Should I buy iPod adapter with car or aftermarket?

It's $850CDN installed with the car. Not sure how much it costs aftermarket in Toronto. I assume I would get the Dension Gateway 500. I assume it will need professional installation. What do people think, should I just pay for it at the dealership?

Well, first thing you need to do is identify precisely what the dealer is planning to install for your money. The Dension costs around $400US and since I am going to have it installed professionally, I anticipate spending another $350US or so. Considering the exchange rate, sounds like it's not a bad deal if it's a Dension and not some sort of hardwired FM modulator.

Seriously I know a lot of dealers that charge about $400 US and just put in an hardwired FM modulator, make SURE its the Dension, no room for assumption. Navtv is good for that price too, it has one feature that would be nice on the Dension, you can select aux input from the screen, on the Dension you have to disconnect the ipod to listen to the aux input. But from what I hear it's a bit more buggy than the Dension. - Suneet

Okay, so just to be clear I'm telling them to install the Dension system. How would I know if they just installed a hardwired FM modulator?

If they do it right, you control the ipod from your headunit (PCM) and song\track info is displayed on the screen. If you got the cdr24 (meaning you got no navigation) then your only current option is the hardwire FM modulator, and you use the actual ipod to control it. If you did get the CDR24 and they're just installing the FM modulator, you can do it yourself for under $50 US. Or get it done by a shop for under $100 US. If you got PCM nav and they're installing an FM modulator, it's not even worth doing it, get the Dension and have someone put that in. - Suneet

hawc, At this moment yes, but Dension is working on a software update to get CDR24 support. There are a LOT of people waiting for the update, including many who are involved in a group buy. I can't imagine it will be much longer to bring CDR-24 support to the Dension iPod interface. Until then, you can install the harman kardon via wired FM modulator, it has its own screen and control knob. See an example install here . The installer chose to use another bracket, but you can install the knob + screen anywhere. - Suneet

Interesting. I just got off the phone with my salesperson and he reassured me the system they use on the CDR-24 does allow for you to control the iPod from the Porsche headunit and it displays id tags. I said are you positive? I heard you can only do it from the iPod with the CDR-24? He said, yes definitely.

hawc, which dealership are you dealing with, DTFC or Pfaff? I have to go to Pfaff tomorrow to pick up license plate frames and as long as i'm there, i wanted to ask what my choices were available for playing my ipod.

I'm dealing with Pfaff.

Ask them which system they are using. There are only a very few choices on the market today: Dension, Nav-TV, Neo. There may be others but MUCH research has been done by the community here and at other Porsche forums. The dealer should be able to tell you what system they are using and how it works. Find out and let us know. EDIT: Dice Electronics JUST released their kits recently too.

Hawc, if you can get details on your dealers kit, I think we would all appreciate it. There are so many looking for the functionality your dealer is describing... and if he's wrong, we'll know by what system it is. - Suneet

Okay, so I have the CDR24 (no navigation) and the dealer just installed the Dension system. It works perfectly and I can control everything from the headunit while the iPod sits in the glovebox. But I can't see track names or anything. I took a shot of it.

hawc, we need to know your software revision ASAP!!! Also, if you can see the Dension unit it would be nice to see the dipswitch settings, but I suspect they are the same the as CDR23. As your car starts up, the ipod will display the software revision on the top right; this is big news for many.

hawc, are you happy with the Denison system. Carolyn from Pfaff (i think that's her name) re-assured me that they have installed numerous systems without difficulties. I have no problems spending $850.00 as long as i know the system works well.

Yeah the Dension system works fine.

The Dension software version will display on the top line of the iPOD screen when first powered on.

hawc, your sound plus should have 9 speakers. Front and rear midrange speakers, front tweeters all driven by the headunit and two 6.5'' door low range speakers and a 4'' center channel driven by the ASK amplifier located in your front boot. Trust me, the system's an upgrade, without it you get four speakers all run by the headunit, NO rear speakers. The ASK provides a clear, amplified center channel and a little better separation between midrange and low-range. Some people actually prefer it over the Bose, which is always boomy. - Suneet

I got to appear once for 3 seconds but I can't get i to re-appear. It just says Dension 500. No serial number. I turned the car on over and over and plugged it in over and over and turned the iPod on over and over and couldn't get it to re-appear. Weird thing though when I did get it to appear (and I wasn't able to memorize the number) it said Audi in front of the serial number.

You're absolutly right. I stand corrected.

All I do is plug in the iPod when I get in the car. Then the Dension thing appears on the iPod and takes it over. Then I turn on the headunit and press CD twice so it goes CDS and then CDC. Then I just listen to my iPod. The only thing that's kind of bugging me is I can't it to play on random. Even if I set my iPod to random before I plug it in, it always just plays in sequence. Not sure how to fix it.

Am I misunderstanding? You can control everything on the ipod from the denison gateway...yet you say you can not see the tracks or song names via your porsche head unit?? If you can not see them displayed...how in the heck do you figure out what to play on the ipod while surfing the ipod via the porsche head unit?? Seems like you would be "driving blind"? Just as a side note...I use the Transpod FM Modulator with my Bose system and yes it is not perfect, but at least I can see the song names (on the ipod). Kevin

Magic touch. Some music, in any order, is better than none. Congrats on getting that far.

Jesse, I bet it's sofware 1.0, dip switch settings set to cdr23\24, and then the dealer has to enable it as a cd changer in the PIWIS settings. I just wish hawc would hurry up and tell us the exact version - suneet

I wish I could figure out how to get the unit to show it's software version. All it says it does when I plug it in is show a big checkmark followed by the Dension Gateway 500 followed by the song. There's no software displayed. Not sure what else to try. By the way, I got the random fuction working. You have to turn it on from the headunit. You press menu and then RP for random play. The only thing that confuses me is it constantly display 3, 4 on the headunit which is weird because i don't have any playlists on the iPod. So i'm not sure what 3,4 are. In my VW it just always lit up 6. I'll keep trying to find that software number.

Hi all- I have a couple questions since I too am considering getting this unit. I see alot of trial and error questions here. For those of you that have the unit already is the documentation that comes with it on the light side? Also have any of you called the manufacturer for support? I'm wondering how their support is. Thanks././.

hawc, EDIT... I previously said you can't see the menu on the ipod mini and that might be the issue, but you can see it. It is displayed under the very top line (if you consider the battery information the top line). Get in your car, look at your ipod and put the keys in the ignition, do not fire the car up. The radio must be turned off this whole time. Then while looking at the ipod, hit the power button on your radio and you will see it flash for about 2 seconds. Mine says "PORSCHE PCM.... GMB1.00", yours will say "PORSCHE CDR... " It's just quick, so you have to be looking at the ipod the whole time. - Suneet

You get a comprehensive install manual and a users manual. What the documentation is not, is car specific. It does tell you how to correctly make the fiber connections. Also, we have a document in the files section called the Porsche supplement to Dension Install guide, and that will give you Porsche specific installation instructions. Installation is actually really straightforward, the only difficulties are cable routing and placement. If you want everything in the front boot, installation will only take you a few minutes, if you want it inside the car, it gets more difficult as you have to start taking more of the car apart. As far as contacting Dension, I've never done it, but I don't imagine it's very easy to do as they are located in Europe. Their support site has a decent knowledge base where you can find firmware updates. - Suneet

I paid $100 for installation although there is a possibility I may need to drop another $150 if I need to program the PCM. My installation was very simple (everything in front trunk). I hung out with them while they did it -- I'd guess it took them ~30-45 minutes to do. If you are installing in the trunk, you could probably do it yourself.

I can confirm that if you put a USB key into the Dension, it writes the version number. Mine came with 1.02. I'm going to experiment with 1.05 and 1.0.

that's really wierd, I wasn't even aware of a v1.02 and it's not on there server. Here's some quick links to software on their server. http://install.dension.com/GW5_MOST_080.ZIP http://install.dension.com/GW5_MOST_100.ZIP http://install.dension.com/GW5_MOST_104.ZIP http://install.dension.com/GW5_MOST_105.ZIP

Thanks. I heard from my installer that he had ran across another unit that came from the factory with 1.02. I installed v1.05 with no problems. Creating an empty directory w/ the current firmware version = smart idea. I'm still not getting ID3 tags from USB. It shows the Directory Name + the File Name

Okay I plugged my iPod in today and it also came up as v 1.02 on screen.