I'm taking my RX400h to Europe in a few weeks. And yes, I already know that the European nav DVD (i.e. the one with euro maps) cannot be read by my US nav system, just like European DVDs cannot be read by US DVD players and vice-versa.
But while poking around I found the following post:
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There are many Russian owners of imported (from US - IS250 AWD for example, or IS350) cars, and they are using modified (once again, this is software solution! no any additional hardware!) DVD disks with european maps...
The procedure is pretty simple - everything that you need is a:
1) European DVD
2) US DVD
3) Blank DVD-R DL disk
4) DVD-R DL writer
5) Some knowledges
In short, you should replace files
ALLDATA.KWI
INDEXDAT.KWI
and IDX catalogue on the US dvd image with files and catalogue from EU dvd image...
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In other words:
1. Copy your US DVD onto your computer
2. Pull the named files from the European disk and overwrite the US version of those files with the Euro version
3. Burn a new DVD in US format, that has all the basic US files in place, only with Euro version of the named files substituted
4. Put the new DVD into your nav system
It sounds simple and if I had a European nav DVD I could give it a try in thirty minutes or so. But I don't. And while it sounds easy such things usually aren't quite so simple. The most obvious potential problem being that the named files might not be all the files that need to be substituted, or that their formats might be different in the US and European versions so that just copying them wouldn't actually result in a disk from which European maps could be read.
But you never know. Most people who use Lexus nav systems really aren't much up for hacking computer systems, even when it's easy.
Has anyone else done it? Results? Pointers? If the Russians can do it, no reason we can't.
