Gustav

Is it possible to burn a copy of the Navigation CD on a CD-ROM?

My friend who wants to copy it says it doesn't work, the BMW Nav system spit it out every time you insert the copied Nav CD.

Anybody know if there is some kind of copy protection?

Jim Dolan

Hopefully there is not difference between this and a music cd but I don't know .

Why don't you try it and see if it works.

A copy is a copy. There may be physical characteristics about the disc that limit its use to GPS type systems. But I don't know why these have limited use potential where music cd's don't. Music cd's are more valuable than these map cd's. And they don't seem to be able to protect them.

Let us know how it comes out.

------------------
Jim
07/00 M5 Titanium over Red

Aussie2U

Did your friend "close the disk"?. Remember that most older (and cheaper) CD readers cannot read multi-session disks.

You have to finalize it as most CD-R's leave the session open, by default, for adding additional data later.

Tim W

Yes. Works like a champ! Just do a direct copy. I made a backup of my CD ---Just in Case---

Tim

johann

Gustav,

It works fine, mail me and I will tell you how to do it.

Cheers,
/Johan

ijam

fyi - there are many different copy protection schemes in current use, and some of them are used to protect audio CDs.

I won't go into details, a search on the web should get you loads of info.

Upshot is that whether a copy works depends mostly on how you copy it (what software/settings) and sometimes can also be affected by your hardware (not all burners can write the errors/incorrect subcodes which some copy protection schemes use).

Ian

m5monster

CDs have different decoding and arrangement system. Computer data and audio CD you can burn with regular CD Rewritable Writer. But if you have appropriate software copier, you can do anything.
My roommate has Sony Playstation. The surface of the CD is black, not mirror as in audio CD. With regular CD burner software, impossible to copy. Sony deliberately inserted error code on their original black CD, so when regular software copies, this confuses the software. But if you have the program to burn Sony Playstation, you're saved. Even regular mirror surfaced CD for audio is fine, but somehow Playstation prefers the bluish surface.
Since Navigation CD is not sold like Playstation in terms of #, I doubt anybody would write the software to copy it, like the original Navigation System manufacturer such as Navtech on BMW cars. So don't be surprised if your copied CD was rejected by the Nav System. Besides, the map is updated every year, and CD upgrade is free for one or two years. Why copy?
Correct me if I'm wrong.

johann

Copied CD:s work fine I have seen it myself, in fact the CD can be used with PC Software.

Upgrade is not free in Europe!

One reason to copy could be to have a backup.

Another reason ist that they charge $200 per CD upgrade NOT included!

/Johan

Jean-Christophe

Forget it,

In my company we sell computer and copy, backup system.
I've ask to a good technicien to burn a CD of german country (personaly i've the french version). IT'S IMPOSSIBLE, we try 3 differents system, burn 10 CD and nothing, the driver eject directly the copy after few seconds.

Good luck

Regards

johann

Maybe, he wasn't that good....
I have seen it work so it is possible!
My friend copied Swedish/Denmark, Germany, France and Austria/Switzerland/Northern Italy.

It doesn't matter if you use 100 systems and burn 2000 CD:s as long as you are doing it the wrong way. I will contact my friend and post the instructions.

Johan

ijam

m5monster,

Yes most of what you say is correct, but software alone will not always be enough. When the playstation first came out, most of the CD burners at the time could not physically write the necessary errors in the right place - on current models that?s not a problem.

I very much doubt that NavTech is using a custom copy protection scheme - there are quite a few companies selling commercial protection schemes. So the requisite copying software probably does exist (my M5 arrives in a couple of weeks, so I don't have a nav disc to experiment with). Also most of the schemes are based on similar tricks (deliberate errors, incorrect subcodes and physical gaps) and so a piece of software that works well for one normally covers about 60% of the others too.

The problem tends to be the CD drive used to read the disc, or the burner used to write it (the burner is often better at reading disks than a CD/DVD-ROM, but not always).

For example Safedisc2 (currently in use on several new PC games) can only be successfully read and written by a small number of drives (five or six at the moment I think).

ciao

Ian

ps - sorry if the techy stuff is boring you car enthusiasts, but for anyone who is interested in these things...

the colour of a recordable CD is based on two things - the colour of the dye (the bit the burner changes to write the data) and the colour of the reflective layer underneath. This is why CDRs very from blue to green to gold. The black playstation disks are pressed (ie CD-ROM) so the colour is entirely due to the reflective layer. Sony might have set the playstation's laser up for this as they can be picky about differently coloured CDRs (which can be fixed by taking it apart and twiddling the laser power screw).

As I said, this is all out there on the Internet if you're interested.

lofstrom

It works! I use a copy of the BMW 2000-1 German CD all the time. It's copied with Nero CD-burning SW without any magic, worked on first try!