Thanks for the reply; I'm a bit confused, though. Most devices like this have two levels of software - firmware, the stuff that's loaded into the device itself (think of it as something like an operating system) and then the application software (in this case, the maps software that comes on the dvd's). So from my limited understanding of what my dad was told, the US navigation unit wasn't able to use the European maps dvd, and that was supposedly due to the wrong firmware being pre-loaded on the device. If I understand what you're saying correctly, then the dvd's are not just maps software - there's at least some system software component there as well. If that's the case, is that ALL the system software? If so, I'm starting to think that perhaps the units are different from the ones in the European market (as otherwise, just using the Euro dvd's should do the trick). Is that just a lower-level firmware setting (kind of like a region code in movie-dvd hardware)?
When you say hybrid dvd, are you implying that there are some files on his original US maps dvd that he needs to get the nav unit to work, and that the way to do that would be to combine most of the files from the Euro dvd, but to substitute some of them with specific files from the US dvd? And if so, which files are those?
Again, thanks for posting, and I'd love to get a bit more information on this so I can figure this out for him. He's currently using an aftermarket nav unit, which is a bit of a pain as well as being kludgey.
Cheers,
-Andreas