Please confirm.

 

Right, no MP3.

 

Awwwwwwww, shucks.

What about ventilated seats? Meaning, AC blowing on my booty?

 

Haha...sorry about that. There was high hopes on the MP3 earlier on, but freebay got a car, tried it and it didn't work. Yes, it does have heated and air conditioned seats....a great feature with leather seats.

 

One might have to be careful on how to interpret "compatible with DVD-A." The press release was carefully worded, and while it said the ML system plays DVD-A discs, the same is true of any DVD-V player because DVD-A discs almost without exception carry a separate version of the main contents duplicated in the DVD-V zone. So what you are most likely hearing in the GS ML system from 5.1 DVD-A discs is either Dolby Digital or DTS encoded, not multichannel PCM/MLP from the DVD-A content zone.

I'm only saying this because the release was careful to avoid claiming it played the actual 96/24 DVD-A content. Of course it might really play DVD-A contents, but the only way I think that can be proved would be to play a disc with no DVD-V compatible content--and I don't know of any titles like that.

 

I have a very hi-end audio system at home that plays DTS audio and AC3 audio discs straight fom my CD player (thru SPDIF out). It's a nice feature, but you have to convert MP3 to DTS, which is a cumbersome process. I'd rather just stick a 16 gig DVD into the system and listen to a huge MP3 collection.

This could be a big deciding factor between the M45 and the GS430.

I still need to test drive both vehicles.

Thanks for the comments.

 

Lexus of course is the source of the info about MP3 ability of the Mark Lev. Frebay had trouble with a DVD disc also he said. I went back to cleanup yesterday and none of the detailers were cleaning the GS300 with Mark Lev. They were all in the front seat intently watching Training Day! I left one of my DVD videos in the drive the other night and the next day I was off and boy did one of my comrades get a surprise when demonstrating the system and 50 Cent jumped up in his face.....Acura makes a nice little demo disc for their 5.1 DTS surround sound however Lexus has not evolved to that level yet. I used to have a Mark Levinson demo disc which played in the car and on a Computer drive. It had one of my favorite Chopin piano pieces Waltz #64 played in a Jazz arrangement. I lent it to an associate for a demo and I think he made it a parting gift when his customer bought the car. I just negotiated with my eleven year old to let me borrow his precious MP3 disc so I can try it. I would like to see an easy interface for an IPOD or other such device. Take your favorite DVD with you when you go for a test drive next week and remember to turn the Audio level back down before leaving Disc as the AM/FM will shatter your eardrums with it cranked up to Max level which is 65. 45 to 50 is a pretty impressive SPL to test the system at. You know, we live in an interesting time.

 

Are you sure that the seat ventilation feature uses A/C cooled air? I was told it was just "ventilation" - meaning that a fan in the seat circulates air.

 

Right, but that still is just the sound generated from regular DVD (DVD-Video sound tracks), not DVD-Audio. I think folks are getting wound up around your title including the term DVD-A.

All it sounds like you want to know is if the unit will play MP-3s burned to a normal single layer DVD, correct?

Rockville et al, there are two things we should try to test. MP-3s burned to a CD (probably what the 11 yo has) and also MP-3s burned to a DVD. IF it doesn't play 'em on a CD it isn't likely to on a DVD.

The software on the 3GS headunit looks just like the stuff on my aftermarket Eclipse nav / dvd and mine plays MP-3s just fine, at least from CD (I've never tried from DVD). I assume the maker is still Fujitsu-ten (also parent company to Eclipse).

 

The ventilated seat option gets you "cooled air" through those little holes in the leather. It uses a Peltier element in the seat which can supply heated air or cooled air. The A/C is not involved. You will see a little blue section on the dial for the seat heaters. So far we only get it on the GS430's in our region.

 

It's not just ventilated, it's cool air that comes out. When I say "air conditioned" I mean colder air than it is outside. The ES330 has "air- cooled" seats (i.e. ventilated). The new GS has a dial with 1-2-3 for cold air. We tested it out and you can feel the cold air coming through. It's not ice cold, but will definately make a difference on a hot summer day!

 

i'll vouch for that...ice cold air blows out....pretty cool if u think about it.

 

So what are the options for MP3 in the new GS
- cassette deck adapter
- FM radio adapter
- After market deck
- Convert your MP3s to a DVD-A? format.

[ I assume it cant play WMAs also]

Could you possibly disconnect the cassette deck cables to the head unit and run/extend some cable out to a MP3 player? e.g. my Alphine has an AUX input with the cables running out to the glovebox. I assume you would select Tape input and then play your ipod/mp3-player.

I am kind of surprised Lexus would forget about MP3s, is this a copyright thing they are concerned with or just bad planning? Are MP3s not big in Japan? Could a firmware upgrade fix this or would a new DVD unit be required?
I see PERFORMANCE and MP3s going together image wise. Possibly not their target market segment.

Anyone converted MP3 to "DVD format"? I dont mean put MP3 files on a DVD, I mean convert to AC3 or whatever DVD-Audio is. How many could you get on a DVD?

I did like the Ms input ports in the back seat.

 

A single layer "5 GB" DVD-V disc can hold 40 hours of AC-3 encoded at 256 kbps, a good rate to use when cascading MP3 with AC-3 if you want to avoid adding more coding artifacts. If you rip from CD directly to AC-3, you can use 192 kbps for similar or better quality as the MP3/AC-3 conversion and the disc will hold 54 hours.

If you choose to avoid re-encoding your MP3s (or WMAs, AACs, etc) or just want to transfer your CDs without compression, then a DVD-V disc will hold 6.8 hours of 2-ch PCM. Just note that since CDs are 44.1 and DVDs are at 48 kHz sample rate, your program will use a sample rate converter in the process. It needs to be a decent one to avoid hurting the sound quality.

 

What about Sirius Satellite? Wasn't Lexus supposes to offer this as of February as a dealer installed option?