OK - I've managed to get hold of map V16 for Australia & still cannot get TMC working. SO I guess BMW did not pay for the decryption codes to Suma.....

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2002 E53 X5 4.6is - BM54, Mk4 nav, VIM

The BMW nav OS does not support encryted TMC AFAIK.

On the BMW system, the radio module receives the TMC data and sends it to the nav computer, in its raw received format

The nav computer takes the TMC data, decodes it, and then reads the TMC location database on the map disc to find out the lat/long of the location IDs

So you see a few things have to be in place for TMC to work:
1. The radio module must have the TMC receiver built in (not all radio modules do)
2. The nav must support TMC (all nav OS versions do, but some markets have the TMC menu option removed to stop users complaining that it doesn't work)
3. The location database for the country must be present on the map disc

If the TMC data is broadcast in an encypted format, then decryption must take place either inside the radio module or inside the nav.
To add decryption, the OS of the nav needs to be changed, or the radio OS has to be changed.
Neither are trivial or easy.

If the Australian system uses a conditional access system where the CA codes can be stored on the map disc, then maybe it would work.
You'd have to ask the Australian TMC provider as to what CA system they use.

But no matter what - without a TMC database on the map disc, TMC simply cannot work.

Also consider asking VDO Australia, because the nav system in the BMW is a VDO system. If VDO are considering adding TMC support, ask them how it is done, and if it can be made to work on the older VDO nav units (like MS3000, MS3100, which are very similar to the BMW nav units)

You need to add separate decryption, which you will have to design and build and buy the licences for...

Thanks Kiwi......I don't hold much hope for this. I know they have TMC enabled for the X5 E70 in Australia, but i don't think it will happen for our systems.....
Oh well the BM54 radio does look better that the BM53 I originally had, at least it supports the MP3 id tags ( the latest version), now I just need to repalce my cd changer & I will have proper MP3 support

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2002 E53 X5 4.6is - BM54, Mk4 nav, VIM

Well if the E70 can then likely it is a CA issue where the map disc does not have the CA data on it....

on the bmw v32 software disc in a paramter file (tioarch.tar/nav_mm.tio) for mk4 you can see the following:

equal_weight=0
compatible_weight=1024
strong_tp_station_weight=2048
pay_tmc_station_weight=4096
[pay_tmc]
xor_value=203
start_bit=6
rotation=1
encid_start_hour=4
encid_start_minute=2
tm_0_allowed=TRUE
tm_1_allowed=FALSE
pay_tmc_fallback_wait_period=120

so i think it should be capable of decoding pay-tmc, but i really dont know what 'conditional access' means and how it works. I also read that the Suna system here in australia is very similar to the iTIS in the UK

In the UK the CA info is stored on the map disc, and there was a time where you could buy a map disc with TMC, or a map disc without TMC.

The TMC fee funded the TMC system

And yes, V32 an in fact every BMW OS since a long time ago has been capable of decoding TMC and also pay-tmc.

For the pay-tmc, you have to pay for it and get the right map disc with the conditional access TMC on it.

okay so the major problem is that the whereis v16 disc does not contain the tmc codes/table for australia, that way it is irrelevant whether the system is able or not to decode (pay)tmc. correct me mate if i m wrong

Correct. The map disc needs a TMC location database, otherwise it cannot translate event location into lat/long

And then, if your TMC is encrypted with conditional access, then the map disc also needs to have the CA code on it to enable the TMC