Bielefelder

It has been difficult to find clear answers to the problem of connecting an iPhone 4/4S to the Command Center. There seem to be white cables, black cables and other third party connections. Will the Command Center accept all input from the iPhones mini jack, i.e. the sound as well as the microphone? If so, would the microphone connect to the mike in the vehicle so that commands could be given to the iPhone using its voice processing software to dial phone numbers, stop, forward, backward music selections, etc.?

Hopefully, someone in this forum is sufficiently familiar with the problem. Thank you.

Darkstar19

To add on to this, many people have said the OEM iPod integration kit is junk but what does it do and not do? I can't seem to find a video or full description of this. I think it only works through the instrument cluster and not the 7" screen. Is that right? Can you still leave an old iPod in the glove compartment permanently and control it completely through the car?

JaCe88

I find the multimedia cables for the iPod to the proprietary connector on the 2012 COMAND system to be great. Full playlist controls, album coverart, Chinese ID3 tags, etc... what more could you want?

Darkstar19

Yeah, I believe the system got a lot better for 2012, but I'm talking about the '09 model year.

Bielefelder, sorry didn't mean to thread-jack... just thought our questions were complementary.

acr2001

If you really have a thing for the iphone voice controls, you should be able to hold the home button as usual for the voice prompt, and it will work through the cars bluetooth system.

Bielefelder

I suppose the specs of the 2012 model have not changed, so would a software upgrade to the 2008 model 7" Command make things better? And which interface cable should be used to improve functionality of the iPhone when used with the Command Center?

Darkstar19

Bump

acr2001

2012 is NTG4.5. There are hardware changes. I doubt MB will offer such an update even if it were possible.

Bielefelder

Thank you. I will talk to my dealer about it.

wireless200

Will other mp3 music players work with the interface, e.g., Android-based such as the Samsung Galaxy?

Bielefelder

This documentation is intended to focus on a continuing issue with the MBZ Media Interface and I hope the details of my observations and analysis is helpful to the programmers or software engineers responsible for the code in the Media Interface.

My configuration:

Mercedes Benz E-350 with Command and Media Interface, with latest software
Apple iPhone 6s Plus with IOS 10.0.2
TuneIn Radio Pro app, Version 10.7.2 (803)
Streaming Radio Station: Radio-Heimatmelodie (other stations exhibit the same problem)

Issue 1 currently playing song in a stream is faulty:

When streaming music, the display shows only the first song. Subsequent songs show the name of the first song, thus assuming the buffer for the display is not refreshed. By the way, this is not the case if I use the Bluetooth interface.

Issue 2 attaching an iPone to the Media Interface cable gets stuck on "Activating Device":

Plugging the iPhone into the Media Interface (with lightning connector), the system gets stuck on "Activating Device - Please wait), however the music from the stream plays, alas without a song display.

Here is an interesting observations: after the first song gets stuck in the buffer and displays, other subsequent songs show the same title as the first song. If you select "Search" on the display, followed by "Current Track", the title of the currently playing song is listed 7 times in the display and, when selected, it shows up in the display of the currently playing song, replacing the stuck first song title. The new song song then gets stuck in the buffer as the first song and unless you repeat the process to "Search" and choose "Current Track", it will remain displayed.

My opinion is that both issues mentioned above are caused by software errors in the MBZ Media Interface - not iOS or the app used to stream the music as other internet stations show the same display problems.