Panasonic's 2006 in-car AV line up

[Bob Crabtree]

Panasonic’s new in-car AV products

Providing an in-car-entertainment solution for every need

Panasonic’s 2006 line up of in-car entertainment products offer an impressive combination of arresting looks, superb functionality and maximum ease of use. Whether you’re looking for a DVD changer (CX-DH801N), in-dash monitor (CY-VM7203), in-dash player/monitor (CQ-VD7003, CQ-VD6503) or overhead monitor (CY-VHD9401N), Panasonic’s latest additions let you take your entertainment on the road.

CY-VHD9401N

More.

[Funkstar]

considdering their strong Viera line up this year, their car products are a little dissapointing. All thier home cinema and TV products are coming with DVB tuners, but there is no sign of DAB recievers in their line up.

shame

[Bob Crabtree]

I asked about the absence of DAB when I was at the dealer show and was told that it was a feature that the company thought was problemmatic in in-car products.

As I understand it, the reception of DAB on the movie is an issue and Panasonic reckons that the cost of resolving the problem is greater than the market would bear given that it is so very price-sensitive.

Some other things to know:

Connectivity looks to be the big thing for Panasonic this year - iPod and Bluetooth - each using the same data-connector point, seemingly, and thus not both available together, it would appear. Five models have this data connector around the rear.

The cost of the iPod connectivity kit is £39 and this gives access to the iPod menu and allows the iPod to be charged

The cost of the Bluetooth connectivity kit is £159

Cheapest iPod-compatible model in the range is the CQC-3303N at £159 (kit extra)

The £99 1300-series models have 50W per channel and have Aux inputs - so you can bring in audio from an iPod or any other player using its audio output.

[Funkstar]

interesting that they don't think it is reliable. My Sony DAB head unit is fantastic. A couple of times the audio will cut out and you need to change chanels to get it back, but i've seen that on house radios too so i wouldn't blame that on the radio itself.

[AndyO]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the issue is around digital TV receivers not DAB radios?

As I understand it its a pain to do on the move, but that said Archos' latest AV700 has implemented a 2 tuner, 2 aerial setup that works well up to 75mph or something, so its obviously not insurmountable!

...And if Archos can do it in a handheld no bigger than a PSP, don't see why Panasonic couldn't sort it for an in-car setup!!!

[Bob Crabtree]

This is ALL about price, as I see it.

[Funkstar]

The problem with having digital TV in a car is that different areas have the Mux's on different frequency chanels. So the software running the tuners would have to be constantly scanning the chanels to catch the region switches. Thats probable why it has dual tuners, so one can be scanning while the other is showing what you are watching.

[Funkstar]

This is ALL about price, as I see it.

True there is going to be a price issue with adding DAB to a car radio, but if Sony, JVC and Blaupunkt can produce head units with integrated DAB for reasonable amounts of money (i payed £240 for my Sony) then i'm sure others can as well. I find it astonishing that Alpine and Pioneer are still selling a DAB module for ~£300 that requires a head unit that also costs ~£300