brociouz

iTrader: (65)

Yeah, I figured this was a part of it too. I've ridden in and driven a 3GS several times, the cabin is much quieter compared to a 2IS (especially one with a full exhaust ).

Okay, that makes me feel better. Did you have padding on the floor too? Mine is mounted pretty high up, so any passenger's feet wouldn't/shouldn't rest on top of the unit.

Did you ground your unit? I'll try to get pics up tonight.

That might be it - I'm probably in shuffle mode. It should still allow you to go back a track though.

Hasn't happened recently so keeping my fingers crossed.

Hmmm, interesting. They should come up with a proportional algorithm to correct that though.

Okay, thanks for the info. I'll try pressing random buttons until it's fixed, although seeing the rear-view camera while driving on the freeway is pretty cool (albeit distracting).

*Batman*

See a pic of where I mounted it here. You can see the bulge in the carpet. But because its on the side, it's not in the way.


My unit is grounded.

I agree on the proportional algorithm, but I don't think they are working on that fix.

There is one bug you haven't experienced. When in iPod out mode, when you are looking at the ipod menu screen, you sometimes get a single stuck pixel at the top of the screen. It disappears after a couple of cycles. I only had it on 2 consecutive days 2 weeks ago. They are working on a fix for this.

brociouz

iTrader: (65)

Ohhh, so it's on the side, not the floor. That's an idea. I guess it's probably safer there. How do you hold it in place?

Do you know how it was grounded? Like was the unit itself touching metal, or did you run a wire from the unit to the frame of the car?

VaisTech, are you listening? Please make a fix for the album art.

Hmmm, I'll keep an eye out for this bug as well. Thanks for the heads up.

*Batman*

It's held by velcro tape, but really you don't need anything to hold it because in this location it is sandwiched between the carpet padding and the sidewall padding. I wouldn't put it on the floor, because you may get water on the floor (e.g. detailer cleaning the carpets, putting an umbrella on the floor, spilling a bottle of water).

He ran a wire to an existing ground terminal in the car. Not sure where.

brociouz

iTrader: (65)

Cool, thanks again for the info. I might try this mounting method out when I have time over the weekend.

Okay, I bet the fact that my unit isn't grounded explains the "static."

*Batman*

I'm not convinced. The power harness should have a ground connection built in, so I don't think the extra ground cable makes a difference. I have a feeling the problem may be something else. Worth discussing with Vais tech support.

rebs

Ok, so I finally got my unit installed. Here's my random tidbits (and a reply to some other posts):

1. The vent removal and re-installation is a beotch. I don't think they have gone back on properly, but it looks like the clips are all intact. Horrible design by Lexus.

2. The port locations on the ML+ device could be better. For example, two cables go to the head-unit. One is located in the front, and one is the back. Personally I think both should be located on the back of the device, and then put the external device interfaces (ipod, dvd, etc.) on the front.

3. This unit is huge; I currently have it in my glove box.

4. I hate Apple. Save yourself some time and buy the Apple component cable (or make sure the cable you are purchasing has the "Apple device authentication chip inside").

5. This unit does sound better than the 2ic unit, but I wouldn't say it's extremely noticeable. If you take a <=256kbps MP3, I think you would be hard pressed to notice the difference. I did try an apple lossless file (of an original source) and I did notice a slight difference, but this easily could have been psychological. I'm not convinced our ML systems are completely digital from head-unit to speaker. ;-)

6. The graphical interface is pretty cool, but I occasionally get a delay when clicking the back/return button in the upper right corner. Since this is new Ipod Touch with only about 8 albums on it, I'm not sure why there is ever a delay.

7. Yes the album artwork is slightly squeezed and not proportionally, but it still looks pretty good.

8. Brocious, I have not tested the back button on my steering wheel, but I will tonight.

9. Brocious, I did have constant static on my screen, but I replaced the cable and re-encoded the video and it looks ok now. I still need to do more in-depth testing though.

...That's my very preliminary analysis for now.

brociouz

iTrader: (65)

Agreed. It's nerve-wracking removing those vents.

Do you have any pictures? Did you have to cut or modify anything? I put it on the floor under the carpet.

I bought my cable from VaisTech... what do I need the DRM chip for?

Do you have Mark Levinson audio? If not, your music is analog to the amp (instead of digital to the amp), so you would hear less of a difference.

I get the same delay with 3,000+ songs on my brand new iPod touch. It's usually not more than 1/4-1/2 a second, but still annoying.

Yeah, but this is still an easy firmware fix they should do. Although, it may mean less room for text.

Cool, keep us posted. I'll test it tonight too.

What cable did you replace? The VaisTech component/USB cable with Apple's?

*Batman*

Okay you are going to find this a bit shocking. All of a sudden, by artwork is now displaying proportional. See below. Note distance from edge of artwork to where it says Greatest Hits [Columbia].

This is a pic I posted earlier.


This is a pic I just took.


I went back to my car after I took the picture with the wider clipart and it went back to the squeezed image.

Then I switched the system into iPod video out mode and then switched it back to iPod out mode, and hey presto the clipart is correctly sized again.

What do you guys make of this?

rominl

iTrader: (4)

batman, the 2nd picture looks blur, was that just your phone or that's the case? seems like first one is "clearer"

reb, what's the difference with the cable from apple? the cable from vaistech seems to work just fine?

and yes, just as i mentioned before, i did vml install and to me, the sound difference between analog and digital isn't that big, unless you go very high quality on the files. otherwise, the files are the limiting factor.

rebs

Think it could be related to the shorter song title? Perhaps test with other songs of the same title length vs. titles with more characters?

*Batman*

Blur is just the photo. It's 530pm here so getting dark. The first photo is an HDR photo in bright light at noon, and second an HDR photo in low light condition at 530pm.

I think to notice the sound difference you need 3 things:
1) Mark Levinson
2) High quality encoding - mine is lossless
3) Good hearing (not everyone's hearing range is the same). I know for example from doing a test that I can hear a broader range of frequencies than my brother.

brociouz

iTrader: (65)

Weird! I think VaisTech did come up with a proportional resizing algorithm and you stumbled upon it by accident in iPod Out mode. My guess is that the algorithm is needed with iPod Video Out (otherwise movies would look ridiculous) and you ran into a bug so that the algorithm stays in place when you switch to iPod Out. Well at least we have proof now that the album art "squeeze" can be fixed.

rebs

I should clarify a few things. I did not order a cable from vaistech, so theirs could be fine. I got mine at Bestbuy; It was a Rocketfish component cable that supposedly worked with Ipod touch's (3rd generation and higher), but I would occasionally get an error message about 2 or more accessories being plugged in at the same time, and the video quality appeared to be poor. I switched to the genuine Apple component cable and a lot of my problems disappeared (or at least upon first and second glance appear to be gone). There are a few articles about how apple basically requires you to use their accessories on some of the latest generation equipment to get full video resolution; Some people call it the apple video tax.

I do have a ML system, and I'm using apple lossless files (converted from FLAC), so they are high quality files...still can't say I notice a huge difference vs the 2ic. I would find it very interesting to do a blind test with the same media and see how many people notice the difference and how much is placebo.

*Batman*

Vaistech says that the sequence which caused the proportional album art to be displayed is a bug in iOS4. Apparently when the squeezed album art is normal, and the proportional album art is a bug in iOS4 which causes album art to be displayed in a variety of sizes.

I think the outcome here will be Apple fixing the bug and us being stuck with squeezed images.