[Constant Speed]

I took delivery of my SSM STI this week. I got the iPod interface. The manual seems silent on the control options. Does anyone have any guidance re what and how much you can control. I can get songs to play and a read out of the artist and the song but cannot get it to display playlist or change playlists.

[sleepyhead]

Subaru.com | iPod® there is a pdf manual you can download on that page.

[Constant Speed]

Thanks for the link.

[CFar]

The manual should come with a temporary sticker used to acclomate you with which buttons control each feature. Works pretty good, except for the fact that it wont turn off the newer ones.

[Gray08]

Anyone else having problems with the iPod interface (non-NAV factory stereo)?

Mine really didn't work at all with the iPhone (v1.1.3 firmware) - I could only access a few of the songs stored in the phone, and even that only worked 20% of the time. This doesn't bother me because I never planned to use my iPhone for this purpose, anyway.

It does "mostly" work with my iPod Classic (6th generation iPod with 80GB drive), which I bought specifically to use in the car. The problem is that about 90% of the time I start the car, there is no music. It says "ATTACHED" but the controls do nothing until I unplug the iPod and plug it back in. And that is very inconvenient to do every time I get in the car because the cable sticking out of the center console is way too short to do this easily - I'm not a contortionist. This is totally unacceptable. I'm planning to do an aftermarket head unit so I can have bluetooth, iPod, and satellite functions, and be able to see artist, album, and title all displayed simultaneously.

Unfortunately, the availability of information for aftermarket installations is poor right now.

[RPI-STi]

Well this is great feedback. I have an iPhone (v 1.1.4 firmware) and was planning on buying the iPod interface. I guess I wont now and wait for something better.

[the ambush]

i wonder if subaru thinks we, canadians, are retarded and dont know what is an i-pod ? it doesn`t look like we`re getting this feature up here

[Edvig]

Originally Posted by the ambush

i wonder if subaru thinks we, canadians, are retarded and dont know what is an i-pod ? it doesn`t look like we`re getting this feature up here

Subaru only offers the Canadian market the navigation system and no base model head unit. So I guess it's either or right now until Subaru figures out how to connect the iPod integration kit in to the navigation system.

[GilMikalian]

Originally Posted by the ambush

i wonder if subaru thinks we, canadians, are retarded and dont know what is an i-pod ? it doesn`t look like we`re getting this feature up here

You're going to have to trust me on this but the iPod integration is a JOKE. The only reason I use it is because it came with the car. Scrolling through albums/artists/songs is a joke. You have to press a button every time you want to advance. So if you have over 300 albums, you better be very patient if you want to listen to an album that starts with L-M-N...you get the idea. Horrible interface is made worse by the display using the top line to read "SAT-001." Really, that's the best integration we were able to come up with when we have a "wheel" in the form of the right hand knob and two lines of text that could be better utilized. Okay, enough ranting. You get the picture. You all up north got lucky no iPod option for you.

[Gray08]

GilMikalian, you are absolutely correct. The iPod interface is pathetic. Even when I get it to work, I leave it on playlist shuffle because trying to select anything with those buttons is so complicated (and slow) that it's not safe to drive the car and operate the radio at the same time.

The only solution is to replace it with an aftermarket stereo. And if that's my only real complaint with this car (besides the factory tune which I fixed on day 1 with an AccessPort), then I'm a very happy camper.

My new Pioneer 8900BT system will have Bluetooth hands-free, XM, iPod interface, and PAC steering wheel control adapter. I ordered that dual DIN trim piece from Japan (as mentioned in other threads), and it looks great. I'll try to document the installation because I think it will be helpful to other people trying to make sense of the limited info that's available right now. Even Crutchfield doesn't have any kits or information for the 08 STi yet.

I chose Pioneer because of it's all-around quality, ease of use, particularly good Bluetooth implementation (a priority for me), and capability of running either XM or Sirius (I could change my mind later), plus the option of adding HD radio later on. I also know it will work with my iPhone, now that Apple decided to fix their BT issues with the latest 1.1.4 firmware. I looked at Kenwood, Alpine, Sony and Clarion and it seemed like every system had at least one weakness that bothered me, or I just could not get the answers to all of my questions by reading websites, forums, user reviews, and even the operation and installation manuals.

[RPI-STi]

Originally Posted by Gray08

GilMikalian, you are absolutely correct. The iPod interface is pathetic. Even when I get it to work, I leave it on playlist shuffle because trying to select anything with those buttons is so complicated (and slow) that it's not safe to drive the car and operate the radio at the same time.

The only solution is to replace it with an aftermarket stereo. And if that's my only real complaint with this car (besides the factory tune which I fixed on day 1 with an AccessPort), then I'm a very happy camper.

My new Pioneer 8900BT system will have Bluetooth hands-free, XM, iPod interface, and PAC steering wheel control adapter. I ordered that dual DIN trim piece from Japan (as mentioned in other threads), and it looks great. I'll try to document the installation because I think it will be helpful to other people trying to make sense of the limited info that's available right now. Even Crutchfield doesn't have any kits or information for the 08 STi yet.

I chose Pioneer because of it's all-around quality, ease of use, particularly good Bluetooth implementation (a priority for me), and capability of running either XM or Sirius (I could change my mind later), plus the option of adding HD radio later on. I also know it will work with my iPhone, now that Apple decided to fix their BT issues with the latest 1.1.4 firmware. I looked at Kenwood, Alpine, Sony and Clarion and it seemed like every system had at least one weakness that bothered me, or I just could not get the answers to all of my questions by reading websites, forums, user reviews, and even the operation and installation manuals.

Where did you get this and how much was it? Any pics? I'm very interested in doing this. Makes me happy i didn't opt for the Nav system in the car.

[Gray08]

That's kind of a vague question. If you're talking about the dual DIN adapter, I got it from Japanparts.com. Here's a good thread on that plus some other info:

http://www.iwsti.com/forums/2008-sti...s-antenna.html

As for the rest of the stuff, Crutchfield had a good deal running on the Pioneer head unit plus Pioneer XM interface (don't buy the cheaper non-Pioneer one because it doesn't have pass-through for adding other accessories). I could have saved a little $ going with an eBay vendor but for the head unit I'd rather buy from a dealer who will help if any problems come up. I bought the the PAC SWI-PS (Pioneer/Sony) steering wheel interface on eBay, the CD-IB100II iPod interface on eBay, and the single DIN pocket and harness adapter from IAPerformance.

If you want the ultimate system that does everything (GPS Navigation, bluetooth hands-free, satellite, HD radio, iPod) in a dual-DIN format, check out the Pioneer AVIC-D3X.