EBAY Double Din Headunits....

[miatas76]

Anyone here with these no name double din head units from China and Hong Kong? They seem to have everything on them... tv, nav, rear usb for ipod etc etc,
Are they any good and worth the coin?

[hks_kansei]

Talking general here, having not used one of those units.

The main issue with the Chinese electronic gear is not the features, but the usability and quality.

Most of the chinese stuff I;ve bought in the past has worked perfectly well, but the experience of using is is far from polished.
Menus and controls are awkward, buttons often need to be pressed two or three times to register, each button feels different (some are a soft press, others a rigid click) and the plastics are usually pretty cheap.

Really for me it comes down to asking myself what is more important, the features, or the experience of using it.
Often I choose the experience, because it shits me having to press a button 4 times before it finally decides to react.

[dave2221]

we stuck one of these in my mates corolla

Excellent bang for buck (we went with this one cause of the external mic)

http://autogps.com.au/D610-Universal-SATNAV-Double-DIN-In-Dash-DVD-GPS-All-Cars

only had 2 issues with it.

1. it doesnt dim when the headlights are turned on (he said this isnt an issue for him)
2. it doesnt do all ipods... but it does most

Can watch DVD's while driving (he runs the music DVD's.... like MTV used to be)
GPS is decent
Reversing camera (he never bothered hooking his up)
Bluetooth with external mic (the built in mic's can be rubbish)
touch screen...

cant complain for the price

[meanmx]

I put one in my old mx5 and as stated it does most things. Quality wise it was ok but the user interface was a let down and judging on some reports I was lucky because it had no issues. As for whether it is worth it??? Well my new mx5 has a Pioneer unit in it, so no, not really. It did everything but I bought my Pioneer at a 30% off sale and while lacking a couple of things the sound quality and user interface is miles ahead. If you don't care about getting frustrated or playing russian roulette with the quality then they are great .

[bruce]

Such things tend to crap out on me after a while. But if it's cheap enough...

[droo]

have had mine in for nearly 2 years. Its alright for $250 landed.

the issues i've had on mine i've also seen on players demoed worth $800+ with big brand names.

I mainly use it for bluetooth audio (can be flakey at times but 90% of that flake is ios7 not keeping the music app in the background on standby with what i was listening to earlier, instead of safari??)

I also use it for GPS maps - not directions as thats clunky on everything but just seeing my actual position on roads i'm not familiar with - so i can see when there's a straight ahead to do a safe overtake if needed.

It'd be nice if the backlight could have more control on dimming.. but the screen resolution on the recent stuff is great.

It also looks posh, and i chose a head unit which looked neat and square with a non fancy/crap interface (all personal choice)

There are issues with lagging and button responsiveness i dare say …regularly but often my headspace is at a fast pace and it could be me being a bit impatient.. Again, i've seen these issues on much much more expensive head units.

Its one of those things you need to check *every* feature on them before deciding which to go on. Unfortunately there are practically no real world reviews on any of these - or non that show actions you specifically want to see. For the money, its worth it.
USB in, bluetooth audio, hands free (poor in any car with any road noise), gps, reversing camera input, aux camera input for this price is great..

[zossy1]

Bought an Eonon for my wife's car recently. Cost around $280 and included:

GPS
Reverse Camera
DVD/CD
Bluetooth
Touch/flip screen
Etc

Great features. The user interface is Ok, but the firmware has bugs and from time to time the touch screen goes a little crazy. Shut it down and restart it, and all is well.

Using Sygic GPS which is great.

Bluetooth works well.

Mine dims fine when the lights come on but you have to wire it up to do that, it is not plug and play.

Wiring the reverse camera was a dog of a job, but it is a great feature.

Overall, I'm happy for the money but you get what you pay for, and the test of time will tell whether it continues.

http://www.eonon.com

Cheers!
Chris

[droo]

yep, mine was eonon too. earlier model then what is currently out now.
one annoyance which is practically moot anyway is that widescreen dvds play in stretched mode, no way to alter that in settings. No biggie, i don't watch movies while i'm driving, the windscreen is widescreen enough for me. : )

[Garry]

I bought an Erisin unit late last year. I went with that one mainly because it's the exact same size as the NB double din unit so it fills up the hole in the console without needing to get a facia plate. It has pretty much everything, proper clock/radio/dvd/virtual 8 disc CD player/digital TV/satnav/bluetooth with streaming music/SD card/wifi and internet. You can also connect a reversing camera, extra monitors for rear seats and a crash cam but I didn't bother.

So far everything has worked fine. The screen is much better than I thought it would be and being 7" you can actually watch a DVD or TV and see what's going on. The GPS is especially good, really fast to find satelites and locks onto them well. The sound quality seems set up to favour a home theatre setup. So movies and TV sounds really good but music no better than the stock NB8B headunit. The buttons on my unit work fine with a better feel than the stock radio and the touch screen works well and dims with the dash lights or can be turned off all together. The menus are OK but could do with a bit more work on the GUI. They are pretty basic to look at. All that and it's considerably lighter than the stock unit.

The only gripes I have are the radio isn't as sensitive as the stock radio so I had to do a bit of work cleaning up the aerial and connections and I added a booster so it's not to bad now. And my unit is advertised as having adjustable colours on the backlights which is awesome because you can get them to be the exact same colour as the other dash lights. But, when you turn the unit off and turn the dash lights on they revert to white until the unit is turned back on again. So I guess they never thought anyone would ever turn the unit off.

So if you are after features for your buck they are hard to go past. If you want great sound try one of the known brands. It's a bit to early for me to comment on longetivity but my unit comes with a 2 year Australian supported warranty.

[zossy1]

4 months on, I am pulling the unit out and replacing it with a Kenwood.

Touch screen goes nuts from time to time - won't let you select anything and changes your radio station to 1620AM by itself. The wife has had enough.

I guess I got what I paid for. Even if they warrantied the unit, I wouldn't waste my time installing another one.at least the reverse camera is a goer, I will leave it in and hook it up to the new Kenwood unit I have bought.

Bought an Eonon for my wife's car recently. Cost around $280 and included:

GPS
Reverse Camera
DVD/CD
Bluetooth
Touch/flip screen
Etc

Great features. The user interface is Ok, but the firmware has bugs and from time to time the touch screen goes a little crazy. Shut it down and restart it, and all is well.

Using Sygic GPS which is great.

Bluetooth works well.

Mine dims fine when the lights come on but you have to wire it up to do that, it is not plug and play.

Wiring the reverse camera was a dog of a job, but it is a great feature.

Overall, I'm happy for the money but you get what you pay for, and the test of time will tell whether it continues.

http://www.eonon.com

Cheers!
Chris

[Garry]

I'm not having quite as much trouble with mine but every now and then the GPS section locks when starting up requiring a reboot.

At the start Erisin were helpful. They told me not to worry they would fix everything as I had a 2 year Australian warranty to get everything sorted. They sent me an updated operating system to install. This helped but didn't solve the problem. Then they contacted their tech centre and they suggested cutting a pin on the GPS board. But to do this I had to totally disassemble the unit. They sent me full instructions with photos and told me to contact them if I had any questions. But in the process I damaged one of the ribbon cables or connectors so one side of the button lights didn't work and the reset button didn't work. I Emailed Erisin asking what to do and got no reply. I managed to get the button lights and reset button to work again but the GPS section still locks up occassionally. Once again I Emailed Erisin and got no response. I Emailed Erisin directly and got no response. Eventually I managed to talk to someone on Erisin's online live help and they were very apologetic and said someone would contact me. Still nothing.

So basically their 2 year warranty only lasts until they run out of ideas to fix stuff and their Australian warranty means they send you the instructions and you do the repair work yourself.

It's such a disappointment because I really like the unit, I've done some more speaker tuning so it actually sounds much better than the stock set up and it works well when it works. The problem I have is more a nuisance issue than anything as all the music/DVD/TV functions work fine, only the GPS and internet play up occasionally.

If my experience is typical for that company then my advice is to stay as far away from Erisin products as possible due to their abysmal warranty support and customer service.

[smy0003]

Take every eBay 'warranty' with a pinch of salt.
Australian consumer law only helps if you fill in the right paper work, and the sellers rely on people not being bothered over the couple hundred bucks they lost.

[kalt]

So basically their 2 year warranty only lasts until they run out of ideas to fix stuff and their Australian warranty means they send you the instructions and you do the repair work yourself.

If my experience is typical for that company then my advice is to stay as far away from Erisin products as possible due to their abysmal warranty support and customer service.

I bought a Erisin double din a few years back too for the workhorse, similar issue to what you have the LED light has no memory and will default to blue at next power on, GPS program locks up occasionally (requires a ballpoint pen/paperclip to press the hard reset button). I emailed them and like your experience, they were courteously apologetic and appeared somewhat helpful enough that would make proud a diplomat from the Pacific Islands. The issues weren't life threatening though, and I couldn't justify paying X amount in postage costs to send it back for a replacement (plus incur X amount of time without GPS in the car) so I let it slide. Practical device with a multitude of features but questionable quality/reliability for a fraction of the price of name brand units? Sure.

Then on a hot summers day the screen decided to go 1960's TV on me and B&W on me before fading out to complete white (like the scene in that movie Mr Magooriums Magical Delerium (?) where the toys are sapped of colour and joy).

That was the impetus for me to find a new unit to replace it. Although upgradeable, the i-go maps are 2 years old and I cannot be bothered searching for the latest map, and I would like to receive HD TV channels on the next unit (can only get SD at the moment), and DAB+ if the budget allows. But it still hobbles along fine as a GPS unit and reverse camera so it will remain until it dies and requires an upgrade.

[zossy1]

Missed out on that cheap full-function GPS Kenwood unit on eBay.

Still want GPS but not prepared to cough up $800+ for a brand name unit...

Then I came across this:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/181499062740

Looks promising. I have generally had good experiences with Philips products so am giving it a go. At only a small amount more than the Eonon, I am hopeful it may be the compromise I am chasing.

Given I already have the reverse camera, hopefully it will all PNP and the world will be good again. Will report back.

[mrpham]

I've installed dozens of these Chinese ones, some are complete garbage and you will go crazy. But the Eonons have been ok, maybe little buggy.

A good compromise is the double DIN GPS unit from Mongoose, local support and warranty. Cheaper than the big brands.