InDash DVD Players with Screens

[vividjazz]

A good selection of products without the big brand name prices can be found here.

www.brashimports.com.au/


Some other brands you may not have thought of are Necvox (their website is pretty poor) www.necvox.com and

megavox www.megavox.com (some very innovative head units with memory card and USB inputs)

[TRoLL]

what about branded ones?

[vividjazz]

The namebrand units from Pioneer, Clarion and Alpine will set you back between $1,500 and over $3,500.

A lot of the car DVD players do not include a sound processor unit built in if you want surround sound. This can be a further $1,000 unit. Some do not include a TV tuner which can be another add on expense. A better / different antenna is required for all the units for TV reception. Sat nav and reversing cameras (not exactly necessary on a Jazz) are also offered as options on some units.

Handheld navigation units such as navman and tomtom are cheaper and easier to upgrade.

The menus on the noname DVD units can be more difficult to navigate as the same amount of development has not gone into the user interface.

Portable DVD players with screens can be had for a few hundred dollars now so I'd say the price of the incar equivalents should be set to fall.

The idea of 5.1 sound is for the seperation of sounds to give that cinema experience. Given the tiny interior of a car and the number of obsticles between passengers and speakers (seats, headrests, etc) and the very different position of each passenger it simply doesn't work that well in practice. Ideally if we ripped out the interior of the car and sat in the middle it would work better but there is still the lack of distance between the speakers that you get at home and in the cinema.

Given a good setup will cost you as much as your home cinema I personally don't see the value. Add to this that by law you have to be stationary to watch a screen so you have to park somewhere to use the system anyway. I'll stick with cuddling the misses on the couch with a fresh bowl of popcorn over the front seat of the Jazz but to each his own.

[vividjazz]

Lets look at the 3 name brands head to head.

Alpine offers 2 models of indash players with screens. All indash single DIN with motorised screens. Motorised screens take time to open out and switch on. A third model is offered that is just a radio with a screen requiring other components to do anything else (ie. DVD stacker or other head unit). The IVA-D900R and IVA-D310E support DVDR and RW but NOT MP3 DVDs. If you want surround sound you’ll need to buy the matching Alpine processor on top and the Alpine center speaker system also on top. TV tuner is additional. If you want multiple external sources you’ll need to purchase one of the additional Alpine breakout box. Starting to become easy to see why a complete Alpine multimedia system will set you back about $10,000.

Clarion similarly has 2 indash players with screens again motorised. They also have a couple of just indash TV models. Clarion has no problems with DVD + or – R or RW but will only play MP3 encoded CDs NOT DVDs. Again if you want surround sound you will need to but the addon processor and center speaker system. TV tuner again additional but at least you get a better variety of external source inputs on the units themselves. This means you probably won’t need an additional breakout box.

Pioneer offers 3 models again all single DIN with motorised screens starting from RRP $2,200. Again you won’t be listening to your MP3s on DVD on the entry level 5750DVD but step up to the 6650DVD or 7650DVD and your away. All support DVDR and RW. No need for a separate surround processor on the top of the range 7650DVD as this unit has got the lot. TV tuner is additional for all units.

If your made of money go the Pioneer 7650DVD but if you have a tight budget have a good look at the huge range of no name offerings in the market. A lot of these include many of the name brand optional extras and for those that don’t the options are certainly less costly.

Given that none of these brands manufacture the LCD screens themselves you can end up purchasing just as good screens in the greater market. Its often the menu software that can let them down and some of the audio features. With thousands of dollars difference most of us can live with some compromises.

If sound is your primary goal then by all means stick with the industry leaders whos sound features are superb but why get the very costly LCD screen from them.

[vividjazz]

JVCs units are gigaMP3. Which means you can burn your MP3s to a DVD and it will work unlike a lot of the other brands.

[dreams]

anyone using a KENWOOD double din???

[stevenkk]

anyone have a head unit which can = mp3 dvd with a usb adapter or somthing similar and can reccemend one i going to install one very soon !!!