JVC KW-NT1

The nav works great and is updateable, video is nice, and usb is also a nice feature. But only plays dvd format so no loading movies on memory stick and playing them.

I have now owned this unit for a little over a month, and after 2 months of researching which head unit to purchase, decided on this one. Here are my thoughts....

When I was deciding on a new headunit, I wanted something that gave me the best bang for my buck. This is also my first aftermarket headunit, so theft was something important for me to consider. So, the new unit had to have an anti-theft device. What better way than a removable faceplate? Pop it out, put it in the carrying sleeve that came with it, and take it inside. Easy as that.

I also wanted the unit to have navigation, bluetooth, DVD movie capabilities, and IPOD functionality. This unit does all of that. I will touch on each point individually.

1. Navagation - The navigation is great, but has some flaws. First off, it has both 3D and 2D top-down views. That wasn't so much important to me, however, it's a nice touch. If you've used a Garmin before, it's very similar to using one of those. However, this unit will actually tell you the street name, although it's in a robotic voice. Again, no biggie. I wasn't expecting Angelina Jolie to talk me through to get to McDonalds. The Points of Interest are nice, and with the ability to call the POI via your bluetooth enabled phone is a nice touch. However, the 4 times I've actually used it, it was off the mark as far as my destination 2 times. Not too far off, but far off to know that the fast food joint wasn't in the middle of the Hwy, and was about 100 yards away. The speed limit indicator is a nice touch, however in my town it doesn't show. So your mileage may vary. It would have been nice to see your speed as well while viewing the map, but so far I haven't been able to find the setting to do so. All in all, the navigation is very well done. You won't be disappointed.

2. Bluetooth - My BlackBerry 8830 sync'd right up to the headunit, and my microphone is placed right near my visor. I've gotton mixed reviews about how I sound (from crystal clear, to robotic) but that may be the service in my area. Currently I feel as if I have to yell for anyone to hear me properly, but I haven't had anyone else sit in my car and let me listen on the other end. Getting your phonebook to your headunit is also a breeze, however it does take a while initially. My one issue with the phone is, caller ID. There is none. Even when my wife calls, and I know I have her in my phonebook on the headunit, it still shows the # being called, and not the name. That however is all I have to complain about it. I love the fact that I can jam on my IPOD, and it pauses when a call comes in, and picks right back up without a hitch when I end the call.

3. DVD Movies - Ok, so let's be honest here. You plan on connecting the parking break wire to the ground, so you can have movies on while driving. With that out of the way, let me also remind you that watching movies while driving is illegal. It's for your passengers, right? Right? Ok, good. I have nothing bad to say about movie playback. It's a nice feature, and is pretty much what you think it is. Movies while driving. I haven't used any movie playback other than a retail disc, so I can't comment on that. Read the spec's to see what formats it reads.

4. IPod Functionality - Ok, so some of the reports from other JVC units was that the IPod was slooooow in changing songs, etc. This is not the case for this headunit. It's lightning fast, and the Album Art shows up while playing which is a nice touch. You can easily sort by song, artist, playlist, etc. with ease. And yes, it works great by using a standard IPod cable connected to my iTouch 2nd Gen, to the front of the unit.

5. General - Currently the volume buttons are touch sensitive (think playstation 3) and they work just fine. Swirling your finger on the unit does nothing, so I was disappointed that feature is not on this unit. There is also no remote for this unit, but that's not really a big deal unless you have your heart set on having one. The other major issue I have is, no possibility of HD Radio on this unit. Would have been nice to get that functionality. There is a very big cool factor on the startup/shutdown messages that you can have. The system will say (in the navigation voice) whatever you want it to say when the system starts up, and shuts down. I had fun with this at first (wife sat and wondered why it called her names at first) but turned it off as I was tired of strangers asking me about it when I'd get out to get a cup of coffee from the local mini mart.

Overall, I'm giving this unit a 5 overall, because although it's missing a few features, it's a fantastic product, and I'm extremely happy with my purchase through Sonic Electronix.

Overall a good unit, installed it in a Hyundai Accent. I did the install myself, which was fairly difficult, but I did it successfully without any prior experience. Came with a free adapter to work with my car, I had to solder about 10 wires to the adapter that came with the unit. Easy to plug and unplug after that, no permanent connections.

Pros:
- Sounds good even with my stock speakers.
- After setup, cell phone automatically connects with bluetooth when I start my car.
- GPS gives good directions and looks great on the big screen. Works well in USA and Canada (I have used it in both).
- Unit dims automatically when I turn on my headlights (with proper wire connection).
- Music volume is temporarily lowered when GPS is giving directions.
- Easy to detach the faceplate.
- "Cool" factor when upgrading from stock radio to double height touch screen unit.
- Equalizer works well and is a nice feature that my stock radio did not have.
- Can be set up to change volume based on speed of car.

Cons:
- GPS does not have as many features as a dedicated GPS unit.
- Static buttons on the left don't dim, can be kind of bright at night.
- Unit doesn't exactly fit in my dash opening, it is close but not an exact fit. Probably due to my car but not sure.
- Can't change phone ring tone.
- Have to upload phone contacts to the unit before they can be used, can't use them directly off of a cell phone.
- Price premium for the detachable face plate.

Title: KW-NT1 has fatal flaws
Pros: Good A/V and Nav performance, fast route calc, detachable face
Cons: Hands-free calling capability is useless due to illogical firmware; Nav POI database a little skimpy

I won't dwell on the basic A/V and Nav performance. Other reviews have gone into enough detail there. Plenty of power/flexibility, good connections and intuitive controls. Suffice it to say that it is as I expected and I am happy with the KW-NT in that regard.

However, and this is a BIG however.... the bluetooth hands free calling capability is fatally flawed to the extent that it is ALMOST USELESS. The hardware works fine... voice is clear and connection is stable. BUT YOU CAN NOT ACCESS YOUR SAVED CONTACTS/PHONE NUMBERS WHILE DRIVING! The KW-NT1 uses its GPS to provide vehicle speed sense and locks out VITAL hands free calling controls when moving greater than 6 mph! To make matters worse this is totally unadvertised. The user manual says that "When driving at speeds greater than 6mph some screens on the navigation menus are not available". No mention of restricting hands free dialing.

It is totally illogical. In the main dialing menu you can access "received numbers", "dialed numbers" and "phonebook". Each menu choice displays 5 numbers from which to choose. You can go back and forth between these menus as many times as you want and dial any of the numbers displayed with the press of the appropriate soft button. But you CAN NOT access subsequent screens of 5 phonebook entries. So unless the number you want to call is one of the first 5 in your phonebook you are OUT OF LUCK. Unless you stop, that is... in which case you could just as well use your handset. So why did we pay for hands free capability??

You can also scroll an infinite number of times between radio bands, each presenting 6 soft buttons for station choices. No restriction there, either.

So here is the logical disconnect: You are allowed to dial certain numbers while the vehicle is moving. So, apparently JVC doesn't think one button dialing of a saved number per set is a problem. And you are allowed to scroll infinitely through certain menus of choices (like any and all radio bands and stations or between "dialed", "received" and "phonebook" top level screens), but you CAN NOT scroll to subsequent phonebook screens of 5 entries and then dial them?? So dialing is OK... scrolling is OK, but scrolling to DIAL is not OK?? Huh?? All this does is pretty much guarantee that you can not access and dial the number you actually want.
And to highlight the ridiculousness of this further, the phonebook entries are likely to have actual names by them and thus more easy to select than the numbers that appear in "called" and "received" menus that can appear without any identifying information.

Another example of quirky nonsensical firmware: in the Nav screen you can hit the button for menu->functions->vehicle info which displays the satellite constellation along with color coded signal strengths. BUT the "back" button then becomes non functional (when moving more than 6 mph) so you can't even back out of a screen that they let you into in the first place!!

Anyway, there are probably better choices out there, especially if hands free calling is important to you. Good luck.

This is my JVC KW-NT1 GPS navigation REVIEW -- written on June 26, 2009.

First off guys, This is my very first review, so I apologize in advance if I missed anything.

I have this unit for a TOYOTA CAMRY '06 and I was like everyone else when I was trying to decide which model to buy. There were NO reviews online ANYWHERE other than the video reviews from Sonic Electronix and one other site (but they both did an okay job).

I am satisfied with my purchase.

The screen is nice, but when it is really sunny outside, the DVD video seems washed out because of the touchscreen layer. The GPS, radio, and ipod/iphone screens look fine. It's just the DVD playback that is not bright enough under extreme sunlight. When the sun is a bit more forgiving, like during sunset, the brightness is fine. And when your car is under any shade, the brightness is fine. Overall, the resolution and colors look good and the brightness adjusts to your headlights.

On other notes... The left side controls are touch sensitive, not physical PUSH buttons.

If you have a USB cord connected to the front, it'll block some of the screen view, depending on the height of the unit.

The bluetooth function works great with the iphone. Fast and responsive.

GPS options include 2D and 3D angle views. Includes useful Points of Interest (POI) locations with phone numbers you can easily dial to over bluetooth.

I have not installed HD radio, Satelite radio, or a Rear view camera.... So I can't comment on that.

I did not install this unit myself... .... So I also can't comment on that.

If you decide to keep your steering wheel controls, you'll have to buy a separate module. Using it will take some getting used to. --- This is NOT the fault of JVC, but of the makers of the steering wheel controls module/adapter. The steering wheel control module is a little slow for the volume control. Instead of a light push or tap of the steering wheel buttons, you'll have to give is a medium/hard push. Or you can hold the button down, but then the volume increases rapidly until you release the button.

Pros:
--Detachable faceplate - for added security. Includes soft case pouch for faceplate.
--Easy slot loading disc access - No motorized CD/DVD tilt (my personal preference).
--Works with iphone. Fast load times. Takes under 10 seconds to load.
--Fast GPS. Fast SD card reads. Fast iphone controls. Fast CD/DVD reads.
--FRONT AV and USB ports - USB charges the iphone while being able to use.
--Reads burned CD and DVD+R discs.
--Allows album art from iphone and SD cards.
--GPS reads out street names. GPS shows split screen detailed turns and directions. Has GPS voice lane guidance ("get in the left lane" , "prepare to turn left", etc.)
--Can listen to music while being directed by the GPS navigation voice
--Can play audio books at normal and above average speeds.
--Has a simple adjustable equalizer settings
--Reads my Sandisk 16GB (class 2) SD memory card - this is not official by JVC though

Cons:
--No volume knob.
--Low brightness in DVD video playback under extremely sunny days.
--Doesn't automatically tag song or band names from the RADIO.
--No real time traffic GPS updates.
--No video playback from an SD card.
--No button color light choices (a choice of blue, green, or red would have been nice). No screensaver choices or customizable menus.
--Removing the faceplate takes getting used to. Not a big deal...
--I had problems updating the firmware software through the SD card slot
--must remove faceplate to access SD card slot
--must keep SD card in the slot if you plan on adding your own customizable Points of Interest (POI) locations.
--Speed limits are not always displayed... depends on your city


Overall, I really like the unit. This is my first GPS in-dash unit. I would recommend it.

I give it a 9 out of 10. A+

The overriding decision for me to buy it was:
-- IPHONE compatible
-- built-in Bluetooth
-- fast loading times (music, GPS, startup time)
-- DETACHABLE FACEPLATE
-- no motorized CD tilt mechanism
-- front USB input

I hope this helps!