[darrena]

I have a new 328i on order and I am coming from an Acura TL. I currently have 12 presets across 2 "modes" XM1 and XM2. On XM1 I have music and on XM2 I have talk (Sports, News, etc..). In my music mode I have for example channel 25 set as a favorite and then scroll up from there when I am channel surfing rather than waste a preset on 26. So in short I have 6 presets set to "Base" channels that I can then easily switch to a secondary one that are one or two away from the "base" when channel surfing.

Can I do something similar on the iDrive? Based on playing with it in the dealership it looks like I can do this:
Hit preset 1 to get channel 25 for example then use the dial on the steering wheel to go up or down from there with the channel list being displayed in my Hub.

Do I have this correct? I read through the manual but it references a navigation entertainment communication manual that I cannot find anywhere.

[joewalton]

Yes, you have that correct, but it's even better.

In iDrive is a Presets menu that allows you to store 40 of your favorite channels across all sources (Sirius, AM, FM, HD, etc.) as one mixed list.

You then use one of your 1-8 shortcut buttons to point to one of the 40 stations on your Presets list and from that point forward you can use the steering wheel knob to scroll through those 40 stations.

If done correctly, the days of hitting Radio > AM to get to your AM stations and then Radio > FM to get to your FM stations are over. One list, one shortcut button, a mixed list of your 40 favorite radio stations across all bands.

[canbmw]

That is great info. If only I could get Sirius to work properly so that I can save the sat channels as presets...

[darrena]

Originally Posted by joewalton

Yes, you have that correct, but it's even better.

In iDrive is a Presets menu that allows you to store 40 of your favorite channels across all sources (Sirius, AM, FM, HD, etc.) as one mixed list.

You then use one of your 1-8 shortcut buttons to point to one of the 40 stations on your Presets list and from that point forward you can use the steering wheel knob to scroll through those 40 stations.

If done correctly, the days of hitting Radio > AM to get to your AM stations and then Radio > FM to get to your FM stations are over. One list, one shortcut button, a mixed list of your 40 favorite radio stations across all bands.

Excellent! Thank you for the detailed reply!