Is there a quick way to "MUTE" the music?

I want a quick way to 'Mute' the music. I hate having to go from the 'map' screen to the 'audio' screen, and then having to scroll all the way down to the mute button, and then finally press the button in order to mute the music. I wish Porsche had one button that said mute. When my phone rings it's like a race to mute the music before my answering maching picks up. Anyone found a quick 'one-button' way to mute the music? Shane

I don't have PCM , but I usually just push the volume knob to turn it off - which is mostly out of habit. In the 996s theree was a seperate on/off button, and when you pushed the volume knob 'mute' showed up on the display. Push the knob again, and things started right where they left off (except for the radio, of course). brad

That's a good idea. I don't know why I didn't think of that. Just push the volume knob. I wonder if the voice commands for navigation will still work? Shane

Well, pushing the volume knob turns off the screen too. What if I just want to mute the music and keep the map up? That isn't a perfect solution (now that I've thought about it). Shane

Shane - you're right - it's not the perfect solution, but for me, since I don't have PCM , it works and the system comes back up pretty fast. brad

I turn the volume down, or just turn off the PCM . It is a bit silly there's no mute button in that 'cluster' of hundreds of buttons on the dash... Paul

I don't have PCM but on mine it you press the button on the left marked TP that mutes the sound without having to turn off the entire unit. The sales guy showed me this when I picked up the car and I remembered it because I commented on the fact that TP wasn't exactly obvious for mute.

Where is the TP button? On the left? Where? Shane

First button on the left on non- PCM radio and is the traffic radio button.

Yeah, I checked. We don't have a 'TP' button. Shane

I got the multifunction sport steering wheel, and clicking the left side steering wheel dial (volume knob on the wheel) mutes the stereo. I also have the PCM integrated GSM phone, which automatically mutes the radio when the phone rings. If PCM is on but muted, you still get nav instructions. If you push the main volume know on the PCM , not only does the display turn off, but so does the nav verbal instruction and the heads up nav info in the central computer cluster. Greg

This mute problem was the first thing that I found annoying in my Cayman . I have not resolved it - other then just pushing the volume button. I'm checking into getting a multifunction steering wheel just so that I can have easy mute capabilities.

Why is 'muting' so important? We shouldn't be using a cellphone and driving a Cayman in my view and even if you are if you make the call you can turn off the radio/cd first or if receiving a call just one push of the radio control 'mutes i.e turns off the system'. Doesn't seem like a mute button saves any steps. What am I missing?

Santa Fe - You're just trying to under-complicate things, which seems to be exactly the opposite of what everyone expects from their Porsche . brad

It's not a mater of trying to complicate anything. Who says that you want the radio muted just to use a phone. How about when you want to have the navigation instructions spoken to you and you don't want to be listening to the radio? Turning down the volume will also turn down the navigation instructions, muting the audio will allow the navigation instructions to be heard. Pushing the volume button not only turns off the audio, it also turns of the navigation. I guess if you don't have PCM this may not be an issue.

So the navigation audio is seperate from the radio audio? You learn something everyday. On my Lexus they seem to be the same and navigation overides the radio when it comes on. That doesn't happen in the Porsche ? The two compete with each other???? Very strange design.

Actually, they don't compete with each other. You can program the audio to be muted (by a specific amount) and the Nav to be louder by a specific amount when the nav instructions are spoken. Actually this is more flexible than the Lexus system. But there is no audio off function like the Lexus . So the only thing you can do is mute the audio, which takes several steps to do. And muting the audio does not mute the Nav. I think the designers of this system assumed that there would be a multifunction steering wheel standard when PCM with Nav was ordered. The current way of muting the audio seems quite dangerous to me since you have to push the audio button and scroll all the way down the bottom to mute the audio. Or then again, maybe the designers were idiots or didn't use the system they designed.

It's not that hard just to turn down the volume is it? One quick twist does a pretty good job. A lot quicker than searching for the mute option. Anyway, sports cars are supposed to be quirky, so it probably wasan intentional design element. The fact is that it's not there unless they come up with a firmware revision.

Turning down the volume will also disable the volume on the Nav. The only way to "turn down the volume" only on the audio (i.e. radio, cd, xm, etc) is to select Mute.

I agree that there are times when you just want that music turned off. I'm not sure if this is a solution, but is it possible to tune a preset Radio Channel to a non-existent frequency with hardly any white noise? If it is then maybe it's a temporary solution. Tune '0' to this and then press it when you want to mute the radio... (it's a very long-shot! and may not work - but something to try I guess - until someone comes up with areal solution!)

Tks AlexK - you have solved the mystery! I was driving my Carrera to a hillclimb last weekend which I hadn't attended before and was using nav (I haven't ordered same on the Cayman which is being delivered on Saturday). I wanted to listen to nav instructions but not the radio but couldn't work out how to have 1 without the other. Tks guys!

By the way, I'm not sure from reading the above that it's understood that pushing the button on the volume of the PCM system doesn't actually shut the system off if the car is on, it just blanks the screen and puts it in standby mode. The map or CD or radio will all resume when you push the knob again. It's kind of neat and very fast actually when you get used to how it works.

Bottom line is that there is no way to mute the radio and keep the nav instructions coming. No big deal. Why do I use a phone? I drive long distances and I always use a hands free ear-phone (wire that connects to phone). AlexK: You understand my problem completely. Shane

Shane -- there are several options which will mute the stereo but still allow you to hear Nav instructions, including: 1) change to the Audio screen, scroll down and check the "Mute" box. 2) use the left sided scroll/click switch on the multifunction wheel. 3) go the the Nav screen, hit "Set" button, scroll down to the "fixed voice" option, and scroll the audio all the way down with the Nav voice all the way up -- this way engaging "fixed voice" allows music off and nav on, while "fixed voice" off still allows both stereo and Nav to be heard. I actually do the opposite of 3, with stereo on but nav voice off, so when I'm driving locally where I don't want to hear instructions (I get so sick of "Make a legal U turn" when I take a different turn/route than recommended), but taking "fixed voice" off restores audible prompts. Enjoy! Greg

Actually I've got mine set where I can turn down the radio to inaudible and still hear the nav if I want - so it's kind of like a mute. But it does make the nav a bit too loud if I really blast the radio. Doesn't really matter to me in most situations as the nav doesn't usually say much on the freeway when I might blast the stereo anyway. .

I went to the car and looked at what I have it set at, I like +5 or +6 for nav voice, -0 for audio, fixed audio off. At +6 for nav the radio can be turned down to completely inaudible and you can still hear directions. I like the female voice with a British accent the best. Edited by - K-Man-sculpture.net on 06/01/2006 4:04:42 PM