Copying OEM GM NAVIGATION DVD

[Supra_Denali]

I was wondering if any of you out there burned the GM United States DVD for the navigation system in the new Denali's? I bought this unit from a local salvage yard, came with the navi unit and GPS antenna for $1350, which was a good deal, but it had no CD. So I ordered it from my local GM parts department, list was $340, got mine for $240 (own a body shop and get wholesale discounts).. he said open it, copy it, re-shrink rap it, and return it.. I was like cool !!

I just got an Apple Powerbook G4 laptop for christmas and it came with a DVD burner. When I put the DVD in the computer it reads the disk is like 5.2 GB of data or something like that, but a blank DVD is like 4.8GB, how do you compress it to make it all fit, will this work? Did anyone out there ever try it. I am using Toast for MAC to burn it.. any help? Will the GM navigation unit even read burnt CD's?

Thanks

Mark

[zutoo]

Ok, I am not positive this will work, but if it can save you $240 its worth a shot... If you put the disc in your laptop and go to the IDX folder you will notice a bunch of files ending in 001, 002... I assume these are the different zones since it goes up to 008, and there are 8 different zones. If, lets say you dont plan on driving to Canada (Zone 8) copy all the files except for the ones ending in 008. This should give you enough room to fit it onto a blank DVD. Make sure you copy the files in the discs root directory too. I have no idea if this will actually work, but if it does you just wont have Nav in Canada (or whichever zone you choose to omit). If you deceide to try it let me know if it works. Good luck!

[Supra_Denali]

Well I just tried that, but just deleting zone 8 didnt do it, I had to delete zone 7 also... I am going to try this just to see what happens.. I am going to end up keeping the CD because I am not that far away from Canada and if I want to go to Casino Niagra I can zip right up there! Do you happen to know what all the zones are by number? That would greatly help if this does work, this way I can delete the zones I know I will never be traveling to, lol... and if so I can save all the zone files on my hard drive, this way if I am planning on going to that place in the US I can just burn another dvd, add the zone im going to and delete another useless one and that would work, even tho its a pain, I might just keep the CD but I still want to see if it works! Thanks

[Supra_Denali]

It actually worked.. I was suprised. I had to delete zones 7 & 8 because by deleting just zone 8 it did not free up enough space to fit it all on a CD.

After I burned the CD I put it in the Navi unit, and the warning screen came on, the map worked fine, it tracked me perfectly. I could select a destination via the map and it would tell me where to go perfectly, but when I went to type in an address I would hit the button and nothing would happen... Either way I think it can be done with some fine tuning, but for me I am just going to keep the DVD I bought for $250 because I would like to have Canada on the map because I am up near there and also zone 7 was NYC and I go there a lot to visit my uncle. I know I could keep zone 7 and delete something else, but that still doesnt fix the fact that I cannot enter a destination by address, thats major important.

Any other ideas.. I am doing this for fun now.. if I get a working copy.. I might be able to sell it on the net, lol...

[zutoo]

If you look at pages 17-20 in the book that came in the DVD case it shows you what the different zones are. I am not sure why you can't put in an address, but next time I see my friend (who knows alot more about computers than I do) I will have him take a look at the disc. Maybe he will have an idea of how to make that work.

[pjbroyles]

Copying DVDs (for backup purposes only of course) is a whole new game. You need software that will allow you to compress the files and break the copy protection (if any). I use a program called clonedvd along with a program called anydvd to do it and have had great results.

As you noticed, DVDs hold more than we can burn. 9gb is the norm and we can only burn 4.7. Deal is DVDs are 2 layers and as of now, we can only burn 1 layer.

Both the programs I mentioned have 30 day trials, but I'm not sure if they have a mac platform.

Pete

[tonytone]

Bumping this thread because I'm trying to copy the version 3.0 DVD and am not having much success; although the burn process goes w/o a hitch, the resulting disc is not recognized by the nav unit...although at one point the nav did recognize it--most likely by sheer luck--but I couldn't get it to recognize the disc again.

PJBroyles--exactly how did you use AnyDVD and CloneDVD to make a working copy? AFAICT, CloneDVD either copies/burns video files or ISO images--and since the files on the nav disc aren't VIDEO_TS files, I can only assume that you must have made an ISO image of the nav disc before burning the image with CloneDVD...because if you didn't, I cannot see how else it can be possible to make a copy of the nav DVD by using CloneDVD. Also, how does AnyDVD come into the picture? AFAIK the nav DVD isn't CSS-protected, so why is AnyDVD needed?

FWIW--I created an ISO image of the nav disc using DVD Decrypter, then burned the image using Nero 6.3.1.25 on a Verbatim DVD+R DL disc to an NEC 2510A DL DVD burner; Nero burned the image successfully w/o any errors, I can list the directory/file contents on my PC, and the total size (in bytes) of the burned copy is identical to the original. That, and the fact that somehow my nav unit was able to read it ONCE (but not since) shows that somehow, someway, the nav can load the contents of the burned copy.

Any other ideas/hints/suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks!

[the blur]

here's another question. I'm in NY, and I travel to Mt. Tremblant. The Nav information ends just north of Montreal, and the screen is blank all the way to tremblant.

THe stealership is useless. they say "the disc says canada". I say yeah, but only part of canada. is there another disc for north of montreal?

my 03 disc is getting dated. there are so many new roads in NY, I may have to sprulge for a new CD, but only if northern canada is in there...

[tonytone]

Originally Posted by the blur

here's another question. I'm in NY, and I travel to Mt. Tremblant. The Nav information ends just north of Montreal, and the screen is blank all the way to tremblant.

THe stealership is useless. they say "the disc says canada". I say yeah, but only part of canada. is there another disc for north of montreal?

my 03 disc is getting dated. there are so many new roads in NY, I may have to sprulge for a new CD, but only if northern canada is in there...

Assuming that such is indeed the case (Canadian coverage, although how much coverage that entails and what parts of Canada are covered, I don't remember), I believe what you would need to do is go into the nav settings and select the proper region which covers the area in question. The map coverage is divided into 8 (IIRC) different regions; this is done primarily--if not solely (could also contain detailed map info but I think this is contained at the topmost--i.e., country--level)--for categorizing the huge POI list so that a POI search is less time-consuming since it only has to search for a POI in just one region rather than search the entire country POI database.

[pbody]

i used record now to copy a backup but in the middle i got an error that says i can not continue. I heard that there is a cutt off in dvd burners that does not let you copy some files that are needed to copy i think that apple does not have that so you can copy

please help

[gable74]

I have been successful in copying the FULL DVD versions one and two without ANY re-encoding what so ever. I have not gotten my hands on a version 3 yet. I own versions one and two, but have not purchased three yet. The easiest way to do a COMPLETE 1:1 copy o the DVD mapdisk is by using a dual layer burner and a dvd+r DL verbatim disk. Takes 30 minutes to complete. If anyone is interested in talking further about this please contact me via E-mail at Gable74@hotmail.com.

Thanks