So I have the '08 E350 with the iPod kit. Up until today, the iPod kit displayed the song on the main dash (center in between the speedo) and it showed (in very crude font) "iPod, then an arrow pointing up, the name of the song and then an arrow pointing down" so you could select up for previous, down for next on the wheel. The display has been like this for the 1.4 years I've had the car.

This morning, I park the car, turn it off and when I get back in and turn it on, the display is different - instead of saying "iPod" and shoing arrows, the display now shows the name of the song in MUCH bigger font (previous font was like 1/8" tall, the new one is 3/8" roughly) - no arrows, just the name of the song - or the first part of it since it gets cut off, and at the bottom still shows the temp, mileage, etc.

WTF? Is there a way for MB to download some sort of FW update via the sat antenna? I have scrolled through all of the menu settings in the car over the last year and never saw this before. This morning I did nothing, turned it off, got out and when I came back...Poof! New display.

I like this better but have no clue how it got there. Any ideas?

 

MB Software Programming at its finest. I all of a sudden notice when I load a CD into the CD changer, the songs titles are listed in the Speedo as you describe in the small font. If I shut down the car, when I come back, the same CD will resume playing except that the DIC will only display in the huge font "Track 1"... no song titles unless I eject the CD & reinsert it when prompted. They must use steam powered, belt driven computers in Germany.

 

But if you ask W123 owners here, this is what they are heavily insisting for their cars too (instead of modern electronics).

 

So it's just a quirk then?

I've never had any CD title display - although it says it does that from any CD i've ever played in the car.

Never had any Sirius title display either - just about every car with XM or Sirius displays the song title - even the cheap $50 radios do it - not my Benz. I've just learned to accept it, if the new model doesn't have major improvements in these areas, it looks like I'm going back to Audi.

 

[QUOTE=LRM1;3211560]Never had any Sirius title display either - just about every car with XM or Sirius displays the song title - even the cheap $50 radios do it - not my Benz. QUOTE]

If you press the button next to "info" when listening to Sat radio, it will display song name and artist name. But the next time you start up the car, you have to press the same button again.

 

[QUOTE=Oggie (on L.I.);3211615]I don't have an "info" on my screen. I'll double check later, but I don't recall ever seeing one.

 

Yeah... Its a Quirk... I hope its a rare one. That keeps the Blood Pressure down.

 

Don't worry the new (MY09) system is vastly improved and is HDD based, too.

 

p.s., LRM1: this is what's coming next:

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/M...AND_200714.htm

.... sorry if this is a repost, which I'm sure it is (it's from the November LA Auto Show)

 

I have seen this too - the "Track 1" on the IC and the song title on the COMAND. I burn all of my CDs from a lossless library with CD-Text - so I notice it first thing - and it does seem random.

Regarding the iPod - not sure what would cause that, but I have seen different displays before for the iPod. The example was on a W209 with factory (install by MFG) integration kit (which shares virtually the same IC as the W211). It displayed very large fonts for the song name, like CD-Text does, based on the number of characters in the song name. If the song name exceeded space on the IC, it would reduce to the smaller, normal size characters. My W211 never does this on the iPod, but does on CDs.

 

Now that;s very cool and what I would expect from a $64,000 car!!

My Wife's Ford has much better interface than the Benz and is a few months younger. Honestly if I had bothered to check it when I was getting the car - I probably would have gone elsewhere. My Audi wasn't as advanced as what that video showed, it was just text but had ALOT more detail, titles, customizations and control over the car's features.

Seems MB is a bit behind the curve.

 

...and just as quickly as it blessed my screen, it has gone away. The display is back to the more mundane and boring one that has resided in my dash for over a year.

WTF?????