Japanese Radio Head unit dim

[Ayrshire Man]

Just got a Alphard and the head unit is dim, you can hardly see it. Dash lights are fine just the radio. Is there a brightness setting. It’s the silver gray unit with switches down one side and knob top right.

[Rojie]

Hello Ayrie,

 

Welcome to the Forum.

 

Can you take a photo to help us to help you.

 

There are several different head units fitted to Alphies !

 

My own, which is OK on all screens except the cameras.

I intend to clean the camera covers/lenses, but would also like to know how to change the brightness.

I have the HDD head unit. Very complicated and, of course, all in Japanese. What fun.

[Ayrshire Man]

I think I have found it by pressing the display button next to the opening button, there are two sliders one I think for brightness and the other slider for contrast.

[Rojie]

2 hours ago, Ayrshire Man said:

I think I have found it by pressing the display button next to the opening button, there are two sliders one I think for brightness and the other slider for contrast.

I'll try this tomorrow. Thanks.

 

Do you have the HDD unit or another one 

[Rojie]

18 hours ago, Rojie said:

I'll try this tomorrow. Thanks.

 

Do you have the HDD unit or another one 

 

Hello Ayrie,

 

I tried your suggestion today, and I am delighted to say it seems to work.

 

I need to try it when the light is less bright. I am so happy, thank you.

It is (was) one of the few things I wasn't overjoyed about with my Alphie.

I have been pursuing a tactic of not pushing every button and hoping for the best !

[Ayrshire Man]

I have the HDD unit you might find this helpful from https://eightseaters.blogspot.com/2009/06/head-unit.html

 

TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2009

The Head Unit In Your Toyota Alphard

 

The NFL giant (Toyota Alphard) comes with an 8-inch head unit with touch-screen LCD display. It is a 2-DIN unit that combine many control functions like GPS, audio video, sound system, vehicle information, parking guide monitor, lane monitoring system, sonar sensor, ETC system, and G-Book online service system.

Toyota call it the HDD Navigation System and provided a two volumes manual for the owner references. However, both manuals are in Japanese so I'll attempt to provide the information necessary to help owners to operate the head unit (as I loosely refer to the NFL HDD Navigation System).

Even though some of the buttons on the front of the head unit are in English, the displayed contents are in Japanese. For non-Japanese speaking owner, it will be quite a challenge in operating the head-unit trying to decipher the functions.

There are two options for the desperate owner; one to replace the head unit with an OEM head unit that has the buttons printed in English, however, all the content are still in Japanese so it doesn't help much. Two, to replace the entire head unit with after-market unit with English content but they may lose some functionalities such as front/rear camera line view, bluetooth connection, steering button control etc with come with the original head unit.

This post will attempt to explain some of the more common steps on how to operate the original head unit with photos as a guide.

When you turn on the ignition, the head unit display will also turn on as shown in the photo below



The first thing you'll heard is the voice of a sweet Japanese girl announcing the current date (obviously in Japanese). After that the display will prompt you with the message that you have not inserted the ETC card as shown in the photo below.

ETC is the equivalent of our SmartTAG toll payment gadget we have in this country. The ETC function is integrated into the head unit but it cannot be used in here since it is operating in a different mode from our Touch n Go system. You'll probably find a ETC card unit installed somewhere in your giant but it will not useable here. Many owner use it as card holder for the Touch n Go card instead.

You can turn off the date and ETC announcement if you don't need them. I will cover this in the other post.

After the ETC announcement, you'll operate the head unit by pressing the buttons around the edge of the head unit. Referring to the first photo above, from the top right in clockwise direction, the buttons are:

1. Power button - press it to turn on or off the head unit
2. "TUNE TRACK" button - use to tune the radio channel frequency or to select a particular music track while playing musics from the hard disk
3. "Information" button - use to receive traffic information (only work in Japan)
4. DISC button - this button cycle between the HDD function and the DVD function.
5. AM FM button - this button cycle between the AM radio channel and FM radio channel
5. MD button - this button operate the Mini Disc function.
6. TV button - this button operate the TV function or the Video function. Japanese TV transimission is based on NTSC format while our is PAL so the TV function cannot be use here.
7. 情報G button - this button operate the G-book online services. The G-book online services required registration with the G-Book Center in Japan and it only work in Japan but you can use it to configure some general settings for the head unit
8. "目的地設定" button - This button is used to configure the destination settings for the GPS function. This function is not operational here since the built-in GPS system don't work here
9. "メニユー" button - this button brings up the menu function to configure the GPS settings
10. " 現在地" button - this button allow you to configure the "current locations" settings for the GPS function, again not useable here.
11. "オーデｲｵ" button - this button brings up the audio screen display when you operate the DVD/HDD functions
12. " 画質.消" button - when you press this button, it will either bring up the display or cancel of the display
13. "Eject" button - this button flip open the LCD screen to allow you to access to the DVD/MD slots

In the next few posts I'll cover how to operate the radio, DVD, and HDD functions.

 

 

 

 

 

[Rojie]

1 hour ago, Ayrshire Man said:

I have the HDD unit you might find this helpful from https://eightseaters.blogspot.com/2009/06/head-unit.html

 

TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2009

The Head Unit In Your Toyota Alphard

 

The NFL giant (Toyota Alphard) comes with an 8-inch head unit with touch-screen LCD display. It is a 2-DIN unit that combine many control functions like GPS, audio video, sound system, vehicle information, parking guide monitor, lane monitoring system, sonar sensor, ETC system, and G-Book online service system.

Toyota call it the HDD Navigation System and provided a two volumes manual for the owner references. However, both manuals are in Japanese so I'll attempt to provide the information necessary to help owners to operate the head unit (as I loosely refer to the NFL HDD Navigation System).

Even though some of the buttons on the front of the head unit are in English, the displayed contents are in Japanese. For non-Japanese speaking owner, it will be quite a challenge in operating the head-unit trying to decipher the functions.

There are two options for the desperate owner; one to replace the head unit with an OEM head unit that has the buttons printed in English, however, all the content are still in Japanese so it doesn't help much. Two, to replace the entire head unit with after-market unit with English content but they may lose some functionalities such as front/rear camera line view, bluetooth connection, steering button control etc with come with the original head unit.

This post will attempt to explain some of the more common steps on how to operate the original head unit with photos as a guide.

When you turn on the ignition, the head unit display will also turn on as shown in the photo below



The first thing you'll heard is the voice of a sweet Japanese girl announcing the current date (obviously in Japanese). After that the display will prompt you with the message that you have not inserted the ETC card as shown in the photo below.

ETC is the equivalent of our SmartTAG toll payment gadget we have in this country. The ETC function is integrated into the head unit but it cannot be used in here since it is operating in a different mode from our Touch n Go system. You'll probably find a ETC card unit installed somewhere in your giant but it will not useable here. Many owner use it as card holder for the Touch n Go card instead.

You can turn off the date and ETC announcement if you don't need them. I will cover this in the other post.

After the ETC announcement, you'll operate the head unit by pressing the buttons around the edge of the head unit. Referring to the first photo above, from the top right in clockwise direction, the buttons are:

1. Power button - press it to turn on or off the head unit
2. "TUNE TRACK" button - use to tune the radio channel frequency or to select a particular music track while playing musics from the hard disk
3. "Information" button - use to receive traffic information (only work in Japan)
4. DISC button - this button cycle between the HDD function and the DVD function.
5. AM FM button - this button cycle between the AM radio channel and FM radio channel
5. MD button - this button operate the Mini Disc function.
6. TV button - this button operate the TV function or the Video function. Japanese TV transimission is based on NTSC format while our is PAL so the TV function cannot be use here.
7. 情報G button - this button operate the G-book online services. The G-book online services required registration with the G-Book Center in Japan and it only work in Japan but you can use it to configure some general settings for the head unit
8. "目的地設定" button - This button is used to configure the destination settings for the GPS function. This function is not operational here since the built-in GPS system don't work here
9. "メニユー" button - this button brings up the menu function to configure the GPS settings
10. " 現在地" button - this button allow you to configure the "current locations" settings for the GPS function, again not useable here.
11. "オーデｲｵ" button - this button brings up the audio screen display when you operate the DVD/HDD functions
12. " 画質.消" button - when you press this button, it will either bring up the display or cancel of the display
13. "Eject" button - this button flip open the LCD screen to allow you to access to the DVD/MD slots

In the next few posts I'll cover how to operate the radio, DVD, and HDD functions.

Hi again,

 

Yes I am aware of this blog, (but thanks for pointing it out) and it is very useful. I routinely recommend it to other new HDD users.

1 hour ago, Ayrshire Man said:

 

 

 

 

 

[Ayrshire Man]

👍😄

[Ayrshire Man]

I thought you might know of it, it’s very helpful.

[Stutsy]

Google translate is how we found our way around the head unit! 

[Rojie]

10 hours ago, Stutsy said:

Google translate is how we found our way around the head unit! 

 

Google lens seems to work quite well too.

[Chris.ac]

I have the 676 page japanese manual for the 20series headunit, so much easier to google translate a page, than the screen!

[Rojie]

2 hours ago, Chris.ac said:

I have the 676 page japanese manual for the 20series headunit, so much easier to google translate a page, than the screen!

 

Hi again Chris,

I have two Japanese HDD manuals with almost 800 pages.

Initially I found them such hard work, I fell out of the habit of using them.

 

Now I know about Google Translate and Google Lens I will start to use them again.

Thanks for reminding me I have them.