jj69

Hi all,

This is my very first post. I’m seriously considering a 2005 TL. I will probably be purchasing in October, shortly after the 2005s arrive. Unfortunately, from what I’ve read here and in other places on the web, it looks like the sound system for ‘05 will STILL be unable to read mp3s burned to CD-Rs. Even more unnerving, I’ve also heard that the sound system in the new RL will be able to read mp3 CD-Rs!!!

I haven’t seen this discussed here before, so I figured I’d pose the question. Does anyone know if the head unit in the TL supports CD-R based software upgrades (aka “flash upgrades”)? By way of example, if the unit does support such upgrades, you could download an upgrade file (i.e. adding mp3 support) from the web, burn it to a CD-R, and place said CD-R in the head unit. Upon powerup, the head unit would automatically recognize the disc and upgrade itself. Anyone familiar with the hacking community that has evolved around the popular Apex brand home DVD players should know what I’m talking about. I’m told many aftermarket car audio head units are similarly “flashable.”

Of course, I ask because I’d like to determine if it’s even POSSIBLE for Acura (or Panasonic) to offer such an upgrade in the future. If the RL uses the same head unit and it has full mp3 support, then it should be quite simple. Even if Acura/Panasonic chooses not to offer such an upgrade, someone with significant programming experience may well be able to write the appropriate code to do this.

I know I don’t need to get into the abusurdity of Acura offering an advanced sound system WITHOUT the ability to play what is now the most popular sound storage format in the world. I would like to determine if there is any hope for this sound system without having to replace the entire head unit.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

cM3go

the RL uses a Bose headunit

bselva

I've the TL for four months and I'm trying to do the same thing without voiding the warrenty but still no luck. I'm also looking for a way to interface my Pocket PC or Notebook PC either via Bluethooth or direct cable to get information such trip meter/counters. I'm wondering if I can tap the OBD II interface and get all those information.

Mtalio

FYI, I have burned several discs from the iTunes Music Store and have had no problems listening to them in my TL stereo.

mtalio

Michael A

CD-R's should work in most newer vehicles.
I am assuming the format is NOT MP3 ?

Neogeek

itunes uses only ACC format so it wouldnt be MP3 in the first place

Michael A

Being that my whole music collection is MP3's can you convert MP3's to ACC ?

Neogeek

you can but i dont see the piont, since our TL dosnt support it.

when you burn a cd to itunes, it converts it into the normal CDA format that all audio players read

csunracer

When you burn a CD from within Itunes, what happens is that it converts whatever file you have (mp3, acc, etc..) into a .wav file. That's the reason why it's able to play in the TL. The end result is a disc that is just like a regular consumer CD. It won't play acc, or mp3 files natively.

caball88

i believe it can be done but would take alot of time and effort in order to engineer this flash upgrade. the sound system definitely has some flash rom that operates the cd/radio/xm function. the navigation is made by alpine and is a separate unit in the rear. the hard part is to extract this rom information and then decrypt it(if it is encrypted) and trying to figure out the machine language it uses. hopely its something that is common and not proprietary panasonic thing. then you would have to write the code to be able to read and play mp3's. there are a ton of algorithms out there to help you create an mp3 player so that shouldn't be hard. but you have to translate this using their machine code. its not impossible but it would be difficult.

Michael A

I see ... I am just trying to figure out how I can play my MP3's in my new TL. Converting to a regular audio format doesnt help as their is only capacity for 74 min's on a cdr. I am thinking about looking closely at a MP3 audio player like an Ipod or Rio, I am just not crazy about the idea of an FM transmitter.

csunracer

I personally use a 30Gig Ipod and use a cassette adapter to feed the audio into the system. The sound quality is MUCH better than using an FM transmitter. Another option would be to use an Icelink adapter to feed the audio from the ipod directly into your system. I know there was an Icelink adapter available for the 04 Accord (my accord didn't have a cassette player) but I havn't bothered to look it up for the TL because i'm getting by with the cassette adapter.

jj69

Caball88:

Thanks for the informative reply. I guess you're a programmer? When I made the original post I should have used the more recognizable term "firmware," as that's what needs to be hacked and upgraded. My point is that the hardware to decode an mp3 CD-R is probably THERE already. I'm not aware of any OEM DVD laser mechanism that is not fully mp3 cable out of the box. Panasonic/Acura was probably too lazy/cheap to include the feature in the system firmware.

I'm not a programmer, so this is not something I could ever do myself. However, I've seen people do so much with the Apex DVD players. I'm not sure whether all the Apex hacks are actually done by outsiders. I was under the impression that the hacks were actually written by the manufacturer's own employees, then simply leaked on the web. Either that, or the code itself was leaked on the web for programmers to hack themselves. After all, Apex is a Chinese company, and they really don't recognize foreign copyrights. I'm not sure there's any hope of getting the firmware code out of Panasonic or Acura.

My hope is that Acura will have the firmware upgraded for the 2006 model due to customer demand, then somehow make it available as an upgrade for 04 and 05 cars.

Wishful thinking, I guess.

zeezz

in the meanwhile, you can just burn a DVD+-R for a very respectable amount of songs.

caball88

with regard to the apex dvd players i am not aware of hacks that would allow it to play an entirely different format of video. the firmware hacks only re-arrange or remove code in the machine language that will unlock certian features like making it region free. all of its capabilites are already there. in the TL's audio system i doubt that it has mp3 decoding capabilities at all. it would be silly to have it and not use it as a marketing tool when selling the car. in order to create a firmware upgrade you will have to dig in deep into the code and add your own module that will perform the mp3 processing. hacking car systems is very interesting and there will probably be a larger community for it as it moves more towards embedded operating systems. if you do a search on the TSX forum you will see that they have tried to hack the navi system to auto press the annoying "OK" button. alot more cars are being produced with small modules that control all sorts of things. if you take a look at bmw's new iDrive system, which i believe is based off of windows ce. as developers learn more about how these systems work you might see more firmware upgrades. if you really want an mp3 player i would suggest getting and ipod hard wired. there are other harddrive based systems that you can add onto the TL but you will have to toggle between that and the XM because there is no external inputs left on the car.

tabascojrc

are these audio cd's or data cd's with mp4 or mp3 burned on it
that is a big difference