I’m wondering if somebody knows something about this that may help me. I have an iPod that I can hook up to the stereo in my car using a vendor supplied cradle (this is a Land Rover Discovery 3). This allows me to use the iPod itself to select the music I listen to, because the interface on the iPod stays active at all times. In my caravan I have a car stereo installed as well, which has “iPod integration”. Unfortunately the stereo runs pretty hot in the caravan when using it with MP3 CDs, so I like to use the iPod with it. The integration is through a special cable that comes from the back (I installed this myself, but I don’t recall exactly how it was hooked up — shouldn’t be that important, I guess), I think the stereo is JVC, but not totally sure.

Anyway, the problem is that this integration tries to control the iPod through the stereo itself. As soon as it’s plugged in, the iPod switches off its own interface and pressing its buttons doesn’t do anything. Unfortunately, the stereo itself isn’t very good at controlling the iPod — it’s a pain to select any particular music and simple features like skipping forward and backward by song seem to behave very oddly (not sure exactly what happens since I can’t see it on the display, but it doesn’t seem to do what I think it would). Now, I guess there have to be different “modes” for hooking up the iPod to external equipment. I like it much better the way my in-car stereo does it, and I would like to have it that same way in the caravan. Is there a name for this “mode”, so I could search for it and find stereos that work this way? Is there some other way I could make this work? (I have considered hooking up the iPod through the audio connector only, but then it’s not going to be charged — currently, both my solutions charge the iPod while it’s hooked up.)