Made Entertaiment on Your Car

Reviewing the JVC KW-NX7000BT head unit. I installed this unit into my 2009 Honda Accord sedan using the Scosche kit.

Cosmetic Features: This unit looks great. The screen resolution is more than acceptable but it wasn’t as “tight” as my Garmin Nuvi 755T. That has a really sharp display. This is by no means crap though. You can adjust the brightness, color, etc. on the unit so you can change it to your tastes. The unit has a detachable face which is great when you have an aftermarket unit with a big screen sitting in your car. I paid $699 for this unit and don’t intend on having it stolen so this is a plus (although the unit does NOT come with a backstrap for securing it to the vehicle). Detaching the face is easy…there is a button labeled “Open” which allows you to open the face to insert a disc or SD card, tilt the face up or back down or detach the face. When detaching the face, the unit has a motorized face that slides the face down and out at a 45 degree angle which makes it very easy to remove from its backing plate. A padded neoprene case is provided for the face. What I liked about this unit is the “screen real estate”. It’s a full 7 inch touchscreen display with a few buttons on the bottom of the unit. When listening to the radio or using the nav, certain functions disappear from the touchscreen after a few seconds. To make them reappear, the unit senses your hand approaching via two sensors flanking the JVC logo on the bottom of the display. Pretty cool. You can adjust the proximity sensor to turn it off or make it so that you have to actually touch the screen to get them to appear. As other reviewers stated, you can’t change the background display to your own JPEG. There are 4 types of backgrounds to use and then you can change the color of those backgrounds (red, purple, blue, etc.). The included backgrounds are acceptable. I usually have the nav map on anyway. You can dim the screen 3 levels or wire it to your illumination control so whenever your lights are on, the unit will dim. I chose to not wire it to the illumination wire because you can set a dimmer “time” on the unit. So at 4pm each day the unit will automatically dim to my preset level and then at 7am the next day, the display will be on in full brightness. There is an on-screen clock too. While on the nav, it’s in the lower left corner. On the standard screens, it’s in a box in the lower left corner. If you want the clock on while playing a DVD, you can do that by turning the option on in the settings menu. The startup time of this unit is VERY quick too. You get that stupid warning screen about keeping your eyes on the road each time but within 10 seconds, the OK button will illuminate and you’re up and running. The volume function can be done in two ways. There are hard buttons for volume on the lower left part of the face (one button for up, one button for down) or you can just use your finger on the screen and draw a clockwise circle to turn the volume up for a counter-clockwise circle to turn the volume down. Pretty neat.

DVD Features: Nothing standing out too much here. The movies look great and sound great, you can 16:9 or 4:3 movies, subtitles, etc. The remote works the functions well too.

iPod Control: I purchased the JVC KS-U30 iPod A/V Cable and plainly said, it sucks. Other reviews talked about the iPod function being slow and boy is it ever. When I had my Honda factory radio installed, I had a Peripheral iPod interface that was very fast when going from one song to the next and to the next. Searching the phone book was very bad (I have about 6500 songs in my iPod) but as long as I loaded a few playlists for the music I wanted to hear, it was perfect so that’s actually how I use my iPod to this date. With the JVC unit, when you start playing a song, you need to wait for the song data to load before you can go to the next song so you can’t just click forward, forward, forward to skip a few songs. You’ll actually have about an 8 to 10 second wait before you can do that. Searching the entire iPod isn’t so bad because there is a scrollbar on the touchscreen that allows you to get through your iPod database without too much pain. The best thing you can do is set up a few playlists and access your music from there. Album art is horrible. I was actually excited about this part but after installing the unit, I’m grossly disappointed. After the song starts playing, you’re not supposed to touch any controls for at least 30 seconds while the data loads. You then press the display button and the album art is displayed but it looks horrible. Album art is usually a perfect square. They’ve taken that perfect square and centered it on a small 16×9 shaped box. The detail isn’t good enough to look at. All in all, I would not recommend using an iPod with this unit.

SD Card: Instead of using my iPod, I loaded up some music on a 2GB SD card and it’s awesome. You lose the ability to do repeat and random but it’s FAST. Music loads within 1 second and as long as your song’s ID3 tag is up to date, you can still get the artist, song name and album name on the screen (the other item that shows is the actual file name of the track so you may want to rename the files before loading them on the SD card). I’m not regretting the purchase of the KS-U30 cable because I’m sure there will be a day when a friend wants to load their iPod in my car or maybe I don’t have time to load music onto my SD card so I’m glad it’s there. The JVC unit has SO many features that for $39.99, you might as well get the cable so it’s there when you need it for your iPod in the future. Install everything in one shot if possible.

Bluetooth: Now maybe I’m a little spoiled because I had a Parrot MKi9200 Bluetooth kit before this unit but in my opinion, the Bluetooth add-in is pure crap. Installation was easy. Plug in a DIN cable and microphone…done. The sound quality seemed as if it hurt my ears. Think of a walkie-talkie. It’s something like that. Callers complained of echoing on every single call. The microphone is pretty small I guess (barrel style about an inch long) but it’s holder is HUGE. It’s meant to be clipped onto a visor. I have my microphone mounted on the top of my steering column away from any windows so it looked huge there. In the end, I reinstalled my Parrot Bluetooth kit and I have my good sound quality back. This actually ended up being a good thing when you mix the iPod into play. There are various sources within the unit: DVD/CD, Satellite, iPod, Bluetooth, etc. I would be listening to my iPod (and remember how slow it is) and then a call would come through. The unit would completely switch sources from iPod to Bluetooth to take the call. Once the call was done, it would switch back to the iPod but now it has to do that whole reloading thing again. HORRIBLE. It doesn’t just mute the music…it completely disconnects the iPod source from play. Now that I have my Parrot kit installed, it simply mutes the music and when my call is done, there is no wait to start jamming again. I would highly recommend the Parrot kit or another external kit to be used with this unit.

XM Satellite Radio: I just installed the CNP2000UC and JVC CNPJVC1 connector cable. I read some mixed reviews of this unit online and I gotta say that I didn’t have ANY negative experience with it. Got both items from Amazon in-stock when just about everyone else is out of stock. Since the CNP2000UC is a universal unit, you need to program it first with a computer. It comes with a proprietary USB cable. The directions did not spell out anything about the process really but luckily other people left reviews about what to do. Here it is…go to [...] and download the XM Direct 2 application. The instructions on this website said to plug in the USB cable first and install the drivers and THEN install the XM Direct 2 application. You need to install the XM Direct 2 application first which loads the driver files into a folder on your computer. When you plug in the USB cable to the unit, it won’t be able to find the drivers until you point it to the C > Program Files > XM Direct 2 folder. Once I did that, the install went fine (it does flag you that it is an unsigned driver but you can install it anyway). The specs state that you have to have Windows XP but it installed perfectly on my Vista Home Premium laptop. Also, you HAVE to use Internet Explorer. It will NOT work with Firefox. Once the program and drivers are installed, just double-click the XM Direct 2 icon on your desktop and it will open an Internet Explorer webpage to download the correct firmware. Choose your manufacturer and model number and click the “Run Firmware Loader” button to begin. The entire process took less than 10 seconds. Installation into the car was simple too. The JVC CNPJVC1 connector cable requires a +12V constant and ground to be connected. The DIN cable is plugged into the head unit and there is a female DIN connector tied into the harness in case you have other things like a Bluetooth kit or CD changer…it’s a pass-through cable. Install the antenna and plug it into the mini-tuner kit, then plug the mini-tuner kit into the main module. I contacted XM and had them swap my new unit in place of the Honda factory XM kit and I was up and running in about 10 minutes. What I love about this kit is that it’s FAST just like the SD card. I listen to XM and my iPod a lot. The iPod part sucks but the SD card takes it’s place so I’m very, very happy with this unit. When you have a unit with this many features like the NX7000 does, you don’t want anything to run slow.

Navigation: The unit uses Navteq maps which is fine. The layout is nice, screen looks nice and the overall function of the nav is good. Comparing it to the Garmin Nuvi 755T though, there are pros and cons. The Nuvi had A LOT of speed limit indicators that would show up on the screen. I live in a medium-sized town and most of the roads were labeled with their speed limit. I’ve only seen the speed limit pop up once on the JVC nav and it was on the highway which the speed limit is almost a no-brainer (most areas are 65mph but there are some 55 and 50mph areas). The best thing I like about the nav is the turn by turn audible cues. With the Garmin unit, it had a speaker but if you’re playing music and traveling on the highway, you can’t hear the updates. You can set the JVC to give you a pleasant tone, a quick 2-burst tone or no tone…then you can set the volume of a very smooth female voice to come on and provide the directions or turn the volume all the way down to zero so you can just follow the screen. I took a road trip with people to a place I had never been to and it worked like a charm. While the other 3 people were talking loudly, I was able to hear my turn cues and get to the destination easily. This is nice too when you’re on a long road trip and get in the “zone”…the audible cues ensure that you don’t miss your turn. This one feature…the audible cues over my car’s speakers…makes the change from Garmin to the JVC nav all worth it. Your current speed is a function in the nav but not on the main screen like the Nuvi. No big deal…that’s what the speedometer on the dash is for so I really don’t think it needs to be there. You can save a bunch of favorite locations in the nav, choose from previous ones, rename them, set a home location, etc. The standard set of GPS functions are included in the unit. Searching the POIs was easy too but my only gripe is that the search comes back with the alphabetical listing which could mean that the first option at the top of the list is 300 miles away. You need to press a button on the screen for Distance and then you can find what is close to you. No huge deal but I would hope that could be changed in the future. JVC has a Nav Update website available ([...]) and the 2009 map update was released on 12/22/09. What’s nice about Navteq is that they tell you what’s included in the update. I didn’t see anything for my area so I won’t buy it. What’s bad is the the map updates are expensive at $139 a piece. Garmin map updates are around $70 but then again, they don’t tell you what’s included in the update so in the end, I guess I’d rather spend $139 knowing that the updates WILL make sense for me instead of paying $70 to Garmin not knowing what I am getting. I am still a huge Garmin fan (I’ve had the Nuvi 660 and Nuvi 755T) and I’m happy to say that this GPS in the JVC unit is great. I don’t feel like I’m losing anything without the Garmin. I would definitely recommend this nav.

Sound: I used a PAC OEM-2 factory sound system interface for my unit since I have the factory 275-watt stereo so I’m not really using the internal JVC amp. The sound is better then the Honda factory unit because a 7-band EQ is included. There are a number of standard EQ presets like Rock, Pop, etc. but you can also set 3 user presets. The EQ presets (including the user ones) are accessible from the main screen. Just press the square on the left side of the screen and there is an EQ icon. Each time you press the icon, it goes through the EQ preset list.

Steering Wheel Control: I installed the PAC SWI-JACK steering wheel control unit and it works good. There is a slight delay when pressing the volume up or channel up buttons but it’s no big deal. I wasn’t able to program my Mode button to change the source but with so many sources, that could be the reason why I can’t. Also, the Channel up and down button on my steering wheel will take you forward or back on tracks (no fast forward or rewind) while listening to the iPod or SD card, will take the XM station through its station presets up or down but when listening to the radio, it works like a Seek button. Again, no big big deal but it’s a difference.

Honda Accord Scosche Kit: This is a really nice kit. I bought this from Amazon for around $40 while Crutchfield was charging around $70 for the same kit. The texture of the kit is slightly “rougher” than the factory piece it replaced but it doesn’t look out of place. The color (grey) is also just a touch lighter than the factory piece but since nothing else around it with the same color butts up to this unit, it’s not bad. It’s more of a complimentary color. The unit fills up the whole double-DIN opening. When mounted normally, the unit sticks out a little more than I like because of it’s detachable face (about a 1/8th inch past the bezel). It definitely made it look like an aftermarket unit. I ended up moving the unit back in the brackets a bit and I had to cut out a little plastic on the front lip of the kit using a Dremel tool so that the motorized face would still work but in the end, it’s recessed about a 1/8th inch and looks custom and integrated (aka – factory). When the face is installed, you can’t see the part I cut but you can when I remove the face but if the face is removed, that means I’m not in the car so I don’t care what that looks like.

Backup Camera: I didn’t get the JVC backup camera made for this unit (mainly because they were out of stock) so I went for an Advent license plate mountable unit. It works good. When you shift into reverse, the camera automatically comes onto the screen. For normal backing up I don’t really look at it but if I’m backing into a parking spot, it’s pretty nice to have and the 7″ screen gives me the best picture possible.

All in all, it’s a great unit. I didn’t give it 5 stars because of the poor Bluetooth unit but everything else is great. You get a TON of features for such a low price point. Definitely a recommended unit.
Rating: 4 / 5

My wife and I both got this unit for our cars, based on reviews we’ve read. It was definiately the best screen size for the price.

Pretty much everything is controlled by soft keys (touch screen), when seems great but trying to change radio stations quickly can be, well, trying. The sound is great, though.

The navigation (GPS) system works very well, and re-routes quickly if you decide to deviate from the suggested route. It is uncannily accurate, as far as telling you when to turn, etc. The 3-D view is quite useful, but there is no elevation data. Also, these sense of motion on the 3-D view is not as good as in some other systems (such as the Tom-tom).

It can be a little annoying as it warns you when you are speeding on the interstate highways… or so I’ve heard.

We also use the bluetooth interface to our cell phones. With the microphone mounted up near the visor, the performance is surpirising good, and apparently has some sort of echo cancelation, because the caller stops hearing his own voice from the speaker system fairly quickly. We are pleased with it.

The DVD player works great; the 7″ screen is a must have if you are planning to play DVDs.

We love the remote – my son operates the GPS cursor from the back seat.

Features I would like to have seen included:

- Ability to bypass the initial screen warning the drive to keep his eyes on the road.

- Ability to specify specific road segments to detour around.

- Ability to specify the level of detail displayed on the GPS map – secondary roads are not shown, even if you are right on top of them, unless you are zoomed in enough.

- A larger Point-of-interest database. It doesn’t seem to know anything about hardware stores and some grocery stores. You need to know the address.

- Navigate to an intersection – I’m not positve, but I think this feature is not included.

Some suggestions:

- Get a professional installer to install it! I spent three days installing it in my 2009 Kia Sorento – most reverse enginerring the wiring. And the mechanical install still doesnlt look quite right. In my Wife’s Forester, the installer only took 1.5 hours and charged $70. Quite a bargain!

- Remember than some features (such as display settings and DVD playback) are only available when the parking break is set.
Rating: 4 / 5