2013 Camaro MyLink in action.

[ss/rs-matt]

I'll trade someone a 2013 MyLink for my 2011 CD player. As a added bonus I'll even throw in this AOL disk with free dial-up minutes! You can relive the 90s all over again! Haha!

[lawman007]

Ok so it's just a radio, yes, yes! What does this have to do with me? You told Brandt, Brandt told me...Ok so I have the radio and stuff, so what.

Just kidding. Good luck with that!

[lawman007]

Originally Posted by GearheadSS

Well if we're going to talk sound quality we might as well figure out a way to hook up a turntable in our cars. Nothing sounds better than vinyl.

It's all digital once you get past vinyl. I have a hard time telling the difference anymore between CD and MP3, mainly because I'm used to it now. I've been listening to MP3 in my car since 2010 so I don't really get a chance to break out the CDs.

For the car, I prefer convenience over sound and having my Zune wired in is much more convenient than having to dig through my CDs. Even when I had a 12 disc changer in my 2002 WS6, it wasn't enough and I'd have to change out CDs constantly.

That's not totally accurate. I would have to disagree that your vinyl is not the best. What about pops and skips and repeats? Sorry, you could have a needle that was manufactured to the highest specs, cost $1k or $2k. If your vinyl had a scratch, or was not clean, or had static, you had snaps crackles and pops. And cause you turned it up loud you blew a woofer or two. No, if you had 4 8 or 12 track, you were way better off than vinyl records. 4-track was Reel to Reel and considered 'high end' and better quality than 8 track but was way better than records, 8 track was better than records and was what the consumer was able to get and 12 track was Master quality which was what records were recorded with. The thing about records was that you couldn't guarentee how long the record was going to be scratch free. Once scratched, you had to shell out another 6-8 bucks for a new copy of the record.
Sorry, but I bought records when they got scratched. Unless you lived in a vault or a museum, records were ok new but didn't take long to become unplayable. A scratch, could make it unplayable, for real audiophiles. No hard feelings, but I lived through the record era.

[lawman007]

Originally Posted by fastball

Some of us refuse to use MP3 or any streamed music source. The music is compressed and looses much of it's frequency response.

I will play you a CD and that very track transferred from that CD to an iPod back to back, and you will notice a sound quality difference. Mainly the lack of bass from the iPod.

Do not tell me to quit using CDs and get with the modern times. I'm not going to sacrifice sound quality for ease of use. This isn't going from records to tapes or tapes to CDs. Both the sound quality AND the ease of use is there on a CD. Not on an iPod.

Shows how people simply don't care about the sound quality of what they listen to, probably as little as they care about music in general considering what passes for popular music today.

If GM was wise they'd offer a navigation system WITH a CD changer AND MP3/iPod/Pandora etc. connectivity in the Camaro.

Ok so you're an audiophile, and you said, you go from Record->Tape or Tape->Cd. This is Analog to analog, or analog to digital.

Masters were 4 to 12 track tape which were analog and went to record still being analog.

If you had a master going to cassette this was still analog to analog.

You could have a master go to cd, which is analog to digital. All the inperfections would be picked up. That's how good Cd was/is. The imperfection was always in the recording output. In the old days there was no way to get digital output. So the master was only as good as the output it recorded. Today if you record digital output to 12 track or better this is more along the lines of digital to digital but is linear in format.

For Mp3s you can increase quality to studio quality, but this takes up more room, more storage space. It's all relative.

[mastertypodemon]

After clicking on the thread and watching the video, I was "awesome!".
By page 4, I was more "eh".

All the features seem to need additional packages and fees.

[Mibadd]

I came across this today on cnet.com's " The Car Tech Blog " :

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7...?tag=cnetRiver

[mexiken]

Originally Posted by 2012-2SS

So the MyLink connects to your phone's data and GPS for navigation? How does it do it, blue tooth or USB connection?

The NAV option (not available yet) has its own antenna but you have to buy updates?

What about the OnStar nav, where does that fit in?
So say you get a '13 with MyLink and the Nav, you'd have the car nav, OnStar, and your phone's gps to help you navigate... seems a bit redundant

Can anyone answer this???? Im curious about this too.

How do these 3 fit into the MyLink????

[Jamie Mac]

All over the country they are making texting illegal. This thing looks to be more time consuming to find your way through than any cell phone.

[dwinva]

Originally Posted by 2012-2SS

So the MyLink connects to your phone's data and GPS for navigation? How does it do it, blue tooth or USB connection?

The NAV option (not available yet) has its own antenna but you have to buy updates?

What about the OnStar nav, where does that fit in?
So say you get a '13 with MyLink and the Nav, you'd have the car nav, OnStar, and your phone's gps to help you navigate... seems a bit redundant

I have a 2013 2SS with the MyLink. I cancelled the NAV option due to the constraint. I figured I could use Google maps and my android navigation feature, which has never steered me wrong yet (no pun intended).

MyLink connects to your phone via bluetooth. I can't answer the question about buying NAV updates but I can talk about Onstar turns and directions. The short of it is that it is pretty cool...for a price (eventually). For 6 months you get Onstar turns and directions free (along with every other Onstar feature). I have used it three times so far and it is pretty cool. You just push the Onstar button and tell the operator you want directions to "wherever". Onstar then downloads this to your MyLink and your directions are displayed on the right half of the screen. If you're listening to music the volume is lowered when a voice tells you what your next set of directions is, then music volume is restored (i.e. turn left in 1/4 mile onto "so and so Blvd.". Also, if you have the HUD the directions flash on there as well. All in all it is pretty cool.

The last time I talked to Onstar I asked about the increments of time you could purchase turns and directions. I was told I could buy this in as little as a one month block. This will probably be the route I take...cancelling after my free trial period and ordering it for a month at a time if I need it.

[2012-2SS]

Originally Posted by dwinva

I have a 2013 2SS with the MyLink. I cancelled the NAV option due to the constraint. I figured I could use Google maps and my android navigation feature, which has never steered me wrong yet (no pun intended).

MyLink connects to your phone via bluetooth. I can't answer the question about buying NAV updates but I can talk about Onstar turns and directions. The short of it is that it is pretty cool...for a price (eventually). For 6 months you get Onstar turns and directions free (along with every other Onstar feature). I have used it three times so far and it is pretty cool. You just push the Onstar button and tell the operator you want directions to "wherever". Onstar then downloads this to your MyLink and your directions are displayed on the right half of the screen. If you're listening to music the volume is lowered when a voice tells you what your next set of directions is, then music volume is restored (i.e. turn left in 1/4 mile onto "so and so Blvd.". Also, if you have the HUD the directions flash on there as well. All in all it is pretty cool.

The last time I talked to Onstar I asked about the increments of time you could purchase turns and directions. I was told I could buy this in as little as a one month block. This will probably be the route I take...cancelling after my free trial period and ordering it for a month at a time if I need it.

I don't have a bluetooth nor have I ever connected one to a car. So then, say I'm connected to MyLink via bluetooth what can I do other than make calls through the stereo system?

[dwinva]

Originally Posted by 2012-2SS

I don't have a bluetooth nor have I ever connected one to a car. So then, say I'm connected to MyLink via bluetooth what can I do other than make calls through the stereo system?

Assuming you have a phone that is bluetooth capable, the connection process is pretty straightforward....turn on bluetooth and the phone should find the car as a bluetooth device that it can use. (This is what mine did.) Once it was connected the car took a few minutes to populate but if found my contact list on my phone. I tried calling someone from my contact list right away but was unable to do so until the sync was complete (about 5 minutes or so...I have about 165 or so names in my contact list). I am also able to use Pandora from my phone through MyLink. Additionally, I have a few purchased songs that have made their way onto my phone and am able to play these from what MyLink sees as a generic bluetooth device. Without using the phone, I am able to use an iPod via a USB cable. There is also an auxilary audio jack in the console storage (below my elbow) for another MP3 player or other device. I don't have an iPhone so I don't know if that would connect via bluetooth or the USB connection. I realize this is more than what you were asking for....I was just trying to think of additional questions that might crop up. Hope this helps.

[Papa Q]

Originally Posted by 2012-2SS

So the MyLink connects to your phone's data and GPS for navigation? How does it do it, blue tooth or USB connection?

The NAV option (not available yet) has its own antenna but you have to buy updates?

What about the OnStar nav, where does that fit in?
So say you get a '13 with MyLink and the Nav, you'd have the car nav, OnStar, and your phone's gps to help you navigate... seems a bit redundant

Originally Posted by mexiken

Can anyone answer this???? Im curious about this too.

How do these 3 fit into the MyLink????

This is what I've gathered from owning a '13 non-nav Camaro and doing a bunch of research on the matter (specifically in the case of the Camaro and not other GM cars):

Navigation without the navigation package is done with OnStar. OnStar apparently uses a CMDA 3G radio/receiver to connect to their services. With that connection, you can call OnStar, have them send your car a route using the data connection, and then have the Camaro use the onboard GPS to make sure you follow that route.

As for Camaros with the navigation package, I understand that it will have a system that will contain the maps data onboard. This way, routes can be calculated within the Camaro's computers. I think when you want to update, you're simply updating the map data (for a price probably) once your maps become too out of date.

So to sum up: non-nav connects to OnStar to figure out destination and exact route on their side and THEN is sent to our cars for use. Nav-equipped is all done from the car's side. OnStar still fits in here because it still provides other benefits but you probably don't need their navigation service anymore.

Other MyLink cars uses another system that accesses select phones' data connection (through USB, I think) to gain internet access so it can figure out routes. Not applicable in this car.

[GearheadSS]

Originally Posted by lawman007

That's not totally accurate. I would have to disagree that your vinyl is not the best. What about pops and skips and repeats? Sorry, you could have a needle that was manufactured to the highest specs, cost $1k or $2k. If your vinyl had a scratch, or was not clean, or had static, you had snaps crackles and pops. And cause you turned it up loud you blew a woofer or two. No, if you had 4 8 or 12 track, you were way better off than vinyl records. 4-track was Reel to Reel and considered 'high end' and better quality than 8 track but was way better than records, 8 track was better than records and was what the consumer was able to get and 12 track was Master quality which was what records were recorded with. The thing about records was that you couldn't guarentee how long the record was going to be scratch free. Once scratched, you had to shell out another 6-8 bucks for a new copy of the record.
Sorry, but I bought records when they got scratched. Unless you lived in a vault or a museum, records were ok new but didn't take long to become unplayable. A scratch, could make it unplayable, for real audiophiles. No hard feelings, but I lived through the record era.

Maybe I'm more careful than you. I have records almost 40 years old that sound great and have been played a ton.

[GearheadSS]

Here's the short and sweet of the MyLink Nav offered in Camaro.

IT DOES NOT USE YOUR PHONE'S DATA PLAN FOR THE NAV!!!

I've said this many times but people keep getting confused. The only MyLink systems that will use phone data plans for NAV are going to be in the Sonic and Spark.

The Camaro NAV will work just like the NAV in all other GM vehicles. The maps are going to be stored on a storage unit, in this case it's going to be a SD Card. Updates will have to be purchased just like with other GM vehicles. The only difference is that you're buying an SD Card instead of a DVD with the maps.