Trawling through posts about updating the satnav and it seemed Volvo disks are cheaper but some suggestion that the newer ones won't work in an older FL2.

2014 disks from a V70 (it's a 2012 model) work fine in my 2007 FL2. Took something over an hour for the update (didn't stand and watch how long).

http://www.freel2.com/forum/post254323.html#254323

Saw that post Rich. Not sure how that site can sell the original LR disks so cheap.

However, the Volvo one I used was far cheaper as it was recovered from a scrapyard when looking for some other bits and bobs.

Point was, it's a brand new Volvo disk and works fine.

Me neither, I think they are around £200 from the dealer? Glad yours works, don't use mine much but it is just one of those cheap and easy upgrades that make it worth it when you do use them.

I believe they sell them cheap because they are sold as "back up disc's" (copies from original)
From what I understand they are harder for the dvd unit to read and can cause premature wear on the laser. Fix it until it's broke !

Wear on a laser? How? There's no physical contact!
May be more error prone if copy quality is poor. 2011 SD4 HSE Auto
(Previously 2007 TD4 XS Manual)

Of course no physical contact, that would be a stylus...lol
It seems the copies are burnt at different levels/layers causing the laser to work harder and as you say cause errors. Fix it until it's broke !

....and if 'back up' copies then the sale of them is somewhat questionable?

Joe wrote:

....... causing the laser to work harder and as you say cause errors.

"Absolute ballcocks!"
Impressed with your reasoning powers

Copied disks do not have anything like the high reflectivity properties that genuine disks have. This causes the laser to have to perform many more re-reads of the data in order to get a successful read. This has two effects on your system. First off it will reduce the life of the laser dramatically. Secondly, it will cause your system to run much slower and hotter. This in itself will reduce the life of the system not to mention invalidate any warranty you may have.

Joe Fix it until it's broke !

Care to expand and tell us why then teapot man

I don't know which site was linked to on the other thread since it seems to have been removed.

I recently bought what was supposed to be a 2015 disk from a site providing a backup service, when I received it both version.txt and the sat nav hidden menu showed it to be a 2012 disk.

From looking at a few disks since then it seems that the published date is pretty much always a year after the map data creation date on both Volvo and LR disks (and probably others). The same is true of the satnav software on my phone.

Out of interest I created a back-up of the Volvo disk I aquired. Have run that backup disk for the past month and the system seems to run perfectly happily with it. If it does wear out the LASER any more quickly it wouldn't be any great loss as the LR satnav isn't really very good compared to the phone/tablet options.

Still can't work out how a disc could wear out a laser? Surely the laser is a beam of light that shines at a constant rate, light is reflected from disc and read, if disc is a crock the reflected light won't be able to be read end of story. Where in the process would anything be subject to wear? This is a genuine question of anyone who actually knows how these things work as am puzzled!

Joe's explanation a couple of posts further up seems reasonable.

Whether it's true or not I have no idea. The Denon CD player I bought 20 years ago still works fine and that has had all sorts of CDs in it...high quality, average quality and some pretty scratched backups (I backup my original audio disks and use the copied version in the cars and in the house).

Would a more modern DVD player be worse? I don't imagine so.