TooSixy

When you press the SOUND button, followed by OPTION, there is an option labeled "SET TP" at the top right corner, and the description says "Set TP Volume".

What is this? The only reference I found in the manual is "Speed-sensitive Volume". Are they the same thing?

TIA.

rijowysock

traffic program, i asked the same..

can we set the speed sensitive? if so how?

traffic program i think works in europe, i think we might have it in major cities tho?

schwartzwest

TA Volume or TP Volume? I believe TA volume sets the volume the "Traffic Advisories" come on at. Speed sensitive volume is the GAL setting, but it is only present in the basic system, it does not exist in the Sound Package Systems or Bose systems. From what I can tell, you can not adjust the speed sentitive volume settings with either of the two "upgraded" sound systems. It is a bit of a shame, because I find my Bose system doesn't adjust the volume load enough at speed with the top down.

rijowysock

mine adjusts it a lot right at first.. like 0-30 is louder for sure.. and 30-0 is quieter for sure.. but 30+ it seems the same.

ltc

The Bose system choses to use a system called AudioPilot ( a DSP feature built into the Bose amplifier)...rather than a speed (via a CAN bus RPM message or direct RPM hardware input) signal.
A microphone in the car listens to ambient cabin noise and adjusts the amplifier output accordingly...most people just turn it off.

greenpdk

I have found that if you have TP checked, my radio will sometimes change the station upon restarting the car. If I am listening to AM and shut the car off then restart later, it will often change to FM.

larrytrk

TP can introduce radio changes and interference if left on. It was the source of complaints regarding PCM 2 problems until discovered what it caused. In the Boston area it causes radio station changes and odd interruptions unless turned off.

greenpdk

Thanks for the info.

stevepow

Interesting observation - I'll have to try it with it off. BTW, it is supposed to change stations to pick up alerts, so I think it is working correctly - problem is very little alert info being actually broadcast.

AudioPilot is useless. "StevePilot" with thumb on the MF wheel dial is what I have to use. AP is either broken, Bose is FOS, or both.

larrytrk

TP (traffic programme) was non functional in the US..It works fine in europe. What you are picking up other signals from some FM stations. In Boston it kept switching to some Regge station...fine if you like Regge. This was on my 06...Haven't used it on my 09!

TooSixy

Thanks for the clarification and info, guys. Much appreciated.

Minok

Traffic Program (TP) is the radio feature that uses the RDS (RDBS in the US) system which uses FM radio side-band frequency space to identify official traffic update broadcasts. The way the system works is if TP is enabled, then whenever there is an official traffic announcement on a radio station, that radio station would send out a TP marker signal before the traffic announcement, and one at the end of the announcement. The car's audio system would the switch sources automatically so you would hear the traffic announcement and then switch back at the end of the announcement... the driver would need to do nothing.

This works great in Europe, where traffic announcements are of high quality (ie meaningful and usable by drivers) and where alternate routing schemes exist that drivers can actually use to get around issues.

This system, while available in the US, is not supported hardly at all, because of a host of reasons, I would imagine:

• Commercial US radio relies on you listening to the commercials around the traffic annoucement in anticipation... so autoswitching would effectively cut out the commercials... and reduce comercial time value near traffic annoucements
• Most US highways do not have usefull alternate routing possibilities except what local townies might know about, if they even exist.
• The traffic annoucements are usually useless to drivers, as identifying where the incident is relative to where you are, is impossible for a driver to do - incidents are not reported by mile markers on highways frequently but relative to surface streets which is practically useless to drivers without a map and time to study it... not good while driving.
• Traffic annoucements in the US tend to come on AM stations, while RDBS is for FM broadcasts.

So unless you are in the US and know you have a local RDBS station that gives you useful data.. .just turn TP off in the US.

Outside of the US and most of western Europe (where the announcements are, of course, in the local language), I cannot say how useful it is.

To compensate, at least the 997.2's have the navigation with xm navtraffic service option... however, it will only reroute you IF you have an active route going. It doesn't see that you are driving along I-55 heading north and suggest alternate routes as you approach an incident, in order to continue going north on I-55. You have to look at the traffic incident messages that show up on the map, click them manually and figure out what to do before you get caught up in a traffic jam. Not ideal.

If we could store customized route requests for drives, that would be great (since we sometimes need to reject streets that don't exist in reality, or want to force a specific route because I know something about the best way to go that the nav system doesn't).. but it isn't possible currently afaik.

More than you wanted to know, I'm sure.

GTEE3

Noah Fect

Weird stuff is still happening with TP service, as of the last PCM 3 generation in the 981/991.1 cars.

I was returning to my house last night in (semi-) rural Washington State last night in my 981, at the end of a long trip during which I'd enabled navigation. I had been listening to the Jukebox (built-in hard drive) rather than FM/AM/sat radio, but about 50 miles earlier I'd pressed the volume control to mute the music so I could concentrate on the navigation voice. A few miles before the incident occurred, I'd cancelled navigation as well to avoid listening to instructions in the vicinity of my own house, and I hadn't unmuted the Jukebox . I had covered 600 miles that day and just wanted some peace and quiet. So the PCM system was completely silent.

Suddenly, and at relatively high volume, what sounded like a Mexican AM radio station started blasting through the speakers. It was staticky and of low quality, like a pirate station or one coming in from a long distance away. There was some kind of "TP active" notification on the PCM display, although I didn't pay attention to what it was, only that the system had been activated.

So I guess the system is always listening to RDS flags on whatever the last-used FM radio station was, even when the radio isn't active at all. Every once in a while you get a corrupted packet that instructs the TP system to tune to a random AM frequency. Probably not a PCM bug that can/will ever be fixed, just inadequate error checking in the RDS protocol.

TL,DR: if you do leave TP enabled, don't crank the 'TP Volume' setting up like I did.

jamesinger

I might as well add a slight update. This thread is super useful. I was driving out in the Inland Empire where all the Amazon and shipping is and my 2006 C2S with Bose kept going from the CD changer to cutting in on to FM. PCM said "traffic alert" but as it is mentioned above, there was no actual alert. In fact, I even drove past the signs on the freeway that flash and tell you to turn to an AM station. In any case, because of this thread, I turned it off. End of story. Hi.