2017 Q7 Rear seat entertainment adapter
02-29-2016, 08:22 AM
#1
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2017 Q7 Rear seat entertainment adapter
Does anything exist (yet) to plug in ipads into 2017 Q7s preped for rear seat entertainment? It would be great to be able to throw a dvd in the glove box drive and display on ipads in back...
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bobbies (07-10-2021)
02-29-2016, 09:04 AM
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I would check if it does for the current A6,A7 or A8 but i feel you would need some sort of converter, however I am a windows person not an Apple one so I dont know.
What do the tablets Audi offer run on?
What do the tablets Audi offer run on?
03-04-2016, 10:27 AM
#5
AudiWorld Junior Member
Thread Starter
I don't have it. My sales guy says the dealership hasn't had any on order. As much as I want them, it seems like a waste since two ipads would run less than 1/2 the cost... Also, no indication that the android tablets will play a DVD from the glovebox...I've got small kids, and I need to be able to control the audio and video from driver seat.
03-04-2016, 10:41 AM
#6
AudiWorld Senior Member
I don't have it. My sales guy says the dealership hasn't had any on order. As much as I want them, it seems like a waste since two ipads would run less than 1/2 the cost... Also, no indication that the android tablets will play a DVD from the glovebox...I've got small kids, and I need to be able to control the audio and video from driver seat.
03-04-2016, 10:48 AM
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03-04-2016, 10:05 PM
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2017 Q7 RSE - Review - HORRIBLE Rear Seat Entertainment system
Hi all,
I'm a brand new forum member and the 2017 Q7 is my first Audi. As a high-tech guru (according to all my friends), I am extremely pleased with this wonderful piece of engineering. It rides and drives exceptionally well and I truly appreciate all the settings and features of my Prestige model. I got every option but the B&O - high end audio in a SUV is money spent better elsewhere.
However...
A critical portion of my decision to purchase the Q7 was the entertainment system for rear seat passengers (my kids!). The dealer didn't have any RSE devices in stock or for me to look at / play with. Therefore I got VERY specific with my questions. Will the RSE play DVDs? I asked twice as this was truly a critical requirement for our family of 5. The dealer "checked" and then responded in the affirmative. "Are you sure?" I asked - "Yes it will" was their response. Sadly, their information was inaccurate - relying on previous year's models for info I guess.
The "disk changer" in the glove box turned out to be a single disk player that can only play CDs or DVDs. Movies only play to the front MMI screen when the car is stationary (kinda makes it hard to get anywhere) and in no way is it possible to play them on the RSE panels conveniently mounted yet removable from behind the front seats.
If you break the law and rip a DVD to an SD card, it is possible to copy the movie from the SD card slot to the tiny JukeBox (10GB) and then play one of the few movies you can store there to the MMI directly from the JukeBox. It is not possible to copy a DVD movie from the disk drive directly to the JukeBox (as it should be, legally). Again, no movies can be played while the car is moving.
All that is a mute point as who sits in a car and watches a movie? The goal of any entertainment system in a vehicle is to entertain the occupants NOT involved in driving the vehicle.
As it turns out each RSE panel is independent and totally separate from the MMI system up front. Despite the RSEs sharing the same network WiFi connection as the MMI, despite the RSEs each pairing to the car's BlueTooth system (hoping for at least some audio over the car's speakers from the RSE), the RSEs only "appear" as Media sources to the MMI but nothing more. No MMI sources can be played on the RSEs and no RSE content can be played on the MMI screen or speakers.
I've done extensive research in the last few days, speaking to Audi's Customer Experience team, regional trainers, and from my perspective NONE of them have ALL the correct info about the RSE system. Some suggested the copying of DVDs to SD cards - "I do it all the time" I was told. Hmm... Some quoted one number for the capacity of the SD Card slots, another quoted half that amount (64 vs 32 GB). One suggested I could plug a DVD USB drive into the USB port of the RSE and play a movie that way. Nope - tried that.
Audi expects us all to abandon the hundreds of DVD movies we've purchased over the years and instead signup for a streaming service and then pay AT&T for the wireless gigabytes of data every month just to watch movies that we already own.
Oh wait, there's more... Audi says that the panels can send data (Miracast) from one panel to the other when the 2nd panel has been placed in "Listen" mode. Tried that. The picture is a bit jittery and the audio is WAY out of sync with the video on the RSE that is actually streaming the moving over the Internet. Also, the audio only comes out of the RSE that is mirroring the primary streamer. (Still following me?). So the person actually operating the RSE that is streaming the movie gets no audio from their panel and the audio they do hear comes from the mirroring panel and that is out of sync with the image they are watching... The 2nd RSE panel has the audio and video sync'd. Whoopee.
But wait - these are independent RSE panels! That means they can each stream their own movie over the Internet! Let's see - two high-bandwidth streams coming into the car's hotspot, feeding streaming Netflix of different movies to each RSE panel... Yes folks that's a LOT of data in a moving car with the cell signal trying to keep the streaming buffer full so the picture won't flicker. That's enough data streaming to keep your monthly AT&T bill larger than you ever thought possible. Audi's "plans" for wireless AT&T Audi Connect data, and HotSpot data are entirely separate too! That's an entirely different story for a different post...
There are two ways of sharing screens. Miracast is the out of lip sync mirroring system; the second way works like this: Either panel can see the other panel's content as source material so a first panel user can browse and view the contents (music, photos, movies) of the other panel (and this can go either way even at the same time! Talk about confusing...) So, if you have a movie (you know, one of those "copied" to an SD card like Audi recommended) inserted into one RSE panel, the other RSE panel can actually play that same movie on its screen (too bad they start independently and now everyone is FORCED to wear headphones. Funny how when something dramatic or funny happens in a movie you hear it first from one viewer and then moments later the other viewer reacts... gets annoying after a while.
The RSE panel memory is also VERY small... just a few Gigabytes. Heck, we can buy a 64GB USB stick for $20 almost anywhere... Audi under-spec'd this system in every way possible - the RSE price is so WAY out of line with current technology. So plan on an SD card in each panel.
Have you got the idea of how hard this would be for kids 4-8 years old who are easily placated with a fun, age appropriate, movie when you have to make that twice for 2 hours weekend drive twice a month to see Grandma? The number of actual screen steps required EACH TIME to enable all this "entertainment" on both screens is certain to either frustrate your kids to the point that you have to pull over, get in the back, and get it all working for them, - or - it will make them into tiny computer geniuses that scare you for their skill set in front of a computer when they are just 5 years old!! I'll take a DVD disk drive in the front dash, and a simple remote in the back for them to make their familiar selections (like the home DVD player) any day over this nightmare. The best systems from most every other car manufacturer actually let you stop the vehicle and see the movie screen on the front car screen so you can make the choices for your car seat kids without having to exit the car and do it from "back there".
So - what are parents to do to bring this "state of the art - Truth in Engineering" rear seat entertainment system up to the same level that any Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, GMC Yukon, Chevy Suburban - oh heck, I could write about any family mover with a rear seat entertainment system... ??? It goes like this:
1. Purchase a DVD or a DVD/BluRay player from Amazon for about $200;
2. Purchase the 12 VDC adapter for the player as this car doesn't seem to have a 115 AC plug anywhere;
3. Purchase a HDMI splitter (one input, two outputs);
4. Purchase 3 HDMI cables (get em from Monoprice.com - much cheaper than in a store);
5. Purchase a miniplug to miniplug audio cord (monoprice has those too);
6. Plug the DC adapter into the 12V plug under the rear-seat AC controls
7. Plug one HDMI cable from the DVD player into the input of the HDMI splitter;
8. Plug a HDMI cable from the output of the splitter into the HDMI input of the RSE panel, repeat on the other panel with the last HDMI cable;
9. Plug the miniplug from the DVD player's line out or headphone out into the AUX jack under the armrest in the front seat center console;
10. Try to position or mount the DVD player in a place where it won't get kicked around - velcro to the 2nd seat floor hump?
11. Manage all the cables so the kid's feet don't yank the cords and create problems while you are trying to drive the car ("Mom - something's wrong with the movie...");
12. Set the car audio on AUX and adjust the volume of the movie so that the 3rd row passengers can hear as well as see the movie being played - at least that way the driver can adjust the volume as needed;
13. Proceed to let the kids fight over which movie to watch!
A slight variation on the above would be to nix the HDMI splitter and daisy chain the signal from player to panel to panel. Plug the DVD player into one panel's "HDMI IN", then plug a second HDMI cable from the first panel's "HDMI OUT" to the second panel's "HDMI IN". I haven't tried this, but I would expect a delay between panels. Better to split the original signal so that the timing is exact on all panels.
Or - maybe better yet, forget the $1,900 for the two RSE panels altogether. Buy two portable players, forget the splitter, and just let each kid have their own player for their own RSE screen. Those really tiny portable player screens will only frustrate the 3rd row seat kids... it's really a no-win scenario.
Or just buy a different family mover... (Wish I had not bought the car actually because of this nightmare - wife ACTUALLY asked me if I was taking the car back...groan)
Get the picture? I've had worse nightmares, but not many.
There are a ton more things I could write about the RSEs - some nice, such as getting my Google email (if I was riding back there) or playing other Google apps. But if I didn't have kids I doubt I would have a need for a RSE at all - after-all, adults in the back seat usually like to be engaged in conversation with adults in the front seat... And, do I really want my young kids playing with my Google account or picking movies off Netflix that I can't even approve of first?
Audi could not have screwed this RSE option up any worse except if they simply didn't offer one at all. They offer this option because families demand it, but when it's so poorly executed why bother? Even the dealership, from management to service personnel, were all wide-eyed surprised to learn of this Audi engineered mess. It saddens me that the dealers don't know what they're selling because corporate can't even get it straight themselves and are doing a lousy job of training the sales team. Demos of the RSE are nonexistent, maybe because they don't want families to know about this dilemma before they make a purchase decision I guess. If they did know the truth, then families would probably look elsewhere for their soccer-mom vehicle and avoid this otherwise incredibly outstanding SUV in the first place!
Suggestion? Audi could install a streamer on the video disk player in the glove box that would stream the movies to the RSE panels over WiFi.
Or, rewrite the somewhat disappointing MMI user interface software to allow the streaming to happen in the first place (from DVD drive to both RSE panels automatically) - including having a default startup feature in the RSE panels so that they automatically start playing the movie in the DVD Drive without Little Einsteins kid intervention.
Or, (and this one is TRULY my favorite suggestion) create an adapter frame that an iPad snaps into that allows the best OS and best tablet to connect to the car. At least that way the kids could play the movies they installed themselves in the iPads and not stream anything at all. Or they could play the countless games they already have on those iPads.
Android? Really Audi? Kids use iPads, period.
--------------
MB 2015 S550
MB 2013 ML350 (retiring soon)
MB 2010 S63 (retired)
Lexus 2008 430LS (retired)
GMC 2009 Yukon Denali XL (retired)
plus about 25 or so more in my 46 years of driving
I'm a brand new forum member and the 2017 Q7 is my first Audi. As a high-tech guru (according to all my friends), I am extremely pleased with this wonderful piece of engineering. It rides and drives exceptionally well and I truly appreciate all the settings and features of my Prestige model. I got every option but the B&O - high end audio in a SUV is money spent better elsewhere.
However...
A critical portion of my decision to purchase the Q7 was the entertainment system for rear seat passengers (my kids!). The dealer didn't have any RSE devices in stock or for me to look at / play with. Therefore I got VERY specific with my questions. Will the RSE play DVDs? I asked twice as this was truly a critical requirement for our family of 5. The dealer "checked" and then responded in the affirmative. "Are you sure?" I asked - "Yes it will" was their response. Sadly, their information was inaccurate - relying on previous year's models for info I guess.
The "disk changer" in the glove box turned out to be a single disk player that can only play CDs or DVDs. Movies only play to the front MMI screen when the car is stationary (kinda makes it hard to get anywhere) and in no way is it possible to play them on the RSE panels conveniently mounted yet removable from behind the front seats.
If you break the law and rip a DVD to an SD card, it is possible to copy the movie from the SD card slot to the tiny JukeBox (10GB) and then play one of the few movies you can store there to the MMI directly from the JukeBox. It is not possible to copy a DVD movie from the disk drive directly to the JukeBox (as it should be, legally). Again, no movies can be played while the car is moving.
All that is a mute point as who sits in a car and watches a movie? The goal of any entertainment system in a vehicle is to entertain the occupants NOT involved in driving the vehicle.
As it turns out each RSE panel is independent and totally separate from the MMI system up front. Despite the RSEs sharing the same network WiFi connection as the MMI, despite the RSEs each pairing to the car's BlueTooth system (hoping for at least some audio over the car's speakers from the RSE), the RSEs only "appear" as Media sources to the MMI but nothing more. No MMI sources can be played on the RSEs and no RSE content can be played on the MMI screen or speakers.
I've done extensive research in the last few days, speaking to Audi's Customer Experience team, regional trainers, and from my perspective NONE of them have ALL the correct info about the RSE system. Some suggested the copying of DVDs to SD cards - "I do it all the time" I was told. Hmm... Some quoted one number for the capacity of the SD Card slots, another quoted half that amount (64 vs 32 GB). One suggested I could plug a DVD USB drive into the USB port of the RSE and play a movie that way. Nope - tried that.
Audi expects us all to abandon the hundreds of DVD movies we've purchased over the years and instead signup for a streaming service and then pay AT&T for the wireless gigabytes of data every month just to watch movies that we already own.
Oh wait, there's more... Audi says that the panels can send data (Miracast) from one panel to the other when the 2nd panel has been placed in "Listen" mode. Tried that. The picture is a bit jittery and the audio is WAY out of sync with the video on the RSE that is actually streaming the moving over the Internet. Also, the audio only comes out of the RSE that is mirroring the primary streamer. (Still following me?). So the person actually operating the RSE that is streaming the movie gets no audio from their panel and the audio they do hear comes from the mirroring panel and that is out of sync with the image they are watching... The 2nd RSE panel has the audio and video sync'd. Whoopee.
But wait - these are independent RSE panels! That means they can each stream their own movie over the Internet! Let's see - two high-bandwidth streams coming into the car's hotspot, feeding streaming Netflix of different movies to each RSE panel... Yes folks that's a LOT of data in a moving car with the cell signal trying to keep the streaming buffer full so the picture won't flicker. That's enough data streaming to keep your monthly AT&T bill larger than you ever thought possible. Audi's "plans" for wireless AT&T Audi Connect data, and HotSpot data are entirely separate too! That's an entirely different story for a different post...
There are two ways of sharing screens. Miracast is the out of lip sync mirroring system; the second way works like this: Either panel can see the other panel's content as source material so a first panel user can browse and view the contents (music, photos, movies) of the other panel (and this can go either way even at the same time! Talk about confusing...) So, if you have a movie (you know, one of those "copied" to an SD card like Audi recommended) inserted into one RSE panel, the other RSE panel can actually play that same movie on its screen (too bad they start independently and now everyone is FORCED to wear headphones. Funny how when something dramatic or funny happens in a movie you hear it first from one viewer and then moments later the other viewer reacts... gets annoying after a while.
The RSE panel memory is also VERY small... just a few Gigabytes. Heck, we can buy a 64GB USB stick for $20 almost anywhere... Audi under-spec'd this system in every way possible - the RSE price is so WAY out of line with current technology. So plan on an SD card in each panel.
Have you got the idea of how hard this would be for kids 4-8 years old who are easily placated with a fun, age appropriate, movie when you have to make that twice for 2 hours weekend drive twice a month to see Grandma? The number of actual screen steps required EACH TIME to enable all this "entertainment" on both screens is certain to either frustrate your kids to the point that you have to pull over, get in the back, and get it all working for them, - or - it will make them into tiny computer geniuses that scare you for their skill set in front of a computer when they are just 5 years old!! I'll take a DVD disk drive in the front dash, and a simple remote in the back for them to make their familiar selections (like the home DVD player) any day over this nightmare. The best systems from most every other car manufacturer actually let you stop the vehicle and see the movie screen on the front car screen so you can make the choices for your car seat kids without having to exit the car and do it from "back there".
So - what are parents to do to bring this "state of the art - Truth in Engineering" rear seat entertainment system up to the same level that any Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, GMC Yukon, Chevy Suburban - oh heck, I could write about any family mover with a rear seat entertainment system... ??? It goes like this:
1. Purchase a DVD or a DVD/BluRay player from Amazon for about $200;
2. Purchase the 12 VDC adapter for the player as this car doesn't seem to have a 115 AC plug anywhere;
3. Purchase a HDMI splitter (one input, two outputs);
4. Purchase 3 HDMI cables (get em from Monoprice.com - much cheaper than in a store);
5. Purchase a miniplug to miniplug audio cord (monoprice has those too);
6. Plug the DC adapter into the 12V plug under the rear-seat AC controls
7. Plug one HDMI cable from the DVD player into the input of the HDMI splitter;
8. Plug a HDMI cable from the output of the splitter into the HDMI input of the RSE panel, repeat on the other panel with the last HDMI cable;
9. Plug the miniplug from the DVD player's line out or headphone out into the AUX jack under the armrest in the front seat center console;
10. Try to position or mount the DVD player in a place where it won't get kicked around - velcro to the 2nd seat floor hump?
11. Manage all the cables so the kid's feet don't yank the cords and create problems while you are trying to drive the car ("Mom - something's wrong with the movie...");
12. Set the car audio on AUX and adjust the volume of the movie so that the 3rd row passengers can hear as well as see the movie being played - at least that way the driver can adjust the volume as needed;
13. Proceed to let the kids fight over which movie to watch!
A slight variation on the above would be to nix the HDMI splitter and daisy chain the signal from player to panel to panel. Plug the DVD player into one panel's "HDMI IN", then plug a second HDMI cable from the first panel's "HDMI OUT" to the second panel's "HDMI IN". I haven't tried this, but I would expect a delay between panels. Better to split the original signal so that the timing is exact on all panels.
Or - maybe better yet, forget the $1,900 for the two RSE panels altogether. Buy two portable players, forget the splitter, and just let each kid have their own player for their own RSE screen. Those really tiny portable player screens will only frustrate the 3rd row seat kids... it's really a no-win scenario.
Or just buy a different family mover... (Wish I had not bought the car actually because of this nightmare - wife ACTUALLY asked me if I was taking the car back...groan)
Get the picture? I've had worse nightmares, but not many.
There are a ton more things I could write about the RSEs - some nice, such as getting my Google email (if I was riding back there) or playing other Google apps. But if I didn't have kids I doubt I would have a need for a RSE at all - after-all, adults in the back seat usually like to be engaged in conversation with adults in the front seat... And, do I really want my young kids playing with my Google account or picking movies off Netflix that I can't even approve of first?
Audi could not have screwed this RSE option up any worse except if they simply didn't offer one at all. They offer this option because families demand it, but when it's so poorly executed why bother? Even the dealership, from management to service personnel, were all wide-eyed surprised to learn of this Audi engineered mess. It saddens me that the dealers don't know what they're selling because corporate can't even get it straight themselves and are doing a lousy job of training the sales team. Demos of the RSE are nonexistent, maybe because they don't want families to know about this dilemma before they make a purchase decision I guess. If they did know the truth, then families would probably look elsewhere for their soccer-mom vehicle and avoid this otherwise incredibly outstanding SUV in the first place!
Suggestion? Audi could install a streamer on the video disk player in the glove box that would stream the movies to the RSE panels over WiFi.
Or, rewrite the somewhat disappointing MMI user interface software to allow the streaming to happen in the first place (from DVD drive to both RSE panels automatically) - including having a default startup feature in the RSE panels so that they automatically start playing the movie in the DVD Drive without Little Einsteins kid intervention.
Or, (and this one is TRULY my favorite suggestion) create an adapter frame that an iPad snaps into that allows the best OS and best tablet to connect to the car. At least that way the kids could play the movies they installed themselves in the iPads and not stream anything at all. Or they could play the countless games they already have on those iPads.
Android? Really Audi? Kids use iPads, period.
--------------
MB 2015 S550
MB 2013 ML350 (retiring soon)
MB 2010 S63 (retired)
Lexus 2008 430LS (retired)
GMC 2009 Yukon Denali XL (retired)
plus about 25 or so more in my 46 years of driving
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