[ccomley]

1) Audio - select USB, albums, and.. you have to muck about for ages *on the touch screen* to find your target album. So far as I can see you can't use the steering wheel buttons for any of this. The touch screen response time and the accuracy of your stab mean you waste evenmore time backing out of an incorrect selection. Heads-down. NOT good for safety. Can't wait until my proper phone bracket arrives coz then I'll just use that via BT to play music from it's far better designed interface.

2) Phone. No "favorites" screen. Again, can't easily drive a contact search from the wheel, again, touch-screen too naff to make it easy or safe from there. Again, when my phone bracket arrives, one more thing I won't use the LR interface for.

 

[Moose]

With you on both counts

 

[DimitriDS]

Hi, for audio issue I have riarrenged all song under just one album (one album for each author). To do this you have to change the TAG information for each mp3 song. You can manage tag song by free specific software you can download from web. After that with ds vocal comands the job is more easy.

 

[Gogsy]

I use an iPod in my wife's DS and can play an album, or even a track, using voice from the steering wheel. Have been mightily impressed with this feature but don't know if it works on a USB stick.
I also use voice to phone a contact which is a bit clunky but saves me taking my eyes off the road.

 

[ccomley]

Hi, for audio issue I have riarrenged all song under just one album (one album for each author). To do this you have to change the TAG information for each mp3 song. You can manage tag song by free specific software you can download from web. After that with ds vocal comands the job is more easy.

I know how to change tags, I wouldn't want to re-arrange things like taht, I like to play albums the way the artist recorded them.

I have had a little play with voice control but I don't see it as a solution to the stupid i/f problem and i don't see it as an excuse. Apart from anything else it, too, is not good enough, voice-recognition is still in its infancy and I'll check back in five or ten years to see if it's sufficiently usable,

 

[philn]

I find the voice control on the car very good for phoning contacts if a little long winded, much better than on other cars I have owned.

 

[Charles]

I use voice for the music on a USB and think it works well

 

[ccomley]

Had a bit of a play with voice commands today .

Impressed with the actual recognition. Have a couple of more tricky titles/names to try on it later.

Not impressed that when you press the button it bleeps (far louder than necessary) and says "please wait". What is the voice-rec system *doing* the rest of the time that you have to wait for its attention when you want to shout at it?

Then there's another un-explained delay *after* it confirms what it thinks you said. I guess it's giving you a chance to say "no, you got it wrong" but ten to fifteen seconds seems a tad excessive.

More tinkering to come.

 

[Moose]

I get in a muddle with the voice systems (which I know is not hard for me) the JLR system does First name then Surname, my company car uses a VW system which does Surname then First name.

 

[Radds]

Has anyone managed to get voice command working for music via Bluetooth?

i.e. "Play <The Sultans of Ping F.C.> <Where's Me Jumper?>"

I have tried with both iPhone 4s, and 5s, and I just get "voice command is not supported for this device".

Seems odd; not the latest tech but both running up to date software and both devices have voice recognition in their own right.

Many thanks.

 

[ccomley]

Has anyone managed to get voice command working for music via Bluetooth?

i.e. "Play <The Sultans of Ping F.C.> <Where's Me Jumper?>"

I have tried with both iPhone 4s, and 5s, and I just get "voice command is not supported for this device".

Seems odd; not the latest tech but both running up to date software and both devices have voice recognition in their own right.

Many thanks.

I think it'd be asking a bit much of the disparate ssytems to have the car's voice-rec system hand over what you said to the phone's voice-rec system to process. So unless the car's VR system can read the index of music on the remote device, I think you'd better get a USB stick in the cubby... Or - set the car on "BT Audio" and talk to the phone direct.

 

[Hillwalker]

My son demonstrated his Siri setup in his Lexus using an iPhone. UItterly amazing! he just talks in normal conversation with things like: 'What is the title of this music on the radio', or 'what is my mother's phone number' or 'text my father please' and it just does it! I was blown away. He has integrated it with the car's voice command system somehow, unfortunately I am not a geek so I don't know how, but I intend to find out. I bet my DS won't do it when it is eventually delivered.

 

[philstix]

I've no idea if it works on the DS, as I don't get mine for a few more months! However, I have seen a work colleague get Siri to work through the bluetooth connection on a BMW. With his iPhone plugged into the USB charging port, so receiving power constantly, he simply says "Hey, Siri!" and Siri responds over the car speakers - cutting out whatever is through the speakers at the time. Siri will then do whatever you command it, as it does when connected to the charger through the mains supply at home/office/etc. Whether this would work if you were playing music via bluetooth I don't know. Plus, I assume that the BMW system assumes that the iPhone is powering up for a bluetooth call and Siri is just working over that instead, fooling the system. For Siri to be constantly monitoring it has to be connected to a power source otherwise it would drain the battery pretty quickly if it was always listening out for "Hey, Siri".

This might be how he did it -
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-tell-siri-to-pipe-phone-calls-through-your-car-speakers/

 

[ccomley]

All this talk of Siri is of no help to those of us without jesusfones, of course.

 

[philstix]

Would probably be the same for 'Hey, Google' or Cortana. If you are that way inclined.

Although, I don't think it will work for 'Hare Krishna'. Poor disae will be upset.

http://www.discosportforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&p=13606#p13606

 

[ccomley]

Would probably be the same for 'Hey, Google' or Cortana. If you are that way inclined.

I'm not. Well, my phone is, but I can't be arsed, Talking is for peepls.