I stumbled across some new Eclipse units that are nothing but amazing!!! I was curious if anyone know if you can watch DVDs while your car is in motion? (Just something good to have in when your sick of music) - is this possible?

Also, does anyone know if you have to subscribe to any services to use the GPS / Nav stuff in these units? I couldn't get these questions answered on their website.

The units I found were:

ECLIPSE AVX2494

ECLIPSE AVX2404


ANyone know which unit is the BEST?

 

I just found the answer :-)

The AVX2494 is the better of the two, it has a 6.5" screen while the other only has a 5.8" screen, and the AVX2494 contains a 20Gig HD that will hold up to 3000songs (i'm sure it vaires due to the size of the file)

Looks like I'm on the prowl to find out if the AVX2494 will enable me to play DVDs while the car is in motion.

Maybe someone knows this answer ?

 

On most in-car dvd players/nav units/etc, whenever there is a function that tries to stop you from doing things while the car is in motion, there's usually a way to bypass that function. On many devices there is a wire that hooks up to your hand brake sensor in your car. The devices won't run unless the hand brake is on. In those cases, you simply permanently ground the hand brake sensor wire that goes to your device. That makes the device think the hand brake is always on, and thus the device always works.

I'm sure there will be a way around any protective features the Eclipse units might have.

 

Sounds good Joe! I may have to just get the reciever and see what protective sensors it may have and let everyone know.

Wonder if anyone knows about the DVD/NAV thing in the unit. . . if you have to pay for a service, or what. .

 

On the in-motion feature, I did the same but installed a toggle switch ---fed the original wire to the toggle switch and grounded the wire to the e-brake.

The nav issue on the AVX is Eclipse will be comming out w an add-on dvd nav probalby in the Fall. These dd units are already out. My audio store whic I use was infact installing one last week on the same day I was asking about it. They will have one on display soon. I will post my interaction on it when they do or when I get one!

 

Errr...excuse the ignorance, but what's the price range on this sort of thing? I have been looking around and can't find pricing info anywhere.

Thanks!

 

Nah, I would doubt there will be any sort of service to pay for. There's really no way they could continuously charge you for something like that. You'll most likely just pay a one-time fee to buy the nav disc with the nav software on it, and that's it. GPS navigation is a receive-only technology. Nothing is being transmitted from your car out to anyone, and thus no service for anyone to charge you for.

The only sort of recurring charge for most nav systems is to upgrade the nav software as new versions are released. This is usually an optional thing, though, and you can keep using your old version if you wish. An example of this is with the Alpine nav software. They recently released version 2.11, and the prior version was 1.30. My Alpine nav unit came with 1.30, and I can certainly just keep using that if I wish. The new 2.11 version, though, has more road mapping data and more features on it. Cool stuff, so I'll shell out the dough to buy it.

 

I don't believe Eclipse has released pricing info yet, but I'm guessing they'll be over $1000 each. The top end unit might be closer to $1500 based on the feature set.

 

If you search for them on E-bay - they are selling close to well over 2,000! I don't understand why they are going for that much more, when Kenwood has their new unit that is not over 1,400 and has more features in it's unit than some of these Eclipse units.

 

The eclipse units for sale on Ebay are the AVN model. Its DVD, MP3, and Navigation all in one. The one down side, no hard drive.

 

Yeah, I am going to go with the AVN model, becuase I use my car to drive to client's businesses all day and am tired of maps, so it will help out alot :-)

Also, an MP3 CD holds enough songs for me to where I really wouldn't take advantage of a HD.

 

As stated before there is usually a wire thats gets connected to the ebrake to make sure its on when you enable certain features. Talking to my installer friend the other day they have chips out that can be used to eliminate these problems without some wire trickery. Costs like $100 or so. My friend works at Al&Ed's in Cali if that helps. He says Al&Ed's are pretty much the only people who would sell/install those things

 

The unit looks awesome, but I cannot justify the 2k+ price tag when I will not even use half of the onboard features. I will probably end up getting a 350 dollar MP3 head unit and a nice sub to put in my car and doing the install myself.

 

Wire trickery? When you pull the hand brake, all it does is ground out the sensor wire. That's how they all work. That's it. All you have to do is permanently attach the nav unit's hand brake wire to a ground and you're done. Spending $100 on some chip to do the same thing is silly.

Unless we're talking about two totally different things here.

 

Wire trickery lol. The AVN-2454 is the sickest head unit out. Makes that Pioneer Nav all-in-one look lame. I'm not to keen on the flip up screen. Looks so cheesy and doesn't flow with the theme of a nice car. The Eclipse unit however is a double-din unit that looks absolutely stealth when turned off. $2000 for DVD, huge widescreen, voice navi with internal gyro, second CD drive with Mp3 read and 50 watts X 4 sounds good to me. Notice how people have to run 2 head units for the Pioneer unit. That seems like a waste of money and looks tacky.

 

i like the kenwood ddx-7015 you can find em for 1000 pretty eaisily and they are all nav/musickeg/hd radio/sirius/ ready also its a double din and the screen stays flat when not loading a disc its dvd/cd/mp3 as well 6.5" screen 22x4 watts rms 50x4 peak ... 3 sets of pre amp out puts ... although they are only 2v ... 24-bit dac (digital to analog converter) plus all the inputs are physically on the head unit ... so no adapter is nessecary like on most dvd head units ... very nice head unit ... plus i imagine the 2494 would be around 2500 bucks with a built in hard drive ... but who knows

 

Are these Kenwoods you guys are referring to just the navigation module without the screen or are they all in one? I am looking for something that has a flip out screen with navigation and optional voice recognition for just over a grand but they are nowhere to be found. Do they exist and if not how much would a setup like I described typically cost?

 

I seriously can't find anything under $1500. Where are the less expensive Kenwoods everyone is talking about?

 

I bought the AVN2454 and absolutely love it. No problems at all. Its great that it has the double din so no taking out the nav disc to play a cd. The navigation has worked great so far traveling to clients and finding POI in town. It can be a little pricey, but i think well worth it.

 

Check out the vendor classifieds, not too long ago they were selling the eclipse unit for well under 2 g's. I just don't remember if it is this forum or the other one.

BTW, the AVN 2454 is the bomb.