Customer Reviews

Clarion VZ309 3.5-Inch Single-DIN Multimedia Station with USB Port

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

To put it politely, I have been disappointed by the performance and feature set of this receiver. In fact, I thought it was so bad that this couldn't have been a product developed by Clarion. I think this is a re-badged Clarion which was designed/engineered by a low-tier manufacturer. The fact that the HD Tuner that works with this receiver doesn't work with any other seems to point in that direction too. But this is a review, so I will be specific about it.

Usually, people write the positives and negatives when writing a review. I will do the same. So, here's what I like about it:

1. Looks: It is a handsome looking deck. I am not a fan of the flashing LEDs and rotating colors. This has very minimalistic and simplistic, OEM type design that complements the rest of the dash.

2. Build quality is great. Definitely does not look like a made in China item that you can buy at an auto parts store.

3. Nice, large screen - crisp and clear.

4. Sounds is good, although nothing earth-shattering for a 200W amp.

5. HD Tuner works well, get stations fast and clear.

Now, before I list the things I don't like about it, let me explain something. A lot of people will mention a LACK OF FEATURE as a negative. I kind of find it unfair. I mean, before you buy something, you should know what features it has or doesn't have. For example, this receiver doesn't have Bluetooth. Now, it will be unfair for me to say this is a bad receiver because of that.

On the other hand, things that are wrong with it, or designs that are inconvenient can be fairly mentioned in the list of CONS. So, I will start with it:

1. If you start your car before you attach the faceplate, the receiver will remain turned off. You have to press the power button to turn in on - every time. With most receivers, if you turned off your receiver before you remove your car keys, it will remain off until you turn in on manually. Same way, if you left your receiver turned ON, and turned the car off (remove keys), it will come on automatically next time you turn on ignition and put the faceplate. This doesn't do that. Very inconvenient.

2. The "power"/ON button is not lit when the unit is off. So, coupled with the issue #1, it is a major inconvenience at night. You come in, start the car, put the faceplate back on - and nothing. Now you will have to blindly look for the power button to turn it on.

3. If there is a CD/DVD in the drive, it will always start in the CD/DVD source, regardless of last source you were listening to when it was turned off.

4. USB slot is also not lit, so, inserting a USB drive at night takes a few tries.

5. Most of the buttons have more than one functions. One function is printed right on the button, the other function for the same button is printed right below it. However, ONLY the button is lit, not the print below it. For example, the power button also acts as the mute button. But when the receiver is on, only the power symbol is lit, not "MUTE" which is written right below it. It is true for all buttons with more than one functions.

6. The dreaded DVD-loop issue. If you switched to a different source or turned the unit off while playing a DVD, next time it will only loop in the chapter it was last playing. Definitely a bad programming issue.

7. If you "mute" the unit while playing a CD or songs from USB, the mute will be automatically canceled and sound will come back on after the next song comes on. Really annoying - specially if you are on the phone with someone and suddenly the music comes on. I know this is not meant to be or that it is not a feature because the mute symbol stays on the display, even though the sound is heard. Again, bad programming.

8. The faceplate anchor design is merit-less at best. It has two plastic anchors sticking out from the unit where the faceplate latches on. These are plastic anchors about 1" long and they are just sticking out. If one of the breaks, the whole unit is useless. I will post a pic to show what I mean.

9. Absolutely no display customization. What comes with is what you get - and what comes with it is nothing. You can't change the display color/wallpaper/font/size - nothing.

10. USB operation is ridiculous at best. It shows all the songs in one list and the only way to navigate through them without the remote is to go up and down, which is painfully slow. You can go folder to folder using the remote. With the "UP" and "DOWN" symbols being not lit, it's inconvenient at night.

EDIT: I discovered that you can press and hold the up or down button to navigate from folder to folder. No mention of this in the manual.

11. If your mp3 folders have a pic such as an album art, this unit will get stuck at that, and it will ask you to put the parking brake on to view it - instead of just not showing the pic and moving on to the next song. If you have a lot of albums, you will need to manually remove all the album arts from the USB drive.

12. In the USB mode, it "eats" about 1 sec from the beginning of a song when it moves starts the next track. It's not as noticeable with the songs that start slow, but clearly annoying when a song starts out loud or with a beat, for example, Michael Jackson's Billie Jean. Don't know if this applies to CD tracks too.

13. It will recognize only 512 songs total in your USB drive. Now-a-days people have their whole music collection on a single chip. 512 songs limitation sets you back to 1999.

14. A lot of the DVD operations can only be performed using the remote. There are buttons on the faceplate that are inactive during DVD play which they could have easily put some functions on.

15. It is not compatible with all USB drives. I don't know which ones are okay but I have a USB drive that works fine everywhere but this gives me an error saying "UBS Bad".

16. No dedicated button for "search", meaning fast forward or reverse. So, if you want to FF a song or DVD chapter, you will have to press and hold ">>|" for about 5 secs and then it will do it only at 2x speed. Do the same again (another 5 secs) to go 4x. If you let go before that, it will just skip to the next song or chapter - and you will have to do it again.

17. The internal clock loses time like crazy!! It would be half to a minute behind in just a week.

18. No permanent brightness setting for the screen. All you have is Normal -> Dim -> Off, using the Dim button. You can't set the brightness to your liking. To make matter worse, the setting using "Dim" button is temporary. Once the unit is re-started (turn off/turn on), it goes to full brightness.

19. Finally, THIS UNIT IS SLOW!!! Navigating through songs or tuning stations, skipping songs, switching sources - much slower than even the cheapest receivers out there.

Now, some of things that I would have love to see and I could expect in a $400 receiver:

1. This unit should have been AT LEAST bluetooth ready.

2. It has this huge, rotary volume knob which is also used for Bass/Treble settings by pushing it. I think this would have been more useful is this was programmed to be used as "Enter" button, and putting the "Bass/Treble" settings in the settings menu. Now, the "AS" button acts as enter which is not even lit.

3. When the ignition is on and the faceplate is not on, there is a little triangle blue LED that flashes to show where to enter CD/DVD. I wish this LED would blink all the time so it would act as a theft deterrent.

4. When you enter the "Settings" menu where you can change equalizer/loudness etc, the music stops. So, you have no way to instantly compare the effect of different EQ or loudness settings. Wish the music didn't stop.

5. The faceplate carry-case/box is CHEAP!!! They should have included a little better case.

Like the title says, the only thing that makes things even is the ultra-low pricing of Amazon, which sometimes even include a free HD tuner. Otherwise, for more price I would suggest getting something else.

Screen/customization: Bright, vivid, and sharp but Clarion decided to keep customization to a complete minimum. For instance, when in aux mode you are stuck with a gray screen with the time and "AVin" displayed in the corner. I just turn off the screen completely to avoid it. Such a waste of a big beautiful screen.

DVD player: Quick start up, strong motor, good quality, and plays where you left off. Sometimes it will run in a chapter loop after turning the car off and then on again. This happens periodically (1 out of 10 times) where there will be a chapter loop causing you to stop the movie and start it again. Edit: I have heard from others that it happens every time you turn the car on and off but this hasn't exactly been the case for me, definitely has problems though.

HD radio: Locks into signals quickly and stays there, sounds fantastic. Info is scrolled on the bottom, again, waste of screen space.

Sound Quality: Excellent sound through deck power and 2V outputs. I have power hungry component speakers so I use an external amplifier but the deck's power will work fine for most setups. I used to run a pioneer deck with 4V preamp outputs so I was a little concerned about how the Clarion's 2V outs (4v for subs) would compare but I was pleasantly surprised at the strength and quality of the signal. Just as loud and clean as ever, if not more so. Sound is mostly flat with a slight emphasis on bass (remedied easily.)

Remote Control: Works well but don't lose it! You'll be crippled without it if you ever watch DVDs since most functions are controlled through the remote only.

USB: Sucks, simple as that, they shouldn't have even included it if they couldn't do it right (only shows one list of songs, difficult navigation.) Edit: Someone has brought it to my attention that you can in fact switch folders using the remote. I stand by my opinion that it's still poorly implemented and will never be used by me.

Rear Camera: Never tested, I'll definitely update this review once installed.


Overall: This is a fantastic unit at Amazon's rock bottom prices. I cannot think of any other deck that even comes close to this feature set and quality for less than $200. At $129 with free HD radio, it's a no-brainer. It's simply the best deck that you can get for that price and feature-set. I thought the DVD player would just be a toy for me but I actually find myself using it quite often when waiting around (parked of course) and the screen and sound quality are a pleasure. My major complaint has to do with the lack of customization. You really can't control what plays on the screen at all, no backgrounds, no color changes, nothing. For less than $200 I really can't complain much but at Clarion's retail price of $400 before tax you would think they'd allow for a little more adjust ability. Another thing is the lack of a rear A/V input. Pretty lame when you have that screen just begging to be used!



Pros:

- Price (IF you get in on amazons $129.99 deal w/hd tuner)
- Sound Quality
- Picture Quality
- (Good) DVD player
- Price
- Feature set
- HD radio

Cons:

- A bit slow when switching sources (roughly 3-5 seconds.)
- Lack of screen customization.
- Lack of A/V input in the rear (there's video but no audio, very lame)
- Cost of accessories (XM is pretty pricey) and rear camera is not included. People really shouldn't expect a rear camera to be included but I'm sure someone out there is going to be shocked when they find it "missing"...


One more thing worth mentioning is that although the DVD function has a lockout so that you can only view media while the parking brake is up (lead from unit connecting to parking brake wire) it is ridiculously easy to bypass. Anyone can google it and figure it out for themselves, not the safest thing for "invincible" teenagers trying to watch The Fast and the Furious while driving...

First off I self installed this and love it, replaced a alpine deck and runs to 2 amps to power all of my after market speakers. Im 22 and have been into car audio for about 6 years now, self learned and installed everything I've put in it. One of the best feature is the HD radio, honestly if you know about car audio you know that FM radio is useless to someone with multiple amps and after market speakers and subs. Finally im about to play radio without all the garbage that is broadcast over normal fm. The sound quality is great and the deck looks beautiful not to mention the ridiculous price here on amazon.

I find these complaints a tad off and wanted to give you my input on them.

1. If you start your car before you attach the faceplate, the receiver will remain turned off. You have to press the power button to turn in on - every time. Very inconvenient.

~ Honestly this is a horrible complaint, I've owned a few alpines and other random decks this seems like a common thing to me, my solution put faceplace on before starting car or press one button?

2. The "power"/ON button is not lit when the unit is off. So, coupled with the issue #1, it is a major inconvenience at night. You come in, start the car, put the faceplate back on - and nothing. Now you will have to blindly look for the power button to turn it on.

~ Again horrible complaint seriously your vehicle doesn't have a dome light, why dont you attach the faceplate before starting your car?

3. If there is a CD/DVD in the drive, it will always start in the CD/DVD source, regardless of last source you were listening to when it was turned off.

~ Incorrect, mine doesn't do this, I leave CD in, USB in, AUX in and it will play what ever I left off with.

4. USB slot is also not lit, so, inserting a USB drive at night takes a few tries.

~ Seriously ... ?

5. Most of the buttons have more than one functions. One function is printed right on the button, the other function for the same button is printed right below it. However, ONLY the button is lit, not the print below it. For example, the power button also acts as the mute button. But when the receiver is on, only the power symbol is lit, not "MUTE" which is written right below it. It is true for all buttons with more than one functions.

~ The deck doesn't have many buttons and memorizing them takes about 5 minutes, after a few car rides I don't find this a valid complaint either.

6. The dreaded DVD-loop issue. If you switched to a different source or turned the unit off while playing a DVD, next time it will only loop in the chapter it was last playing. Definitely a bad programming issue.

~ Valid complaint, I don't use mine primary for DVDs so it hasn't bothered me much.

7. If you "mute" the unit while playing a CD or songs from USB, the mute will be automatically canceled and sound will come back on after the next song comes on.

~ Incorrect, mine doesn't do this

8. The faceplate anchor design is merit-less at best. It has two plastic anchors sticking out from the unit where the faceplate latches on. These are plastic anchors about 1" long and they are just sticking out.

~ Semi valid, they seem strong enough but I do try to be gently while putting the faceplate on doesn't bother me.

9. Absolutely no display customization. What comes with is what you get - and what comes with it is nothing. You can't change the display color/wallpaper/font/size - nothing.

~ True but I wouldn't complain about it, most decks are like this and I think it has a very good looking GUI

10. USB operation is ridiculous at best. It shows all the songs in one list and the only way to navigate through them without the remote is to go up and down, which is painfully slow. You can go folder to folder using the remote. With the "UP" and "DOWN" symbols being not lit, it's inconvenient at night.

~ If u want to play specific song after specific song USB is a bad choice. I usually put a bunch of CDs in there own folders and select the folder I want before I even start driving and stick with that CD or I put it on shuffle

11. If your mp3 folders have a pic such as an album art, this unit will get stuck at that, and it will ask you to put the parking brake on to view it - instead of just not showing the pic and moving on to the next song. If you have a lot of albums, you will need to manually remove all the album arts from the USB drive.

~ Valid, solution delete pictures from USB, took me about 3 minutes but i can see how its annoying.

12. In the USB mode, it "eats" about 1 sec from the beginning of a song when it moves starts the next track.

~ Valid, annoying indeed

13. It will recognize only 512 songs total in your USB drive. Now-a-days people have their whole music collection on a single chip. 512 songs limitation sets you back to 1999.

~ I haven't tested this yet but it is a weak limitation that was an advertised feature you knew before hand.

14. A lot of the DVD operations can only be performed using the remote. There are buttons on the faceplate that are inactive during DVD play which they could have easily put some functions on.

~ I primarily use the remote so not a valid complaint to me.

15. It is not compatible with all USB drives.

~ I've tried a trascend, sandisk and off brand all worked but I'm sure theres some that don't work.

16. No dedicated button for "search", meaning fast forward or reverse. So, if you want to FF a song or DVD chapter, you will have to press and hold ">>|" for about 5 secs and then it will do it only at 2x speed. Do the same again (another 5 secs) to go 4x. If you let go before that, it will just skip to the next song or chapter - and you will have to do it again.

~ I've never found the need to fast forward a song while driving before?

17. The internal clock loses time like crazy!! It would be half to a minute behind in just a week.

~ Not valid had mine installed for over 2 weeks clock is still right on. I believe your install may be bad which caused your Cd playing on start up.

18. No permanent brightness setting for the screen. All you have is Normal -> Dim -> Off, using the Dim button.

~ Valid but minimal, even at night I haven't found the unit to be overly bright my car has the deck set pretty low so that may be why.

19. Finally, THIS UNIT IS SLOW!!! Navigating through songs or tuning stations, skipping songs, switching sources - much slower than even the cheapest receivers out there.

~ Not true I've had a few off brand feature loaded decks that where slower and how often do you swith sources maybe once at most during a car ride which the switch takes about 3.2 seconds (i timed mine) and switching stations or songs is very quick less then a second on my unit.

These are just my opinions take them as you will. Thanks.

I bought this radio for my teenage son and have been most pleased with my purchase. It is very user friendly (I figured out how to use it without having to read the instructions) and a very versatile radio tumer for the price. What I like best about it is the DVD feature (which shows a very nice picture and is also easy to use) does not show on the screen unless the parking brake is engaged. Don't have to worry about my teenage son driving and trying to watch a movie. A definite plus for the teenage driver in your family!

Really odd receiver. A multi-hundred dollar MSRP, selling often for $130 with an HD radio receiver. Doesn't have any of Clarion's normal navigation buttons or interface elements, and lacks Clarion's CeNET interface. I strongly agree with the notion that this is some random product branded by Clarion. At MSRP I'd be horribly disappointed with this unit - plenty of options from Pioneer, Alpine, Kenwood that blow this thing out of the water. But at $130 with an HD radio receiver, it's a great deal - sort of. It's not as polished or as thoughtful as other $130 receivers, but what it lacks in polish it makes up in features, and sometimes that's a fair trade to make.

Build - not great. Chassis has some flex to it, and you have to be careful if you're using the DIN bracket to mount it. Believe it or not, the chassis will flex enough that the faceplate won't lock into place. It's not a roadblock, just a concern. If you're ISO mounting it, you won't have a problem. I originally DIN mounted for ease of removal, but switched to ISO.

Display - really very good. I wasn't expecting much out of a 3.5" display on a $130 receiver, but it's fine. I'm sure there are better displays, but it's as good as any I've seen in low/mid end car audio gear. There is no screen saver or visualization options, which I feel is unusual for a stereo with a relatively high-tech display, but quite frankly I find that stuff distracting anyway, so whatever. As others noted, there is zero customization. Also not a big deal. The unit is connected to a 7" display on the roof (got screens, yo!) and whatever is on the stereo's display is also on the second display. It does NOT handle multisource playback.

Interface - buttons are all labeled clearly enough and are easy to use. As I mentioned above, it's not like other Clarions so don't expect to know what you're doing. The buttons are not logically laid out, and most have multiple functions. There are only like 10 buttons so it's not exactly difficult to use, but by the same token just not well thought out. Many functions require the remote to use - some make sense, some are seemingly random. For example, you can navigate through MP3s track-by-track on the head unit itself, but if you want to change folders, you need to use the remote. Dumb!

Menus respond slowly, but not impossibly slowly. Pressing Source to switch sources means waiting a couple seconds for the source to actually switch. Changing tracks takes a second or so each press of the Next button. Pressing Setup is another second or two delay before the setup menu appears. I don't tend to fidget with my stereo while I'm driving, but I see how this could be an annoyance to some. It might be an annoyance to me from time to time.

In general, the interface is Fine. All elements are labeled clearly enough that nothing is a hassle. It's not perfect, but you quickly get used to it and it does what you ask it to do.

Playback - My primary motivation for buying this stereo was playing MP3s off a flash drive, and it seems virtually no manufacturer is good about documenting this feature on their stereos so it's always a surprise. Apparently the entire function was a surprise on the VZ-309, as "MP3 Playback from a USB Device" is not documented at all in the manual. Not even one word. Here's what I can say -

MP3 decoding is good. I've heard better, but I've heard much worse. I'm playing back on stock Isuzu speakers through the integrated amp, and have no complaints. Aside from the slow menus, tracks start quickly and seek properly, so that's a plus. I have not yet found the upper limit of what the stereo will address, but my flash drive is 4gb and has 628 tracks on it across three folders and the unit has no problem here; Folder 1 has about 10 tracks, Folder 2 about 10 tracks, and Folder 3 has the remaining. All folders are directly in the root. It plays CBR and VBR files, although it does not handle bad files gracefully. Sometimes it will skip the track, sometimes it will reboot the entire unit. It does keep playing, though, so that's nice. A Sony of mine just displays ERROR and does nothing else til you power cycle it.

The display only shows Folder, the two next tracks, and the currently playing track. Kind of a waste of screen space, but also makes those four items very easy to read. ID3 information for the playing track scrolls, but the other tracks you only see the first 12 or so characters. If you're like me and have a folder FULL of Huey Lewis and the News MP3s, you're hosed. Every single Huey Lewis and the News track looks identical on the menu, so you're guessing at what track is up next. Makes seeking a particular file really annoying. On the upside, I LOVE Huey Lewis and the News, so I'm always happy to hear ANY of their songs! If you're sensitive to this, rename everything from Artist - Title to Title - Artist.

Playback order of MP3s is VERY odd. Playing Folder 3 on my flash drive puts about 550 songs in one folder. They appear in a random order - not sorted by artist, track, album OR file name. They may be sorted by date order, but I'm not sure. It seems a little random. I'm pretty neurotic about keeping files named uniformly and having most if not all ID3 information filled out, so the fact is a little intriguing. Hardly a roadblock, though. A nice feature this unit has is that it allows you to choose a track number by typing it into the remote - for example, if you want to listen to track 432, just type 432 into the remote. That's super convenient. On the downside, tracks are labeled across folders and not per folder - to expand on the previous example, the first track in the first folder is track 001, and the last track in the last folder track 628. The first track in the third folder might be 54. Minor nit - again, it's something easy to get used to.

Random works pretty well, and UNLIKE a lot of other Clarions, it you hit Next it goes to another random track, not the next track in that folder. On the downside, your only options are randomize everything or randomize nothing - you can't tell it to just randomize one folder. I feel that's a seriously lacking feature. Same with repeat - repeat the entire device, or nothing.

Overall, I'm happy with the feature. Yes, it could be better in several ways, but in combination with everything else this stereo offers and at the price point it's totally fine. Heck, there aren't many $130 receivers that even handle USB! I have more expensive stereos in other cars that aren't any more graceful. The fact handles a lot of music on a big drive makes it a-ok by me.

HD radio works very well - it seeks fast and tunes fast. After a couple seconds of listening to SD radio, it notifies you if an HD-1 or HD-2 channel is available. It will automatically tune to the HD-1 channel, and the OPT button lets you select the other. My only other HD radio experience is in my truck with a Directed tuner, and the Clarion works as well or better. Zero complaints. Normal radio reception is very good in town - don't have any long-distance tests yet, but it pulled in some pretty weak SD stations just sitting in the driveway.

DVD playback is quick and clean. As others have noted, if you cut power to the unit while watching a DVD, when it resumes it will be stuck in that chapter of the DVD forever. Weird little problem. You can either switch to another source before powering down, or eject and reinsert the DVD when you power back up to start over. Switching sources or stopping & restarting doesn't work. The remote is absolutely required to navigate DVDs, so don't lose it. Also, it seems to have a minor problem choosing some aspect ratios - I tried a variety of 16:9, 2.25:1, and 4:3 DVDs and results are mixed. The screen on the roof is smart enough to work it out, but the screen on the unit not so much. If you like watching movies on a 3.5" screen this could be a problem, but if you do, stop. That's silly.

Bottom line - It's not perfect, but does everything its advertised to do moderately competently. At $400, you have much better options, but at $130 nothing comes even close. IMHO, the details where it isn't perfect are more than offset by the wide range of things it does at the price. If you just want to play a CD, don't buy this unit - it will annoy and frustrate you. But if you want to play MP3s off a flash drive while watching your backup camera it's a fine option.

Final word of warning - Again, I'm pretty convinced this is not a Clarion-manufactured unit. With that in mind, you can't connect any other ceNET peripherals. If you read the specs, you already know that. But for everyone else, DO NOT anticipate buying an iPod interface, satellite radio interface, CD changer interface, or Bluetooth interface. I wouldn't anticipate being able to buy a replacement remote or faceplate or anything else. Until I know otherwise, everything about this unit is "fly by night" so to speak, so be nice to it, and enjoy your $130 DVD/MP3/HD-radio-playing receiver while you can! I am!

I haven't changed a factory stereo out for over 20 years, all the lights began burning out in the head unit in my 05 Astro van and I wanted to plug in an mp3 player and had also been toying with the HDFM idea. This unit (package deal w/HDFM module) was half the cost of a used factory replacement, yes, a little more involved to install but not a problem. The truck has 8 factory speakers installed, I was a bit concerned I'd have to change everything to achieve a decent sound, not the case, it sounds great with all the factory speakers hooked to it. I really love the HDFM, I have very little problem hanging onto broadcast signal and multicast channels come in fine. I didn't buy it for the dvd portion but Cars looks pretty cool on the little screen! I will probably add a screen in the back of the truck for the kids though. I use a Sansa mp3 player, it works just fine and once again has great sound. I consider myself a pretty basic user looking for better than average sound, this unit performs very well for me, I'm extremely happy. I've not plugged in a jump drive yet, another feature thats a plus I didn't buy it for. I do miss my speed controlled volume but would still trade it for the much higher quality of sound I've gotten with the Clarion. Once again, for the investment cost, I'm very pleased.

I did not have unrealistic expectations for this unit. All I wanted was an in-dash DVD video player, with MP3 capability. This is what I got, and then some.

The unit looked mildly attractive to me after seeing it on Cruthfield's site for 299.99. I just couldn't see any justification for spending that much, so I looked on Amazon's and saw it for 129.00!. So I proceeded to purchase this unit. It also came with a bonus of an HD radio tuner.

I am happy with the results.

The system has plenty of power. No external amplifier is required in most cases. Its loud enough to cause hearing loss, if thats what you want.
The audio quality is quite good. There is no noticeable hiss or hum, the frequency response is good. Bass and treble functions are adequate, The loudness setting is great at lower volumes.
The system does not distort heavily when listening at loud volumes.


AM/FM Reception
----------------
- The reception I get with AM/FM is better than my 2003 aftermarket panasonic head unit.

HD Radio
---------
- HD Radio sounds amazing. I never thought I would listen to broadcast stations, but this makes it much better. Living in the NYC area, i listen to 660AM WFAN Sports radio. I have listened to the shoe-box, mono sound for years and never minded. Now when I tune into 660 AM, I initially hear the mono sound, then a few seconds later, the radio picks up the HD signal. The sound truly does seem to be CD quality. I'm happy the HD tuner was thrown in ;)
The only issue with HD, has nothing to do with the unit. This is a flaw in HD signals themselves. Since HD signals only have about 10% of the power of analog, good luck hearing your HD stations without it reverting back to analog while you drive.

CD
----
- The Speed of the insert and eject is quite rapid. ( I never really minded slowness of loading and unloading, but this makes me wonder why other decks were so slow in this area)
- The audio quality is quite good, but the navigation through the tracks isn't as simple as it could be. (Due to the button layout, for me) not a big deal, as once I'm playing a disk, I don't really look at the display anyway.

MP3s
-----
- This unit plays MP3s fine, you put a disk in, and you see the tracks on the screen, and their id3 tags. They sound like you'd expect from Mp3s... ok, to good. Its almost like listening to a cassette where the head has become misaligned, and the highs are going in and out. They are not audiophile quality anyway, and really do not sound good unless you use at least 256k bit-rate.
- MP3s can be listened to from CD, DVD and USB. *My 64GB usb key doesn't work on it, didn't expect it too. Stick to 2GB or smaller USB keys.


DVDs
-----
- Hooray, I can watch DVDs (or listen to them) while I drive.
- there are not many display options, as far as picture quality adjustments go. You get bright, not so bright, and off. Videos look very nice, considering you are watching them in your dash. Its pretty cool to just even hear everything in surround. (Kind of like dolby and dolby II, not necessarily AC-3)
* For saftey's sake, the manufacturer requires you to have your parking brake on, to assure that you are not moving while viewing video. This is a good thing, but I bypass it. The way the system is supposed to be setup , is you run the green wire from your unit, to your parking brake switch. The unit detects the wire is grounded, when you have your parking brake on (parking brake light illuminated) .. There is no secret, you can easily bypass this. for the Clarion VZ309 , and other.

My workaround.. I just wedge the green wire in my cigarette lighter, by using the 12-v adapter from My Tom-Tom. When I turn the car on, and try to play a disc, it says "Video not allowed while moving". once I see that, I pull out the cigarette lighter adapter for my Tom-tom (with the wire looped in one of the metal connectors) then plug it back in... then the video appears. Basically, you just need a little toggle or push button switch to do this.

AUX
----
there is a simple 1/8" stereo jack on the front, so you could plug in any audio device. I'll be using this with my portable XM unit.


Minor gripes:
- The folding up and down of the face scares me. I sometimes think I'm going to break it. Due to the ability to remove the face plate, you can surely tell the hinging and locking mechanism will be a problem area; "Too many moving parts" I suppose.
- There is a longer than desired delay between switching sources (Disc-->HD radio --> source, etc) I sometimes click to quickly and land on the source after the one i needed.
- no simple XM solution (you have to buy a "universal" kit from audiovox, and a cable)
- If you like IPods, and want to control them from the unit, its another cable you have to get.
- It doesn't play DTS audio, and DVD audio disks.

Summary
I wanted a dvd player that I could use as a bare system for now, then expand on later. For example, I used to have a modified Xbox installed as my headunit. I constantly fiddled with it to get the most out of it, but it regularly left me without music during it's downtime. I also wanted to hook up more monitors to it because I didn't expect the 3.5" screen to be adequate. It does deliver on the bare system front, but leaves much to be desired.

Pros
- Getting a free HD tuner with it was a nice bonus and easy to install.
- The face itself is attractive and most menus are fairly intuitive.
- The screen produces sharp images unlike cheaper products.

Cons
- Limited audio customization. There's presets, but no way to modify x-over frequencies.
- The product boasts 6 channel preouts, but there is only 1 sub channel. I know it doesn't make much of an auditory difference, but it shouldn't be advertised as such.
- USB functionality
- It only lists files as one huge list. No expandable/collapsible folder structure. You can advance by folders, but it can take a long time if you're looking for something specific
- Works intermittently for my one particular drive. I don't have any problems using my drive on a computer, but the VZ309 won't let it play for any meaningful amount of time.
- No .flac playback. I realize this may be asking too much, considering it's not a standard feature, but there's a lot of media players that can do this.
- When using the AV in, it shows a bland static background. I've seen decks with less impressive hardware display nice animations. This is severely lacking here. I was very underwhelmed by the interface.
- Cheap feeling remote
- Audio only input on the front and video only input on rear. If you're connecting a console system, this would be cumbersome
- Whenever the VZ309 gets powered up again, the default volume level is about half of the max. This is a big deal for my moderately powered system when I remote start my car in below freezing weather. So I have to disconnect the face to avoid cracking a subwoofer; not to mention I don't enjoy loud music early in the morning.

Bottom line: it delivers (kind of) what it says and NOTHING more. If you're looking for an inexpensive DVD deck that isn't some no-name Chinese garbage, this could be for you. If you pay more than what Amazon offers it for, you're likely to demand your money back.

Screen started showing colorful lines in it after 3 months. Sent to Clarion to get repaired and they fixed it only they sent back Face Plate with long scratch on it. I hope my display doesn't go out again. Not sure if this is normal but occasionally I will loose only one of my HD stations. It will play for 3 seconds then fade out. I've seen and owned better radios and this one lacks. I'll be trying another brand if I have to replace this one.

When I first got this, it felt kinda bulky. Looked okay. I bought this so I can replace my old broken-down DVD monitor/receiver and did not want to spend too much $$. Amazon.com had a great price with free HD add-on. I have been installing radio ever since I got my first car when I turned 16...that's over 30 years ago. The installation was straight forward, not difficult at all. I've hooked this up with the 10" overhead monitor in my van which I've also installed previously with my Pioneer DVD receiver. Worked fine for first month. Screen was okay. I did not like the control buttons.Oh, the HD radio was G8! I couldn't believe how nice HD radio sounded. After the first month, the dvd started to freeze. Then repeats the scene over and over again. Sometimes the monitor screen turns black and message stating bad usb. Changes the radio station by itself...I think I got a HUNTED radio. By the time I decided to have this fixed or return to Amazon, it was too late. Clarion would not honor 1 year warranty since it was not installed by authorized Clarion dealer...WATCH OUT do it yourself installers! These days, installation is much easier than in the early 80's when radio had lots of problem with whinning noise..especially when you try to install amps. I don't think my problem is not the installation, but the radio itself. Just collecting dust now. I'll try to sell it in Ebay as parts to get some $$$. What a junk! So, BEWARE!