Sorry if this has been posted before but I couldn't find it.

I just took delivery of an 08 S with the hifi system (its cool...real cool...). While setting up the stations I noticed that the local classic rock station was showing up in the tuner display as a "drama" station. At first I thought this had something to do with the Elton John song that was playing but it didn't quite fit with the zeppelin song that came up next...

After some googleing, I came up with the following link:

http://www.qsl.net/wa5iyx/rds.htm

The cenelec pty table provided matches what I see for all my radio stations...

Based on this, it looks like the radio is set for Europe as opposed to the US. This would be great, except for the fact that I live in the US. Does anybody know how to set the radio to use the US PTY? I looked through the manuals and couldn't find anything....

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I'd love to hear an answer on this too! All of my "Rock" stations show up as "Education"...

 

Here is what worked on my 08 Clubman.

Please note you do this at your own risk I take no responsibility for any damage you may cause or other changes to the radio system that you may inadvertantly make.

You will be going into the service mode on your radio. This procedure may also clear all your preset stations. Please note that i have not had time to figure out what all the other seetings are at this point bu t hope to get downto working on that later this week.

Please read these instruction completely before attempting this. there are timing issues in some steps to make this work

1. Insert Key (fob) into Ignition
2. Turn Radio OFF by pressing the volume button.
3. Turn Radio ON by pressing the volume button.
4. With in 8 seconds press and hold the manual tuning button (the one with the m on it)
5. Press and release the button under the + sign in the screen a number of time until the "AREA" screen shows up.
6. Press the button under USA.
7. Press the volume button to turn off the radio.
8. Press the volume button to turn the radio on.
9. Check you stations.

I found that my radio was set to USA but they were still reading the incorrect info such as has been explained above. But after this procedure they all corrected them selves. So what caused them read wrong I am not sure but they are right now.

 

schatzy62 - Thanks for the info. I will give that a shot tonight...

Shot given - it worked like a champ (did wipe the presets though... not a biggie)

Thanks for the tip!

 

schatzy (heh, that what my German mother-in-law calls my kids...)

Followed your instructions to the "T" and all worked out fine! Lost the presets, but no other ill-effects that I've noticed.

Interesting that, like you said, it already seems to be set to "USA" but I guess it needs that extra kick in the pants.

Thanks again!!

 

What may happen is that it gets set at the factory and picks up some strange coding from the radio stations in England and just get confused and needs to be reset when it arrive here int he US.

I am still trying to figure out what the all the other setting are for but the way this stuff works is that they use a 2 or 3 character code that is in German as the section identifier and it is very difficult to translate a 2-3 character code into the correct German word and then translate that to English. Such as section 4 is marked GAL, well somehow that translates to Speed Volume. I don't get it but that is what it is.

As for schatzy it's a shortened part of my last name Schatzlein

 

Yep mine is doing that too. I will do the change when I get home tonight.

 

Tried it myself as well and sure enough it works! This is brilliant!

I have to ask schatzy: how did you figure this out in the first place!? I had noticed these settings in my radio service mode, but when I saw that it was already set to USA I figured there was no point in changing it. What made you think of "re-setting" it to USA??

You realize that there are probably only only a handful of MINI's in all of North America that are displaying this info correctly - and their owners are all in this thread!

 

Knowing how the RDS/PTY System works is part of the process.

In many countries this type of service is now offered. BTW the US was NOT the first. It was originally designed in Europe as the Radio Data Service and started being used widely in the early 1990's. It migrated to the US in the early and started being used in the late 1990's but even to this day in not used by all stations. There seem to be some stations here in New England that only run it during the day time as i only get the data during the normal business day and at night on the same station i do not get it.

I found that my local NPR Jazz and Blues station kept coming up as "weather" which is Program Type 16 in the RDS system every where but the US. In the US the RDS Program Type 16 is Rhythm & Blues. So i new the radio was picking up the the Program Type 16 but What would make it show the wrong type?

All I can figure with out going into great detail here about how the system works is that when the car was first built it was set for USA because that is where the car was headed. But when the car was first started and moved around the factory lot it picked up the RDS system in England which conforms to the European/Rest of world standard and put load those type names automatically even though it was set to USA.

Most computers only know what they are programmed with not how to figure things out most of the time. So in this case the programing was told to if you see the data stream for RDS/PTY Program Type 16 Display Weather So that is what it did. Well by reseting the system it picked up the new new data stream from a US radio station and changed the program display name to Rhythm & Blues which is what it should be for the USA.

So there you have it.

If you wish to learn more about the RDS/PTY system a good first place to start is at Wikipedia here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System

I know i am going to see my dealer on Sept 15 for some other sound system related issues and i will suggest to them to rest the RDS/PTY system on every new MINI/BMW/Porsche they sell. Obviously they did not do that on mine.

 

Good idea on mentioning it that to your dealer. I'll do the same but hopefully it will be a while before I have to go.

If you ever figure out the other settings please post.

 

schatzy62,
I read this thread and took your instructions and wrote down all of my saved radio stations since it clears them and then proceeded to follow what you mentioned.After completing it sure enough the radio displays the type of music,etc. for each station now.

Thank you

And also good idea to let your dealership know to reprogram the radios for US instead of just thinking it was originally done at the factory in England after installation.

 

Did mine this morning. Nice to see it displaying "ROCK", etc. instead of "EDUCATIONAL". Yes THANK YOU!

 

Anyone with Nav do this yet? Actually, anyone with Nav notice it displaying the PTY info? Mine shows whatever the station is broadcasting, which is either song title or the station name, but not the music type. I don't think the RDS/PTY is shown on the nav as far as I can tell.

 

Bump for a NAV equipped MINI fix.

 

Very cool,How did you know how to do this?Not that it matters,just curious.

 

Still working on the NAV units haveing trouble getting the instructions to put the radio in "Service Mode" for a NAV unit.

When i do i will report back.

My 03 BMW has something similar and a tech told me how to get to it one day so ti just played with the MINI until i got the right button.

There are still some settings that i am not sure about as they are is German Abbrieviations.

But i hope to find out when the car goes in for service in a little over a week.

 

My config is No NAV. Thanks!!!

 

Worked for me also.

'07 MCSa, Hi Fi, non-nav

 

I must live in a cowtown. Not much radio, even less that I care to hear (sports, talk). I only use 3 stations and only one gives info (call letters and classic rock I think). So mine seems to be OK, but thanks for the tip.

 

Did this fix and it worked.thanks.While I was in there, I also noticed what appears to be a DSP level adjustment for the stereo

 

Try this in a NAV equipped MINI to get into service mode (don't have NAV so I don't know if it works or not):

WDS Wiring Diagram System

The Service menu is called up as follows:

• Select the start menu.
• Press the controller for approx. 15 seconds, then let go.
• Turn the controller three positions to the right.
• Turn the controller three positions to the left.
• Turn the controller one position to the right.
• Turn the controller one position to the left.
• Turn the controller one position to the right.
• Press the controller

 

Doesn't do anything here. Assuming the Start Menu is the home screen with Navigation, Entertainment, Communications, Setup options.

 

This worked on the 07 R56 i was playing with today and the menus seem to be the same as the menus for the non Nav cars. So look above for that info.

As for extra info on what some of the menus do. I have no more info as the tech and i went through each menu and I learned nothing new for him or his manual on the system.

I am having issues this my stereo and the dealer has kept my car for a few days and we will see if that brings anything new up.

I will keep you all informed of my findings.

 

I have Nav and my PTY categories are correct from the factory.

 

In Audi vehicles this is called GALA (Graduated Audio Level Adjustment). This may be the same for us as well but shortened to GAL since there seems to be a three character maximum.