Hello. Just found this great forum yesterday!

Anyway, I seem to be saddled with the same problem as many others that were talked into the Hard-drive based navigation system only to have our hearts ripped out a few months later.

I would like to get the final scoop on swapping out the hard drive for the DVD based system.

There are countless posts here talking about converting to the DVD system.

Some people say they are not compatible and others say you can do it in 10 minutes or less because the wiring connections are identical.

Before I begin my search for a totaled TL with Navi and attempt to buy the system, will someone please share their experience in this conversion.

Lastly, does anyone know if a 5GB PC card hard drive with the DVD image on it will work in the hard drive based system?

Thanks a lot.

 

I am curious to know where you found a 5GB PS2 CF card.

Larry

 

HD to DVD is doable. I know BlackShadow did it in his, as well as a few others. It is truly a plug and play operation.

Don't know about the HD from a PC.

 

Hi Larry.

About 5 or so months ago, Toshiba released a 5GB 3900RPM PC Card hard drive. It is in the $300-$400 range.

It seemed to me perhaps an image of the DVD copied onto the drive might work. The DVD is not going to be larger than 4.7GB. In fact, about a year and a half ago (before I had this idea) I had my hands on the DVD and it had about 3.2GB of data on it.

Does anyone have a DVD image or does anyone know the total amount of files and size of the data?

 

If you haven't already, look at my post (in the 10 day old section of this same forum under the thread, "99 TL Navi System Conversion") to see how I have tried to cope with the situation.

Your proposal is intriguing, and just might work. It may be hampered by the 99 Navi Operating System, which I think is geared to accessing certain file extensions for each regions maps, POIs, etc. I notice their are 41 files in each of the CD regions, whose names vary by region, but whose file extensions are consistant with all other regions. If the DVD extensions are structured the same, then it could happen!

Larry

 

Sorry, I mislead you about my post. It is in the TL Discussion forum, over 5 days old, about page 5, and under the thread, 99 TL Navi.

Larry

 

Here you go:

Larry's post

 

Thanks johnnyb_s.

The post is very interesting, now finding an old system will be a challenge.

Does anyone near Philadelphia have a DVD based system either in use or that is a spare?

 

I would appreciate it if someone who has the DVD Navi, when you have the time, would put the DVD into your PC DVD holder, and select it in "My Computer". I would like to know:

1. The number of files on the DVD.

2. The total size of the data (used by all the files) on the DVD.

Thank you.

Larry

 

I'd like to second Larry's request.

Hey NSXNEXT, I notice you are in Mt Laurel... We are about 25 minutes apart, are you with or without Navi? Ooops, I guess your sig says without?

 

Sorry to keep beating a dead horse, but...

I saw a deal today for an IBM Travelstar 8.1GB external drive with a PCMCIA adapter.

Does anyone know if the hard drive based navigation system will recognize the drive if it is connected via a PCMCIA card?

 

i'm looking to get rid of the DVD based navi. i got it off ebay awhile back around september and had it installed in my 1st gen. now i decided i didn't want it so it's sitting on my desk right now collecting dust. everything is in working order. but would prefer to sell everything (screen, navigation unit, and antenna) at once.

here's a pic of it on my car.

http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~renfroe/acura/unx979/sig.jpg

 

Holy cow unx979, that is amazing! You are talented.

Please PM or e-mail me to discuss further.

When did you get it from eBay?

 

haha thanks, but yah i got it off ebay like in september or something, i forgot. it was off of a 2000 TL that was in a wreck but everything was working fine.

 

How much for the whole setup unx979? E-mail me at johnnyb_s@yahoo.com I'm interested.

 

well would like to sell it for 500 for everything.

 

Unless it will start an unfriendly bidding war, I would also be interested in talking to you about this.

 

Agreed. I don't have navi, and I would still need to obtain new a/c controls and dash pieces. I figure that if I can find one in a junk yard, I can yank everything, including dash and a/c controls, so it's all you EmuMessenger.

 

haha, well i whoever wants it come and get it, i really have no use for it, drop me an e-mail at unx9797@hotmail.com

 

No use?

Are you saying you took it out or you have a spare?

If you took it out, why don't you want it anymore? You had a one of a kind?

 

i know i had one of a kind install, but the fact was that it was a pain to reach the radio and i wanted a motorized screen instead, made me take it out. see now i have pictures to prove i actually did it, so it's really no biggy, just moving on to something new damn miss the navi though

 

I upgraded my glitchy 99' TL harddrive unit with an ebay 2000 TL DVD (black dvd) unit.
Wireing was identical, direct swap,, just make sure youve got all your security codes written down before you start. no more "error, cannot read hard disk" messages!!!