MrMetrx

Anyone know what the "TP" and the checkmark mean on the lower right corner???

ADias

Tire Pressure OK ?

OCBen

Should be in your PCM owners manual, if you have access to it.

MrMetrx

Checked and everything is ok.

I checked and could not find anything.

VicL

Traffic Program

MrMetrx

Thanks. Is that in the manual or is it specific to XM?

VicL

I think there is a paragraph in the manual about it. You can disable the TP (removing the TP check icon) by pressing the tuner button, select option tab and uncheck the TP selection. I think this is mainly an EU thing. I'm not sure if any TP are broadcast in the US, however I could be wrong. You have TP option regardless if you have XM or not.

Edgy01

TP exists in either usa or euro s/ware releases,--but works for free in Europe. With the XM option AND certain towns (by subscription) you can get traffic advisories.

larrytrk

TP can cause quirky radio overcasts in certain areas if left on. One station in Boston was overpowered by strange broadcasts with it on. Was a source of PCM complaints until identified. Covered in previous posts for 997.1.

MrMetrx

Thanks.

I did notice that TP Volume was set to 0 so even if I received any of these broadcasts I would never know.

Edgy01-----Hope you are out of harms way regarding the brush fire.....

Minok

As others have said, it refers to "Traffic Program". This has NOTHING to do with XM nor NAV. Traffic Program is a way for the audio system to do some enhanced decoding on the FM stations. There is a system by which additional data is broadcast in the sidebands of FM radio stations. This is digital data and can identify when a particular station is broadcasting a 'traffic report'. The system is the RDS system in Europe and RDBS in the USA. It works great and is greatly supported in Europe by broadcasters since the 1980's at least, if not earlier. In the US, support is very spotty, frequently only in large urban centers if at all.

The way it works in Europe is you listen to whatever audio source you want, but when the designated traffic announcement comes on (in Germany its a 1-2 minute announcement every half hour or so during the day, on one station in every region I think)... your audio system pauses/mutes whatever source you were listening to, switches to the radio station to let you listen to the traffic announcement, and then when the announcement is done, switches you back to your original audio source. Simple and elegant.

In the US, even if it were actually used by local broadcasters, one suffers from the quality issues of the traffic announcements (which I've found mostly useless to drivers) and frequently a lack of any alternatives around the bottlenecks. If traffic reports would refer to congestion and accidents with respect to mile markers and exists ONLY (rather than cross streets that are meaningless to anyone but locals and cannot be seen from the interstates usually) then there might be some value. Knowing that there is an accident 5 miles ahead or 10 miles ahead (at mile post 1234) is useful. Knowing there is an accident at 115th AVE NE, is useless when I don't know where 115th is relative to where I am.