A system for use in a motor vehicle includes a wireless receiver that receives, over a wireless communication channel, supplemental information representative of the characteristics of the contents of a playback media, and provides received supplemental information indicative thereof. A playback device receives the received supplemental information and stores the received supplemental information in a non-volatile memory device. The playback unit may generate a request for supplement information in response to and indicative of a playback media inserted into the playback unit. The system may also include a wireless transmitter that receives the request and transmits the received request over the communication channel. In one embodiment, after the data medium has been inserted into the playback unit, the wireless transmitter (e.g., a car telephone) establishes a radio connection to a data server, and at least part of the characteristic data stored on the inserted data medium are read by the playback unit and are transmitted from the wireless transmitter to the data server, which compares these characteristic data with stored data to identify the data medium. After identifying the data medium, the data server transmits supplemental information to the playback unit, which stores the information in a memory device for on-demand retrieval and display. In another embodiment, a radio connection is established between a computing device and the wireless receiver. The computing device transmits characteristic data of selected data media over the radio connection to the wireless receiver, which provides the received data to the playback unit that stores the received data in a memory device for subsequent on-demand retrieval and display. In this embodiment, an operator can transfer to the motor vehicle the characteristic data stored in the computing device (e.g., personal computer) relating to selected data media.