OUMalibu

The sound may play on a DVD but I doubt you would get the track / artist display on the screen.

spwolf

right, in this case, DVD is just storage media, not an format. So it will have same features as mp3's burned on cd...

swisslexusclub

Is this confirmed? Does a fully equipped (Nav AND ML) 2IS play MP3 DVD's?

|mpulse

I have the nav without the ML... I wonder if it's at all possible to purchase a DVD changer and swap it into my car...

EvgeshaIS300

while it would be cool if new IS can play mp3 on DVD, i dont think Lexus or ML built in the capobility for DVD player to read/play data DVD which would be needed in this case.

on ML web site it only lists following media:
CD, CD-R, DTS 5.1 CD, DVD Video and DVD Audio discs.

also there could be limitations such as 99 songs per folder and 99 folders yada yada yada

now since DVD audio format is listed and can be played here is a way to expand on that:
take a CD, convert it into wav format on your PC, then use special software(dont remember the name) which will conver and burn it onto DVD in DVD audio format. Given that DVD fits around 4.7gb of data, you can fit around 80-90 regular sonds (2 channel Stereo, 2 channel Surround Sound, which ever recording was used on CD)

now you'll say: but that same thing can be done with regular CD filled with songs in mp3 format, (about same amount of songs of comparable sound quality)

but you are forgetting one thing, mp3 is comprassed format which results in lose of quality, while DVD audio is not comprased and quality stays the same.

forgive me if i'm not clear, if you need aditional explonation let me know.

lots of info on convertin CD into DVD audio can be found on Acura TL forum, DVD audio is standard on TL for last 2 years, so they have 2 year head start on fingering out best way to do it.

jlin101

I understand that an audio cd sounds better than mp3's ripped from that cd, but are you saying that an audio CD burned from MP3's sounds better than the MP3's from which it was decompressed from? As I recall, data is lost every time it gets converted to a different format, namely, you can not regain the lost data, thus fidelity, by converting mp3 back to audio cd format. It can never be as good as the original. Converting thousands of mp3's to wave files, then into DVD-A seems like a very time-consuming and inefficient method, esp for listening in a relatively noisy environment such as a car's interior. MP3's on CD-R should be equal to, if not better, than MP3's on iPod (without the potential electrical noise/ground hum from the aux input).

XeroK00L

I was about to say the same. Couldn't have said it better though.

EvgeshaIS300

i never said conver mp3 to wave, i said conver CD to wave. but you right on mp3 to wave conversion quality is lost.

and yes external mp3 unit is best solution.

the best mp3 integration into stock audio from factory i have seen so far is done by Audi, where unit has 2 SD card (now thats up to 4gb) slots behind folding nav screen, on screen id3 tag. not sure if they integrated some kind of playlist capobilities, as i havent played with it enough in my friends s4.

XeroK00L

Haha... sorry I guess I misunderstood your previous post, but then you seem to have misunderstood jlin101's last post as well. He was saying that an internal MP3 unit is a better solution because it avoids "the potential electrical noise/ground hum from the aux input", not the other way around.

EvgeshaIS300

yeh true i didnt think about "the potential electrical noise/ground hum from the aux input"

i was thinking about external unit in sense of most storage space, given mp3 recorded at higher bit rate.

kensteele

I really don't plan to play audio DVDs, the mp3 on CD deal with ok but I hated the folders, etc. My iPod is way more convenient. If anyone would like me to try out something, I would be more than happy to experiment with whatever equipment and software I have access to. But I really don't plan to implement this, I would much prefer music videos and a hack to watch and drive.

I have ML+Nav and access to some equipment including a dual-layer next month.

webhed

What burning program did you use? Freeware available?

SGT

It's called Audio DVD Creator but it's not freeware.

jlin101

you can simply burn mp3's onto a CD-R without folders, although someone mentioned earlier there was a limit of 99 files/songs in each folder. As each CD-R (700mb) can hold well over 100 songs, catagorizing the songs into folders is both a convenience and a necessity. Same way you wouldn't organize all of your mp3 into ONE giant folder on the iPod.

QikSilvr

So with a 6 disc in-dash cd quality player, why bother with all the stuff and signal loss?