I ran into someone a couple months ago who said that they were watching TechTV's Screensavers and they talked about the MINI NAV unit. Supposedly, there was a site that had a bootable DVD image that you could burn and insert into your MINI. After booting to this Linux kernel on DVD, you could put a DVD movie in the player and it would read/play it on the NAV screen.

The person was supposed to send me a link (but never did, and I don't have nay way of contacting them). Does anyone know, is there truth behind this? I cannot find anything on the ScreenSavers website or on Google. If possible, does anyone know where I could get more info on this?

Thanks,
Erik

 

You mean something like this.....

 

Take your car to any major car audio shop (tweeters/car toys/ear mark) they can make your nav unit play TV/DVDs....all you need is the little black box/dvd player/tv tuner and your set...

 

antsmini - what parts did you have to buy and how did you set it up? Are there directions somewhere that you can point me towards?

Thanks,
Erik

 

Erik,

Here is a company that makes a Nav conversion for the Mini. It is pretty sweet since it adds another menu item to the NAV. They also have a whole playstation setup as well so that you can play games on the screen.

http://www.nav-tv.com/products-mini.htm

 

What on EARTH could make that kit be worth $1295......NEXT!

 

I agree, almost $1300 out the door is too much. I'm really wishing I could find this person's info becuase I was really hoping that there was a cheap/free alternative. The person I talked to was big into coding software and the whole Linux / open source community. As he told me, there is supposedly an image for a bootable DVD that loads a small Linux kernal, and it reflashes the software used by the NAV system. When a disc is inserted, the new software detects whether the disc is the NAV DVD or a DVD movie. If you insert a movie, the software adds new oncreen programming to allow you to navigate the menus using the dial, and bring up an options/selection screen using Menu.

If anyone comes across someone that knows something about this - or finds a site that talks about it, let me know.

Thanks,
Erik

 

I found a new company that makes a seemless integration like nav-tv.com: TVonNav.com. And it is cheaper at $899 but that is still expensive. It says that you can change the channel (for TV) with the steering wheel controls (if you have them). Cool, but expensive.