Flashed My Sat Nav System Tonight

[buz]

Octaneguy,
It would be great if you can put the file on an FTP. I'm getting nowhere with the current file .

[OctaneGuy]

Thanks to a tip from Buz, I found on GBMINI's website details on how to get the British Voice. It requires editing the ISO file that you can download from the BMW x5 site.

You still need the latest version of Nero. My previous version expired, so I downloaded the latest one and it works fine again.

You also need UltraISO.

The surgery needed is very simple. There are 2 folders that contain the American Female voice. You simply need to swap the American Female voice with the British Female voice by just renaming the British Female voice as the name of the American Female voice. You'll have to rename the existing American Female file so it doesn't conflict. I would just change the extension to BAK.

So navigate to the
V2/Voices/0502

rename usa_f.csf to usa_f.bak
rename gb_f.csf to usa_f.csf

V2/language/BMWOCN

rename usa4f.tsf to usa4f.bak
rename gb4f.tsf to usa4f.tsf

Now make sure your Nero is installed and save the new ISO image, and BURN to CD (all from UltraISO--which uses Nero's engine)

Take that CD and put it in your NAV and let it update the software.

Note, I have a 2003 MC, and it works! The Settings will still show USA--not GB, but the Female voice being used will be British Female. =)

Thanks to GBMINI (Ian Cull) and Peter P. Geremia for the tip!!

What does the voice sound like??

http://www.minisontop.com/oddstuff/English.wav

Mk III 2002 Nav CD Based---You may have to change the voice files found in the ISO under MKIII. I haven't confirmed this, but based on the ISO structure, it appears that changing the files above may have NO effect on your cd based system since it is using different update files.

[isykal]

may i ask where i can download the ISO file? i tried to find it but with no luck. thanks!

nvm, i found the site. but the download speed is awfully slow .

[OctaneGuy]

Well I used Ver 24, but apparently a new 24.1 is now available but it needs a password to get it. I'm not able to get in right now. I would forgot 24.1 and get 24 since you can always update later if you want.

According to the Service Bulletin--V.24 offers no new features. We have the ver. 4 (MKIV) IBus DVD Nav (If you have a DVD based NAV)

http://members.roadfly.org/bmw_e46_m...ins/840102.pdf

http://x5world.net/nav_os.htm

Ver 24 is freely available without password.

Richard

Originally Posted by isykal

may i ask where i can download the ISO file? i tried to find it but with no luck. thanks!

[isykal]

Originally Posted by OctaneGuy

Well I used Ver 24, but apparently a new 24.1 is now available but it needs a password to get it. I'm not able to get in right now.

http://x5world.net/nav_os.htm

Ver 24 is freely available without password.

Richard

username: bmw
password: bmw

it worked for me.

[isykal]

wow! i couldn't wait for v24.1 because the download speed was just too slow. therefore i downloaded v24 and followed richard's directions. i must say it was very easy and simple. now my sat nav has a british accent!!!

[OctaneGuy]

Cool, yeah that's how I felt too. V.24.1 just appeared, maybe even just today, and with a max of 20 users on the FTP downloading a 200MB file, I'm sure they will be maxed for awhile. There doesn't appear to be any reason to download it now anyways.

Glad you got it to work! I'm going to go drive now to listen to my new mate.

=)

Richard

Originally Posted by isykal

wow! i couldn't wait for v24.1 because the download speed was just too slow. therefore i downloaded v24 and followed richard's directions. i must say it was very easy and simple. now my sat nav has a british accent!!!

[sambusik]

OctaneGuy,
For those of us who are still nervous about doing this (or maybe it's just me ), would you mind consolidating the instructions, and all the info you have found into one post?

I used to have the British voice, and now that there's a way to get it back, I'm really eager to do this!

Edit
Let me clarify. The only reason I'm uneasy about this is that I have the MKIII version. The X5 site says you need another special CD for this. I guess I'd be the first person upgrading the MKIII?

The MKIII system is the only nav version that requires the KeyCD. If you are doing the upgrade on a MKIII that is on Version 15 through Version 17 you will be asked to insert a Key-CD after you complete the upgrade. If you do not have that disk you may be able to obtain a copy from the bmwnav group on Yahoo. MKIII systems that are already on Version 18 or newer will not need a KeyCD in order to upgrade to a newer OS version.

[BamaCooperS]

Would it be possible to change the extension of the Spanish voice file to "bak" and then rename gb_f.csf and gb4f.tsf to the Spanish files? Seems this would allow you to still choose USA and have the British voice under Espanol. Thoughts??

[isykal]

Originally Posted by sambusik

OctaneGuy,
For those of us who are still nervous about doing this (or maybe it's just me ), would you mind consolidating the instructions, and all the info you have found into one post?

I used to have the British voice, and now that there's a way to get it back, I'm really eager to do this!

Edit
Let me clarify. The only reason I'm uneasy about this is that I have the MKIII version. The X5 site says you need another special CD for this. I guess I'd be the first person upgrading the MKIII?

sorry i don't know, but richard might be able to answer your question.

[OctaneGuy]

Interesting idea. I don't know if there is anything specific to the voices that would affect that, but seems like it should work. While I haven't tried, I would assume that changing back to the standard voice should be easy. Actually I'm tempted to put in my original Update CD to see if I go back to the American Voice, then put in the newly modified one to go to the British. I'm assuming it should be as simple as that.

Why don't you give it a try and let us know.

Richard

Originally Posted by hnbrown

Would it be possible to change the extension of the Spanish voice file to "bak" and then rename gb_f.csf and gb4f.tsf to the Spanish files? Seems this would allow you to still choose USA and have the British voice under Espanol. Thoughts??

[mlebeau]

I'm in the process of downloading 24.1, and am planning on at least switching the Spanish or French files to the British voice(s), but was wondering (since I can't check out the ISO myself until it's finished downloading) if there are any other language files besides American English, British English, French, and Spanish on the disc? I'd like to have some of the other languages that I know are available on BMW's worldwide, namely Dutch.

Thanks!

-mike

[OctaneGuy]

Well everything you need is in these two posts. Not sure why I would need to consolidate them.

POST #1 & Post #27
http://www.northamericanmotoring.com...36&postcount=1

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com...1&postcount=27

What other CD are you talking about--the CD Key?? It says that if your version is past ver.17, you wont need the CD Key.

The MKIII system is the only nav version that requires the KeyCD. If you are doing the upgrade on a MKIII that is on Version 15 through Version 17 you will be asked to insert a Key-CD after you complete the upgrade. If you do not have that disk you may be able to obtain a copy from the bmwnav group on Yahoo. MKIII systems that are already on Version 18 or newer will not need a KeyCD in order to upgrade to a newer OS version.
http://x5world.net/navfaq.htm

Originally Posted by sambusik

OctaneGuy,
For those of us who are still nervous about doing this (or maybe it's just me ), would you mind consolidating the instructions, and all the info you have found into one post?

I used to have the British voice, and now that there's a way to get it back, I'm really eager to do this!

Edit
Let me clarify. The only reason I'm uneasy about this is that I have the MKIII version. The X5 site says you need another special CD for this. I guess I'd be the first person upgrading the MKIII?

[OctaneGuy]

Ok I just confirmed that you can switch among voices just by using the 2 different update CD's (same version) with different voice files. I put back my original unmodified ISO and I got the American Female Voice back. To get the British Voice, I will just put the modified ISO back in.

I'm going to try the Spanish Switch right now.

Looking at the ISO I see along with my assumptions.
d4f.tsf = Deutsch
ef4.tsf = Spanish
f4f.tsf = French
gb4f.tsf = Great Britain
i4f.tsf = Italian
usa4f.tsf = English

Richard

[mlebeau]

Originally Posted by OctaneGuy

Ok I just confirmed that you can switch among voices just by using the 2 different update CD's (same version) with different voice files. I put back my original unmodified ISO and I got the American Female Voice back. To get the British Voice, I will just put the modified ISO back in.

I'm going to try the Spanish Switch right now.

Richard

Cool Richard, can you tell me whether there are other languages on the disc besides the ones we've been talking about?

-mike

[OctaneGuy]

Ok on my update file--the ISO you download, the only voices are those that I listed below:

d4f.tsf = Deutsch
ef4.tsf = Spanish
f4f.tsf = French
gb4f.tsf = Great Britain
i4f.tsf = Italian
usa4f.tsf = English

The problem with changing the Spanish to GB English is that all your text screen---character set will be in Spanish. Doing a quick search, I don't see where the character set files are on the ISO.

I'm going to stick with GB Female on my USA button and should I ever feel the need to change--just use the update CD.

The GB Female is cool. LOL. She was telling me to get onto the Motorway this morning.

I'm assuming the usa4F (f) is female and usa4M (m) is male---strange to me why the file size of the M are about 1/3 of the F files.

For example--USA_F.csf = 2MB, USA_M.csf = 689kb

Also I found a Netherlands file in the Voices area, but not in the Languages area. Strange.

Richard

Originally Posted by mlebeau

Cool Richard, can you tell me whether there are other languages on the disc besides the ones we've been talking about?

-mike

[mlebeau]

Thanks for the info Richard. My v24 file is almost done downloading. I'm gonna play with that for now until the 24.1 is finished (and at some point update to 24.1, even if it supposedly does nothing ).

Good to hear that there is an NL voices file, maybe I can set that up to play Dutch audio, even if I still have English on-screen which is fine. You make a good point about the text display, though, I had completely forgotten about that component. I'll try to play around with that stuff and see if there's a way to fool text info similar to how you fool the voices.

And glad to hear that the GB Female says motorway - I guess if you're motoring in a MINI, it is a motorway! ;) I believe the GB Male voice will be identical to that of my parents' Range Rover, which I enjoy a lot, so I think I'm going to try that out.

-mike

[isykal]

i also tried it and yes richard was right. it did work. however the onscreen menu will be in spanish. i personally won't have a problem with that because i know just enough spanish (from high school) to be able to navigate through it.

now if someone would find out a way to modify the ISO to make the DVD GPS play regular DVD movies, then that would be superb. do you guys think it's possible?

ex. either by changing some other stuff in the ISO or by adding new stuff to it.

just a thought.

[mlebeau]

Originally Posted by isykal

i also tried it and yes richard was right. it did work. however the onscreen menu will be in spanish. i personally won't have a problem with that because i know just enough spanish (from high school) to be able to navigate through it.

now if someone would find out a way to modify the ISO to make the DVD GPS play regular DVD movies, then that would be superb. do you guys think it's possible?

ex. either by changing some other stuff in the ISO or by adding new stuff to it.

just a thought.

I can say with almost 100% certainty that's not going to happen. It's a nice thought, since while we're altering the software that runs the system, why not add a DVD player? But the processor running the system is almost certainly not up to the task of running a software DVD decoder. You can buy an aftermarket (one's actually OEM by BMW) video input though.

-mike

[sambusik]

Originally Posted by OctaneGuy

Well everything you need is in these two posts. Not sure why I would need to consolidate them.

POST #1 & Post #27
http://www.northamericanmotoring.com...36&postcount=1

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com...1&postcount=27

What other CD are you talking about--the CD Key?? It says that if your version is past ver.17, you wont need the CD Key.

The MKIII system is the only nav version that requires the KeyCD. If you are doing the upgrade on a MKIII that is on Version 15 through Version 17 you will be asked to insert a Key-CD after you complete the upgrade. If you do not have that disk you may be able to obtain a copy from the bmwnav group on Yahoo. MKIII systems that are already on Version 18 or newer will not need a KeyCD in order to upgrade to a newer OS version.
http://x5world.net/navfaq.htm

Gotcha, thanks for clearing it up ... I'm ready to give this a shot now

[BamaCooperS]

Thanks to all for the work done in helping me free the British lady that was hiding in my MINI's Nav. Now, off for a drive to find some fish & chips.

[mlebeau]

So has anyone figured out what the difference is between the .csf and .tsf files? Which is to say, what happens if you were to switch just one and not the other to the British file? I'm trying to determine how to change voice but not text, and I'm thinking that one of these two files might not be necessary to switch. I'll have to experiment but I left my CD-R's somewhere else so I'll have to get them before I try anything!

edit: scratch that, looks like both files have to do with speech, not text. I'm gonna find those files with the text, dammit!

-mike

[MINImotor]

Can anyone post the .iso file on a different server. I tried downloading it but after 12 hours it timed out. help?

[OctaneGuy]

Are you trying to get ver 24.1 or ver 24??? Ver 24 downloads very quickly on broadband.

Originally Posted by MINImotor

Can anyone post the .iso file on a different server. I tried downloading it but after 12 hours it timed out. help?

[sambusik]

Originally Posted by OctaneGuy

Mk III 2002 Nav CD Based---You may have to change the voice files found in the ISO under MKIII. I haven't confirmed this, but based on the ISO structure, it appears that changing the files above may have NO effect on your cd based system since it is using different update files.

Does the MK3 folder even contain any sound files?

There's four directories in there: 0103, 0107, 0116, 0127, and they all seem to have the same directory structure, but no .csf or .tsf files.