I want to upgrade my 01 Nav system from CD to DVD and was curious if anyone had done this on here and could tell me if I have to take it to the dealership after the swap of the drives to make it work. I can buy the dvd drive and map dvd easy enough, and can do the actual swap out of the units, but wanted to make sure that I wouldnt have to have something done on the computer to make the dvd work after the swap. Currently it works fine with cd, I just want it to have the benefit of not having to swap out cds as I go across the country, plus I hear eventually they may stop making cd updates.

Also - on that note -can anyone tell me if there is any difference between the cd and dvd versions (besides the obvious one disk for the whole country). For instance does the dvd have more streets or more poi's than the cd for the same data version in the same cities or are they the same, just spit up onto separate cd's? Thanks for any advice!

 

if you are talking about COMAND, you won't be able to upgrade to DVD navi...

 

No, the 01 ML uses MCS, not COMAND, so it's just a simple swap, I just don't know if something has to be done with the computer or not.

 

I installed a dvd nav into a 2001 ML not too long ago, I coded the MCS as you would a CD nav and all seemed to work well, even audio(nav voice).

 

Cool. I just bought the dvd unit and it will be shipped tomorrow. I am hoping since I already have a fully working nav it will just be a simple swap without having to visit the dealer. If you work for a dealer do you know when the next map release will be? Navteq says the 2004.1 database is the latest for Mercedes.

I also found out today from Navteq themselves that Navteq is the same company who does the Toyota/Lexus nav dvds as well, and it is just MB who decides how much street level detail to provide in its releases - they have all the data already up to date, but MB restricts the level of detail in its releases. My Lexus, (and the Sequoia I just traded in) knows every dirt road and back alley in every city I have ever been in all over the U.S, whereas my MB doesnt even know major cities in my state, much less the 30K town where I live. I suppose the more detail costs more on the supply side which cuts into the MB profit margin, or else MB is not in the car business so much as the update and replacement accessory business so they can sell yearly updates. Irks me. I am hoping next year's DVD release will at least have the Larger Arkansas cities. My current CD version doesnt even have street detail for Little Rock, the state capitol.

 

I don't know when the next release is coming, but I have heard that the next one out is going to be more detailed. I do know that the new S Class is going to a 20 GB hard drive that will be software upgradable, so this maybe where the focus on design will be.

 

Hmm. Hard drive. Now that should be interesting after a nice bouncy trip down a dirt road or pot-hole filled city street. My daughter has gone through a couple hard drives in her Ipod from just normal laying it down while it is running, and in my technology job with laptops and school children I find that ultra-hi speed spinning platters, metal heads, and vibrations just dont do so well together. Not to mention the heat, and just your normal wear and tear on the drives as hard-drives are set on the path to predictable failure from the first spin-up from bit-rot and magnetic drift. Surely they will use some sort of flash ram or memory-stick type ram instead of real motorized spinning hard-drives. I know I won't be rushing out to buy one anytime soon if they are true hard drives. I also imagine the replacement cost of the drive - which internally will probably be something of your typical seagate, maxtor, or western digital design if they are using hard drives - will be a cool grand or more. Very interesting. Thanks again for the info!

 

So there is absolutely no way to upgrade my Comand CD to DVD in my SL?