my new interior

Interior Exterior

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oh yeah! chase, u missed the keychain!!

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ok....some of you requested pics of the radio....
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Thanks for the additional pictures! At the angle that radio is at and how it’s pushed out from the dash cowling … doesn’t it get a lot of glare with the top off? I can imagine the sun makes reading the display almost impossible.
This also makes it clear that it would have to be mounted at least 1/2 to an inch out from the standard radio location otherwise it would run into the aluminum lower portion of the dash. So no amount of shaving the plastic portion of the dash would compensate for that. It’s a shame that the front of the unit isn’t just a quarter-inch shorter. Still a great unit and it does look sharp.
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when i posted awhile back, when i first got the head unit, some people said "the glare, the glare.."
well, look at pics 1 and 2. those were taken with my treo phone at high noon with the top off in a very bright sun. i ask u if "reading the display is almost impossible????"
anyway, i have no trouble. i dont sell car audio, and im not going to start now, but i love this unit for this car. i suppose i can hook up one of those rear cameras that comes on when backing up and manually turn it on and see whose behind me when im just driving.
pics 3 and 4 show how the unit sits in the opening. pic is the flush position...pic 4 shows it in position 2. i use pos 2 a lot cause it angles the screen up towards me a little better.
anyway, u can see the green setting, the blue setting, it also has red, yellow, magenta, purple, and a few others...
if anyones interested, i have 2 pioneer 6500dvd headunits barely used sitting in my garage...

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I have problems reading the normal radio in sunlight when the top is off and I have sunglasses on. I can’t imagine this would be any better, but maybe. It’s one of those “see-it-to-believe-it” situations for me.
The backup camera would be great for this vehicle since it has really terrible visibility in the rear. I don’t know the first thing about installing one. I can only imagine if it were to be mounted near the exhaust that the camera would run the risk of melting if not sufficiently insulated. That area of the car gets pretty toasty
Nice touch on JVC's part to include some color options for the display. I'm glad to hear you're happy with the deck. I'm just happy to see this unit fits in the dash at all. I had been considering it but was very hesitant about the mounting situation.
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yeah, i dont know what to tell ya.....i posted pics, but maybe i should take some pics from behind sunglasses? ok, im messin with ya.. what can i tell ya? i dont have any problems...
maybe if irishfan ever gets off his ass and calls me, he can be an unbiased 3rd party.
also this is much better than the stock radio display, and theres an adjustment for brightness, etc.....
anyway......there it is....
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The backup camera would be great for this vehicle since it has really terrible visibility in the rear. I don’t know the first thing about installing one. I can only imagine if it were to be mounted near the exhaust that the camera would run the risk of melting if not sufficiently insulated. That area of the car gets pretty toasty
I have a camera solution now in work. I am still looking at LCD options though.
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chase, if uses the universal plug in, then it would(or should) work with my display.....
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Can you post some pics of the outside of your car please? I see two black stripes on the engine cover and am very interested.
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I have a camera solution now in work. I am still looking at LCD options though. I can't wait to see how that works out for you. I'm sure you'll post some pics once you're done.
yeah, i dont know what to tell ya.....i posted pics, but maybe i should take some pics from behind sunglasses? ok, im messin with ya.. what can i tell ya? i dont have any problems...
maybe if irishfan ever gets off his ass and calls me, he can be an unbiased 3rd party.
also this is much better than the stock radio display, and theres an adjustment for brightness, etc.....
anyway......there it is.... I've owned decks now from many of the major companies - Sony, Pioneer, Alpine ... and all of them have had glare issues in my vehicles despite the claims that they would work in direct sunlight. Maybe my eyesight is going ... I don't mean to call you a liar or anything, if you say it works I tend to believe you but I'm just skeptical is all. Maybe the sun in Minnesota is so foreign to me that it causes eye shock
Thanks again for sharing this install with all of us. My stereo equipment should be here this week meaning that I could start installing my sound system this weekend. I thought I’d leave the standard head unit in and see if the speakers and the amp would be enough to get some decent sound to my ears. This JVC will be high on my list if the head unit needs to be replaced.
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chase, if uses the universal plug in, then it would(or should) work with my display.....
Universal plug being an RCA jack?
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I have problems reading the normal radio in sunlight when the top is off and I have sunglasses on.
If you have polarized sunglasses then it can be rather difficult as the nature of LCDs is that they too are polarized. Thus, there is only a narrow angle at which your glasses will allow you to get a clear read, and even that may be much dimmer than with non-polarized glasses.
That said, polarized glasses are WAY better for driving than non-polarized.
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randy, yes, i meant rca jacks...wasnt sure if u would use some proprietary hookups or what....
i dont know...i just dont have any problem reading my display. when its sunny i wear sunglasses. i wear oakleys which are polarized, and i also wear gargoyles which i dont think are polarized. does the screen look a little whitewashed with sunlight right on it? i suppose, but i dont have any problems reading it. plus u only have a "narrow angle" of head movement inside the dimensions of the elise..
i even posted pics in blazing color...u can see the sunlight bright on my shoulder in the reflection in the pics.
anyway, by all means get whatever headunit works for u. it doesnt matter to me. this one works for me, i like it, and im happy abt it. people asked me questions abt it and im representing it as fairly as i can. ie pictures.
by the way....ive had this amp setup and speakers in a different car and whn i installed this stuff in the lotus i didnt have the headunit yet. so i installed everything to the factory headunit and was scratching my head why it still sounded so crappy. my install guy said its the headunit....i didnt think it would make much difference when using external amps, but it does. once i installed the jvc, it was like night and day as far as sound quality goes. between the jvc and the pioneer 6500's, i believe the pioneer sounded a tad better, but i didnt want the big flip screen in the elise....
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Can you please provide more information about the head unit?
So it plays DVDs, but what shows on the screen with an average CD?
Can you watch movies while driving?
Other than being a cool gimmick, what is the point. I don't mean this question to sound offensive, I'm just trying to learn. In fact I saw this head from Crutchfield months ago and thought it would be fun in the Elise.

Just noticed the part about a back up camera. Wouldn't this be perfect for an Exige!
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Just noticed the part about a back up camera. Wouldn't this be perfect for an Exige!

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obsidian, just for u....
a pic in partial direct sunlight from behind my glasses, and another NOT from behind my glasses.
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obsidian, just for u....
a pic in partial direct sunlight from behind my glasses, and another NOT from behind my glasses. Hehehehe, Thanks
All right I'm sold ... not that you have anything to gain by doing this but it makes the head unit the top on my list if the speaker/amp solution isn't enough. I should have all my parts this weekend. It'll be interesting to hear the setup when it's done. If the head unit is another weak point it'll have to be replaced.
Great setup by the way, I still really like it. Satellite radio is amazing too. I just experienced it for the first time last week in my boss' Escalade. The comedy channel had me cracking up. That might be more of a distraction than good tunes
Where is the satellite-radio/combo satellite-real-time-tracking device ... I want all that in one small installable solution.
Seriously thanks for the additional pictures.
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hahaha, im sorry obsidian, i couldnt resist...i was sitting there and had a few moments, so....
nah, honestly i dont have any probs reading the display...honestly havent turned on a dvd in direct sunlight, but i will just for my own info.
u will find that the stock headunit even with good amps, does not sound as good as a different head unit that is decent. it will be an improvement, yes, but u can buy a much better headunit than the blaupunkt for relatively little money for sound quality.
depends on how much of an audiophile u are whether its worth it.
thanks, and im glad u have a sense of humor like me..
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Ok to revive another older thread.. so how do you like it still Evo? It's been over a month now and have you had any issues with it? Are you still "sold" on it?
Randy ever get that backup camera option? I would love to know if these would work together instead of me having to get the Flip out screen.
Thanks
Ryan
A:
The more I'm looking at this head unit the more attractive it looks.
I don't think I'd ever use the DVD (video) playback since I'd have to be parked (though I'd probably try it for giggles), but being able to put 4.7 GB of music on ONE DISC is very appealing. In comparison iPod mini's hold up to 6GB (and some models only 4GB), and you can change discs much faster than swapping the contents of your iPod mini.
I found that while backing up, I have more cars zipping by behind me than I do driving other vehicles. So the limited visibility doesn't help. This makes the 'rear view mirror' aspect of it even more appealing.
That being said I don't have that many problems looking out the mirror directly behind, but more out of each side looking for passing cars. I think the best place to mount the camera for this purpose would be on a modified license plate frame, with the added bonus that you wouldn't be drilling into the body of the Elise.
However, to get this camera perspective, you'd need two cameras (for each direction); I don't think a wide angle (even 120 degrees) will cut it. So getting this to work with one video input (for a HU like this one) will have to look through either camera. Possible solutions to this:
1. Connect both video sources to the camera input, have power to only one at a time through a switch on the dash. Hopefully the unpowered circuit of one camera won't interfere with the video of the other.
2. Connect power to both cameras, have a switch in the dash select the input. Though now you'll need a switch that will connect/disconnect two sets of wires (for video input).
3. Have a 'security camera' mode where it cycles through each camera every second or so.
4. Find a way to display both sources (like with Chasecam's Split Screen), although I think a top/bottom split may work better in this case.
I like option #4 best, but I think #1 is most cost effective.
-Frank.
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