Home > Cars & Motorsports > Car Video Players > JVC KD-NX5000 In Dash CD/DVD/MP3 Player with 3.5'' TFT-LCD Monitor with Hard Drive GPS Navigation Bu... Car DVD Player
JVC KD-NX5000 In Dash CD/DVD/MP3 Player with 3.5'' TFT-LCD Monitor with Hard Drive GPS Navigation Bu... Car DVD Player
amstel78's Full Review: JVC KD-NX5000 In Dash CD/DVD/MP3 Player with 3.5''...
Introduction
The JVC KD-NX5000 is a single DIN navigation and entertainment head unit combined in a small form factor chassis. Features include the ability to play DVD movies, DVD and SACD audio discs, MP3 CD's (with the ability to rip them directly to the units built-in hard drive), Sirius or XM compatibility, real-time traffic updates, and of course satellite navigation. How do all of these features work in such a small package? Read on and find out...
What's included in the box?
I ordered my KD-NX5000 directly from Crutchfield. While there are websites offering the unit at substantially lower prices, using Crutchfield guarantees me that my unit is a genuine USA authorized JVC model, and not a grey-market item. When it comes to expensive electronic toys such as this, it's important to know that your warranty actually exists.
Upon receiving the box a few days after ordering, I took everything out and inspected all the items included. Here's what comes in the box:
* JVC KD-NX5000 headunit
* Plastic trim bezel
* Faceplate (the front of the headunit, including screen)
* Metal DIN/ISO sleeve
* Hard shell faceplate case with JVC embossed on the front
* Operating manual in several languages
* Cardboard installation angle gauge
* Assorted cables and wiring looms
* Warranty card
* Wireless remote and 2 AA batteries.
* Wireless remote holster
* GPS antenna
* Assorted mounting parts (i.e. screws, brackets, etc)
* Quick install guide
All items were nicely wrapped in individual plastic bags, and safely enclosed in the cardboard box through the use of formed styrofoam inserts. The box itself is nicely made, with graphics, pictures, and specifications printed on its exterior.
Installation...
Having recently added a 2006 Mitsubishi Evolution MR to my stable, the first item requiring immediate replacement was the factory headunit. You see, I've been quite spoiled with the built-in navigation in my 2005 BMW M3, and the Evo's dinky factory CD player/stereo just wasn't going to cut it. I'll give you a brief synopsis regarding the installation of this unit in my Evo. If you install this unit into any other vehicle, the process should be similar, but bear in mind that each vehicle is different when it comes to wiring. Feel free to skip this section if you're having a shop install the KD-NX5000 for you.
The first step is obviously removing the factory headunit. Ease of this will differ vehicle to vehicle, but in my case, it was as simple as removing the surround bezel, removing four screws holding the stock radio in, sliding the radio out, and detaching the wiring harness behind it.
The second step is attaching the wiring harness adaptor (highly recommended, versus splicing or cutting your vehicles OEM harness) to the KD-NX5000. Usually, most adaptor harnesses are color coded, so normally it's as easy as matching the colors then soldering/tapping the harness to the headunit's wiring.
The next step is to take the included speed sense wiring cable, and attach it to the speed sense socket on the headunit. If memory serves me right, this wire should be pink. Do the same for the e-brake, and reverse light wires. These wires are included with the radio, and are quite long in length.
Once all your wiring has been attached to the headunit, it's now time to mount the unit into the vehicle. Be advised however, that before you begin connecting harnesses and splicing wires, you ground the KD-NX5000 to a suitable chassis point. It is also recommended to disconnect your vehicles battery prior to performing this, but in my case I decided to skip that step. Finally, now is the time to take the cardboard angle finder, and measure the approximate angle of installation the radio will be sitting in. For example, the Evo's radio cubby hole sits at a 30 degree angle. The cardboard angle finder will tell you what angle your radio will be sitting in, and what angle setting you will need to input during the calibration phase (more on this later).
Attaching the wiring adaptor should be fairly easy, as the adaptor is designed to plug directly into the OEM wiring harness. What's important is making sure that you correctly attach the KD-NX5000's speed sense, e-brake, and reverse light wires. Failure to do so can lead to the system not calibrating correctly. Once all is said and done, you should be able to turn the radio on. At this point, before hard mounting anything, it's a good idea to test the unit by making sure all of your connections are correct. The JVC KD-NX5000 has a "Connections" diagnostic menu, which will show you whether or not you have done things properly. If everything looks fine, pat yourself on the back, and proceed to finish installation.
Powering on and calibration
The first time you turn on the KD-NX5000, you'll be greeted with a welcome splash screen. The unit will then prompt you to enter your preferred language and time. It will also ask you to enter the correct mounting angle. This is where you will need the information gleaned from the cardboard gauge you used earlier. In my case, installation angle was 30 degrees, so you would need to use setting 4. Once you have entered this information, you may begin the calibration phase.
Calibration involves driving the vehicle over 25mph for a few miles. This allows the unit to get data from your vehicle's speed sense wire, its own internal gyroscope, and feed data from satellites in order to triangulate its position on the map. You can view the calibration process by holding the ENT button on the faceplate. If you've connected everything correctly, calibration should complete in less than 5 miles. This is the first stage in calibration. The unit has 4 levels of learning, and will reach level 4 after you've driven longer.
If at this stage you're vehicle's location is still in Washington, DC (the units default location), then you know you did something wrong (unless you do live in DC) during the installation process. 9 times out of 10, this involves either you or the installer tapping into the wrong wire for the speed sense. It has to be the speed sense/pulse wire, and not a tachometer wire. Once connected properly however, calibration should complete.
Once the unit has finished its initial calibration, you should now see your vehicle located correctly in your part of the United States. Pat yourself on the back again.
Delving into the functions
There are so many little features packed into this unit, that it'll be hard to cover all of them. So I'll try and cover the most important aspects of the KD-NX5000.
The radio is pretty much self explanatory. You have three FM bands, and three AM bands. Each band allows you to have multiple presets. The tuner setup menu gives you several different configuration and tuning options. You can even set the tuner to work with European frequencies if you happen to live in Europe... a nice touch indeed.
One thing I was a little bit miffed about was the lack of RDS broadcast information for the FM stations. I was under the impression that since the radio has RDS capabilities, it would be able to pickup such things like station or song name (where applicable; most stations in the US do not broadcast RDS data at this time, but few do). In this case, I believe RDS is only for use with the real-time traffic information system. More on this later.
Satellite or Aux input: The KD-NX5000 allows you to attach or even daisy-chain a compatible disc changer or satellite radio tuner. I currently have the JVC SIR-1 tuner connected. Clicking on the SRC/AV button on the left will allow you to enter this mode. With the satellite radio tuner attached, you will be able to see the genre choice, along with current song playing on the LCD. Navigation of channels/genre's involve using the left/right/up/down navigation button on the unit's right side. Unfortunately, you cannot view a "tree" hierarchy of stations, but need to flip through each station or genre one at a time. It's a bit of a hassle, but it is functional.
CD/DVD player: By clicking on the SRC/AV button, you can reach this function. Once there, you can access the DVD/CD slot by pressing the eject button on the lower left-hand corner of the faceplate. The face will slide down, allowing you to insert your disc. Upon insertion, the media will automatically begin to play; whether it be a DVD movie, SACD, DVD audio, or MP3 CD.
In order to watch DVD movies while the vehicle is in motion, you will need to ground the parking brake wire. However, the manufacturer does not recommend doing this, nor do I. In most states, it is illegal to have any sort of front-mounted DVD player in operation while the vehicle is in motion. Normally, the parking brake will have to be engaged while the vehicle is stopped to view video on the screen. You can attach a second monitor to the unit though for rear seat passengers, and video will output to that while the vehicle is in motion.
Skipping, pausing, fast forward, or rewind can be accessed via the right navigation button on the faceplate, or through the included remote.
HDD mode: I haven't really played with this feature that much, so I'll touch over this briefly. The KD-NX5000 has a built in hard drive. The hard drive stores the unit's navigation maps and operating software (Windows), plus has some space allotted for MP3's. You can insert any standard audio CD or MP3 CD, and rip it directly to the hard drive. Think of it as a built-in iPod. The process however is a bit tedious, especially if you're trying to rip standard audio discs. You have to listen to the whole CD as the unit does it's thing. With the current system software, there seems to be no way of doing this in the background. What this means is, if you have an audio CD that's 1 hour long, you will need to listen to the disc in its entirety as it rips. Some people probably wouldn't mind, but me having a slight tendency to be ADD, found this irritating. Ripping MP3 CD's on the the other hand is much quicker, taking only a fraction of the time to copy compared to regular audio discs. Hopefully JVC releases a patch to fix this. Otherwise, quality of the ripped music sounds good, and you do have the ability to specify compression ratios from the units setup menu.
Navigation
This is probably the most important feature of this device and chances are, is the reason you bought it. A navigation system is only as good as its maps, and its operating software, and I hate to admit, but the KD-NX5000 falls a little short in this category.
First I'll cover the navigation options menu(s). Within these screens, you can specify map color, routing preferences, car location, point of interest markings, level detail, voice styles, prompt types, etc. Most of the options are self explanatory, and should be easy to understand if you're already familiar with how most GPS devices work.
The second set of menus contains the actual navigation and destination functions. Here you can enter an address or phone number, or search by name. This is where JVC really needs to improve on their software. Take for example the following:
You have an address of 405 E. 42nd St, New York, NY 10017.
In order to navigate to this address, you must first enter state name, then city name, followed by street, finally ending with number. You can't just search for the address via zip code, and you must enter a city name. There's no way around this. It's very cumbersome compared to most standalone devices like the Garmin Street Pilot, which allow you to very conveniently search by zip. Fortunately the folks at JVC aren't complete sadists. The unit can auto-complete your entries, and grey's-out letters that wouldn't exist in the name you're entering. While this is a helpful feature, it becomes useless if the street or city name you're trying to input does not exist in the Navteq map database. For example, entering the city of FLUSHING, NY brings back nothing, even though Flushing exists.
The unit can also allow you to enter coordinates in hours/minutes/degrees. You can also search by phone number. While the phone number search is a nice touch, it's rather gimmicky at this point considering phone numbers usually aren't as permanent as addresses. Consider the fact that most mapping databases are usually a year behind, you can quickly see that searching by phone number typically isn't very accurate.
The point of interest database is also something of note. While it does its job, it doesn't do it very well. You can't search for a POI unless you know the city name the thing your looking for exists in. You also can't specify the distance to search. This is not good. Not good at all. For example, if I happen to be in Atlanta, GA and I'm trying to look for a hotel, I could only search within a 5 mile radius of my current vehicle position. I could not expand that radius. If you also tried to search by hotel name or address, you would need to know the exact city name you're currently in, or where you're headed too. If you don't know this, you're in trouble. Do you see where I'm headed with this? If you can't expand your search radius, and you don't know the city name you're in or headed too, you can't search for the hotel because the system just won't let you. It's very irritating.
Real-time traffic: I have mixed feelings about this feature. With the RTTS (real-time traffic system), the unit uses RDS data to gather traffic status as it happens in real time, and presents it to you on screen. You have the option of allowing the unit to automatically reroute you if you run into traffic. You can also check current traffic conditions by going into the "Traffic" menu, or by pressing the button in the upper right hand corner of the bezel in navigation mode. While this feature works, the system is slow in implementing it. For example, you happen to be driving on the freeway, when up ahead you begin to see traffic slowing down. The system notifies you that there's congestion, and it begins automatically recalculating an alternate route. However, it so happens that there's an exit up ahead that you decide to take before the unit has finished calculating a new route. The unit suddenly becomes confused, and now takes even longer to recalculate an alternate, leaving you driving blind for a few minutes. Perhaps it's the units firmware, but I'm afraid this function isn't ready for prime-time yet.
Finally, allow me to cover the navigation's aesthetic qualities. The screen while being only 3.5" is fairly easy to see, even in moderate sunlight. You can adjust the brightness and contrast to a certain extent, but if it's really bright outside and the light is shining directly on the panel, forget about it. When lighting conditions are ideal however, the map displays are crisp and easily legible, even on a small screen. You also have the option of several different map views. You can choose the traditional 2D map look, or the 3D "birds-eye" view.
The navigation voices are pleasant for the most part. You have the option between male and female. I prefer the female voice. She sounds less irritated than the male, especially if you don't listen to the guided instructions.
Final thoughts
I've tried to cover a lot of ground in such a small time frame. I've probably forgotten to mention some things, and I'm sure I'll update this as time progresses. In a nutshell, the media applications in the KD-NX5000 work fairly well. It's the navigation functions I'm disappointed with. I'm hoping JVC will rectify some of these issues sooner or later via downloadable updates.
Despite the unit's glaring flaws, the media functions do work pretty well. Audio quality is fantastic, and the built-in amplifier strong enough for most stock vehicle speakers. The radio itself also looks nice physically. It's well constructed, and quite hefty in weight. Be careful though, the acrylic screen surface is very prone to scratching and finger prints. If you take the face plate with you, be sure to use the hard case! Don't stick it in your pocket or bag, especially if you have things in there that could scratch its surface.
All in all, the JVC KD-NX5000 is a decent headunit, but it could be so much better with improved software. Hopefully, JVC recognizes some of these issues, and releases updates. In the meantime, the navigation function does work, just not as smoothly or as integrated as it should.
**Updated 23/05/07 - corrected a few grammatical errors.
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