update the interface and allow current users to switch to it?