PDIM/iPod/My Link question by new owner

[Markbot]

Hello,

My name is Mark and I just bought my first Camaro upgrading from my 2002 Firebird. I think I need to have a PDIM installed, but I'm not sure and thought maybe someone would know the answer since my dealer doesn't really seem to know what a PDIM is. First a little bit of background info.

On 12/31/2012 I bought a 2013 Camaro 2SS RS package convertible Blue Ray Metallic.

I have the "My Link" sound system with On Star and the backup camera. I have a USB port and an axillary jack in the center console. I have a 160GB 7th Generation iPod classic I've had for 2 years. It only has 71 artists, 441 albums and 5642 songs on it. It still has 108 GB free of 160 total. I have never updated the firmware of the iPod since I use Winamp to control it and not iTunes.

When I plug in the iPod to the USB jack with my standard iPod cable the My Link system sees it and identifies it as an "iPod". I can scroll through the artists or albums and play songs and artwork and artist information displays appropriately using the touch screen display or the steering wheel controls.

The problem is that for some artists like for example AC/DC the Camaro only shows 7 albums where there are actually 24 albums on the iPod. So I thought maybe I need to purchase a PDIM so the system can better control my iPod. I ordered the PDIM from my dealer and the part is in and the install is scheduled for this Friday.

No one at my dealership I spoke to seemed to have ever heard of a PDIM and wasn't sure if my Camaro already had one or not. So I did some Googling and that led me to this forum. I've read several of the threads about the PDIM, but didn't see any reference to owners of a 2013 with My Link doing an upgrade. I don't want to pay the dealer to install something they are not familiar with especially if I already have one or do not need it for my model/build of Camaro.

Since my dealer doesn't seem to know I though maybe some one here would. Any comments are welcome.

Thanks,

Mark

[Shu71]

You already have the PDIM in your car. The fact that you have the USB and auxillary jack and that it recognizes your ipod. I'm not sure why your ipod isn't showing all folders/files. Maybe the ipod does need to be updated or the radio sofware needs updated but since the car is new and the ipod is older my guess is the ipod would need the update.

[Robdollar77]

I want to say if you have the mylink system , then you already have the PDIM. I believe the PDIM gave you a USB connection for iPods/Zunes and flash drives on base head units that didnt have a usb port on the 2010-2012 models. As far as the other albums not showing up, it maybe how the actual songs are labeled. you may have the song title as the file name but the artist, genre, and album title may not be in the right fields in the song file properties or have extra information that could confuse the mylink system. For example, the right album art was not showing up and the song title was not correct on a song I transferred to iTunes that I downloaded. After using iTunes, and clicked get song info, the song properties had a bunch of 1's and 0's in the comment section along with a reference to a website. After I looked in the iTunes Store and found out the correct artist, album, etc it was suppose to be and edited the song properties in iTunes, it automatically updated it with the correct artwork and when I plugged my iphone back in the Camaro, it was all fixed. If you don't use iTunes, I'm sure the software you are using will allow you to update or correct the information in the songs or albums that maybe incorrect. Maybe that will help you get in the right direction

[Markbot]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll cancel the PDIM install since apparently I already have one.

All of my songs were ripped myself. They are all organized by artist, album etc. perfectly on the iPod display. The problem here is that the My Link display is not matching up.

Last night on the ride home from work I wanted to listen to a specific Eagles album. When I selected it only 3 songs were listed where the iPod has 9 total songs. Since all 9 songs were ripped at the same time all the track info, artist, album, etc. is the same except for track number and song title. So I don't think how the songs were ripped is the issue. It appears that the My Link system is not indexing them correctly or the iPod index is not being read correctly by the system.

My wife has an iPod Nano. I will try it or buy another iPod and report back.

If anyone else has any ideas please chime in.

[Chevrolet Customer Svc]

Originally Posted by Markbot

Hello,

My name is Mark and I just bought my first Camaro upgrading from my 2002 Firebird. I think I need to have a PDIM installed, but I'm not sure and thought maybe someone would know the answer since my dealer doesn't really seem to know what a PDIM is. First a little bit of background info.

On 12/31/2012 I bought a 2013 Camaro 2SS RS package convertible Blue Ray Metallic.

I have the "My Link" sound system with On Star and the backup camera. I have a USB port and an axillary jack in the center console. I have a 160GB 7th Generation iPod classic I've had for 2 years. It only has 71 artists, 441 albums and 5642 songs on it. It still has 108 GB free of 160 total. I have never updated the firmware of the iPod since I use Winamp to control it and not iTunes.

When I plug in the iPod to the USB jack with my standard iPod cable the My Link system sees it and identifies it as an "iPod". I can scroll through the artists or albums and play songs and artwork and artist information displays appropriately using the touch screen display or the steering wheel controls.

The problem is that for some artists like for example AC/DC the Camaro only shows 7 albums where there are actually 24 albums on the iPod. So I thought maybe I need to purchase a PDIM so the system can better control my iPod. I ordered the PDIM from my dealer and the part is in and the install is scheduled for this Friday.

No one at my dealership I spoke to seemed to have ever heard of a PDIM and wasn't sure if my Camaro already had one or not. So I did some Googling and that led me to this forum. I've read several of the threads about the PDIM, but didn't see any reference to owners of a 2013 with My Link doing an upgrade. I don't want to pay the dealer to install something they are not familiar with especially if I already have one or do not need it for my model/build of Camaro.

Since my dealer doesn't seem to know I though maybe some one here would. Any comments are welcome.

Thanks,

Mark

Congratulations on your new 2013 Camaro purchase! That is quite an upgrade! If you would like, send me your VIN and I can check to see if you already have a PDIM installed.

Brandon
Chevrolet Customer Service

[d3rp]

In all honesty it sounds like the problem is that your using Winamp and not iTunes. iTunes writes a code to the iPods so they can be read by USB or blu tooth devices. Also u should update it

[RxRated]

I have this problem as well using an iPhone or USB. It will fail to recognize certain tracks/albums. Some are purchased from iTunes and others are ripped from CDs.

[the barber]

I had the same problem with my iphone4 while listemimg tried searching for an artist i knew i had and wouldnt come up so unplugged searched and sure enough was on there played and plugged back n and has came up ever since

[muscle96ss]

I had the same problem at first as well. Then I went to the playlists and realized that it was the playlist that I was using and when I switched playlists, all the songs were really there. Not sure if that makes sense, but not sure how else to explain it.

[Sir Nuke]

Mark, although you do have a PDIM....and it should be the latest updated hardware/software.....but you never know what they are actually installing at the factory. There is an easy way to find out which PDIM they installed. Go out to your car, turn of the radio/system. Plug something into the USB post and select it. THEN, push on the MENU/SELECT button and hold it down for about 8 to 10 seconds. On the display will appear the Hardware and Software version of the PDIM that is installed in your car. The latest and greatest version is the DB/DD.

[Astoc]

I recently purchased a 2013 Camaro 1SS, and I felt the desire to chime in regarding my findings on the issue that Mark posted about.

When I purchased my car, I was pretty impressed with the presentation of the MyLink interface. However, I noticed this issue when I attempted to plug my iPod into the USB port. When I would select an artist and proceed to one of that artist's albums, songs were missing from the listing. Initially, I figured that this would be caused by song categorization issues stemming from iTunes. After a good deal of investigation, I found this not to be the case.

Then it hit me.

The majority of the songs that were missing in the album listings in MyLink had something in common. Most of those songs had unusually lengthy song titles. Accessing the iPod through iTunes and shortening the song titles made the songs visible in MyLink when accessing songs by album. Simply put: the number of characters in a song title effects MyLink's ability to categorize them. When a certain number of characters is exceeded in the song title, MyLink can no longer categorize the song by album, and the song disappears from the album's listings.

That wasn't the end of it, though.

A smaller number of songs were still missing. I tracked down these songs and found out that they also shared something in common. Songs with periods in the titles are also unable to be categorized properly by MyLink. Removing periods from those titles caused those songs to resurface, as well.

So, if you want your iPod's songs to show up properly in the MyLink interface, you will need to shorten the song titles and remove extraneous periods from the song titles.

Let's hope that Chevy issues an update to fix these issues.

[Sir Nuke]

Astoc.....what is the magic MAX number if charcters available?



I gotta tell ya.....if you go back through all the threads of people having issues with this sort of thing.....the VAST magority are iPhone, iPad, iPod users/issues. its the very reason I have never had an Apple product.

[Astoc]

Originally Posted by Sir Nuke

Astoc.....what is the magic MAX number if charcters available?



I gotta tell ya.....if you go back through all the threads of people having issues with this sort of thing.....the VAST magority are iPhone, iPad, iPod users/issues. its the very reason I have never had an Apple product.

I don't have the exact number of characters just yet. I'm going to try to hash that out over the weekend (if I have time), and I'll report my findings afterward.

[The Stig]

Originally Posted by Markbot

Thanks for the feedback. I'll cancel the PDIM install since apparently I already have one.

All of my songs were ripped myself. They are all organized by artist, album etc. perfectly on the iPod display. The problem here is that the My Link display is not matching up.

Last night on the ride home from work I wanted to listen to a specific Eagles album. When I selected it only 3 songs were listed where the iPod has 9 total songs. Since all 9 songs were ripped at the same time all the track info, artist, album, etc. is the same except for track number and song title. So I don't think how the songs were ripped is the issue. It appears that the My Link system is not indexing them correctly or the iPod index is not being read correctly by the system.

My wife has an iPod Nano. I will try it or buy another iPod and report back.

If anyone else has any ideas please chime in.

The headunit can only index a certain number of songs. I want to say it's 2,500 songs, but don't quote me on that.