I have an 08 Hummer H3 Alpha (no backup camera) and was an MECP certified installer for Best Buy and Circuit City, I add this to show that I know that what I want to do can be done because I have done it for customers in the past just never in a Hummer and totally forget what I did since it's been so long.

What I'm talking about is that I want to make the head unit/navigation screen be able to play and display DVD's. I know it is already capable of reading DVD's atleast rom versions but I want to know what I need to do to make it be able to play and display regular movies.

Their use to be a company called lock pic that sold bypass modules or I use to loop it threw backup camera setups but that was years ago and again never in a Hummer.

So hopefully someone on here has tried and succeded in what I'm trying to do and be able to give me the steps or what parts I need to be able to do the same.

If none of what I mentioned is possible has anyone hooked up an external DVD player or playstation 2 or 3 up to their navigation system to get the dash touch screen to display DVD's?

Anyway any help in getting my goal of being able to watch DVD's on my dash screen is most appreciated and let me know any methods used to get it done, I'm hoping that it is just some simple module I can buy and wire into the system to get the desired effect and that what I want to do isn't a huge project but I know it can be done because I have done it before.

Thanks for the help in aadvance and while I'm waiting I'll keep trying myself and if I solve it before hand I'll post so that maybe it will help someone who wants to do the same thing as me to their H3. Thanks again

 

I was also investigating this - primarily for being able to run a backup camera through the factory touchscreen nav unit.

These guys have a device that does this, well comes close...

http://avelectronic.com/NavigationVid-Switcher.html

From email correspondence with them...

"The plug&play (Internal) Navigation Video/Camera Interface for the 2007 H3 is US$350.00. This will give you 1 DVD video input and 1 Automatic Backup Camera input. We also have 5 different models of camera to choose from (pricing and model in our website, under camera)."

So appears you wouldn't be using the DVD drive in the head unit, just that you'd have input for an external one. But the backup camera would be supported too.

The pricing included global shipping.

I found a couple of other systems online but most expressly didn't work with the Hummer H3 (even ones that showed pictures of a nav unit that looked identical). There was one other I recall coming across, but the company looked like it was dead.

 

Thank you for the response but that is half of the answer I was looking for and I'm hoping I find the other half.

My ultimate goal is for the factory head unit/navigation screen to play dvd's itself.

I know it will read dvd rom's as with the dvd maps for the system so there has to be a way for it to read and play normal dvd's on the screen the question is does anyone know how to make the stock nav/screen unit do this?

Is there a program needed to be installed for it to read dvd's, a mudule needed to be added to the unit or do I just have a unit that is broken that has the ability to read dvd's but won't cause something is wrong with it?

If anyone know please post cause like I said if it will read dvd rom's it has the ability to read dvd's, the question is how to unlock it's ability to do so.

Thanks for the help cause I really want to make this happen as does my 9 year old son, as he says "I want to watch movies in dadies truck" lol

 

If you find out how to do it, please let us know here!

 

Well the good news is today I found the seperate CD slot (dvd slot) where you put the navigation discs in (this is a totally different slot than the one on top that you load your cd's into and there is no way to even see or know it even exsists until you hold the cd eject button down and the whole navigation head unit opens up).

If you don't know where it is hold down the eject button for the cd for about 12 to 15 seconds or until you hear a beep. When you hear that beep the screen pops out and down and unveils the slot where the DVD's go, I was so happy to find it it was like I was a kid on Chriastmas mourning lol.

So now having it open and found I loaded a DVD and to my surprise it would not play a dvd and I tried 4 different ones all made in a different format just so I could be sure I checked everything.

So I'm half way there I just have to find out why it will not play regular DVD's even though it's a dvd player but atleast I found the hidden deck and hopefully that gives others some help to those like me that had no idea it was even there.

I will, that is update this post if I figure out how to make this work, how to make the navigation deck play regular dvd's. What I'm thinking now is that their is an output on the back of the deck (haven't taken it out of the dash yet) that send the picture to external monitors since watching tv up front is against the law in just about every state.

I'm going to start a new topic to see if that gets more hits and hopefully a result as to how to make this work and give me the ability to watch movies. Stay tuned

 

I think you're right about the separate output because a rear entertainment system is an option and it will play video to the displays in the back of the head rests. I think other after market systems will play DVD's on the in dash screen if the transmission is in park.

I think the OEM system is made by Alpine. You might go on-line to Alpine and find the manual for it.