Customer Reviews

JVC KD-NX5000 Vehicle Multimedia Receiver w/ 3.5" Color Display

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

 

 

This is one hell of a unit. I have had it for 3months now and suffice it to say it has everything you could ever ask for. For example, if you decide to adjust the sound settings, watch out, you might rip your speakers or are you into satelite radios...it is Sirius and XM radio ready. Navigation is superb and as far as I am concerned, it is on par with my 2007 Yukon navigation system. I have watched full lenght movies on the screen with front passengers and connected video monitors on the headrests for rear passengers. There are so much more to this unit; bluetooth, MP3/ZUNE/IPOD adapter, 13million POI etc
I love it and will buy another if I ever have to.

This little guy has everything! Save that other DIN space for a cubbyhole. Don't think the screen is too small - your eyes should be on the road anyway. It speaks GPS directions to you! It's incredibly powerful and although professional installation is probably easiest, there are tons of forums on the net with advice that can help you do it yourself. I love this unit!

This radio has great features that should be standard in car stereos by now. However, it seems JVC did not take time to make it user friendly and left out some major features.

The Harddrive is a great concept but there is no easy way to upload your songs so you have to burn them to CD and then load them to the hard drive. This would be fine but the harddrive does not fully recognize the tags for genre and album and does not organize the songs according to the genre and album/artist so you have to do it manually. This is a pain if you have 20 Gigs worth of songs. Finally, the Harddrive does not allow pausing of songs!!!!!!!!!!! This has to be the easiest feature to implement and is the biggest pain (in the you know where) if you don't have it.

The Sirius radio has a know flaw the makes it almost worthless. The connection in the back is not stable so you often get a "reset 08" error that turns of the Sirius functionality altogether. The only way to turn it back on is to reconnect the wire (which is inaccessible when installed) or pull the fuse to reset the device. The reset button will not work to fix the Sirius.

The Navigation is totally un-user-friendly. I have a Garmin and they could learn something from Garmin. The ability to search for things by name is really not there. Also locations are stored by city so if you don't know that its in Clarendon and not Arlington you will never find what you are looking for.

Overall, its too expensive (sales price plus install) for me to replace but if I could I would. There has to be something else that can get these features right.

I have this head unit with the JVC KS-BTA200 Bluetooth adapter JVC KS-BTA200 Bluetooth Adapter with Microphone. After using this head unit for a few years in first my '97 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP and now in my 2006 Nissan Altima SER I have listed the pro's and con's below:

Pros:
Navigation software works very well (when it works - see Cons)
Easy to hack to allow DVD playback while in motion
HDD is nice for uploading music too and easy/quick for playback
Interface is nice and easy to use
LCD screen is of very good quality
Unit is made of strong plastic/metal (durable, including the face plate when removing and re-inserting it over and over)

Cons:
Navigation requires VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) to be connected, which is not easy in many vehicles
No pause ability when listening to music on CD or HDD
To upload music it must first be burnt onto a CD/DVD then uploaded.. very slowly
No auto organize/ID3 Tag reading when uploading music
Wiring harnesses are messy and not modular
Wires are very brittle and very small (gauge)
My unit now restarts itself randomly (I noticed it tends to happen right after playing through it's first song on the HDD, I contacted JVC they have NO firmware updates (ONLY navigation map updates) and want me to send it into their service center in upstate New York (I live in Central NJ!))
LCD screen is impossible to read in sunlight
No matter what I do I get humming in the output of the device (not the best grounds for the internal amp/RCA output's)
Doesn't support uploading of your own picture(s) for backgrounds (my old Pioneer non-DVD head unit supported this!)
After all these years the wire for the Bluetooth adapter is no longer working all the time and randomly gives me an "Error 8" meaning the cable between the Bluetooth adapter and headunit is not sending signals properly
The Bluetooth system randomly looses audio causing me to restart the headunit and wait for my phone to re-connect (this is not an issue with the phone as this has happened with my old HTC S710[Win Mobile 6.5], HTC HD2[Win Mobile 6.5.5 and Android 2.2/2.3] AND my new HTC T-Mobile G2[Android 2.3.3]

Overall, this unit couldn't have been beat for the price I paid ($650 on eBay - was over $700 on Crutchfield) many years ago and it has lasted me this long. Most players with these features were going for $1000+ at the time, but after a few years these issues are annoying, and I will be looking to get rid of it and setup a nice car computer.

It was a good stereo, the nav was ok, the screen was useless and the ipod controls were a friggin joke. I expeced Way better from JVC

I bought this over 2 years ago now and it's still a great purchase. It's relatively easy to install (once I found the documentation for my car that told me which wire is the speed sensor wire and found a found a path through my car's dash).

The hard drive is great, because it holds the maps so you don't have to use a separate maps DVD. There is also about 20 GB of space for your own MP3's. I figure the hard drive will be the first thing to go...but so far it is going strong.

Copying music to the hard drive....UGH. From a DVD, it takes about 2-3 minutes to copy 1 albums worth of MP3s from a DVD This doesn't seem like a long time, but when you want to copy 5 GB of MP3s, that means about two hours. A long time to sit in the car pushing buttons. Make sure they are properly tagged and in separate folders by Artist/Album).

I haven't bothered to encode MP3s from audio CD's (well, I did it once and it was painfully slow - about 15 minutes to copy a 60 minute album). When you encode from Audio CD, the artist and song names are just random junk unless you take the time to fix it. If the CD has CD-Text, then the song names will show up properly, but in my experience most commercial audio CD's do not have CD-Text.

MP3s played from the Hard drive do not auto resume from the previous song position after turning your car on. MP3s played from Disc or Ipod adapter DO resume correctly. HOWEVER, if the 4 GB DVD is full on MP3s, it takes about 30-40 seconds for the stereo to enumerate all the tracks and start playback. Sound quality is decent and their is a full EQ with factory and user definable levels.

There are a ton of features on this thing but one drawback is that you can't use more than one external connector at a time. In other words, you can use the bluetooth adapter OR the ipod adapter OR the Aux adapter OR the XM adapter. Changing the adapters requires pulling the stereo out and switch it...not a trivial thing.

Also, I would not recommend the ipod adapter. Yes it is capable of charging the ipod (sometimes) but it is not compatible with some of the newer ipods, in particular it does not work with my 1st gen ipod touch or my iphone 3G. It did work with my ipod 5th gen video charging and playback (until that was stolen). HOWEVER a major drawback of the ipod adapter is you HAVE to use the interface on the stereo which is AWFUL if you have more than 50 or so songs on your ipod (especially if they aren't tagged properly by artist album). With that in mind I would recommend the KS-U58 adapter which has just a 3.5 mm stereo jack (headphone mini) which can interface with any mp3 player. It is a lot cheaper than the ipod adapter. No it will not charge, but when your friend rides along and they want to listen to their ipod it is a PAIN to teach them how to use the stereo's interface, so the standard 3.5 mm adapter lets them use the ipod's interface.

I have not used the bluetooh or XM adapters.

The navigation is very good in my experience (mostly navigating in the Boston/New England area - City, suburbs, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut). Re-routing works flawlessly, and the paths are pretty good (if only it could be configured to ignore Fenway on gameday!) It only says generic street names (e.g. "Continue on Ninety-three North" or "Make a left on U-S twenty-eight", it will not say "Harvard Street" or "Commonwealth Ave". For some reason the accuracy of the roundabout directions surprises me, it will say "Take the 3rd exit at the traffic circle" which is impressive.

The speed sensor wire has come loose two times in two years. Navigation will not work AT ALL without the speed sensor wire. It was relatively easy to pop the hood and re-clamp the connector. I'm sure if I'd had it professionally installed, they would have done a better job than I of securing the connection.

No touchscreen or voice commands, if those are deal breakers for you, but honestly I'm am SOOO glad I have this instead of a Tom-Tom or Garmin. It doesn't take up a power outlet, less concerned about it being stolen (detachable faceplate FTW), and it's always there when I need it, and it has a MP3 hard drive built in. I bought it for Music and Navigation and couldn't be happier...the purpose of a review is to be critical and point out flaws that others may have a problem with. I consider the unit's flaws to be minor so I think this stereo is great after-market option that rivals the newer factory installed in dash units in features (if not screen size).

If you are looking at this unit for GPS and can only use a single din unit, pick a portable unit you will be much happier. This unit will not work without an electronic speed indicator from the car or motorcycle your installing this unit in. If you can not supply this lead the unit will not work. You can buy a speed indicator that fools the unit into thinking this lead is attached, but the GPS is not accurate, and this unit will cost another $200.00. Radio fair not great, but no auto station ID, and song information,this should be standard. DVD player ok, but can you really watch a DVD on that small a screen and drive? When will a vendor understand that iPhones are now as much a part of life as the iPod and let them work on these unit also. Bluetooth cell phone interface is ok but also not ready for prime time.

I purchased The JVC KDNX-5000 because I simply wanted a Head Unit with navigation with a detachable face.... What I got was a device that would make James Bond or Batman envy me! I am not easily pleased with electronics, and I think those bad reviewers above are suspect.This JVC has so many features I can't begin to touch on all of them. First off, on the Nav. side, You are able to find locations via their address,coordi- nates, or even phone number! You then can be guided their via the screen as well as voice guided( Male or Female voice ). On the Audio/Video side, I purchased these: The Ipod module, The Sirius Sat. module, and the Bluetooth Mod. without any of these it is one hell of a unit, but with them... OMG! This unit has a 24 gig. hard drive for Mp3 music storage, but that's overkill and I'll tell you why. This receiver can play a single burned CD-R in data format with over 500 mp3s on it! There is a way to burn 10 times that many on to a DVD-R, although I have not tried this yet! The interface with my various IPods are flawless, showing artist,track,and album. No album art though. This module also will not work with IPhones or Touches, but guess what; with the Sony or JVC BTA bluetooth adapter, My ITouch plays seemlessly through my Bluetooth Module. If you have an IPod, I highly Recmnd. the Ipod Mod. because it also charges them and now their only about $10. This is an Alpine crusher, becuase one would have to purchase many expensive interfaces that The KDNX5000 comes standard with or can be purchased on the cheap! All this, and sound quality and DVD quality are exellent. The Screen shows a superb picture despite being 3.5" , but it also has Vid./Audio out for an additional larger screen. With the Bluetooth Add on, I receive calls via my Motorolla Razor. The music auto Atten. and the caller's voice is herd and caller info. shown on the screen. So screw the couple of bad reviews, This JVC has been tops on CNET's List for the last two years for a reason. Go to CNET.com , watch the Video and drule!

I have an 160 gig ipod with a ton of music on it and this unit has the worst navigation for an ipod thats on the market. I bought this item because it offered everything I wanted, but if I had the choice to do over-i would run for the hills. This unit is a piece of garbage. Go Apline

DO NOT BUY JVC. They broke my car radio after sending it in for minor service repairs. It came back scratched up & broke the usb port, & said too bad we didn't do it.