Jensen Vm9312 7-Inch Motorized Touch Screen Multimedia Receiver Review

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(More customer reviews)Some might consider this a lower end product, due to the fact that it's about half the price of it's nearest competition. Rest assured, the 'cheap' stigma is in price alone. It's an easy to use, easy to adjust, and fun to use deck that even the least tech-savvy of car owners can operate easily.
First off, I was surprised at how good the picture is. I never feel like I'm watching on a tiny screen, or squinting to make out details. The sound is also good, although at times during dvd playback, I thought it was a bit quiet. I haven't tried using a satellite radio or iPod yet, but for cd and mp3-cd playback it worked well, with great options for navigating through folders.
Few warnings for those thinking of buying this product;
-Player automatically reverts to full volume after being powered down. Can be a bit of a shocker if you're not ready for it.
-When going into the input menu or setup menu, there's a break in the audio for about 1-1.5 seconds. This isn't really a big deal, but is becoming more and more annoying the more it happens.
-It has some trouble recognizing the track title of most store bought discs, substituting song names with "Track 1, Track 2" etc... Not an issue with mp3 discs with ID3 tags.
-There's no option to fast-forward an mp3. I thought this would be a big deal, which prevented me from buying this deck for a while. Not really an issue.
Considering the price, it's a really decent deck. Intuitive controls, easy installation, and fun to show off. Other than a few minor (and probably easily remedied) issues, I'd definitely recommend this deck.

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Jensen Vm9312 7" Motorized Touch Screen Multimedia Receiver 7" Motorized Touch Screen;160w Max; Plays Dvd/Cd/Mp3/Wma/Ipod/Sat-Ready Receiver;Jlinkdirect-High-Speed Direct Connect Interface For Playlists, Artists, Albums, Songs, Photos & Videos; Controls All Ipod Functions (Except Ipod Shuffle) Via Touchscreen;High-Performance A Grade Tft Screen;336,960 Pixels; Mediaplex Single-Core Engine;Compatible With Dvd+R/Dvd+Rw/Cd-R/Cd-Rw/Cd-Da/Mp3/Wma/Svcd/Vcd/Mpeg1/Mpeg2 & Jpeg;2 A/V Inputs For External Media Connectivity To Vcr, Dvd Player & Game Console;2 Composite Video Output For Additional Screens;Plays Mp3/Wma Files Burned Onto Dvd+R/Dvd+Rw;Supports Up To 1,000 Songs On A Single Dvd;Compatible With Single & Dual Layer Dvd+R;3-Band Equalizerbass, Midrange & Treble; 8-Preset Eq Curves;Radio Broadcast Data Services;Station Call Letters, Song Information & Artist Information;Includes 3.5mm Rca Media Interface Cable To Connect Other Portable Devices; Sat-Ready Via Smart Digital Adapter; Compatible With Various Xm & Sirius Satellite Tuners; 7" Motorized Touch Screen Multimedia Receiver.

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Power Acoustik PTID-8970NRB 7-Inch In-Dash Widescreen TFT/LCD Monitor with DVD Review

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(More customer reviews)I don't normally write reviews, but I decided I should for this product since there aren't many and I think the manufacturer deserves credit. I've used Power Acoustik amps and speakers before and liked them a lot. The company produces quality products but gets non-name-brand prices. So I wasn't too scared rolling the dice on this unit. I've been using it for a half a year now and it hasn't disappointed.
Sound is just fine. I doubt its audiophile quality, but it will stand with a good portion of the Sonys and the Pioneers. My one gripe there is that it doesn't seem to filter the low pass signals out of the main channels if you tell it to output to the sub channel, but this is a relatively minor problem and if you're not using a sub, you won't even care. The volume is sufficient.
Menu/control system is pretty good. You get some geek cred for having a touch screen and the basic functions are as you would expect. The external controls on the faceplate are a little weird. I definitely would have made the source easier to change than scrolling through by tapping the power button (I've never accidentally shut it off though--it's just you would think this would get its own button). I do like having the call pick-up and disconnect buttons that you can use when the faceplate is down.
iPod control is weird and I honestly don't use it. It's 100x easier to navigate your songs on the iPod itself. But I don't have use the custom ipod input because the basic audio input off a headphone jack is all i need there anyway and it lets me set my iPod in the console right side up. I suppose if I got into video on my ipod I'd give the ipod control another try, but it doesn't really worry me.
The Bluetooth handsfree option works fairly well. When someone calls you, no matter what screen you are in, it mutes your music, comes up with who it is and lets you choose to answer. It will also dial out strait from the head unit and interface with your phone's phonebook. It had troubles interfacing with mine. I actually prefer to just make the call from the phone and then the head unit takes over. I'm still out on whether I find the audio quality acceptable. In town its fine, but at highway speeds I think it picks up too much noise. Still, it's definitely usable.
Movies are pretty good. They can be a little washed out in the day depending on where the sun is etc., but generally the picture is great. I also like that it's not just a DVD player but a divx/xvid player and can use SD and USB storage devices. I haven't really used it, but I like knowing its there. If I did want to watch movies etc, I'd definately be using more the xvid/divx stuff than off the ipod. My one grip is that you have to use the remote for some of the navigation of the movie menus. I wish this was all touch screen, but you don't need it that often.
Navigation is the killer app for me. I just love it. It's also the part that I was most ambivalent about since there were no reviews of it. Well I'm glad I took the plunge. It's $200 extra, but well worth it. It's well programmed, you won't have a problem switching from a Garmin or a TomTom. It finds the satellites a lot quicker than my Garmin too, and I assume (though I don't have many tall buildings or mountains around me that it will hold on signal better there as well. And I have the antenna buried behind my glovebox. I imagine if I gave it more prominent positioning, the signal would be even better. The maps seem to be better than my garmin: it has less unnamed streets in my experience. And the fact that it's built into your dash and you don't have to sucker it onto your windshield is great. I'm really interested if anyone knows about software updates for it (just because I'm geeky that way). The website it points to doesn't seem to exist. You can quickly switch between your nav screen and your audio screens. You can continue listening to your source audio while in the nav screen and you can continue to get audio nav directions when off of the nav screen.
The security feature sort of scares me. The removable part isn't all that noticable when it's removed. It doesn't seem like much of a deterrent, which is all that really matters. I once had a head unit with top of the line smart card security. Well, it was stolen even though the card was out. All the thieves got was a dead stereo, but that didn't help me any. Anyways, this unit is so reasonably priced that I think the risk is worth it.
So all and all: everything is a little rough around the edges, it seems like it was designed a little hastily--maybe by the engineers, but it's feature-rich and most of the features work well. And if you tried to get anything similar from a big name you'd easilty be paying twice as much, which makes this a great buy.

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7-inch In-Dash Widescreen TFT/LCD Monitor with DVD

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Yamaha RX-N600 Digital Network-Ready Home Theater Receiver Review

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(More customer reviews)I have had this unit for about 2 weeks now. Sound is as good as anything in this price range. I was coming from a Sony 900 series receiver which was failing. This is my first Yamaha. No other manufacturers had networking capability that didn't cost 3 times as much. Plan on spending most of a day setting this up unless you do that kind of thing often.
Most of my comments center around the networking and USB functions because that's why I bought it, to perhaps eliminate my PC as a music source and go direct from this receiver. We'll, it kinda works... The remote is a bit of a sore spot too as with just a bit more functionality it could have been really good, I could have gotten down to one remote but unfortunately it does not control my cable set top box.
Strengths
*Works great with my Sony VCR, remote controls everything nicely.
*Ipod dock (an extra item purchased separately) seems to work very well. Does not play Ipod video though. Remote controls this too
*Nice remote, after you figure it out it is pretty logical. Controls 3 of my 4 components nicely.
*Internet radio is a real winner, seems to have jillions of stations arranged fairly logically by locale. It would be very difficult to duplicate this on your PC unless you enrolled in a pay service. Its like having a short wave radio.
Near misses
*Remote works great with my Sony DVD player, but make sure you have the side switch on "source" to control play, fast forward, etc. Otherwise you won't be able to move the cursor through DVD menus that appear in the movie menu and make choices on how the movie plays.
*If the Remote could just have a little learning it would be great. You won't know if it will control your unit until you try it out. The list of remote codes that Yamaha supplies is vague, does not list models just a bunch of codes for each manufacturer. You just have to try each one for your manufacturer and see if any work. Hit or miss.
*Net/USB did not work with my Creative Zen Nomad jukebox MP3 player, but did work with a Corsair Memory 2gb flash voyager stick. Go figure. I did notice recently that I can set my Zen to act as a mass storgae unit, and to be fair I have not tried that yet.
Weaknesses
*Network music does not work with Microsoft Media Player 11, only 10. I called Yamaha and they said Media Player 11 was not supported. The N600 does not connect reliably to the media library store, sometimes it works fine, sometimes it errors out or just shows an empty list. Very finicky. Media player 11 is in beta so beware, it will become mainsteam shortly and is not supported. I'm not sure if/how Yamaha will remedy this for me.
*Plays wave, WMA and MP3 but not Itunes
*Crude character interface display for the Net/USB functions, like looking at a pong game on an old IBM CGA PC. About as much functionality as a typical MP3 player, you have to scroll through a page at a time in everything. A pain in the neck if you have a large music collection
*Will not control my Motorola DCT700 Comcast cable box, I tried all the Motorola codes and Yamaha says that's all there is, if they don't work you are outta luck. I am.
*Remote has no learning capability.
*Limited inputs for other components, but enough for what I need
*Documentation is OK but the manual is all there is. There is no FAQ or deeper level of detail on their website or anywhere else that I could find. You have to call Yamaha and you will get a live person, but from what I found from 2 calls is they didn't know any more than the manual.
Conclusion: Would I buy this again? Probably not because the networking is so limited, and that was the main reason I selected this model. If you buy a good receiver and go with an attached high quality PC/soundcard you'd be better off.The Yamaha interface does not come anywhere close to the ease of use and nice presentation you get on any PC media player program. That's like comparing a typewriter to using a PC with Word. The USB feature is nice but could be a lot better if it supported more devices.

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The RX-N600 is the first Yamaha receiver to offer network receiver functions. Using network connection and Windows Media Connect ver.2 technology, it lets you play MP3, WMA and WAV music from a remote PC. You can also listen to any of the thousands of stations available on Internet radio.

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