[vrbitman]

A couple of weeks ago I did a new upgrade (from 2016 5-series to 2019 8-series) and I was disappointed to discover that with the more modern iDrive on 8-series the video playback is ALWAYS choppy.
Big or small files, high or low resolution, always choppy.
Changed USB stick to see if there any difference, always choppy.
Restarted iDrive repeatedly, nothing changes.
The videos are in .mp4 format H.264 codec (videos of songs, shows, movies) and I have always watched them without problems on the old series 5.. I don't understand.

[KevinC]

Your home theatre system is lousy as a car, your car is lousy at home theatre entertainment. 🤷🏼

[vrbitman]

Originally Posted by KevinC

Your home theatre system is lousy as a car, your car is lousy at home theatre entertainment. 🤷🏼

I see what you mean, but honestly the 5 series was even BETTER than my home theatre.

The power was insane. The bass was thundering. The dynamic range wider than the universe.
I literally felt like being in a true cinema and I would often sit in the car in the parking lot just to listen to one more song or watch one more video.

But BMW purposefully lowered the quality. The 8 series has the "same" (visually) Harman Kardon system, same grills and logos, but clearly fewer speakers and lower power. When you turn up the volume, you can tell that the speakers struggle to keep up.

But I don't understand why is the video playback choppy.
Surely the newer iDrive has to have more processing power to deal with the added functionality compared to older cars...