whoover

I have a 2006 S-class with a DVD drive in the COMAND. It's fairly useless since the picture never displays, but I discovered that the COMAND sort of supports MP3s on DVD. When I insert the DVD (which I burned with MP3s), it works fine and allows me to navigate the folders and select and play songs. But when I stop and restart the car, it displays CD Error. It continues to play tracks, but I can't get to any of the folder navigation menus. If I eject and reload the DVD, everything is fine again.

The book doesn't mention DVD MP3 support, so I don't imagine I'd get very far with the dealer. Anyone get this to work?

shahedC

How about a 2007 SLK..? Will I mess up anything if I put in a MP3 DVD?

How about a movie DVD? :-)

(I ask in all seriouness)

migabc

Which media format are you using to burn your mp3?
I sometime get that same error when using DVR-R on my E-Class COMAND APS. I have no problems when using DVD+R or DVD+RW. This is also true for DVD movies and NAV discs (player in the trunk).

shahedC

Does this mean that you only get an error some of the time with DVD movies, but you can play the movies the rest of the time?

migabc

Only with DVD-R.
No problem with DVD+R or DVD+RW.

shahedC

Ok, so I should be able to play a movie that is on original DVD, DVD+R and DVD+RW.

That is cool, I had no idea you could play movies on COMAND !

I found these posts in the other MB forum, but I still don't know if you can play DVD movies in a US 2007 SLK350...

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/audi...-comand-2.html

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/audi...-06-class.html

whoover

There is some confusion here. Euro COMANDs with DVD drives play movies. US COMANDs with DVD drives only play the audio tracks of movies (video is blocked). This is at all speeds (including car parked) and can't be changed by any secret menu or Star Diagnosis.

But I'm talking about using the DVD drive as a large MP3-CD, which is also supported by this (Siemens) late model W220 US COMAND.

I do use DVD+R, and went back and burned another one. This one works fine (folders visible after engine restart). I notice that the first one (the one that didn't work) had some non-MP3 tracks, which might be the cause of the problem. They show-up as empty folders but may trigger this error when restarting the COMAND with the disk already loaded.

Thanks for the confirmation that it should work, which got me to do more exploring. A couple of loaded DVDs seems to be a reasonable alternative to the problematic Ipod integration.

shahedC

ok thanks.

So, I since I live in the US, I can only play audio discs burned to rewritable DVD through COMAND.

whoover

If your US COMAND has a DVD drive (look in your manual and/or your AUDIO menu), it will play the audio track of DVD movies (sort of useless, but why it's there) and audio (MP3 tracks) burned to DVDs. You said "rewritable," but that's not really correct. Normally one uses DVD+R ("write once") media. I'm not sure that rewritable (the more expensive disks that are reusable) would also work. Some firmware has trouble with them, but I don't think you really meant those.

shahedC

yes, you're right, I did mean the DVD+R when I said rewritable.

My car will be done building next week, and I will take delivery the week after, so I still have a little wait...

migabc

Rewritable discs (DVD+RW) work fine, but you have to perform a full erase before burning over. With a quick erase the disc can sometimes skip.

gvaughn

How can one tell if they have a DVD drive in their cars? In the audio menu will it actually say "DVD" instead of CD (assume it's the single drive and not the combo)...or is there some sort of version # or something to look for to identify it as a DVD drive? Also...where in the manual would it say it's a DVD drive? Do people have DVD drives rather than CD drives randomly or are they part of certain options and configurations and/or model years?

Thanks for any additional info you can provide.

whoover

I know the 2006 US S-class has DVD-equipped COMAND. My 2006 C55 doesn't. The S COMAND manual has a section on "playing DVDs," but it begins with the statement that to avoid driver distraction the video is blacked out . But the manual goes on to describe all the menus and features as if it were a DVD movie player. And yes, the COMAND Audio main menu shows DVD and MP3-CD buttons as well as Radio, CD and CD-changer.

gvaughn

Thanks for the info. I wonder if the S-class has it because it's the top class. I have a LATE 2006 model E-class (probably made in the last 1 month or so of the 2006 models) and it doesn't show DVD.

shahedC

Don't get the CD-player confused with the DVD drive.

I'm not sure what model you have to get where the music player has a DVD drive in it, but I know that the C-class and SLK-class have a CD-player for the audio system.

The GPS-navigation system uses a DVD drive (installed in the trunk for the SLK), and I would assume that all models use this DVD drive for navigation? Otherwise, I doubt you could fit all that data onto a regular CD?

whoover

I'm not confused.

My 2006 S65 has the DVD drive for the nav in the trunk (along with the 6 CD changer) and an in-dash DVD/CD drive for audio CDs, MP3s on CD or DVD and the audio tracks of movie DVDs built into the COMAND. Unlike the COMAND in my 2006 C55, there's only the one slot in the COMAND. The C55 has the nav DVD slot and the audio CD slot behind the COMAND sceen. It's a different unit, although the screen and buttons look the same. The S COMAND is made by Seimens and there is no secret Driver Distraction menu (as with Euro-COMANDs) to allow enabling DVD video (say when the parking brake is on).

So far nobody has confirmed that it's used in other classes. My guess is that any model that has rear-seat entertainment available has a DVD-COMAND, but I don't know that for a fact. MLs? My other guess is that they used it because they were expecting to have RSE available in the US in W220s, but didn't get it ready in time. It's not even available yet in the US W221.

It just doesn't make sense to have a whole chapter in the book with a note at the front that effectively says "ignore this chapter."

gvaughn

Yeah...I don't think anyone is talking about the DVD nav drive. That's not the issue.

SLR N8

I have a 2006 S-500. Can you burn mp3 movies (examples: itunes movies and shows) onto a dvd+r, and watch the mp3 on the comand? If so, do you put the dvd+r in the cd player in the comand or in the navigation box in the trunk?

gvaughn

There is no such thing as mp3 video. MP3 is an audio standard and it stands for MPEG-1 Layer 3 audio. For video the two common standards used are MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpeg-4

http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=7472&c=7

I believe the ipod/itunes uses one of the newer video standards which are MPEG-4 (on the apple itunes website it states that the file sizes are based on H.264 which is an MPEG-4 standard - though the Ipod might also support MPEG-2) and I would be shocked to hear that the COMAND supports MPEG-4 video as there are currently very little home units (besides PCs) that support MPEG-4 much less a car system. If COMANDs won't play standard DVD MPEG-2 video (at least not in the US - as others have stated), I can't imagine it will play MPEG-4 video.

phahn

I have a 2006 slk 350. A few months ago the nav stopped working so they replaced the command unit. The nav works but now the DVD mp3's don't work. It either pops out the DVD or says CD error. It worked fine before the change. The dealer says they can't fix it and that U.S. cars don't have this feature. I may have had European software on the original unit. It doesn't make sense to me. Any suggestions or ideas? thanks, Pat

Skylaw

I don't know if the '06 was exactly like the '05, but the '05 version of your car would play mp3 CDs, but not DVDs.

In addition, the 2006 model year overview for your car at http://www.mbusa.com/pre-owned/2006/...egory=interior indicates a CD player and a CD changer, but does not make any mention of DVD capability.

On the other hand, the overview for my '05 S-Class also indicates a single CD player and a 6-disc changer; and while it makes no mention of DVD capability (except for navigation), the single CD player will also play DVD audio and DVD mp3s.

What does your owner's manual say?

phahn

The manual only mentions cd's however it used to play DVD's with mp3 with no problem.