Navigation System 20 series Alphard

[Dazman]

Hi all, I have just recently become a member and this is my first post. I recently insured my Alphard with Adrian Flux and what a pleasure it is to drive. Anyway, which head unit is the best replacement for the original NHZA W59G. I would love the replacement unit to be compatible with steering wheel controller and maintain my back up camera.

 

 

[Rojie]

Hello Dazman,

 

Welcome to the Forum.

[Chris.ac]

What does that headunit look like, and what year of manufacture in your 20series, the wiring plugs went through several changes between 2008 and 2015, with different parts of the loom 'hidden' dependant on if you had intelligent parking assist (auto parking with 3 or 4 cameras), rear camera only, Navigation, media HDD, usb input, rear screen, 8 or 18 speaker setup etc.

[Dazman]

Thanks for responding. My Alphard is a late 2009 on a 59 plate. My car does not have park assistant or 8 speakers and does not have a USB input. You can play DVDs on the unit. The unit can also accept a SD. I looked at many Alphards before I went this one and I did notice that there are different head units. I will take a better photo of the unit, the attached photo was on my phone.

[Dazman]

Photo taken from the manual apologies if this does not help. Later I will take a better photo of the unit.

[Dazman]

[Dazman]

Here is a photo of the unit in my car.

[Dazman]

Follow up on NHZA-W59G navigation head unit, my initial intention was to get rid of this ASAP. However, having spent some time with the unit, just over a week I'm just starting to get use to the unit, only just mind you. So far I managed to set up the speakers when I was playing a CD very easy to set up. My next goal will be to connect my phone via Bluetooth and connect my wife's  iphone via the AUX input. One thing I did notice I managed to come across a menu that appears to monitor the diagnostics of the car, I need to do somemore investigation as I can not remember how I found this menu. I will do another follow up in due course. I will not be getting rid of this unit under circumstances, never thought I would be heading in that direction.....

[Rojie]

 

What year is your Alph ?

 

There is all sorts of info in some HDD units.

Maintenance schedules etc. Quite amazing for the year.

 

Some members use Google translate to help understand 'what is what' in the display (until they get used to it).

 

I elected to keep my 'old' head unit as replacements are not cheap.

[Dazman]

My Alphard is a late 2009 which has been registered on a 59 plate. I'm going to carry on exploring the menus eventually I will get use to it. I do agree for a 2009 head unit it was incredibly advanced even by today's standards. I will keep posting on my progress and hopefully it will help others whare are thinking about changing the unit. Like I said before I will not be changing it.

[Chris.ac]

I don't have info on the panasonic headunits, just that I am certain you can update the firmware to english, and updates the maps via DVD/SD

I recall reading about it on some website whilst trying to find out about my own headunit

 

[Dazman]

The ability to update the firmware and maps is very interesting. If you ever come across the website let me know. I will have do some research as well, I did see a few videos where by the firmware was updated. The difficulty is finding someone in this country that can do the firmware update and also apply the update to different types of unit. I did suspect the unit is panasonic, I will start doing some digging and I will report back.

[PaulS]

If you go into the menu there's a screen that has options that seem to include service status, diagnostics, etc.  This video https://youtu.be/96rPLLQ1GHQ shows how to get into the menu (initially by keeping the G Book button pressed whilst turning the lights on & off), then use your phone with Google Lens to translate the options on the menus.

 

[Dazman]

The ability to update the firmware and maps is very interesting. If you ever come across the website let me know. I will have do some research as well, I did see a few videos where by the firmware was updated. The difficulty is finding someone in this country that can do the firmware update and also apply the update to different types of unit. I did suspect the unit is panasonic, I will start doing some digging and I will report back.

[Dazman]

I'm sure with my unit I managed to enter the maintenance menu without turning the lights on and off and holding down a button. I purchased a SD card and down loaded onto the card a WMA file essentially a music file. For some reason the unit says it does not recognise the file format which is a little odd. The unit should be able to play WMA format. If anyone has used the used slot and managed to get it working please let me know. Has anyone connected a phone to the aux and played music via the aux input?

[Dazman]

I must admit a few days ago I was willing to give up on my HZA WG59 nav unit. I could not get the SD card to play any of my music for some bizarre reason. I have successfully managed to connect my phone via Bluetooth as an external media. So now I can play my music from phone and control the volume and track selection from the steering wheel controller. Note this unit has an unusual Bluetooth connection. Once have paired your phone to the unit you must press an icon on the screen  'connect' to connect your phone. Most Bluetooth devices wold connect as soon as your Bluetooth is initialised. Not this unit, you must press connect on the unit if the 'BT' has been struck out. I tried connecting my phone via a aux lead, absolutely rubbish, stick with Bluetooth or CDs. In my next post I will experiment with the DVD player.

[Dazman]

Latest on the NHZA-W59G, for some reason in day time the display was unreadable. Some how the display brightness was turned down. My mechanic has a habitat of changing the settings on my car when he does any kind of work. On this occasion he switched my lights completely off now this is linked to head unit and if switch head lights to certain setting the display on the head unit is basically so low it is unreadable. I set my lights to auto so in the day the head unit display is not compromised in anyway. Result I can now reverse the car in the day and use my back up camera. My last post will be on the DVD player, I'm just waiting for a region 2 NTC DVD to be delivered so that I can test the player.

[Rojie]

55 minutes ago, Dazman said:

Latest on the NHZA-W59G, for some reason in day time the display was unreadable. Some how the display brightness was turned down. My mechanic has a habitat of changing the settings on my car when he does any kind of work. On this occasion he switched my lights completely off now this is linked to head unit and if switch head lights to certain setting the display on the head unit is basically so low it is unreadable. I set my lights to auto so in the day the head unit display is not compromised in anyway. Result I can now reverse the car in the day and use my back up camera. My last post will be on the DVD player, I'm just waiting for a region 2 NTC DVD to be delivered so that I can test the player.

 

Hi Dazman

 

DVD should play PAL DVDs; mine does.

[Dazman]

Strange, I tried a PAL region 2 DVD I.e. DVDs that play in the UK and it did not work. I take it you unit is the same as mine NHZA-W59G? The manual says the unit will only play region 2 NTSC. Interesting, I will another PAL region 2 DVD and a region NTSC when it is delivered and I will report back.

[Rojie]

10 hours ago, Dazman said:

Strange, I tried a PAL region 2 DVD I.e. DVDs that play in the UK and it did not work. I take it you unit is the same as mine NHZA-W59G? The manual says the unit will only play region 2 NTSC. Interesting, I will another PAL region 2 DVD and a region NTSC when it is delivered and I will report back.

 

I have a series 10, with the HDD headunit. My unit is an older version.

It also, probably, shouldn't pay PAL, but it does !

[Dazman]

I purchased a NTC region 2 DVD and the head unit played it as expected. Fortunately there was and option to play the DVD in English. In summary if you are happy to live with out a sat nav then why change the unit? Yes it has been journey and yes at one stage I felt like throwing in the towel. However, now that my phone is connected via Bluetooth it is all good. This unit was way before its time. Sound quality is spot on and I have saved myself a lot of money. Using a Japanese head unit is not everyone's cup of tea, I will be sticking with it.....

 

 

[arcascomp]

Dazman, I'm doing a bit of thread resurrection here, hopefully you're still around and enjoying the head unit. I have exactly the same unit and have been learning a lot of info while I try and decide whether to retain it, augment it or replace it!

 

Mine does automatically connect on Bluetooth BTW, it can remember multiple Bluetooth connections but you can tell it which phone is the primary and that will auto connect. 

 

The SD card requires a specific Panasonic card reader/programme on a computer to copy music on the correct format. I'm still trying to find out what that is, but if you have audio cd's it will copy those to its hard drive as you play them.

 

I'm starting to work out all the myriad of tear connections with a lot of help from some Russian forums. There are connections on the rear for extra cameras, iPod interface (old style 30 pin ones) and a composite video AV in. Using a combination of these in contemplating getting a raspberry pi that I have laying around to do carplay/android auto to allow Waze or Google Maps to show up. Chris has wired up a dedicated box for this successfully which gave me the idea. I'm hoping to find where the ETC device injects it's audio feed as that can shout over the top of music or radio that's playing so I can have navigation prompts while listening to radio broadcasts.

[Ralph Bower]

On 8/4/2024 at 7:34 AM, arcascomp said:

Dazman, I'm doing a bit of thread resurrection here, hopefully you're still around and enjoying the head unit. I have exactly the same unit and have been learning a lot of info while I try and decide whether to retain it, augment it or replace it!

 

Mine does automatically connect on Bluetooth BTW, it can remember multiple Bluetooth connections but you can tell it which phone is the primary and that will auto connect. 

 

The SD card requires a specific Panasonic card reader/programme on a computer to copy music on the correct format. I'm still trying to find out what that is, but if you have audio cd's it will copy those to its hard drive as you play them.

 

I'm starting to work out all the myriad of tear connections with a lot of help from some Russian forums. There are connections on the rear for extra cameras, iPod interface (old style 30 pin ones) and a composite video AV in. Using a combination of these in contemplating getting a raspberry pi that I have laying around to do carplay/android auto to allow Waze or Google Maps to show up. Chris has wired up a dedicated box for this successfully which gave me the idea. I'm hoping to find where the ETC device injects it's audio feed as that can shout over the top of music or radio that's playing so I can have navigation prompts while listening to radio broadcasts.

Hi, did you get anywhere with this unit. I've just bought a 2010 Vellfire and it has the same head unit... Cheers

[arcascomp]

Sort of! I still have it in the car and I'm getting fairly used to it. Spare time to try stuff out always limits me (as do my capabilities!)

 

I haven't progressed far on getting anything using the AV connections, I did source a lead from Ali Express to connect up AV input, it uses the spare blue connector at the back of the radio - although, depending on trim levels you may already have AV inputs at the back of the centre console. My Vellfire is base spec, so my centre console is just a box with a flip top lid, nothing fancy!

 

 

Shamelessly copying from a Russian site, this is what the back will look like although there are a number of variations! Mine has a wider (16?) pin connector instead of the ones labeled VTR-1 and the black one to the right of that, this comes to a break out connector where a specific iPod connection lead can be plugged in to allow old 30 pin iPod's to work.

 

I also don't have the brown USB connection, but a grey one, as I don't think mine has a USB input.

 

I gave up wondering about the ETC audio input as I think that's all part of the AVC-LAN connection so it's not a simple audio input sadly.

[Ralph Bower]

1 hour ago, arcascomp said:

Sort of! I still have it in the car and I'm getting fairly used to it. Spare time to try stuff out always limits me (as do my capabilities!)

 

I haven't progressed far on getting anything using the AV connections, I did source a lead from Ali Express to connect up AV input, it uses the spare blue connector at the back of the radio - although, depending on trim levels you may already have AV inputs at the back of the centre console. My Vellfire is base spec, so my centre console is just a box with a flip top lid, nothing fancy!

 

 

Shamelessly copying from a Russian site, this is what the back will look like although there are a number of variations! Mine has a wider (16?) pin connector instead of the ones labeled VTR-1 and the black one to the right of that, this comes to a break out connector where a specific iPod connection lead can be plugged in to allow old 30 pin iPod's to work.

 

I also don't have the brown USB connection, but a grey one, as I don't think mine has a USB input.

 

I gave up wondering about the ETC audio input as I think that's all part of the AVC-LAN connection so it's not a simple audio input sadly.

Any joy switching to English, or stopping the ETC (toll card) warning: I have the voice of a Japanese lady telling me I don't have a toll card.. in Japanese