Alpine iDA-Xnnn : "blurry artwork" with latest iPods

[PJTX100]

Seems to be some noise about the later iPods displaying "blurry" (ie low res) artwork on the Alpine iDA's.

I can report that indeed I get blurry artwork on the iDA-X001 with the 80Gb Classic iPod, wheres my 5th gen 30Gb Video iPod is nice and crisp.

It's most noticable in the full screen view.

Anyone have any further info on this?

Haven't researched it yet but my hunch is it's using the coverflow thumbnails rather then higher res artwork embedded in the track itself.

If it's a case of waiting for a firmware update from Alpine we'll wait forever.

[PJTX100]

Did a bit more digging on this and can't add much, other than confirm it is a known issue. Someone even mentioned they had discussed it with Alpine who said they knew about the issue but it could only be resolved by an iPod firmware upgrade. That comment was 6 months or more old I seem to recall and clearly subsequent firmware upgrades have not fixed the issue.

Other comments echoed my hunch that it's an issue with the new thumbnails that come with coverflow on the newer iPods.

So, in a nutshell, if you have an iPod with coverflow and hook it to one of the Alpine iDA-Xnnn head units the artwork looks pants on the head unit. If you have a pre-coverflow iPod, the artwork looks fine and dandy.

This was a public service announcement.

[finkle]

I've got the same problem with my x305 unit with my iPhone. Can't seem to find any solution out there :/

[jaymz]

Found this in the latest Alpine spring 09 catalogue

[BertyUK]

Got the same issue with my new X305. tried it with the Ipod 3g, 30gb ipod, ipod touch... all blurry.

[finkle]

Link to another forum discussion about the blurry album artwork. Doesn't seem to offer up any new ideas..only more complaints.

ida-x100 vs. ida-x305 - NASIOC

[finkle]

A short Apple support discussion about this issue. Seems this guy fixed it using the black Alpine usb cable, provided with the deck. Maybe it works for the x100 series? I've always had that cable installed, so no luck for me and my x305.

Apple - Support - Discussions - alpine ida-x001 and 120gb classic = ...

[finkle]

Just spoke to Alpine customer support (non-technician). They have no answer as to why this is happening. A tech is supposed to follow up with me. The rep suggested experimenting with different sizes and resolutions for the time being. Apparently the artwork is tweaked twice before it hits the screen; Compressed as it gets pushed through the usb cable, and then upres'd to be displayed on the screen. Wish I had more details to report, or if there was a correlation to firmware versions, but I'll keep you guys posted when I hear back from them.

[Yandros]

Originally Posted by finkle

A short Apple support discussion about this issue. Seems this guy fixed it using the black Alpine usb cable, provided with the deck. Maybe it works for the x100 series? I've always had that cable installed, so no luck for me and my x305.

Apple - Support - Discussions - alpine ida-x001 and 120gb classic = ...

Interesting.

I'm using the black Alpine cable, and I can't say I'd noticed any fuzzyness. Yes it's faily low resolution though. (I'm using a 4th Gen Nano)

When I get a sec I'll take a proper macro photo of the screen so we can compare notes.