What is involved in a MKIII to MKIV upgrade?

tempestv8 · #1 11-05-2006, 04:15 AM

Howdy group,

I have a 16:9 widescreen MKIII unit in my BMW 530i Touring.

Is it a simple case of buying a MKIV DVD drive and swapping out the MKIII CD drive in the back of the car, or does the display unit also need to be replaced?

Are there any gotchas with this upgrade, and what are the sort of prices that the MKIV upgrades going for these days?

Thanks in advance,

Lawrance

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RichardP1 · #2 11-05-2006, 04:59 AM

MK III to MK IV is just a dirct swap, it should just work as long as you get a Mk IV that is for the wide screen monitor not the Radio Nav system.

tempestv8 · #3 11-05-2006, 05:07 AM

Hi Richard,

Am I getting it right from your recommendation that there are two types of MKIV units, i.e. one type for the widescreen monitor and the other type is for the Radio Nav system?

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by this because my widescreen is also a radio and a navigation system.

How can I identify that a MK IV unit for sale on eBay (for example) will be suitable for my model?

davipt · #4 11-05-2006, 05:40 AM

What RichardP1 means is that there is a "business navigation system" that doesn't have a big monitor but instead shows the "turn left 50m" in an simple and small ambar screen directly in the radio.

As far as I know, it's also a MKIV and it also uses our "High" DVD maps, so I just wonder if the system is exactly the same but uses different pins on the cable (which I don't know know which ones), or if it's just somehow a bmw recoded procedure to turn it "business".

Either way I have a feeling that the default behaviour is to use the monitor, so you should be safe by getting any MKIV.

tweakerwes · #5 11-05-2006, 10:17 AM

Both mk4 are the same.
If you have a radiogps mk4 then you can recode it to 16/9 color mk4.

RichardP1 · #6 11-05-2006, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tweakerwes

Both mk4 are the same.
If you have a radiogps mk4 then you can recode it to 16/9 color mk4.

A contentious issue!

There are definitely units that you can not code (I've seen inside and they are missing the video output circuitry) , and reports of units that you can recode.

tempestv8 · #7 11-05-2006, 08:55 PM

Hi Richard,

Hmm, so not all MKIV units are the same... Anyway of telling from the part numbers or codes on the units?

TIA!

Lawrance

Roy in GA · #8 11-06-2006, 01:05 AM

Review this thread about color nav and radio nav.

http://www.xoutpost.com/navigation-sy...rome-mkiv.html

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