M5 Widescreen
As mentioned, the rather ancient looking radio/monitor in the M5 was bugging me, so I’ve sourced a widescreen. It is from an X5, which means that the contrast isn’t quite right when viewed from an E39 angle, but it is completely usable and when I get time, I plan on following these crazy instructions to sort it out.
So, this is what it used to look like:
And this is what it looks like now:
I’m pleased to note that my TV tuner was able to recognise it and jump straight to a 16:9 ratio. I’m less pleased that I’ve already paid ยฃ200 for another tuner because I thought the car’s original wouldn’t be able to do this – I look forward to making a loss on that on eBay soon.
Still, I need to source a surround from BMW to tidy things up, but otherwise this job is done. The next job in this area will be to sort out MkIV DVD navigation.
Hi Neil, I also have a M5 with the same speck as yours and did borrow a widescreen off my mate to try but when on the tv mode the picture rolled round the screen as if it needed tuning in, So I might keep with the original as I do not want to waste my cash, unless you have any suggestions Im all ears.
Regards Neil
Hi Neil – mine did exactly that. I put the narrow screen back in and it was fine. I then removed a couple of fuses – I think they were 46 and 48 (for the radio and nav computer). There fuses are accessed in the boot on the right side of the car. I then swapped the screens back over (put the wide-screen in) and tightened everything up – took a few minutes over it. Then I replaced the fuses and *bingo*, everything was fine. I guess it just needed to boot fully and establish that there was a different screen at the other end.