I've been reading through the threads on DVD playback on the stock nav unit, but I can't find anything on what I assume is the holy grail of RX-8 DVD playback:

Is there any way you can stick a DVD movie into the stock slot-loading CD player and get video through the nav and audio through the stereo?

I've seen a thread on changing out the regular CD drive for a drive that plays MP3 CDs, and I've seen the thread on the A/V electronics switcher, but I really don't have a strong understanding how the latter works. However, I figure, why can't you just combine the two?

 

The stock navigation DVD drive can not play DVD movies. There is no known solution to make that to happen.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not actually looking for a way to make the navigation drive play DVD movies. I want to swap out the stock in-dash CD player with an aftermarket in-dash slot-loading DVD drive, and have it output to the nav screen.

 

wow...that would be the perfect set up wouldnt it? =)

 

Oh, I see... I misread your post. Sorry about that.
I don`t think anyone did it what you want... seeing that the CD player is integrated into the head unit, I`m not sure if there would be an easy way to replace it with an aftermarket DVD drive. If you could do that, then it would not be a problem to feed the signal to the nav screen with the AVElectronics stuff available at Mazdaparts.com

 

Superfan swapped the stock CD player with an MP3-CD player in under an hour on his first try. It's described here:

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...&highlight=mp3

Now I just want to know the feasibility of using a slot-loading DVD drive instead of Mazda's MP3-CD player. Specifically, how you have to run the cables through the A/V electronics switcher, which is traditionally mounted in the trunk, and whether such DVD drives exist that would fit behind the head unit plus have the correct connections necessary.

 

You wouldn't have any problems getting a DVD drive to play DVDs on the nav screen with a video switcher. Where you put the video switcher and the DVD drive is completely up to you.

But finding a unit that would fit and replace the Mazda drive area is only a minor issue. The real problem would be getting the head unit to function without a Mazda player attached to the connectors.

The next issue would be all of the useless buttons you'll be left with that won't serve any purpose. Without a Mazda player I don't see how the hell you're going to get them to work with an aftermarket drive. You'd have to control the drive by remote.

Only way I see you getting around all of that would be gutting out the HU, and molding your DVD drive into that space.

---EDIT: Nevermind. You can buy the kit shown on the bottom of this page, and insert your DVD drive right in there. It would still probably require some molding on your part so that you could make everything look clean, but that would probably take care of your problems as far as getting an aftermarket DVD drive in there to replace the stock CD player. You could probably fit the video switcher behind that space too, and simply extend its wires down the center console to tap into the nav unit's wires.---

I just did what everyone else has done...placed my aftermarket DVD player elsewhere (in the trunk, under a seat, in the glove compartment, etc.) while keeping everything else in tact.

What I really wanted to do was stick the aftermarket DVD player into the rear console bin where the nav drive is currently located, and then kick the nav unit drive back to the trunk, but there's no way to extend the wiring harness and connectors to reach the nav drive all the way back there, as far as I know.

 

Of course he did - because that's an OEM unit that was designed to go to that exact place and be integrated with the stock head unit. Doing that swap is a piece of cake.
Getting a different drive in there is a whole different issue alltogether. What I meant is that no one did such a swap as you described and that it does not seem to be a trivial task - not by a long shot. But if you manage to do it, I'm sure there are a lot of people who are interested in your solution.