Wanted : Cheap head unit that can play movies, GPS and bluetooth

Wanted : Cheap head unit that can play movies, GPS and bluetooth - Android Auto General

Hi all
I've been looking for a cheap head unit that does what a car stereo will do, plays movies from a memory stick, has bluetooth and possibly GPS (nice but not mandatory). I don't require it to be ultra fast, but enough so it'll play movies decently and won't lag to hell in the menus.
Does anyone have any cheap recommendations? I'm in Canada.

I had just purchased from Amaazon "7mile universal 5.1.1 android double din" and I'm VERY happy. It's $185 usually but they had an Amazon Warehouse open box for $100 that I snatched skeptically but it was perfect condition. Plays large 1080p xvid movies from microsd card without any slowdown whatsoever, has Bluetooth and has GPS antenna built in google maps app. Everything so far works wonderfully I couldn't be happier. It's a quad core A9 chip and it's not super fast but it's fast enough for me.

Related

ATT Tilt with 3.5mm Sound Quality

I know the main point of a Tilt is not it's MP3 player function, but I just purchased an ATT Tilt and I am considering buying a 3.5mm adapter for it and just selling my Zune and use the Tilt as my MP3 player.
My question is, can anyone tell me how good the Tilt sounds with premium headphones and a 3.5mm adapter? Also, which adapter would you recommend. Thank you for your time.

It's surprisingly pretty good with phones, either through the cable or using the phone's Bluetooth to the Sony Bluetooth headphones that sell for about $100 at Best Buy. Seido (search on this site) sells the mini-USB to mini-stereo cable as well as a bunch of styli that I always seem to loose.

I use my tilt for my $10,000 car audio system. It's the same or a tad better then a cd.

hiya
I use my kaiser with RP-F350 Technics headphones and I can tell You this combo sounds great.
bro

I use my kaiser for music listening frequently and the sound quality is better than the majority of dedicated music players I've owned before.

I just sent out an order for the adapter today. Thanks for the input everyone, it is much appreciated.

I'm a picky audiophile; I never even considered serious listening on a portable audio player until this year. I evaluated several of the various software music players for Windows Mobile that are capable of playing losslessly compressed audio (FLAC) on my tilt, and found them all lacking. I used a 3.5mm adapter and headphones ranging from crap to UE triple.fi to shure e530 to AKG 701 to Grado GS1000. I was pretty much totally dissatisfied with the results, the sound is tinny, thin, filled with noise, and has very limited dynamic range. I also tried using several portable headphone amps which improved the range, but were still unsatisfying.
I ended up getting the cowon iaudio7 which just plain blows away any other portable player I've heard. While it still can't compare to a decent home system, paired with a portable headphone amp, it's actually a very decent sounding portable audio solution.

Thanks for the input man. Yeah, I am quite the audiophile too, I have a zune for the storage capacity alone, but I use my cowon D2 when i really want to listen to music, it has amazing sound quality. I just am tired of hauling around alot of devices and just wanted to see what people thought of the sound quality.
But again, thanks for everyone's input, I will post my thoughts when my order gets in

Tilt: Crappy Sound
I think the Tilt sound is the worst I've ever heard... I tried different players, earphones and also Btooth headset...but I can't make it sound properly.
I'll appreciate any advice.
Thanks in advance

macdo said:
I think the Tilt sound is the worst I've ever heard... I tried different players, earphones and also Btooth headset...but I can't make it sound properly.
I'll appreciate any advice.
Thanks in advance
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I listen to hour long mixes of electronic dance music (minimal house, tribal, tech-house) that tends to get distorted or muddy because of the amount of layers and bass oriented sound. When I listen to music on my Tilt individual sounds come out defined and the bass is really smooth. I mainly use the Technics RPDH1200 for when I want listen to music at home, and the Shure SE310 for when Im on the go. Have you tried using wired headphones?

i use Sennheiser's CX300 with the HTC Audio Player and the sound is very good. The only requirement is that you need to play around with the Audio Booster settings to select the correct equalizer settings for the music you're listening to to.

annulation said:
I'm a picky audiophile; I never even considered serious listening on a portable audio player until this year. I evaluated several of the various software music players for Windows Mobile that are capable of playing losslessly compressed audio (FLAC) on my tilt, and found them all lacking. I used a 3.5mm adapter and headphones ranging from crap to UE triple.fi to shure e530 to AKG 701 to Grado GS1000. I was pretty much totally dissatisfied with the results, the sound is tinny, thin, filled with noise, and has very limited dynamic range. I also tried using several portable headphone amps which improved the range, but were still unsatisfying.
I ended up getting the cowon iaudio7 which just plain blows away any other portable player I've heard. While it still can't compare to a decent home system, paired with a portable headphone amp, it's actually a very decent sounding portable audio solution.
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I've read some reviews on cowom products and they seem quite good. I bought an 80gb iPod simply because i had a lot of music purchased from the iTunes store and i wanted space. My music libary is about 8000 songs so i need a lot of storage. I might consider getting a cowon if i could find one with decent storage space, that's my priority right below that is audio qaulity. If anyone could recommend a good player with great space and good qaulity, i'd love to check it out.

Honestly, I know some people may hate the Zune, but if I had to choose again, I would most likely stick with my Zune 80gb but I just sold it because I am tired of lugging around so many gadgets with me. The build quality is amazing, it plays games to pass the time, the sound quality is also top notch and the software is pretty easy to use. Also, they just had a price drop and not to mention, it is pretty slim and the screen is really really crisp.
I kept my Cowon D2 because it is really small. It has a pretty slick touchscreen and has AMAZING sound quality. They have, 2gb, 4gb and 8gb models but they also have SD card slots that can handle any size. So it is expandable. Other than those, if you have questions, I have had many mp3 players and if you have any in mind I can give my opinion. Good luck.

RubberDucky451 said:
I might consider getting a cowon if i could find one with decent storage space, that's my priority right below that is audio qaulity. If anyone could recommend a good player with great space and good qaulity, i'd love to check it out.
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Cowon makes players with up to 60Gb of space. But I'd say that if you are using a lossy compressed format, the player is not really going to help much so you may as well just stick with the ipod. Data loss during compression is probably going to have a much bigger impact than the sound quality of the different players out there. A better sounding player often enhances flaws in the source.
On a positive note, it is likely that very soon players will come out that have enough space to hold all of your music uncompressed (or at least losslessly compressed). My difficulty was finding one that sounds good and can play the lossless formats that I use (FLAC).

My biggest complaint with playing music on the Tilt is the stupid 'glitch' or skup that occurs ever 2-3 minutes. I think this would be a deal breaker for you.
I know this was well documented in other threads, did any resolution ever become of it? I recently flashed from the stock ATT ROM to a cooked 6.1 Rom so I'm waiting to see if that makes a difference.

anybody familiar with double din experience

I Have a 2004 sierra and I'm looking to get my first double din so I don't know too much about them or have any experience on how they work or there UI.
I was really into the Alpine line but a blogger or whoever on youtube said Alpine is laggy, and said that pioneer has a really good GPS system and is updated the most frequent. But to my understanding I thought pioneer was a lower brand and that Walmart sells pioneer product. I'm not looking to spend $300 and hope for the best and I'm not looking to overpay just for a name. I really don't mind paying 600 since you get what you pay for. Does anybody have any good recommendations on a model that has all the bells and whistles and 3 RCA connections?
GPS (not so important tho)
HDMI or some way to mirror. I could do Google Maps that way
Bluetooth streaming.
DVD player
3 rca outlets for amps
Not laggy
I did see some Android powered double dins but from what I read they were all Chinese brands.

If money is no concern, which should I buy?

I'm either wanting an Android Auto head unit, or a full android one. There are a lot out there, all with mixed reviews. So which is the best one?

For full android head units, I did *alot* of reading and searching before buying. From what I can tell there are no super high quality android headunit from big name companies like you have with phones. Alot of it depends on what is important to you.
Your not going to find a unit perfect unit out of the box. There are some good units out there but all seem to require rolling up your sleeves, researching threads here, and having the technical ability to make it work for you. That's what's great about android, but can also be a big downside to a non-technical person.
I bought a Joying 2gb / sofia unit. It does have a couple of rough spots out of the box, but with the help of people here all of my issues have been resolved. Hardware wise, it is a very solid unit with good display, nice feature set, decent sound quality & performance. Their latest update resolved all of my bluetooth issues, which was my biggest complaint. I wouldn't even consider a 1GB unit with google bloat in their apps lately.
It's not the latest high power CPU but works well for it's intended use. It runs torque, maps, pandora, and a few other apps constantly and is still very responsive. It based on ASOP 5.1.1 / lollipop, very stable and never had an app force close in over a month of use.

gustden said:
For full android head units, I did *alot* of reading and searching before buying. From what I can tell there are no super high quality android headunit from big name companies like you have with phones. Alot of it depends on what is important to you.
Your not going to find a unit perfect unit out of the box. There are some good units out there but all seem to require rolling up your sleeves, researching threads here, and having the technical ability to make it work for you. That's what's great about android, but can also be a big downside to a non-technical person.
I bought a Joying 2gb / sofia unit. It does have a couple of rough spots out of the box, but with the help of people here all of my issues have been resolved. Hardware wise, it is a very solid unit with good display, nice feature set, decent sound quality & performance. Their latest update resolved all of my bluetooth issues, which was my biggest complaint. I wouldn't even consider a 1GB unit with google bloat in their apps lately.
It's not the latest high power CPU but works well for it's intended use. It runs torque, maps, pandora, and a few other apps constantly and is still very responsive. It based on ASOP 5.1.1 / lollipop, very stable and never had an app force close in over a month of use.
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Is that one easy to install the google framework, and all on? If I got a full android one, I'd want to be able to watch youtube. That's pretty much my only reason for considering them

Just install from play store. Framework and store already installed out of the box.

gustden said:
Just install from play store. Framework and store already installed out of the box.
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So would you recommend this over an Android Auto radio, such as the new one by Sony? Do you think the quality of it is good enough to last a year, or longer?

What are your goals here? Are you looking for a full Android experience, or Android Auto only?
For Android Auto alone, I'd recommend any major brand's Android Auto compatible units as they will be higher quality, with better sound and better warranties.
If you want a combo of the two, Pioneer's NEX units are Android Auto compatible, but they also support AppRadio mode. Rooting your phone and using AR Unchained Reloaded will give you the fill Android experience using your phone and a wireless display adaptor.
Just the full Android experience, but not too worried about possible bugs, sound quality issues or support, one of the units recommended above will work.
I personally use an AVH-4200NEX from Pioneer for Android Auto. I replaced an old AppRadio 2 with this unit and have yet to use the AppRadio mode even once.
Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

I don't know which I want, which is why I am reaching out to you guys. I like the Idea of the full Android head units, but don't know which are good or reliable. I also like the idea of the AA units, and am considering the new Sony one, or possibly the AVH-4200NEX.

I think I'm kinda leaning towards the full android unit. I usually download music videos with my youtube red account, and use that for listening in the car. This way I wouldn't have to use my phone. I just worry about it not sounding nearly as good as a normal radio.

allenrb2 said:
I think I'm kinda leaning towards the full android unit. I usually download music videos with my youtube red account, and use that for listening in the car. This way I wouldn't have to use my phone. I just worry about it not sounding nearly as good as a normal radio.
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Sound quality is a very subjective and debatable topic. But I'll throw in my 2 cents.
First, consider your probably listening to compressed music, in a noisy environment. In a home audio system in a quiet room at normal listening levels, *most* people cannot hear the difference between a system with 70db s/n vs 90db s/n.
In a car, the difference between the stereo and "road noise" ratio my be 30-50db at normal listening volumes. My 'cheaper' android head unit claims a 90db s/n. Even if this is exaggerated, the road noise is 100x greater than noise introduced by the unit. People also claim they can hear the difference between a more expensive DAC, which is also debatable. Compressing music ( even at higher bitrates ) introduces far more distortion and artifacts than almost any modern DAC. If your going over bluetooth, that in itself can reduce the quality by a very noticeable level.
I'm very happy with the sound quality of my 'cheaper' android unit, but I am not what you would consider an audiophile.

gustden said:
Sound quality is a very subjective and debatable topic. But I'll throw in my 2 cents.
First, consider your probably listening to compressed music, in a noisy environment. In a home audio system in a quiet room at normal listening levels, *most* people cannot hear the difference between a system with 70db s/n vs 90db s/n.
In a car, the difference between the stereo and "road noise" ratio my be 30-50db at normal listening volumes. My 'cheaper' android head unit claims a 90db s/n. Even if this is exaggerated, the road noise is 100x greater than noise introduced by the unit. People also claim they can hear the difference between a more expensive DAC, which is also debatable. Compressing music ( even at higher bitrates ) introduces far more distortion and artifacts than almost any modern DAC. If your going over bluetooth, that in itself can reduce the quality by a very noticeable level.
I'm very happy with the sound quality of my 'cheaper' android unit, but I am not what you would consider an audiophile.
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So if I did go with one, would this one be the best as of right now? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M670UW...UTF8&colid=2QPCTDNBY3GCZ&coliid=IZMEX683T5VOE
Do you know if it has separate sub controls? I have seen that some of the android units do, and some do not

Hey, new person buying a chinese unit (help please)

I don't know where to post this so I'm posting here due to the amount of other Erisin posts.
I'm in the middle of looking for a double din head unit for my Rav4, this Erisin ES4763C head unit has come up on eBay / Erisin website when googled.
After reading a lot of reviews its putting me off spending around £250 on this head unit with camera, reverse camera, DAB+ etc.
I'm after a head unit that will do almost everything and it seems to fit the bill.
I'm wanting to know are they easily fixable, are they able to refund money if said item is broken? I'll be paying via PayPal to get some protection.
I like to research before I plunge in. Youtube videos seem to have helped a bit on what they do and they seem ok.
Would you recommend buying one or should I stay clear? - Just don't want to end up looking like Homer Simpson in my car with separate things like dash cam, satnav and bluetooth headset. (Season 14, episode 20.) (google "homer simpson car gadgets" since im not allowed to post links yet.)
After a bit more research, I've come across Xtrons PCD67HGT that does all the same stuff as Erisin but without the TV option. (But who drives with TV on?)
I honestly don't know which head unit to go for.
I'm after a head unit that can do these:
DAB+
Dash cam record + speed
Sat Nav
Reverse camera
Hands free phone
Steering wheel control
WiFi + 4G (or connect to phones 4G. Is this possible? So I don't have to buy another sim card?)
DVD + mirroring for back passengers.
What head units are there for me? Vehicle is a RAV4 2004 gen 2 D-4D.
I have around £260 to spend.
Thank you.

Im using Xtrons TA701PL and it really runs like a charm.
Some of the most important setups are there, and its got expansion slots for everything and then some.
Sound is way better than i expected, perhaps some would argue that the amp is a little to the lower side, but its still able to blast out your speakers if you want to.
Ive tried a various amount of the unbranded CH HU´s from Ebay/Amazon, but nothing compares to Xtrons, i even had one of these unbranded ones having 20 mins to open spotify!, on my Xtrons, its there allmost instant.
Support wise, they do have a forum, but its one of those forums where you cant just post anyways, but they have to allow your post to be shown, so its 110% useless, BUT they do have a online chat, where you allso can leave an email, and they do respond pretty quickly.
I had 1 issue with mine, a faulty cable, and they sendt me a new one, at no charge.
Only real wierd issue software wise i have, is some apps seems to see BT as turned off, this seems to be a trend among Android HU´s, every single one ive tried has this, it can sometimes interferer with some apps that need BT to be activated.
I bought mine directly at Xtrons

Impetuz said:
Im using Xtrons TA701PL and it really runs like a charm.
Some of the most important setups are there, and its got expansion slots for everything and then some.
Sound is way better than i expected, perhaps some would argue that the amp is a little to the lower side, but its still able to blast out your speakers if you want to.
Ive tried a various amount of the unbranded CH HU´s from Ebay/Amazon, but nothing compares to Xtrons, i even had one of these unbranded ones having 20 mins to open spotify!, on my Xtrons, its there allmost instant.
Support wise, they do have a forum, but its one of those forums where you cant just post anyways, but they have to allow your post to be shown, so its 110% useless, BUT they do have a online chat, where you allso can leave an email, and they do respond pretty quickly.
I had 1 issue with mine, a faulty cable, and they sendt me a new one, at no charge.
Only real wierd issue software wise i have, is some apps seems to see BT as turned off, this seems to be a trend among Android HU´s, every single one ive tried has this, it can sometimes interferer with some apps that need BT to be activated.
I bought mine directly at Xtrons
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Click to collapse
Im close to buying the PA77HGTP, reverse camera, DVR camera comes to around £251. I'm close to clicking the button but something's putting me off. They recently brought out 8.0 with 4gb ram. But doesn't fit my car
There's no videos etc for showing the newer Xtrons working that I can find.
Hmm just don't know what to do.

Zenlot said:
Im close to buying the PA77HGTP, reverse camera, DVR camera comes to around £251. I'm close to clicking the button but something's putting me off. They recently brought out 8.0 with 4gb ram. But doesn't fit my car
There's no videos etc for showing the newer Xtrons working that I can find.
Hmm just don't know what to do.
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Click to collapse
Im quite happy with using the 7.1 models, all i wanted was the dual app function on the screen, so i can have spotify and traffic on at the same time

Zenlot said:
I don't know where to post this so I'm posting here due to the amount of other Erisin posts.
I'm in the middle of looking for a double din head unit for my Rav4, this Erisin ES4763C head unit has come up on eBay / Erisin website when googled.
After reading a lot of reviews its putting me off spending around £250 on this head unit with camera, reverse camera, DAB+ etc.
I'm after a head unit that will do almost everything and it seems to fit the bill.
I'm wanting to know are they easily fixable, are they able to refund money if said item is broken? I'll be paying via PayPal to get some protection.
I like to research before I plunge in. Youtube videos seem to have helped a bit on what they do and they seem ok.
Would you recommend buying one or should I stay clear? - Just don't want to end up looking like Homer Simpson in my car with separate things like dash cam, satnav and bluetooth headset. (Season 14, episode 20.) (google "homer simpson car gadgets" since im not allowed to post links yet.)
After a bit more research, I've come across Xtrons PCD67HGT that does all the same stuff as Erisin but without the TV option. (But who drives with TV on?)
I honestly don't know which head unit to go for.
I'm after a head unit that can do these:
DAB+
Dash cam record + speed
Sat Nav
Reverse camera
Hands free phone
Steering wheel control
WiFi + 4G (or connect to phones 4G. Is this possible? So I don't have to buy another sim card?)
DVD + mirroring for back passengers.
What head units are there for me? Vehicle is a RAV4 2004 gen 2 D-4D.
I have around £260 to spend.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Main question is: how good are you at DIY electronics? If not good at all you might want to consider buying a unit from a specialized company that will also set it up in your car.
After using several chinese HUs here are my findings:
All the units I have seen have low quality glossy LCD screens. If you live in a sunny area don't expect to see anything on the screen.
There is no QC at the end of the production cycle. That is why people receive units with non functioning screens or get weird errors from units with bad internal connections.
System architecture is unnecessarily complicated AND has serious limitations. For example you cannot: use a BT dongle or use a generic camera with the DVR app.
Bluetooth phone connections are generally of poor quality.
Some 4G modems work, others don't - no drivers.
Dual-zone (i.e having satnav on the HU screen and play a movie on the back screens) isn't generally available and you should specifically ask for that.
Steering wheel controls work as long as you have a resistive- type SWC. If not, additional modules are required.
Older units (with Android 4.4 or 5.1) have too little RAM and may become extremely slow.
With that said you can still find good value for money, just make sure you talk to the seller before paying anything and confirm every single feature for your specific car model. Chinese will answer any question before sale and pretty much disappear after sale.
I cannot comment on DAB+, never used it.

Is Android Auto Worth It Yet?

I currently have a pretty good full android head unit. I really like basically having a tablet in my car, but always find myself let down by the sound quality. So I am trying to find out if AA has come far enough to justify spending hundreds of dollars on another head unit. Is it stable? Are the features useful? Are there any killer apps?
If you think it's worth it to switch to AA, which head unit is the best out there? Would it be something like the new Alpine iLX-F309, or the recent Pioneer AVH-2330NEX, or the year old Sony XAV-AX100? Or something else?

Well, I guess that answers that question.

For me:
Stable? Yes, with a newish phone and good quality cable.
Useful? Very
Killer apps? No, it's a car. But the SDK has allowed a few interesting custom apps.
Personally I wouldn't be without it. I'm not going back to terrible OEM UI's

Not for me. Waze is giving me issues (speech recognition only works after a few minutes of driving) and the limit of scrolling through the library in Spotify is a no-go for me. If I use my music library inside my head-unit I can browse through all my music without limitation. So now I use my phone in a dash mount for waze and stream spotify through bluetooth.
The head unit I have is the Discover Pro in a Volkswagen Passat.

In terms of a full ready to go factory built product, I'd take a decent AA radio (like the sony XAV-AX100) over any of the cheapo chinese trash in a heartbeat. I'm saying this as an owner of a cheapo chinese piece of trash.
HOWEVER, AA leaves a lot to be desired that would be fulfilled by a PROPER and GOOD QUALITY Android radio.
And to that end there is THIS: https://github.com/HiKey960-Car/HiKey960-Car
Which is very much more usable than a cheapo chinese radio at this point, but has a few loose edges (which are VERY quickly being smoothed out).
What that is, is a GENUINE Android Automotive build, and not the ugly chinese layers on top of a smartphone build. Visually, it has a strong resemblance to Android Auto (it is very important to distinguish between "Auto" and "Automotive", which are two VERY distinct products), but is a complete operating system.
It is also worth noting that building one of those will definitely cost more than a cheapo chinese radio. In fact, just the SBC by itself will already match the price of an entire chinese radio ($250 USD), but the benefits of an ENTIRELY open source (except for ONE library for the MALI) "official google development board" are huge.

That board has mixed reviews based on build quality, and stability. It also isn't available through the only source I'd trust buying something like that, at that price, which is Amazon. Plus it wouldn't have the hi-pass filter, low-pass filter, and sub controls standard on a head unit, such as my "cheapo chinese trash" Joying radio. I don't think it would be for me based on those factors.

Thanks to those of you who responded, and voted. Since I cant even hook up an external amp to my radio, due to lack of outputs, I have decided to make the switch. My Pioneer 2330 will arrive tomorrow. I hope it's going to be a good switch for me.

Works really well on my new Vauxhall Corsa with built in intellilink R4. Waze has come of age, clear voice controls and directions. Added too that full steering wheel controls. Spotify pumping out my music. I have also have this great plugin running. :-https://forum.xda-developers.com/general/paid-software/app-obd2-plugin-android-auto-torque-t3657805

The "mixed reviews" are due to one very specific characteristic, which is that it uses a DSI-to-HDMI converter, which means that there are a few monitors that simply do not work with it.
Build quality and stability are excellent.
It *is* available on Amazon.
It *DOES* have audio filtering capability.

On Amazon it says: Currently unavailable.
The mixed reviews are for constant crashing, boards showing up DOA, problems with flashing different firmwares, and more. Which go against the claim of excellent build quality, and stability.
And the only way to adjust the audio the way I am talking about is to adjust it on the amps used. That would mean pulling over, and tweaking knobs on the go.
It may be a decent concept, and work for some people. It's honestly not better than using something like a Nexus 7 hooked up to an amp like many people have done.

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