Does anyone have a 4th Gen with the factory DVD player for the rear seats? A friend has a Benz, another has an Acura and in both cases there is an "easy" hack to allow the DVD to be displayed on the Navigation window? Has anyone tried this, thought about it etc?

Also, in the past certain factory cd changer "ready" headunits could have aftermarket changers plugged into them. Theses aftermarket changers acted like the factory units (I am not talking FM Modulation here). BMW could run Pioneeers for a while for example. My thought is could we get MP3 playing capability in our 4runners by adding an aftermarket changer to our factory Navigation headunit? I was hoping to avoid the $900 for a PhatBox

 

I have a 04 Limited with the factory rear dvd player, but I have not tried what you are suggesting and don't know how you could. The DVD player is completely independent from the Navigation Unit. The nav dvd is mounted in the rear left wheel well and the dvd player has its own slot. The sound system isn't even linked up, it comes with an FM modulator.

I doubt that you could just take out the nav dvd either, since it is basicly just a one program computer and without a program to display the dvd video it would just spin. Even if it would play you would have no way of controlling it (rw,ff,pause).

The dvd player is not the best system anyway. Because of the sunroof, the dvd player has to be mounted a ways back and hangs about 3-4 inches down, so it is very low. Just about everyone that gets into the back seat hits there head on it at least once, some people do it everytime.

 

basically all you are doing is using the screen to show a dvd playing off a seperate dvd player.... not using the navigation dvd-rom unit to play dvds (not possible)... the navigation can be running at the same time.... my dad has this setup on his honda odyssey.... there is a switch that toggles between the dvd player and the navigation, the dvd movie can be playing both on the flip down monitor and navigation screen...
for his setup he had to get the pioneer AVC-RGB1.... which is out of production....

not sure if the toyota also requires this decoder for the navi screen or not..... good luck trying to get it to play..... it is a neat trick..... and once you get it to play video.... it doesn't stop there.... how bout' rear view camera.... that activates when the gear is in reverse.... most lexus and acura's have these stock now.... or how bout ps2 or xbox in dash....

JQ