Customer Reviews

JVC KW-AVX820 Double-DIN DVD/CD Multimedia Receiver with 7-Inch Widescreen Detachable Touch Panel Monitor, Bluetooth, and Full-Speed USB Port

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I want to keep this short and sweet to give an honest opinion about the product, and to also help those of you looking to buy it some insight.

BUY THIS IN-DASH DVD PLAYER!

LoL, but seriously... this is far better than the competition. Not only is the price better, but the features and function are better. I haven't had any problems getting this to read thumb drives, media cards, dvd-r's, and even my iPhone works with it flawlessly.

The only little nit-pick I have about it is that the backgrounds are kinda bland and you can't use custom backgrounds. . . but the ones they do provide offer more than enough "pizazz" to make this just a slight letdown.

Moving on to features. The bluetooth works very well, especially with the supplised microphone installed and ran up to your visor. I've made some test calls and they were very clear on both ends. No complaints here!

The video quality is quite good and load-times are really fast! I have this connected to two headrest monitors as well and it streams video effortlessly without a hitch!

If you're looking for an affordable in-dash doubledin dvd solution, with bluetooth even.. look no further than this JVC unit!

I recent bought and installed this unit as a replacement for my older JVC KD-DV4200 that began cutting off at 30 second intervals. First, the screen on this unit looks great. Also, the options available are outstanding. There are some complaints however, mainly the weak radio receiver. The JVC KD-DV4200 replaced a Pioneer unit that had been stolen. I thought it lacked the strength of that unit, but this newer JVC is even weaker still. Stations that should and did come in perfectly, are now weak and filled with static. Another beef is with the wallpaper. There are 5 options, none of which are anything to write home about.

As for other features, the bluetooth is nice, but doesn't have great outgoing sound when the car is in motion. The USB port works better than I expected, and is a nice feature, but the unit doesn't do album art (come on JVC... really???? no art??? that's just weak!) Album art makes finding music I want to listen to easier IMO, and that feature's absence is very noticeable.

There's a lot to like about this stereo, however, if there were other removable faceplate options out there, I'd have to say check them first...

Update- After a couple of months, the faceplate seems to be having issues. The stero will shut itself off. If you push on the faceplate, it usually comes back on, but there is something going on with the radio either not sitting properly, or a short developing between the connections. I'm wondering of others have been seeing this same issue...

After looking for a new unit to replace my factory head unit. I found this one. I have installed it and I must say. I really enjoying it. I can not give it a full 5 starts only because I have found 3 things that might end up driving me crazy as time goes on.

1) The Proximity Sensor works a bit better than I thought it would. Even when my hand is not near the radio it tends to act as if I am near it. I have made ajustments but nothing seems to stop it. And I have no idea of why it happens. But it works. The good thing about it is you can turn it off. So with that, I am not that upset.

2) Reading a USB Drive over 4GB might take longer than you thing. I timed it. A full 1:30 if you just added the drive; 45: each time you go back to the drive. I found no improvment even after using a faster 72K RPM Drive. Yet I was able to hookup a 160GB drive so I if it takes 1:30 for it to load up. I am not uspset.

3) The Bluetooth works fine with my cell phone. I love it, and the sound is the bomb. Yet, it causes my USB drive to load after every call. So right after a call, the drive has to reload (remember the 45 sec load time) after each call. This is not as fun as I might enjoy seeing that I tend to make alot of calls.

Over all I think this is a great headunit if you dont need GPS (and I did not). It has everything you can think of without the need of GPS.

Installed 11/24/09, 2003 Ford E350 Passenger Van, Self Installed

First Off, this will not fit a late model Econoline van without major trimming to the dash. So I took it to a few stereo shops in town and no one would touch it because the dash had to be cut about 3/8 inch. It took me 2 days to muster the courage to cut it myself. You also have to cut off part of the mounts that hold the bottom of the AC controls behind the dash. I measured about 5 different times, and ways, and when I was done you can't even tell.

The iPhone 3GS DOES WORK when using the KSU30 cable or Bluetooth with no cable. Also, I paired my phone with the JVC built in bluetooth and I can play my music on my phone without even plugging it in (didn't know the iphone supported this#. You can also leave your phone in your pocket or purse and answer calls without getting your phone out. Also Once paired it show the antenna bar and battery on the JVC screen of your phone.

One wierd thing is that if I plug my iPhone into the JVC it will not play music unless I am in the ipod app on the phone, once I open the app the music starts playing #It also did this on my friends G1 iPhone#. Playing music from the iPhone to the unit happens very quickly, it just searches for about 3-5 seconds and then is ready to go. I have not tried using a USB drive with lots of music, no need. What I cannot get to work is my contacts on the JVC. That option is just greyed out under the phone app on the JVC.

Dialing and answering from the JVC works great, it includes a MIC that I have on my visor which seems to work fine while driving

Another great feature is that it it can display the video feed to an external monitor ONLY so you can play the radio while the rear passengers watch the monitor and use IR headphones if your monitor supports them. I was not aware it could do this and it made my wife very happy. Now we can give our 5 year old a set of IR headphones and listen to the radio, we could not do this in our 05 Tahoe. One thing to keep in mind, for some reason you cannot play music off a USB device including the iPhone when in this mode, it also states this in the manual. This unit also has audio out for the video feed unlike most of the single DIN units I looked at. Sending the audio to your remote monitor is critical if you want to use IR headphones.

Using the JVC touch panel is faster than the factory touch panel in our 05 tahoe, a welcome suprise. Menus are very easy to navigate and understand.

Very nice remote with lots of buttons, controls all aspects of the JVC as far as I can tell.

Face plate and underlying mechanism feel very solid.

Screen does not really show finger prints or smudges, another welcome suprise.

I also installed the JVC rear camera but have not found the reverse wire to tap into to kick it on when reversing. I will update when that is done.

The only negative things I have found so far are

1. you only get 5 backgrounds and can't add your own #I knew this before I bought it#.
2. I can't use the camera without the reverse wire hooked up and in reverse, so I can't see behind me while driving.
3. can't seem to get video from the iPhone 3GS to show on the screen, I get sound but no video #tried this with a G1 iPhone also no dice)
4. No contacts on the JVC, when A call comes in it just shows the number and says caller unknown.
5. There are only 3 up and 3 down dimmer settings. I have it setup to dim when the head lights go on but it still isn't dim enough and you can only adjust down so far.

Overall I am very pleased with this model. I almost sent it back when I found out I was going to have to cut the dash but after looking at the single DIN DVD units I took the risk. None of the other units I looked at had all of the features I needed and had I gone with the single DIN unit when it was open it would have covered my AC/Heater controls.

Easy as any other stereo to install, I took me about 8 hours to install all the cabling, camera, remote monitor and speakers. Instructions are easy to follow.

I bought this unit for the hands free phone capabilities, I have tried 3 mics with it. I can hear the incoming calls perfectly, but people on the other end cant hear me. I'm using an LG Dare(also replaced and still does not work). also bought a new Ipod Touch, the video doesn't work with this unit. I have the adaptor, my old 80 gig did.

This unit is half decent but has a number of software bugs related to iphone source that are very annoying. I have only had the unit for a month and so far have noticed the following:

-when you set the random to 'album' it reverts back to 'song' each time you turn the unit off, or change the source, or answer a phone call on the blue tooth etc.

-Intermittently there are glitches in the sound from an iphone source. I have the 3G s iphone. Its not that bad, perhaps every third song there are one or two momentary clitches in the sound.

-I have had 3 instances in this first month where it packed a sad and I had to turn it off and restart before it would read the iphone.

-When I plug in the iphone, it starts playing and I hear the sound momentarily, then the sound dissappears - but the song keeps playing (you can see the seconds ticking by). To recover the sound I have to select another source, then select ipod source again, then everything is fine. I have to do this every morning when I plug it in.

Since I brought this unit mainly to play ipod/iphone and for the blue tooth I am quite dissapointed and really would not have purchased the unit had I known about these software bugs. Besides this I agree with the above feedback regarding the wall paper and other graphics. For such a capable screen that can play DVD I really expected some nice graphics and perhaps a glitsy EQ image, album art etc. Nothing, the ZX81 I had when I was a wee boy had better graphics than this thing.

pah

This unit has all the capabilities that you would ever need in this day and age. I have been using this unit for about a month now and it has been working fantastic. The only bad part about this unit (and maybe its the same with similar units), is that it takes forever to read the source material if you have an external hard drive. If you have an iPhone, it only takes about ten seconds for it to load and play your music. Also, the unit doesn't allow the user to update the display screens; it just allows the user to use the preloaded, cheap backgrounds.

Despite these few cons, the rest of the unit works like a charm. I hardly ever listen to the radio since I have my iPhone playing songs at all times.

... Just Buy It!

I bought this deck under the belief that it can play Divx through the USB port. Do a Google search and many sites say it can play divx. Well it can't and that just sucks.

The display does not show enough track information. I find myself struggling to find a song. With a 7" screen I cannot understand why you cannot display full song and artist information.

This could have been a fantastic product but again due to it being crippled software it's just not. Too bad :(

Here is the setup:
JVC KW-AVX820
Infinity Reference 9623i (6x9) in rear deck
Infinity Reference 6020cs (6.5" components) in front doors
Infinity Reference 1052w (10") sub in a Scosche Se10 sealed enclosure.
Sirius satellite tuner Sirius SCC1 & JVC KSSRA100
HD radio tuner KT-HD300
5th gen iPod connected via the JVC KS-U30 a/v cable
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The 6x9's and the components are being powered by the deck only.
The sub is being powered by a Rockford Fosgate P2002 amp.
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I have just barely had the unit for a day, so I will report back later for an update, but, as of now, the system sounds incredible! Eventually, I will get an amp for the main speakers, but for now... This absolutely is well beyond a stock stereo.
The iPod interface is quite nice and fast enough for me. It is not slow. I had an old Pioneer AVIC Z-1 before and THAT was slow and glitchy. This is very nice. I can totally control my iPod from the deck. Nice.
The HD tuner is nice. It has settings to automatically or manually, switch between HD and FM. Depending on the signal strength, this can get weird as the HD and FM are about .5 second apart so when it switches, there is a doubling up of the last word or sound, but overall, it is OK as it does not switch that much. Your mileage will vary depending on terrain and stations. Overall, the sound quality is noticeable and nice.
Sirius is very good quality too. Switching to it is also fast enough. Overall, very good.
The touchscreen interface is really slick and there is a short learning curve. It is actually pretty intuitive. I love the proximity sensor.
At this early stage, I cannot complain about much. One area I am still tackling is the bluetooth phone. (There is also bluetooth audio!) I cannot figure out the phone book works, but I will.... I have made calls on the phone and have been told it is very good. I did have to crank the volume to hear callers, but that volume is separate from the music/video/etc volume so after the call, the music is not blaring.
Again, more exploration into the settings is in order. There are numerous settings in this baby!
I am quite enamored by this unit and would highly recommend it. Amazon's price is very good and beats others by almost $200.
I really do not think you will be disappointed. I love gadgets and this is now HIGH on my list!

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Updates:
I have figured out the .5 second delay and it is now gone! It is a setting called "blend" that allows HD radio and standard AM/FM to blend as they switch between signals. Very nice. (It would be nice it include a buffer to keep the switching to a minimum, but that is a future feature request). HD radio sounds incredible by the way.
The Bluetooth also has a mic adjustment and volume adjustment. All is good there. Conversations are normal now, but callers can hear road noise if it is bad enough (hasn't posed a problem though. If you have a quiet car, than no worries. I am FatMat-ing my car this weekend).
I can control all aspects of the iPod from the deck, even video when using the iPod cable. (HINT: Go straight to ground and do not connect to parking brake... ;-) You'll see why.)
Nice feature discovered: I can use my phone's navigation and have the audio routed to the Bluetooth and come out on the speakers so when turn by turn directions are given, they come out of the speakers. This allows me to set my destination and put the phone back in my holster and listen to the turn by turn! My next experiment is to route the audio/video out of my phone (Sprint HTC Diamond Pro) to the A/V in and display full navigation on the deck (with Sprint's A/V cable)! Another update to this may be forthcoming!
Oh! I forgot to mention the video viewing angle. It is great. No problems side to side or even wearing my polarized sunglasses.
Overall, I am really enjoying this deck.

I'll keep this brief because many reviewers have highlighted how good this product is and I agree with all of the good points.

I bought this unit for my Toyota Rav4. Fits well with the vehicle's installation kit available online.

The bluetooth works well. I currently use it with my Blackberry Bold 9000 and the sound is clear.

The USB input also works well. I recommend you use an Ipod Classic 160GB with this device. It is much better than using a hardrive. You get the benefit of your organised Ipod playlists and you get fairly instantaneous access to your artists/albums/songs via a well presented navigation screen. Plus with 160GB, you can basically walk around with your entire music collection!

You can run this unit as is with your factory speakers and it sounds great! I eventually upgraded and installed amps. Now the system rocks!

The DVD screen quality is clear. For the superheroes, you can easily override the safety feature which prevents you from watching DVDs while driving. Of course as we all know this is not advisable...blah...blah.... It is good for entertaining passengers or passing time in traffic.

You can also detach the face if you have parked in an unsecure area.

Okay, so here are the downsides:

1) The DVD player works well. However you may get some freezing up occasionally when you try to play burned DVDs. I assume that once you get some good DVD authoring software, you should be ok. However, it can be annoying.

2) For the life of me, I cannot seem to get the Ipod videos to work. I bought the JVC KS-U30 USB Video Cable for iPod and iPhone as noted on this website (and the manual for the device) and it just does not work. You hear the sound but no video. So that's kinda crappy. That's why I give this 4 instead of 5 stars. Hopefully someone can read this and tell me what I'm doing wrong. Maybe it's the Ipod, I don't know.

Overall, I recommend this unit. The benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Plus the price is good.