Limited media info in instrument display

Hi wattsn. Sorry for delay in replying. I think the limited info you are getting is standard with USB input on the right hand gauge of the instrument panel. I suspect you've watched the videos that show "Groove Armada" with track info etc, but I believe thats only available when playing genuine CDs, or CDs you have downloaded to the hard drive. I agree it's stupid having to rely on the central screen, especially if you are using it for something else like Sat Nav. It wouldn't have been that hard to transfer the data to the smaller screen. I suspect many of the car's systems are still works in development, so maybe a future update will address this. Incidentally, talking of "screens", I've just purchased a Windows 7 touch screen PC and the screen response is poor. I was told it was due to compatibility issues between Windows 7 and touchscreen hardware. Now I wonder whether the XJ's software sits on a Windows 7 based platform. That would explain why the touchscreen response is so cr*p. I think the hardware and software really let the XJ down. Whilst the interior design is leagues ahead of the rivals, the hardware and software is only on a par to that being used several years ago by German and Japanese manufacturers. I was told this is due to Volvo pulling out of the electrical/software/hardware development when the Chinese bought the company. Jaguar then had to complete that work in-house with a budget of about 50 rupees. The subsequent software problems caused by the Jaguar workforce taking on a half finished system they were unfamiliar with caused the launch to be delayed. Ironic then that China is one of the XJ's biggest markets, and they have ended up with a car that might have been a lot better had their government not pulled out of the deal. Serves 'em right I say!!

Hi Lee

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately it is even worse when playing a CD that has been downloaded to the hard drive. Then the instrument cluster just says "Music: Stored CDs" and nothing else despite being recognised by Gracenote and all the CD and track info showing on the main screen. I'll post an image up later

Really disappointed with it to be honest. The longer I have this car the more I believe we, as customers, are actually guinea pigs. Less impressed every day to be honest.

Here's what I get in the IC when playing music from the USB. Basically sod all. (BTW, the USB stick is formatted with name XJ_MUSIC)



And this is what I get when playing a stored CD that was recognised by the Gracenote database and has full detailed info in the main media screen. Basically, even less.



V v disappointed in the whole system. It feels and looks like it's simply not finished.

lee789 said:

The USB screen is exactly the same as I get. I haven't checked my hard drive CDs for a while, so can't be 100% on what the display will read. However, that doesn't sound right to me, unless Gracenote is only linked to the main screen. I always thought the display in the main instrument panel was a bit of an afterthought. after all, you would know you were playing USB or stored CDs....unless you were drink driving or stupid!! What display do you get when you play a regular CD in the CD player?? Regards Lee

Click to expand...

Well, when I play an actual CD, that has also been copied to the hard drive, I get the album name and track number but not the artist or track name. But if I play it from the hard drive I get nothing. All a bit hit and miss really and so annoying considering it could not be that difficult to pass the information to the instrument cluster.

Totally agree as do not understand why they bother putting the music source info in the display. I want album, artist and track info which I can also scroll through using the steering wheel controls. I'm fairly certain this will be may last Jag as just so disappointed with the implementation of the features. So much promise but so lacking in execution.

I actually know the new MD, from past dealings with him when at Audi and problems I had with my wife's Q7 (he was excellent at getting things sorted btw), have linked with him via LinkedIN so am very tempted to see if I could not provide some direct feedback, via him, to their software engineers to make the whole thing far more useful and useable.

Hi, thats useful knowing the MD. Please let him know you are not alone with your frustrations over the quirky software. Come to think of it I know that some CDs do not carry artist and track names. Most modern CDs should, but lots of the older ones don't. I know this because my home hifi won't display the info either. I had problems with my XF three years ago, and swore never to touch Jaguar again. Unfortunately I was seduced by the XJ's looks, as well as the bargain secondhand prices. Theres obviously a reason why people pay £70k for a car and then sell it 6 months later for half what they paid. I regularly check the Jaguar Used Approved website, and the stock numbers of XJs has been steadily declining over the last couple of months. They used to regularly have around 280 cars for sale, but now it's down to 166. That either indicates they are selling like hotcakes, or that the dealers don't want to buy them in because they are difficult to sell. I'm inclined to lean towards the latter explanation. I recently asked for an appraisal on my Portfolio, and only 1 dealer in the country made an offer - £32k. Pretty insulting for a top spec low mileage example that cost £71k a year ago. Perhaps I should have snapped his arm off at the time, because I think things may get worse very quickly. Ironcially, the much lower priced XF holds values far better, as does the simarlarly priced XK. On another subject, have you checked whether the front brake callipers on your car are getting rusty?? I know it's not confined to Jaguars, but it looks awful, and it's difficult to deal with effectively. Of course Jaguar don't want to know, and the dealer wants £500 to strip and paint them!!

HI again Lee

I agree that many new CDs do not include the CD text info (album, artist and track), originally developed and introduced by Sony I believe, but then that is what the Gracenote Database is for. In my mind it is just shoddy software programming.

I definitely am going to follow up with Mr Hicks and maybe even see if I cannot get a meeting with someone at jag to discuss my, and many common, concerns and suggest improvements. I won't hold out much hope though but gotta give it a try.

Like you I vowed not to touch another jag after the experience with my XF Mainly down to the dealers and poor software implementation funnily enough (could never understand what was the point of a central information display that showed just a clock in a bloody big circle and no other useful info). Deja Vu perhaps! Like you I got seduced by the looks and the TFT dash. Ah well. Just glad I only paid £34.8k for mine at 16 months old with just 9k on the clock. Alarm bells should have rung with me also when I was shown that the Jag garage paid £34k for the car at a closed Jaguar auction and sold it on making just a couple of hundred quid, if anything at all.

When I viewed the car it too had rusty callipers and had the garage remove and spray them black before I agreed to collect the car so not such an issue on mine now. I'm sure you could find a local independent who would do them at far lower cost than £500 for you.

The bargain price 5.0 litre cars seem to have vanished now, but I was told that earlier this year Jaguar sold a large number of ex-management cars to dealers. The sales staff I dealt with were always away at Jaguar auctions around this time. Now the 5 litre cars seem to go for more money than the diesels. Like I said, I only bought the diesel because of my wife's insurance, so the fact she has only driven it once in 4 months is particularly annoying. Apparently she finds the size intimidating, so is now trying to persuade me to p/ex it for the new Citroen DS5 Hybrid. Having had bad experiences with French cars in the past, I'm not keen on taking that risk. Besides, I'm sure it makes more sense to trade up from a Citroen to a prestige marque, rather than trade downwards. The XJ will probably be worth £25k in a years time, but the Citroen will almost certainly be worth a lot less....if it hasn't rusted away of course!! The unusual price HA Fox advertised your car for definitely rings a bell. They either offered it to me, or I spoke to them about it. I preferred to avoid black, not that I don't like it, but because of all the trees and birds around where I live. Ironically, I ended up with Stratus Grey, which is as close to black as you can get. It was the only diesel at the right price. The car definitely looks best in black or dark grey, especially because it blends in those awful gloss black c pillars. I did drive around for a few weeks in a white XJ Luxury company pool car before deciding to buy the Portfolio for myself. The car looks absolutely stunning in white (IMHO) and people used to stop and stare at it. However, a lot of people seem to hate white cars, so maybe they were staring in disbelief at my poor taste!!

Bl**dy hell lads, you are picky.
I wouldnt even have noticed if the artist or track was displayed (let alone cared!)
You could argue putting it on the instrument tft wasnt that wise in first place - as whatever you put up there is limited by character length.

My company manufacture machinery that has HMIs and also seperate admin software - and its amazing what people complain about (an upgrade to one customer, is a downgrade to another!). I know the car dashboard has less functions and is less complex then our software, but if the indtrument display had a line for track name, and it didnt fit in (too many characters) and thus wasnt clear to understand, that would be a problem too. So someone would suggest having it scrolling so it can be read in its entirety, but then someone complains its distracting and so on it goes

The problem is the display IS capable of showing the information, it just hasn't been set up correctly to enable it to do so from all types of media. As you know Wattsn, the Jaguar XJ user videos clearly show all the music details in the aux display, and as it's also capable of full colour sat nav junction information with street names, it would quite easily handle a couple of lines of text. Whilst we are on the subject of poor functionality, have you had to continually adjust the volume when playing music from USB? I understand this is due to the auto-volume sensors in the car adjusting it to compensate for various conditions. Unfortunately it doesn't work, and it becomes very irritating having to continually use the manual control. I'm not sure if that has been reported on UK forums, but there are a lot of posts from US owners on the subject. You can switch this function off in the XF, but for some reason Jaguar decided not to include the option in the XJ screen menus. I'm sure there are people who buy this car and never use many of it's functions. Not quite sure why anyone would do that, because they might as well have purchased something a lot cheaper. It sounds as if you take the same approach as me....ie if the handbook doesn't explain something properly (and god knows it fails miserably on most counts), I will sit in the car and play around until I have the answer. During the course of these in-depth investigations, the irritating little problems start to surface, and after a while, you realise this is an unfinished work in progress vehicle. The XJ has had numerous software updates over the last 2 years, and although some were crucial safety and performance related items, most were related to annoying faults reported by customers, Jaguars own employees, and dealerships. Like I said, a work in progress, and not exactly satisfactory for a car costing between £55k and £96k.

Yep Lee. Appears you and I have the same approach to our vehicles and also the same issues and concerns. Apart from one I have never had cause to adjust the volume while listening to music from the USB source. No idea why but I have never noticed any fluctuating volume and I mostly listen to MP3 tracks on a USB stick.

I do find it quite surprising when people say "Does it really matter". If I was prepared to put up with compromise I would have purchased something far less costly. The fact that you are paying for what should be quality and a finished product just makes it all the more irksome. I wholeheartedly agree that the XJ feels like an unfinished project, which would not bother me so much if the mfr listened and showed willingness to improve. After all, small issues like we are discussing here would cost peanuts to put right, but no one seems to listen.

Ah well, I shall keep enjoying the music made by the 5.0L engine, as I have no need to see artist or track information for that as it is my foot that is in total control of that

BTW, it's Neil.

Hi Neil. Quite agree, only the music made by my 3.0 diesel is rather less inspiring. OK at operating temperature, but sounds like a bag full of spanners whilst getting there. I will probably keep the car until a major problem occurs, but to tell the truth I thinks that's likely to be more WHEN than IF one occurs. It's got 18 months warranty left on it, and if I decide to keep it past year 3 I will definitely be purchasing the Jaguar extended warranty. £1800 for 2 years is a lot of money, but it's a drop in the ocean to the bills I could face without cover. 4 and 5 year old top spec previous model XJs are still fetching £15 - £25k at dealerships, so if I can get close to that as a p/ex figure in 2015 I won't feel too hard done by. By that time the old shape will be too old for dealerships to sell, so our models might be more in demand. Let me know how you get on with your complaint. Off to sand down the rusty callipers now!!! Regards Lee

i take your point guys but not every car can have the same features - there will be differences regardless of what you think.

Examples:

My wifes 2009 Ford Fiesta (cost £12k new) has a quick clear front winscreen
My old 2003 BMW 320d (cost £22k new) had temp regulator for the dashboard air vents (i hate getting 'too cold' air blowing through, so you can regulate temp seperate to main heater control)
None of these features are present on my old bosses 150k Bentley - but i think both the above should be standard on all cars as surely 'very easy to do'
We all have likes, dislikes and rate things more importantly or trivially - so if you listen to a lot of music or different sources then i can see the lack of info being a pain.
Me? I alternate between Radio 3 and 4 and thats it - very dull.

I suspect if the TFT instrument panel was std on the XF then software development would move faster and updates come out more frequently due to numbers. They were perhaps too ambitious at the outset and have now throttled back. lets be honest the 'virtual' instruments concept has no limits for floating animations etc etc.

BTW Software is never fully developed/finished until you obsolete the package altogether and launch a new product to replace it

The issue here is that the car is supposed to have these features - Jaguar issued user instruction videos showing them which are available on You Tube. I think one of the main problems with Jaguar is that they run updates to the car's software which might solve a particular issue, whilst at the same time causing different issues. Functions that used to be available, and on-screen options just disappear completely. They then compound the problem by not updating handbooks regularly or letting customers know what they've done. I can think of several functions listed in the handbook that used to be there, but have been deleted by their software updates. This is what causes the frustration. A good case in point is the voice control software which was supposed to be able to adjust the climate control. Jaguar removed reference to this from their brochures after I complained that the cars didn't actually have it. They have since told me there are no plans to activate this feature either, which is a step in the wrong direction as the previous model XJ had the function several years ago. With the new XJ, I get the feeling Jaguar have rushed into this technology without fully understanding it.