JVC KW-V51BT

Disappointed

For starters I love most of the JCV lineup. I waited three months for this deck to come to stores figuring it was one of the best. Function wise the screen and apps are clean and transitions beautifully. Features on the other hand I'm extremely disappointed. All the features are limited! The screen brightness needs to go dimmer for night driving. Needs more screen layouts/ colors, Volume levels seem low with out using the gains or loudness (distortion functions). The Bluetooth glitches after making calls. A few nice features, the mic control during call. volume of the mic and NR levels displayed while a call is made. Also the second mic for noise reduction. The layout while listening to Bluetooth music, only one line of info. What happened to the title, artist, and source? Same for cds, plus limited controls play/pause, and track forward and reverse. The large screen is empty. Why not have a random/ shuffle or and repeat button? Long story short I had a KD-AVX77 and this radio was awesome. I was expecting the KW-V51BT to a larger version of that. Instead JVC dumbed it down A LOT! Over all the radio is still pretty awesome, and works very good. Would recommend to a beginner in the stereo world or someone that needs to entertain children with the dual zone feature ( VERY COOL). For the rest of the REAL stereo world people, sad day for JVC with this unit from me!

Best stereo on the market!!!

I bought this stereo as a replacement for a Cadillac DTS. I looked all over the internet for a stereo that was compatible with a android smartphone (NOTE 4) but none of them out there got my attention and many of the newer models were over priced. I came across this deck when it first came out last month, I seen it in Crutchfield and few other online retailers. Most were asking over $500 plus except for Sonic Electronix ($399). This is my first JVC deck ever, I usually buy Kenwood or Pioneer but most of them were over priced. I had it installed last week and it is perfect so far, still figuring out how it works though due to the many options the stereo has. Makes my factory bose system sound like a I got new system... It bumps!

Pros: Everything so far!

Con: Just one thing, if you got a Samsung phone, you need a 5 pin to a 11 pin... It's a must, but other than that... NO CONS!

By Caddy Man on May 17, 2015 Verified purchase

Not so good

If you are buying this for iheart radio don't bother. That was one of the biggest reasons for choosing this head unit. It connects to iheart and plays the music but after about 30 seconds displays message to check app, the music continues playing but you have no control from the head unit or the phone. Other apps like pandora work most of the time and iPod works and it does display apps through HDMI although you have no control of any of them. I am using iPhone 5s maybe it works better for android users. It does have pretty good sound quality.

Works perfect as advertised

Let me start by saying I had a pioneer first that I wasn't happy with because it didn't work good with my note 3. So I changed to this unit and couldn't be more happier. I set my gains with a smd dd1 and was able to turn the head unit all the way to max volume with no distortion at 1k or 40hz. This unit is the best I've ever owned and thanks to sonic electronix for all the support. If you have a android this is the deck to get just buy the extra components and your set.

Amazing, and WAY better then ANY Pioneer on the Market!

This thing is great. It is EXACTLY what I needed for my car.

Pro:
-You can hook up a external HDD through the USB, and it will play MANY different video formats(You do have to watch out for the resolutions on them though, to big((or small))and it may say not supported. So plan on converting ANYTHING you get of the internet to a lower resolution. You have to format external sources to FAT32 and 64kb clusters(or less), may work on others, but I can confirm that it works with that format on a 1tb HDD.
-Changing menu's works smoothly and fast. Once your watching a video, if you try and swap between menus, it slows WAY down, need to pause if you want to change settings.
-Plays video games via HDMI. Get a power inverter, and you can enjoy your video games on the screen, or run the video out to a TV in the back of your ride, and play on it back there, although you will lose the HDMI quality.
-MHL works - ONLY if you use the JVC MHL cable. I was unable to get other ones to work(tried 2 other no name ones, I think the ones that have the charge with the MHL slots don't work?)
-Sound is great, lots of options for messing around with EQ's and stuff.
-Tons of color choices, fully customizable, with a night and day mode.

Cons:
-You have to down-convert almost ANY video that's on an external source(USB or Disc), it won't play normal DVD/BRips...DVD's are fine
-Sometimes your bluetooth won't auto-connect, it's annoying. Can't figure out why, it just stops, and then you have to disconnect and re connect from the settings menu.
-Slooooooow menu changing during video playback.This isn't a big deal at all, except when you're trying to change sound options.

I'd recommend this to anyone. It's a great price, looks great and does everything and more.