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Play sound from Rear Entertainment System VIDEO mode on speakers

16798 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  KenF23
Hi,

I have a 2004 Sienna with Rear Entertainment System and I'm leaving for Florida next week (driving from Chicago) and I am trying to figure out how to hook up my mp3 player. My solution was to find a cord to go from the headphone jack of my mp3 player to the auxiliary plugs (Yellow Red White) for the Rear Entertainment system and then play that through the speakers. I found the cable for cheap ($3) and hooked it up as planned, but I can only get it to work through the headphones.

If I don't have a DVD in the DVD player, when I hit disc 2x on the front audio controls (to put the sound from the rear entertainment system on the car speakers) it doesn't do anything. If I have a DVD in the player, even if I have VIDEO selected from the source menu, I can only get sound from the DVD on the car speakers.

If I wanted to listen to my mp3 player through headphones I wouldn't go through all this trouble. :)

Can anyone help me? I know I could use an adapter that plays through the radio, but I'd rather have something wired so I don't have to worry about finding the right station and whatnot.

Thanks!!
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You should connect your mp3 player to Aux input on your dashboard (assuming you have it).
Unless I am completely missing something, there's no AUX input on my dash. It's a 2004.
can you burn the mp3 files to dvd and play through the RES?
if anyone else reads this thread now (March 2014) note that this has been an issue going all the way back to MY2004 at least. I have spent hours researching this, including on these forums, plus got stonewalled by Toyota Customer Service on a possible workaround and still not good. Appears to me that AS DESIGNED, the RCA AUX inputs in left rear panel only output to headphones, either through the jacks on either side of the rear overhead DVD or audio unit, or through OEM system wireless headphones (or equivalent substitute). DVD player is designed to output through speakers using head unit AUX input selection, but not the auxiliary RCAs in the rear panel. Neither the remote nor the rear entertainment panel controls allow an override to route the RCAs to speakers instead of head unit or speakers. Functionally, this design apparently allows someone to listen to an auxiliary audio or view auxiliary video wired to the RCAs on the rear entertainment system, while the vehicle speakers output another source, but the inability to CHOSE to output the RCAs to the speakers is a royal pain. I installed a simple local wifi in my MY2004 Sienna XLE to allow wireless AirPlay streaming (much better than BlueTooth) of iPhone or iPad audio, but failed to get past the headphone limitation, which defeated most of the benefit. I have a 2004 w/JBL + Rear DVD, which has no AUX 1/8" mini on the front panel, so I'm into aftermarket options. If anyone has successfully rewired the RCAs to feed through the bus to the front unit like the DVD player does, I would LOVE to know. Or, at least (2) figured out the pinouts for the older head unit to SIMPLY add an AUX minijack when the OEM unit didn't have that circuit board, I'd love to know (aftermarket solutions start at $65 and go up from there). Later MYs at least have the AUX mini up front to play with (like this thread), but not 2004 back.
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I have an iPhone 6 now and have an old 4s lying around. What I did was buy a cheap component rca, 30 pin, and usb cord and connected the 4s via Bluetooth. So when I play the media from the video input, I put the head unit to Bluetooth to stream the audio. Works perfectly!
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