Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 09:27 pm, by: Steven Nanevski(Imprestik)
Hey all,
Well I want to upgrade my system, and was planning on purchasing this deck on e-bay brand new, just want to know if anyone has one, or your thoughts on them....
Reason I want to purchase the deck is I'm sick of having 3 different units in my car when I can have 1 to do everything I want. I have my 7" scrren in one din, JVC deck below it and then my DVD player underneth the drivers seat, very annoying when trying to play DVD......
Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 09:53 pm, by: Michael Marchant(Mavric)
Its hard to judge the quality of these no name brands on Ebay but for the price they are asking its hard to pass up. One of the benefits I see with this deck is the disc loads from the front so their is no moving parts to screw up (which is a common occurrence on cheaper decks). There is another thread relating to a double din Ebay bought screen, I will see if I can dig up the thread.
Looks good mate, but it doesn't play DivX movies though (in my case that's like 99.99% of all the movies that I own ) When I was looking for mine, I couldn't find one like that (with 6.5 or 7" screen) that could actually play that. The one I bought does though, but it has a smaller 3.5" screen (there's a thread in ICE here somewhere). Quality is questionable as always from those non-brand items, you basically gotta ask everything. With mine I forgot to ask if the unit dims down automatically when lights are on, so now I gotta do it manually at night. Think about all the things like that you need this unit to do, even the most basic ones and ask the question, otherwise it WILL become irritating. Brand items do take care of things like that, but don't assume the same with these cheap eBay units. Other than that, it is good value hey.
Thursday, June 01, 2006 - 04:48 pm, by: Steven Nanevski(Imprestik)
Yeah well that's true too Daniel, just a question about your one, does it play DVDs while your driving. I usually like downloading video clips and burning them onto a DVD and playing it that way, on my current setup I have no problem, just wondering if I will have the same issue????
Do you download the actual DVD rip file thingy, or do you get an mpeg4 file, like avi format or whatever? With mine i can put any video file in it, directly off the computer whether on a CD or DVD and it plays, it has most of the codecs, I've only came across two movies that didn't work out of 20 or so that I tried.
Oh yeah, there's no problems with playing anything at any time. There is a brake wire if you do want movies to be disabled (obviously not), you attach it somewhere but other than that there is no limitations of any sort. It's not a perfect unit though, the screen size is good enough to watch for half an hour or so (enough if say you're waiting for someone for a while in the car etc). The text on it is tiny too I've realised, like when you're browsing through the mp3 list I have to bring my head closer to read this thing, but luckily you have video out in it so you can read it no worries on a seperate 7" screen if you want to. Thats what I was thinking anyway, have that little one for everyday, and the odd occasion when there is a movie played, I'd pop out the big screen.
My HU seems to have a minor issue when it plays for an extended period of time sound disappears for half a second once every say 10 or 20 mins, doesn't get annoying or anything but just making you aware. For the money I didn;t expect top class unit. Sound clarity is quite good, though I've got the sound running through seperate amplifiers now. Not sure about the pre-amp voltage though. There are two, front and back. I got the front speakers running off the deck, back speakers off the rear pre-out, sub off the front pre-out (doesnt make a difference anyway).
Anyway, good luck finding a good unit, ask plenty of obvious questions though, they more than likely have missed at least one obvious feature in their product hehe.
EDIT: Here's my thread about me installing it: http://soarercentral.com/sc-forum/messages/13208/63047.html?1147829385
Thursday, June 01, 2006 - 06:00 pm, by: Will Adams(Draco)
Daniel's right in regards to asking those tiny little questions that you tend to take for granted when buying a named brand. My unit doesn't dim at night, and I initially had to adjust it so that at night and during the day I can see it clearly (without it being overly bright at night). If I leave the radio on and don't kill the brightness of the screen, my interior glows this awesome looking blue at night. Totally sweet, who needs neons (still my wheels Daniel). Anyway, other little questions you have to ask (dependant on what you want).
For instance, Does it continue play back from the last part of the song you were at or does it restart from the beginning of the track (mine starts from the beginning of the track every time so annoying - although with DVD's it always starts where it was). Subsequently this means that if I created a movie file with pictures hooked up to the sound track it would work great, but then I lose random ability (does anyone know how to create a DVD movie and then randomise the scene playback???)
Hehe, at least you can dim your radio screen Will. I can dim everything (movies, TV, music, reverse camera) but not the goddamn radio, I get a blue glow which might look cool in the beginning, but if you drive on a dark road with not much light on the outside it is almost blinding, only option is to cover the screen or switch to a different mode on the stereo. Ask very specific questions mate, I bet if I had asked, the seller would have said that I can dim the unit manually but he would not say that the radio is an exception Ask in huge friggin detail and you won't regret it
Will Adams wrote on Thursday, June 01, 2006 - 06:00 pm:
Totally sweet, who needs neons (still my wheels Daniel).
Thursday, June 01, 2006 - 06:36 pm, by: Will Adams(Draco)
Hey Daniel, my deck doesn't actually allow you to turn the brightness down as you would the other functions. Given that your deck is of the ebay variety, and hence probably come from the same place as mine, try doing what I did.
You should have a "TFT" screen off button on your deck. This allows you to obviously turn the TFT off, so that only the buttons are illuminated and nothing is on the screen. If you hold this button down when on radio, you will probably find that the blue background (like mine) changes to black and it becomes alot better at night. Let me know how you go..............
Hmmm, I don't even know if I have that kind of a button on it. I'll have a look tonight. It's only the radio that is a problem though, and I don't listen to it much. But then again it takes quite a few turns on the knob to get the brightness setting from 30 down to 0 grrrr.
Thursday, June 01, 2006 - 10:50 pm, by: Steven Nanevski(Imprestik)
Just another question fellas, what hardware you running with the deck, I got 6" splits at the front, 6x9 at the rear, 2 x 12" subs, and 2 amps, (1 2 channel for the subs and 1 4 channel for the 6x9s and the 6" splits)
Will Adams wrote on Thursday, June 01, 2006 - 06:36 pm:
You should have a "TFT" screen off button on your deck.
Nope, don't have one Will
Steven, are you arunning the two 12" subs off the one 2ch amp? I reckon you'd be better off running the splits off the deck itself, use the 4ch amp for the two subs and the 2ch for the rear 6x9 speakers. Unless your 2ch amp is really powerful I reckon you won't be getting as much power going into your subs as you would with the 4ch one. Or make it the other way around splits to the 2ch and 6x9 to the deck...
Friday, June 02, 2006 - 10:43 am, by: Steven Nanevski(Imprestik)
Daniel, dude, what are you thinking......
Why would I use any of the above situations. Firstly, The 2 channel amp is more powerful than the 4 channel. Secondly, why would I bother having 2 channels spare, a more logical approach would be to run the splits on the deck and run the 6x9s and subs off the 4 channel dont you think?? and completely get rid of the 2 channel.
The way I see it is, 2 channel is for the 2 subs and the 4 channel for the splits and 6x9's because there is no point of having 2 channels sitting there being wasted..
Ummmm, ok, question. Are those two amps bridgable? I got two 2ch amps in my car, both are bridgable, basically if you have a 200W amp (what are the power figures on your two amps by the way?) and there is roughly 100W per channel give or take, you can bridge two channels into a mono setting where you plug the subwoofer in steven. So say if your 2ch amp has 100W per channel, and your 4ch amp has 75W per channel or whatever, you bridge the 4ch amp into 2 ch, and you plug the two subs in giving you a total power output to each subwoofer of 150W. Or you can bridge the 2ch amp for one sub, bridge 2 channels in the 4ch amp for the other sub, and be left with two spare channels on the 4ch amp to power the splits or the 6x9s, which will give you one sub running on say 200W, the other on 150W, and the speakers on 75W one paid and 45W (or whatevr your deck has) for the other pair. You end up with a lot more power and bass mate.
At the moment all you have is each sub running on 100W, and each speaker on 75W.
Friday, June 02, 2006 - 05:37 pm, by: Will Adams(Draco)
Daniel I surely thought that you would have a button to turn the screen off, especially should you get pulled over by the blues. You don't have one on the remote or haven't noticed one that's written in really small writing around the deck?
Steven I am running stock fronts and rears were replaced with 2 * BOSS 6.5" 3-way speakers. No sub in the car, but the thing does pump a little (all I need). Probably age catching up with me
Hmmmm, haven't checked the remote, definately not on the deck. There's heaps of buttons which I have no idea what they do on the remote though... bloody useless user manual
Friday, June 02, 2006 - 11:19 pm, by: Steven Nanevski(Imprestik)
Just a little run down
2 channel amp will be running at 4ohm 150 Watt RMS
2 x 12" MTX subs are 150 Watt RMS, cant get much better than that when matching subs with amp, I know already without hearing the system, the amp will drive the subs with some really crisp bass and not overheat, personally I pretty much find it a perfect match
4 channel amp has 100 Watt RMS per channel, now the 6x9s and the 6" splits, not too sure what RMS they are, but say they are 75 Watt RMS, the 4 channel is easily going to run these speakers, (personally too powerful) but hey, I know the amp is not going to overheat or get overworked.
My goal is to get the most crisp sound of both bass and treble possible, which means I need to run the system at the highest possible ohms possible. With the current system 4 ohms is the highest I will be able to go. I was also trying to match the RMS on the amps with the speakers, so that I can run both amps and speakers comfortably.
If I was after a really loud system, I would no longer have a rear seat, and subs would be in every gap possible.
Bottom line is being practical about the whole setup and trying to achieve the best sound possible as well, and hopefully with this setup of speakers and amps I have just provided, my original question was, do you think the deck that I want to purchased will tie in nicely with this setup???
Previous
) When I was looking for mine, I couldn't find one like that (with 6.5 or 7" screen) that could actually play that. The one I bought does though, but it has a smaller 3.5" screen (there's a thread in ICE here somewhere). Quality is questionable as always from those non-brand items, you basically gotta ask everything. With mine I forgot to ask if the unit dims down automatically when lights are on, so now I gotta do it manually at night. Think about all the things like that you need this unit to do, even the most basic ones and ask the question, otherwise it WILL become irritating. Brand items do take care of things like that, but don't assume the same with these cheap eBay units. Other than that, it is good value hey.
Ask in huge friggin detail and you won't regret it 
let's not start again 
