Rich so would you recomend any Jensen unit at all? or would you say one of the more $$$ units like Pioneer or Kenwood (looking at the Pioneer side of things) as well as one Kenwood unit) would be the best way to go? my main thing is I want nav, and the ability to keep it up to date at no extra cost (if able) and the ability to play music off my SD cards or USB drive, those are my main concerns, next would be back up camera abilities...

 

Like a posted before haven't had good luck with kenwood nav units. Imo I would look at either pioneer for build in nav or use a unit that you can use Apple iplay and android and use your phone for the nav

 

I am also looking at a Jensen unit as well as a few other "android/windows CE" based units, but honestly I want to avoid the whole have to tie my phone in to use navigation stuff as I want it to work even if I am out of cell range (or my phone dies and I need to charge it up).

however I mostly have Fruit products, but the idea having the candy in the head unit having the option to run torque on that sounds like it would be a great idea there.

 

you can go cheap, lol:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...dio-sound.html

 

My Kenwood double din (DDX7017) was one of the first touch screens. It hasn't given me any problems at all over the last 10 years. I'm looking into getting a new one with Android Auto.

Simply not true. Lots of other brands available.

 

Jaime74656 I know exactly what you mean. Problems the built in nav units are very pricey. And I'm not saying kenwood is bad because in the past I have had great luck with them as well but this newer stuff is not wha it used to be in my experience.

 

Here's an idea, it's what I'm going to do as I really want android auto. Buy a cheapie unit from Walmart ($150 dual or something. Rock it for a year or 2 until prices drop and they work out all the kinks. Buy desired system for 300 and sell old unit to kid with self-esteem issues for 100

 

This is a good idea, for someone that does not require stand alone GPS and possibly a camera input based on which model they are looking at.

If these Android auto units start coming out with more features that will work independently of the connected cell phone, then I will look into upgrading. Until then, the Jensen that I purchased does a really good job for my application and was fairly cheap considering what it provides to the passengers.

 

That may work, and is a good idea, however with the amount of driving I do, and the tendency of the phone to die (at the moment I cary my car charger with me to keep the phone charged while using its GPS abilities) I am kinda wishing for a stand alone unit to handle the GPS task (plus I use it more akin to how one would use an atlas for referencing, very rare do I actually use the turn by turn directions if that makes any sense) so having it there is better for me, plus when I am on a call (which can happen a lot at times) gps seems to shut its self off, which again is a bit annoying but meh...

I do see where you are coming from, I think its kind of a luck of the draw, could have been a "bad batch" type situation, I have had both good and bad experiences with most of the after market radio i have installed in the various vehicles me and my family/friends have had over the years, my F150 had a Sony that worked for its intended use of being CD player, while I was planing to upgrade that to one that also had USB abilities, I had sold the truck so no longer required the single din piece I had, the only down side to the Sony that I hated was I could not for the life of me figure out how to set the time on the clock or take it out of demo mode so it always played its little demo screen things...

my parents old Nissan Altima was a pain to work on for its radio replacement and that was more of a factory upgrade unit from the basic tape deck to a CD player set up...but thats a horror story in its self...

 

I see one solid benefit to having the phone do some of the heavy lifting - upgrading on a regular basis. We have no idea what phones we will have in 5 years, nor what features will be available - but we know what head unit we will have after we go through the trouble to install it. My Jensen has a USB port for charging and syncing with my phone - or I could use it to put in a thumb drive if I feel the SD card isn't enough.

I went with the cheap Jensen unit to get a touchscreen in the dash with a backup camera and an SD card, but I knew it was temporary. That was 5 years ago and I'm still waiting for the killer double-din. I don't use GPS, nor do I use discs of any type... but I do have a hands-free that integrates with the phone and a backup camera. Whatever i use it for - the sound quality is not it's shiny feature, and I'm anxious for the market to catch up with what I really want.

Several DVDs can be stored on today's SD cards - I put a season of Mythbusters on one once. One should note, DVDs don't work on the dash unless you figure a way to bypass the safety features. A separate screen in the back will drive the price up so much that you may as well buy a portable DVD player and screen that can run off the cigarette lighter.

I saw some of the units coming out soon have front and rear camera ports so you can have a recording dash cam and a backup cam in the same head unit. My clunky Jensen with an antiquated operating system has two camera ports, but no DVR function. In my situation, I was planning to have the second camera port wired to a jack near the trailer light connector, so I could run a camera on the back of the trailer. I don't care who's following me, but it would be nice to see behind the trailer when I'm backing - or when I'm leaving a trail of rubber or smoke down the road like Hansel and Gretel.

 

My main concern is the navi part, and the upgrading the maps, I don't mind a subscription as long as I can update the maps as I need or want to, but thats mainly my main concern with the navi systems.

 

do the phone thing like i did.

it's free and the maps are constantly updated.

 

Only problem is you live in rural areas like I do the phone doesn't always have service. Only down fall.

 

I believe the GPS service/app David is using works when the cell phone is not on a network. It probably gets the updates via wifi, but does not require a cell signal like your primary phone does.

That is what I gathered from reading about it anyway.

Amazon Link


Google Play link
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...app.maps&hl=en

 

With my Samsung Note 4, I can turn on mobile data & location, find the place I'm looking to travel to, load my directions, and turn off mobile data. Once its loaded directions, works without data just fine.