DVD-A in your car - now on all Chryslers

Borrowing my mother-in-law's Jeep, I was playing with her MyGig in-dash DVD, Sirius, mp3, navigation, etc device. It uses a DVD-ROM drive and a hard drive to do all of its magic. I played with it during a road trip and found that it plays DVD-Audio! Pretty cool! Geeked, I grabbed a few titles for the road. Music plays right away without having to grab a remote or navigate any on-screen menus and the display clearly says "DVD-A" rather than a Dolby Digital version from the DVD-V layer. This was also confirmed by the manual.

Channel separation seemed weak and I'm wondering if her setup has a 5.1 system in it. But it was certainly fun to play with and may sway me in my next vehicle purchase.

Oh, this "MyGig" system is offered on nearly all 2008 Chryslers (which includes Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep).

Ah, I used to work at the GM Tech Center in Warren. Small world!

The company that makes this is Harman/Becker out of Germany with a location in Farmington Hills. Apparently, they are very responsive to user input. You can find a few sites on MyGig with tips on updating the software, hacking, etc. I've already updated the software and look to buying a hardware hack if I end up buying a new vehicle. The hardware hack lets you use all the menus while the car is in Drive (just like any Garmin will do).

So far, the only disk that failed was the SACD of Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic. No, it doesn't play SACD, but the manual claims it'll play the CD layer. That was with an old firmware, didn't try the newer one.

I swear this is the only thing getting me excited about buying a minivan this Fall! Well, that and being able to take some family trips.

EDIT: Forgot to mention... just think of how this might help multi-channel audio if someone realizes that 100,000+ new vehicles a year will be able to play DVD-A.

If there are any doubters, I can scan the owner's manual that has the DVD-Audio logo in it or a screen cap of the system playing DVD-Audio!

If anyone from Chrysler is reading this, I just purchased a 2008 Town & Country partly because of it offering the MyGig. Yes, I wish it had a 40 or 80gb hard drive, but the playback of DVD-A plus frequent software updates made me consider this over the Ford Fainlane/Flex, Honda Odyssey.

illy, radio stations pay licensing fees to the artists via either ASCAP or BMI. Even if they didn't, heavy radio play increases popularity in that music (either for CD purchases, concerts or other routes like television commercials, etc.) The RIAA gets up in arms for people downloading music and not paying for it. This used to be called "stealing" and the RIAA is doing what they can, with poor social skills, to stop it.

If the music is either purchased or licensed, the RIAA couldn't give two turds whether you altered the music in any way as long as it is not for commercial use. And such things as compression, even though it pisses off audiophiles, actually makes most music sound better in car stereos unless someone likes constantly changing the volume of the radio to hear.