[NoPDI]

Took delivery of HSE Lux Auto with Entertainment pack on Friday. Stressed to dealer at collection that the display was dim and did not look the same as the loan car they had given me whilst awaiting the (very late) delivery of my car. They felt it may be that I had the "upgraded" system and that was just how it looks……. This is one of the significant selling points of new JLR products.
Have checked other basic cars and viewed many available images of the "new" JLR infotainment system on line and it is clearly a fault with my car. Spent nearly three hours at the dealer on Tuesday as they wanted to try diagnostics in the workshop etc. When car was returned they chad no idea why the screen was dull - they advised there are two versions of the hardware Sony and Meridian and it may be that the meridian system displays images that way. The entertainment pack is £2.5k extra and if this is how it displays it is not fit for purpose and even worse that the system in my 2013 Range Rover Spot and 2013 F Type V8S. I do not believe the dealer.
After much discussion the dealer agreed to check a basic system in the showroom and it became wholly apparent that the graphics and software running on the system in my car are in fact the old version all of the submenus such as ambient lighting, ECO, AC, DAB etc have the same displays as the previous system - so no wonder the "new" display is not displaying correctly.
1. How can a new model car with new systems and new software have been manufactured this way?
2. How is it not spotted at quality control in the factory?
3. How can this pass any PDI by a dealer?
4. Why try to fob off customers with inadequate and, frankly, inane reasoning?

The new system does look much better and seems to function in a much improved way - trouble is even having paid for an upgrade to it even the basic system was not installed in the car at the factory - I can feel blood boiling and heckles rising - CAB/Trading Standards anyone?

 

[TheGate]

I would be interested to see if you have any photos, as I am not familiar with the old system.

I also have the Meridian system with RSE. It is not as "pretty" as the non-entertainment (my neighbour has an HSE Lux without entertainment), and not as colourful.

Are you suggesting that they have installed an old system when they should have installed a "new" one?

 

[Lofi]

My understanding was that the Meridian system is very different. HD based rather than SD based for a start. Entirely possible therefore that it is quite different from the non-Meridian system.

 

[L550]

The entertainment pack uses the gen2.1 system that evoque currently uses, also any RSE will use the tried and tested gen2.1. (old software if you like)

But the base audio uses the new system which you would have seen on the other models. Granted it has more colourful graphics, but it isn't being rolled out to handle the more complex audio systems.

This is no misbuild

 

[Nubmaster]

After much discussion the dealer agreed to check a basic system in the showroom and it became wholly apparent that the graphics and software running on the system in my car are in fact the old version all of the submenus such as ambient lighting, ECO, AC, DAB etc have the same displays as the previous system - so no wonder the "new" display is not displaying correctly.

Can you take pictures of teh old system so we can compare these

 

[TheGate]

L550 - thanks once again for your concise explanations. I am assuming that you are closely related to the production team, and therefore I really appreciate your contributions to the forum.

This doesn't explain why the OP is seeing a dim screen. Nav and entertainment on my screen is high quality, and bright enough for my liking. Sounds like you may have a duff monitor.

 

[Discoloz]

On the new system I'm sure I spotted a brightness setting, is there not one in the settings of the upgraded entertainment pack?

Also I think the brightness changes automatically by a light sensor, it might be this sensor which is at fault.

 

[TheGate]

There is a brightness knob next to the boot release button on the driver's side. The instrument panel has quite a range of brightness.

 

[NoPDI]

Have now found that the "upgrade" to the Entertainment pack - £2,500!! actually means that you have upgraded hardware - HDD Nav - Meridian sound system and TV screen but - and this is a major drawback - the old software systems are installed - as advised by L550 above - the problem is that this is a new model and is being very heavily marketed as having the new infotainment system - if one upgrades this system it should be just that - an upgrade - not a downgrade to a five year old "tried and tested system".
It seems this is not a mis-build it is very very clearly a "mis-sale"
Only upgrade to the Entertainment Pack once you have viewed both options and compared them…..

 

[NoPDI]

Nubmaster here are two picture - one of the DS upgraded system home page and the second is the home page from my 2013 F Type - which on cost £2,500 as an extra??
These two photos were taken with the same iPhone two minutes apart - both cars facing the same direction and you can see that, above the displays the trim is in focus in each picture. The text is really that fuzzy, and the white lines do fade that much - on the DS upgraded system

The brightness controls make absolutely no difference and Landrover have now confirmed to the dealer that "there is an issue with the screen contrast" on the upgraded entertainment system which "will be addressed in the near future". Nowhere in any of the marketing/sales or product literature, that I have been able to find, does it make any mention that if you upgrade the hardware you will receive a system loaded with the old clunky software.

 

[Charles]

My dealer actually told me that the upgraded meridian system has the old software etc.

 

[disco-disco-bob]

When I road tested the DS the sales advisor said the upgrade was a waste of time as it used the old technology. The standard system sounded pretty dam good to me hurtling up and down the A9. Mind you I was comparing it to that of a Kia Sportage

 

[Lofi]

No sure how but I also discovered before I ordered that the entertainment pack was old tech. Really do feel you should have been advised. Mis sale is difficult because it relies I think on you having been sold something that doesn't meet your requirements. So only if you'd said your requirement was rear seat screens and SD based sat nav would that be a Mis sale. I wish you luck as I'd be pretty disappointed no matter how good the Meridian sound was.

 

[mattrix299]

Have to agree with disco-disco-bob. I thought the standard entertainment system sounded pretty good on my test drive, and I'm a professional audiologist and audiophile so I hope I know what I'm talking about. I too was comparing it to my previous car, a Kia Sportage, and I have to say disco-disco-bob, that I thought the sound system in the Kia was pretty good. The bass certainly blew my old BMW system away!

In fairness to my dealer, Guy Salmon (Thames Ditton), he did advice me that the upgrade wasn't worth it, although he didn't mention old software.

I picked my car up yesterday and I'm thrilled with entertainment system. The graphics are lovely, the action smooth. I love that you can have a 'soft' image of the album art that's playing on your iPod as part of the home screen. The sound quality is awesome, have a little play with the settings and you can get this thing sounding like any premium system. I mean it's a car for God's sake, do you really need more than ten speakers?

To quote Blackadder, "It's not what you've got Mr Baldrick, it's where you stick it"

Wise words we can all live by!

 

[mattrix299]

Just a little footnote to my previous post - In spite of my thoughts, that doesn't excuse LR shipping 'premium' & 'upgraded' systems with old software. To those of you that have paid £2500 for an older system, my sympathies. Can LR not simply offer you a software upgrade? Or is the software embedded to the hardware?

 

[philn]

I am obviously biased having ordered the infotainment but am confused by these posts. The in control remote and swipe screen, etc has just started being fitted to land rover models so how can it be the old software?

Apart from the meridian system the sat nav is a hard drive not an sd card, I have been told the hard drive is faster.

Must be missing something!.

 

[J77]

They are using the software that's currantly being fitted to Evoques on cars with the meridian system, which isn't an LR system. Cars without the entertainment package get LRs own system with new look Incontrol touch. The Evoque has been using the Incontrol/meridian system for the past year, it won't be too much effort to tidy up the graphics and bung it in the DS.

 

[mattrix299]

Admittedly my computer hardware knowledge is limited, but as I understand it, SD or solid state memory is faster than a HDD or hard disk drive, by its very design.

A HDD uses a spinning disk with a device to seek out information on that disk, whereas solid state isn't noving, and can therefore be accessed faster. HDD drives can hold more information but are slower and less stable than solid state.

Just read any advertising blurb on Apple laptops, they claim faster response because the memory is solid state. It's also why high end cameras moved over to SD memory from mini HDD's a few years ago.

 

[KaikouraDiscoSport]

Correct Matrix and DS tests confirm. Would press LR for software upgrade for RSE as graphics look very cheap

 

[MikeR]

I think I saw mention in a review that the upgrade split screen system was based on older tech than the base system, which is a new improved product. I cannot find the review again, I'm afraid.

On HD v SD
"In the end, SDHC cards are a good option for people looking for cheap storage, but they aren't the best solution as primary drives. On one hand SDHC cards have extremely fast access times that even rival expensive SSD storage drives. On the other hand, data transfer (read/write) times are quite slow … even by slow hard drive standards."