A/v opinion needed: suggestions for double din unit?

[dgoody88]

Hey everyone! I'm ready to put a nice in dash a/v unit in my car. Preferably double din. Now I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction. I don't wanna spend an arm and a leg on a unit but at the same time i want something reliable. Any help is appreciated.

[MetroMPG]

Considering my car (Firefly/Metro) came with no factory radio AT ALL, and I drove it like that for a couple of years before plunking in an AM/FM cassette player... I don't have anything helpful to offer

Hopefully other members will chime in.

[dgoody88]

Ya when I got my license you were cool if you had a CD player. Now everything is USB aux sd etc etc. I'm kinda new to the in dash DVD and stuff like that and I also know that some of them can be really pricey. I just would want something affordable and reliable

[PoisonIvy]

My advice is go with a 'name brand' if you want something reliable, and something you'll enjoy more over the time you own it. I've found you really get what you pay for with something like this, the off-brands will be glitchier, the touch screens won't be as sensitive, less support from the manufacturer, etc.

It's pretty much guaranteed to have a USB input. This is nice to either plug your phone cord in and charge and/or listen to music on your phone. You can also load up a USB stick/drive with music and listen to music off that.

The biggest question would then be, do you need/want Bluetooth. Once I put a Bluetooth unit in, I wouldn't go back. That and my province has put in cell phone laws in place a couple years ago.

If you find you wouldn't use Bluetooth, I'd recommend something like this:
Kenwood DDX272 DVD SiriusXM Ready Receiver w/ 6.2" Touchscreen Display

If you figure Bluetooth would be useful (to avoid tickets or to stream music even), I'd recommend something like this:
Kenwood DDX372BT DVD Bluetooth Receiver w/ 6.2" Touchscreen Display

A place like Sonic Electronix will also include the dash mounting kit, wiring harness and antennae adapter at that price.

[dgoody88]

I'll have to check out sonic electronics. Thanks for the tip

[w00tah]

I'm a fan of Alpine, Sony, and Kenwood. I really like the W555BT and w265BT from Alpine.

[xintersecty]

I have one of those cheapo chinese double din gps units. I bought mine for about 250 before the android ones came available.

The bluetooth works good and it's very helpful.
The mp3 player sucks as it uses the DOS short name and not the full windows name (windows file system).
The apple control sucks.
Don't use the dvd player.
My video input failed to work as the camera did not work. Still working on that issue. Been busy with other car issues.
GPS is a mixed bag.

If you go that route try and get an android one first. I have this in my ebay watch list.
Double 2Din in Dash 7" Android 4 2 OS Car Stereo Radio iPod Bluetooth 1g 1080p | eBay

So my original map card died destroying my map gps software. So i had to buy an windows ce compatible map package. I like it. every once in a while, it looses it's settings and I have to reconfigure it. I am pretty happy with. My unit is really two computers that share the same audio and video. One for everything else and the other for the GPS. So again I would go android.