Have HD radio on my e93. I am able to manually tune into HD stations no problem, and iDrive also seems to let me assign HD stations to presets. In other words, for example, the radio lets me assign preset #1 to a station's HD1 signal, and preset #2 to a station's HD2 signal, etc.

But then when I go to actually use those presets, the radio ignores the different HD stations and dumps me back every time into the main, HD1 signal. In other words, even though I assigned preset #2 to the HD2 signal, when I hit preset #2 all I get is HD1. Happens every time.

Anyone have similar problems? Is it possible to assign HD stations presets? If not and if I had known about that, I would have thought twice about getting the HD radio option. Who uses a radio without presets?

This is, unfortunately, normal behaviour.

That really surprises me. Not being able to preset makes the HD radio not worth the trouble -- i.e., having to manually tune to each station takes forever and is very annoying.

Any idea if this is an issue that just goes with HD radios (hard to believe), or if it could be resolved by BMW via a software fix?

This really is annoying and not being able to pre-set the HD sub-channels really does seem like an oversight. Granted I'm not an engineer, but it doesn't seem like it would have been that hard to figure out how to allow for these pre-sets. This is particularly annoying to me since one of the channels I listen to is an indi-rock station that's on HD3 but HD1 is a heavy metal station, so the tuning process goes something like:
- hit the preset button
- get blasted by heavy-metal guitar riffs and screaming
- curse BMW while turning down the volume
- wait for the radio to switch over from analog to digital
- press the 'M' button to go into the manual tuning mode
- tune to the HD2 station and wait a second, even though I don't want to listen to HD2, but the radio won't let me go from HD1 to HD3 in one motion
- Finally get to HD3
- turn volume back up (while cursing BMW and the whole heavy-metal genre)
- realize I don't like this song and start the whole process over again

This process is usually repeated two more times till I just give up and turn on the iPod. Oh, and I paid an extra $500 for this privilege.

Maybe we should talk to Shiv and see if we can get him to add HD presets to PROcede v 3.0! He seems to know what he's doing tinkering around with the car's ECU.

I agree that the problem is annoying; I am also having continual difficulties with the HD channels "dropping out" while driving. At times, the radio switches between HD and non-HD and the change in tonal quality is annoying, too. If I alistening to a secondary HD channel, I lose it completely and if it doesnt return in a second or two the radio will default back to the primary channel. Anyone else noticed this? I live in a suburb of Detroit, MI and have never had significant radio reception issues before.

Here's the problem as I understand it:

It takes 1-2 sec (or maybe even more) to acquire the HD Radio stream. In order that you get sound as soon as you push the button, the radio starts up in analog and then switches to HD as soon as it acquires. Similiarly it switches to analog if the signal strength drops below that necessary for HD. This makes sure that the sound will be continuous (except for the switch which often is not noticeable) under those conditions.

If it limited the output to HD only, there would be 1-2 seconds of silence after you pushed the button but the worst thing would be obvious periods of silence when HD lock was lost (which unfortunately is all too frequent).

The present system works reasonably well on the primary channel but for the secondary channel(s) you're stuck. The only two choices you have if you want to start on the secondary channel is that you would have either a period of silence or the analog channel until the secondary channel locks up. For one Classical secondary channel that I listen to, the primary is Country. I DO like Country on occasion, but that burst of Country before I get the Classical I was expecting is really jarring. I think I would prefer silence but I might forget and start punching the button when it actually happens.

But I don't understand how this prevents presets. Couldn't BMW design the radio such that a preset jumps straight to a secondary channel, if available?

As I said, there would be a delay of 1-2 seconds (or more). That is inherent in the digital technology. The choices are to either fill that delay with the primary analog channel (which could be very different program material) or with silence. I think that either could be very confusing to most people. The present solution (of course) is also somewhat confusing, but it may be the least confusing of the alternatives.

Incidentally, I would prefer to go directly to the secondary channel with 1-2 seconds of silence, but i don't expect most people to be as tolerant of that compromise as I am.

"HD Radio not high definition: Investigation by Keefe Bartels"

" Automakers are aware of the complaints associated with HD Radio. For example, in 2007, BMW released a Service Information Bulletin describing the problems associated with HD Radio, but noted that there was no retrofit kit or procedure available. The attorneys at Keefe Bartels are continuing their investigation into HD Radio and whether consumers are being forced to purchase technology that does not work as claimed. If you have experienced problems with your factory-installed HD radio receiver, we are interested in speaking to you."

http://www.keefebartels.com/CM/HotTo...dAlerts168.asp

This law firm is looking for input from anyone who has experienced HD Radio problems.