RNS-F...?!

[ren]

hi everyone.

i'm considering retrofitting the rns-e to my a3. i've searched high and low on the www for straightforward reviews of the unit and for once the www has let me down!!

what are your views on the unit?

my reservations are mainly that a) it isn't touchscreen and b) to listen to a cd involves removing the map dvd.

i have ipod in my glovebox iso a cd changer and so i couldn't listen to cds this way. does anyone else have this set-up? and if so, do you find the lack of simultaneous cd and nav a problem?

i was also wondering if anyone knows if plans are afoot for an 'rns-f' unit - something which would bring audi up-to-date with a lot of other systems which are touchscreen and have separate cd slot. cos if something like this is in the pipeline, i'll wait!

thanks for your views

 

[mikeclark007]

Hi.

I have the RNS-E retrofitted to my A3 and think its great.
Beforehand i was asking all the questions about the ipod adapter etc but have found the SD Card slots more than capable of handling the amount of music i listen 2. I have a 2GB card in each slot 1 for my music and 1 for my girlfriends and find that it does us fine. Each card (Sandisc) cost about £28 off ebay.
I believe the RNS-E is only capable of reading so much data off the cards at once so i dont think you can get away with maxing out their capacity but if you albums are all stored on your PC then its easy enough to chop and change them around when you feel like it.
My RNS-E is also bluetoothed up to my phone as well which works great.

i've probably missed out loads of info but as i'm not that techno minded when it comes to I.C.E thats about all i can write. Cheers

 

[ren]

thanks, mike. i'm definitely going for the bluetooth. it's invisible and makes complete sense. i think the skinny on the sd cards is that they will handle somehthing like 516 files (including folders/subfolders) regardless of the sd card size.

nearly everything on my ipod is at 192kbps and if i had sd slots, i'd encode music there at 320kbps as the difference in sound quality is very noticeable. can't be bothered re-importing all 40GB of music into my itunes library at 320kbps mind you...

i like having all bases covered which is why i'm wondering about playing 'old-fashioned' cds. do you have a cd changer and/or have you used the dvd-rom to play cds? i don't like filling my car with cds but say i bought a new one or a friend brought one into my car, i'd possibly be faced with the choice or either not listening to it or getting lost!! sometimes the sound quality of original cds is preferable to anything compressed, whatever the bitrate.

thanks for your views

 

[mikeclark007]

Never played a music CD in the system. The navigation DVD stays in all the time. When we first got the RNS-E my girlfriend would moan about my choice of music on the card so she just used an ipod + itrip for all her stuff (poor quality mind) - thats why i bought her her own SD card. Happiness alround!

 

[benw123]

For more detailed info on the RNS-E unit, see http://www.navplus.us. Really good forum and there's sections dedicated to newbies who wish to retrofit.

 

[s8craig]

I'm pretty sure the RNS-E will not be superceded by anything witha touch screen facility, even the new R8 has a new facia RNS-E, and now audi are putting basic nav systems like the CD one into A3/A4 and RNS-E as the high option. I think the next gen will be MOST MMI in the A4 B8 chassis, but no touch screen.

 

[ren]

thanks for the info and link. i found some interesting pics on my travels of the shooting break concept which seems to involve good-looking next gen sat nav. all very concept at the minute. and if the RNS-E is good enough for the R8...

what's the latest on TMC for the RNS-E in the UK? does anyone know?!

as i'll be doing lots of driving on the continent over the next couple of years, would it be sensible/possible for me to install a euro DVD which would enable TMC on the continent?

thanks

 

[s8craig]

Ren

All RNS-E's use a EURO DVD, so TMC will work in europe with the current DVD. The UK TMC for A3/A4 is still not available.

Craig

 

[ren]

thanks, craig.

i've got my head around it all now i think. my feeling is that tmc for the a3/a4 will never become available in the uk ... and that way i can only be pleasantly surprised.