Now that CD Player that comes with my Fiat Panda Eleganza looks exactly the same as the CD/MP3 player- do you think that they are exactly the same thing but unless you upgrade the MP3 decoding part is dissabled???

Maybe there is a jumper or a secret menu to enable it?

Andrew

The CD player in my 2 year old Eleganza plays MP3s "out of the box" (as it were) with no menu trickery required to enable it at all. Maybe they changed it on the newer models? How old it your car? Is it a Blaupunkt stereo or something else?

It's a Blaupunkt (The car was manufactured March 2006) The current spec offers only a Tuner/CD Player, and Tuner/CD/MP3 is offered as £100 option. I have only tried one mp3 CD however.

you can try it but remember most HU makers have a similar look in the range and features vary slightly.may be a firmware issue

Amphion said:

Now that CD Player that comes with my Fiat Panda Eleganza looks exactly the same as the CD/MP3 player- do you think that they are exactly the same thing but unless you upgrade the MP3 decoding part is dissabled???

Maybe there is a jumper or a secret menu to enable it?

Andrew

Click to expand...

I hope so - mine plays CD/Rs but audio only. I think there were different button markings on the MP3 one, but I'm not sure........

Bring on the ICE-men.

Well, this is the one that just does CD's: http://www.blaupunkt.de/7643385316_main.asp

and this is the one that does MP3's as well: http://www.blaupunkt.de/7643387316_main.asp

Can you see the difference between them? No, neither can I - apart from one does MP3's and they are both listening to different radio stations.

So, I reckon it's a fair bet that they are all built to do MP3's - because if you were a car manufacturer, would you really have two different parts at the factory to be installed depending on the customer order - or would you just put the same one in each car, hit a few key combinations and charge an extra 100 quid? (And then have a bit of a chuckle....)

when mrs T's comes back from the body shop i'll try one in there, cheers

i'm after one of these suckers anyine got one they want to sell??
fathers days soon and i'm dropping the hint at home

i have the normal CD player in my car because i refused to pay the £150 (at the time) for the MP3 player.

Since then i have actually taken the CD player out and notice it has a MP3 Sticker on it, as if the CD player can actually play MP3's

I am glad some one has brought this subject up. i am seriously considering there might be a possibility that the CD player can be turned in to an MP3 one maybe by typing in a code or ajusting something.

hmmmm....

hollypop said:

i have the normal CD player in my car because i refused to pay the £150 (at the time) for the MP3 player.

Since then i have actually taken the CD player out and notice it has a MP3 Sticker on it, as if the CD player can actually play MP3's

I am glad some one has brought this subject up. i am seriously considering there might be a possibility that the CD player can be turned in to an MP3 one maybe by typing in a code or ajusting something.

hmmmm....

Click to expand...

I've tried to research this issue during the past week and, having contacted a number of dealers, Fiat and Blaupunkt, the information is still sketchy but the following facts seem to have emerged:

1) Both units use the same external form factor.

2) The MP3 unit contains MP3 specific circuits - the non MP3 unit does not have these circuits.

3) Some Pandas may well be supplied with the MP3 unit even if this hasn't been specifically ordered. One dealer suggested that this could more likely be the case with surplus stock as opposed to factory ordered Pandas.

The MP3 unit was/is very poor value for money when you consider that MP3 functionality comes as standard with many cheap CD players nowadays. It would surely make better sense to put the extra money towards a higher quality system?

Gareth.