Hi Everyone,

I relaize that the MyGIG system is still relatively new...but does anyone know if someone out there has attempted any modifications to a MyGIG system? Such as swapping in a larger hard drive...allowing it to play DVD's while driving...allowing it to play video files such as DivX,avi, Mpeg, etc.(it may already, but I don't believe so). I would imagine a community or at least a thread would be popping up around this somewhere...it'd be a nicer looking integrated alternative to the car-puter I've been thinking about building...but I'd want these features. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks!

 

Just got my car on Wednesday & after downloading 434 songs (3 gig) I only have 5 gig left.
Meaning: Dodge should advertisetheir caras a 8 gighard drive not a 20 gig.
I had service call & find out why? all I got was the Nav. is stored onHD, etc.

Back to yout post there is nothing out there @ this time maybe in near future?
DVD does not work out of park.

 

I know there are a lot of people wanting to get their Mygig to play DVDs while driving.. (I am one of them)
I just received my Avenger today and while reading the Mygig manual I came across a single piece of yellow paper which is anAddendum.. The Addendum states:

"The law in some states prohibits the Front Seat DVD Viewer. As a result, it may be disabled prior to delivery to you. If you move to another state, you should consult your dealer for the proper enable/ disable setting for your state. As of the time of printing of this addendum, the states that prohibit front seat video viewers were: Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wyoming."

Is it just me or does that sound like the DVD viewer can be enabled in drive easily and be accomplished by the consumer? I live in NY and my dealer refused to enable the DVD in drive when I asked him... But maybe if we all start calling dealers referencing the Addendum and stating its allowed in our state/country maybe we will find someone that will tell us the key combination or whatever it is that enables it.

Safety features make me nuts when they are forced on people no matter how well meaning.. Why cant my wife and kids (If I had kids) watch the DVD in the front when I'm driving if I have enough self control to not watch the movie too? .... Ok fine I'm gonna bepeeking at the movie every 10 seconds.. Buthow many guys in this forum have had a girl go down on them while driving? That's much more dangerous and we still do that and manage to keep the car on the road without hitting stuff I don't even think there's any laws about that either.. So basically if I cant watch DVDs in my car while I'm driving to occupy my time then I'm gonna find other things

 

Ok, Well this proves once again I should research things before posting junk all over the forums..

The states that were listed in that addendum are states where the front seat video is COMPLETELY disabled.. meaning that even when the car is in park they cant watch movies. The completely disabled video can be changed easily by a dealer using a diagnostic tool called StarScan ( http://www.dcctools.com/en/starscan/index.html) that interfaces directly with the CAN-bus networking system in the car.

After researching various methods of enabling DVD in drive I found that the radio uses the CAN-bus to determine if the car is in park or drive so simply cutting the CAN wire, or shorting wires out isn't going to work.

I am pretty sure therehas to beother ways to enable DVD playback in drive (Software hack, Jumper in the radio, Button Combo, etc..) but currently theonlyavailable method I can find to enable DVD playback while drivingis FreeGig which is a device manufactured by Nav-TVthat can be plugged into the back of the Mygig radioand by variousstatements on the Internet, seems to work well.The only drawback is that it costs approximately $350 . The company that makes FreeGig also makes BlueGig which enables Bluetooth and Voice recognition, and AllGig which is a combination of both the FreeGig and BlueGig products which runs around $700.

NAV-TV Web Site:
http://nav-tv.com/index02.htm

FreeGig Installation Manual:
http://nav-tv.com/download/chrysler/FreeGIG.pdf
BlueGig Installation Manual:
http://nav-tv.com/download/chrysler/BlueGIG.pdf
Even though these manuals show cutting wires, The company has now released a plug and play module which does not require cutting wires.

Good luck finding an ordering form there I suppose your best bet would be contacting them if you are interested.

 

The only ways I'm aware of enabling the display while in drive is through new software or through a CAN message override, which is essentially what the freegig does.
Since Harmon Kardon isn't going to be releasing this software the only way is to use the freegig.

Most ECU's in the car have protection against changing EEPROM in the module thus you'd need to know the correct EEPROM location and a service tool to unlock the radio for EEPROM writes.

Just so everyone knows, the way the radio knows to disable the screen is via a CAN message that is received that tells it when the car is in park or drive. You can override this feature using a diagnostic override, which is basically what hte freegig does I think.

 

Safety features make me nuts when they are forced on people no matter how well meaning.. Why cant my wife and kids (If I had kids) watch the DVD in the front when I'm driving if I have enough self control to not watch the movie too? .... Ok fine I'm gonna bepeeking at the movie every 10 seconds.. Buthow many guys in this forum have had a girl go down on them while driving? That's much more dangerous and we still do that and manage to keep the car on the road without hitting stuff I don't even think there's any laws about that either..



This made me crack up. Oh so true. Funny stuff.

 

I would LOVE to have the myGIG play DVD's while not in park... that is a very annoying (but probably necessary) safety feature. I just don't like Dodge forcing me to do things by restricting features like that, especially if it's not illegal in my area.

Recently I was on a 9 hour trip with the car and my passenger in the front seat could not watch movies because of that dumb feature.

I may have to look into this product... see if it really works.

...and yes, that is very annoying that Dodge markets the myGIG as a 20gig yet you only get to use 8gb. [:@]

Other than the problems with myGIG, the car rocks though!

 

I for oneam real glad the law stepped in on this one. No one should be watching a DVD while driving.
Front passenger can do just find with out it to. To many people are dying because of **** like this!
I only wish the law would step in with these F-ucking cell phones. People are dying by the 1000's!
Bluetooth cars people still won't use them they rather show-off holding their freaking phones!

My niece's best girlfriend "Mother" died yesterday Sunday morning @ only 39 years old.
She was coming home from work & got 2 blocks from her house when cell phone fellto the floor.
She bent down to pick it up & loss control of the car @ only 25 MPH. Head hit dash & caused instinct coma.

Few months ago 5 gorgeous young ladies were driving (18 years old) and driver was text messenging.
Car went over the oncoming lane & all 5 were killed instinctly. THIS **** HAS TO END & END NOW!

 

"THIS **** HAS TO END & END NOW!" ?? What are you kidding me?

Show me stats on how many people have died while watching a DVD in their car. Tell me you don't fiddle with your radio while driving and change stations.. Tell me you don't talk to other passengers in your car.

There are tons of distractions while driving.. the key to not plowing into stuff is being able spend more time looking at the road more than performing other tasks in the car. People can watch DVDs safely in the car if the driver doesn't stare at the screen and these laws were put into place for the people that cant walk and chew gum at the same time.

People die all the time because of careless acts and more of those acts don't have laws against them than the ones that do. How about when a driver has an item other than a cell phone slide off the seat and onto the floor then reaches down to pick it up and gets into an accident? Should we pass a law that requires all items in a vehicle be velcroed to the vehicle? Should we just banall items from being inside cars? How about a screaming child in the car? Well that can be distracting / dangerous.. lets tie the kids to the roof.. I can go on and on but no matter what is banned or what laws are passed accidents are still going to happen because of careless driving and bad driving habits.. there will always be distractions.

I have had DVD players in my car since they were available, I have a Sony UX handheld computer on a gooseneck and before that I had a laptop. and I never got into an accident while using them cause I was responsible about it.
I am not arguing that everyone can multitaskor thateveryone should multitask in a vehicle but there are people that can.. Police cruisers have computers in their cars and they're typing junk in there while there driving and some people have been doing it for many years without incident.

Point being though is that my car has a DVD player that I can only use in park and I don't tell my wife "Hey hon lets sit in thedriveway for 2 hours and watch a movie".. We don't consider that a quality date.. I am in my car because I need to go somewhere and if the feature is there, I want the ability to use it and my passengers want to be able to use it.. I also usually only watch movies that I have seen before in the car so that I wont have the urge to stare at it.. i can just peek down every once in a while but allow the passenger to watch the movie.

I don't think you should be grouping this with the cell phone issue either because I have both handsavailable fordrivingand don't have to lose my concentration because I am not having an active conversation when DVDs are playing while driving.. I treat the DVD as a gauge on my dashboard and glance down at it occasionally when I am driving.. if at all.

There are tons of aftermarket radios without this restriction, and I assumed it would be easier havinga radioinstalled by the factory. So I want the same functionality as an aftermarket radio with a DVD player.I'm here because I want to modify the radio to my specifications.. Not someone else's..If I cared about the laws and restrictions about watching DVDs in the front seat while driving I would shut up and be happy thatI was agood citizenby buying a carwhich has a radio that turns DVD moviesinto books on DVD so I would be protected from the evil temptations of video..

All in all I agree with you that it is a good ideato disablewatching DVDs in drive for drivers that areeasily distractedbut believe it or not there are people that can multitask in a car.I don't need the government, my car manufacturer, or anyone else placing me in a hermetically sealed safety bubble because other people cant multitask responsibly.

****.. I'm sure if I applied myself I could watch DVDs, Talk on my cell phone, Smoke a cigarette, and juggle 3 monkeys while driving 70 mph in Manhattan in rush hour.. Well.. Maybe not in rush hour

 

By the way.. I rippedmy whole dashboard apart last night installing sub woofers in my Avenger (Even though it really didn't need them since the Boston Acoustics upgrade package sounds pretty damn good bass wise) and while I was at it I took pics of the radio and opened up the hard drive compartment to take pics of the insides of the radio as well as the hard drive itself. So if anyone is interested in seeing them let me know and ill post them..

The Mygig seems to use a standard Hitachi 30 GB laptop hard drive.. So I don't think there would be too many issues ghosting it to a larger drive (Depending on what the largest drive is that the radio can interface with)

Also if you take your dash apart.. Don't have a heart attack like I didif the lowerconsole buttons don't work.. Apparently there is a plug that will fit 2 different places on the back of theconsolecontrols.. I just wasn't paying attention and chose the wrongplug socket because I assumed all the plugs were sized to be location specific