Double Din Radios offer far more than factory-installed AM/FM tuners or traditional single din car stereos.
A double din car stereo expands your car’s multimedia playback capabilities exponentially in addition to free-to-air radio station access and audio playback.
Moreover, if you are thinking to purchase a double din radio with a backup camera, you are on the right track.
Table of ContentsYou get to play car audio and video in various media formats, including MP3, WAV, AFF, MPEG, FLAC, AIF, AAC, OGG, MIDI, AVI, FLV, MKV, MOV, MP4, WMV, WEBM and many others.
Preview | Product | Price |
---|---|---|
JVC KW-V25BT Double DIN in-Dash Bluetooth CD/DVD/AM/FM/Digital Media Car Stereo Receiver w/ 6.2". | Check on Amazon | |
JVC KW-V330BT 6.8" Double DIN Bluetooth in-Dash DVD/CD/AM/FM/Digital Media Car Stereo with Rear View. | Check on Amazon | |
Pioneer AVH-210EX Double DIN Bluetooth in-Dash DVD/CD/AM/FM/Digital Media Car Stereo Receiver with. | Check on Amazon | |
Pioneer AVH-1500NEX Double Din Apple Carplay In-Dash DVD/CD/Am/FM Car Stereo Receiver W/ 6.2". | Check on Amazon | |
Alpine iLX-W650 7" Receiver and Backup Camera Kit. Apple CarPlay, Android Auto | Check on Amazon |
Before you buy your Double Din Radio from Amazon or your local car dealership, you need to make sure the unit you purchase has all you need in an in-dash multimedia digital receiver.
The right Double Din Radio for your car should essentially offer the following features: –
A quality touch screen responds to every tap and swipe gesture you use on your Double Din Radio.
Therefore, the screen must have the multi-touch capability, allowing you to zoom, rotate, and edit images using pinch, turn, and span gestures. Go through playlists with simple flicks of your forefinger, activate/deactivate features in one tap and so forth.
In addition to fast touch response, the screen on your Double Din Radio should display images with crisp outlines, realistic colors and perfect light balance, for photos, videos and other graphic content.
Therefore, the screen on your Double Din Radio should have a minimum resolution of 800 by 480 pixels.
Luckily, mainstream Double Din Radio consoles use high quality resistive or capacitive touch screens with accurate multi-touch capability and impeccable visual clarity.
If your Double Din radio has the voice-command capability, then a dash-mounted microphone should come as part of the package. Your head unit should, therefore, have a Mic port at the back.
Connecting the dashboard microphone allows you to execute various voice-command tasks on your Double Din Radio, including hands-free calling and texting, real-time navigation queries and weather updates and so much more.
Your Double Din Radio should be compatible with both Apple Carplay and Android Auto, which means you can connect an Android or iOS device to the in-dash unit.
You only require an Apple-approved lightning cable to connect your iPhone to your car radio via USB port. On the other hand, connecting an Android phone requires two connections, the USB port and a Bluetooth connection.
An Apple CarPlay Android Auto compatible Double Din Radio not only allows you to conveniently access audio, video and any multimedia content on your phone, but also enables hands-free calling and texting, real-time GPS navigation via Google Maps and Waze, audiobook playback, and the latest weather updates.
You identify Android Auto and Apple CarPlay compatible Double Din Radios from the iOS and Android logos depicted on both the display box and head unit.
The AM/FM tuner on your Double Din radio should feature a band selector that allows you to switch between the 63Hz to 108Mhz FM and 535Hz-1605kHz AM frequency bands.
Therefore, your Double Din radio should have an antenna port at the back, which allows you to connect your car’s antenna to access free-to-air stations.
Your Double Din Radio is SiriusXM compatible if it has an SMB port at the back. The SMB port allows you to connect a SiriusXM satellite tuner to your head unit, opening up many free satellite radio stations.
By tapping on the SiriusXM icon on your home screen, you access commercial-free music, On-Demand radio episodes, live stream podcasts, major sports league broadcasts and custom radio stations via apps like Pandora.
Your Double Din Radio has an RCA Camera IN socket if it features Rear View Camera Support.
Connecting a rear-mounted camera to your Double Din radio allows you to view a live video feed when you are reversing or parking your car.
However, you have also to connect the reverse and parking brake trigger cables to access full use of the backup camera feature on your Double Din Radio.
However, it would be best to connect the emergency brake trigger wire, before accessing video functions on your radio Double Din receiver.
This user safety feature, which includes video playback and video streaming, are locked out as long as your vehicle is in motion.
The built-in bluetooth feature on your Double Din Radio should allow you to connect up to 5 devices to the head unit.
Furthermore, connecting your iPod, iPhone, laptop, tablet and other Bluetooth-enabled devices, should allow you to access multimedia files on the devices, in addition to allowing seamless audio streaming.
Your Double Din Radio can only avail full Bluetooth functionality if it uses AVRCP(Audio/Video Remote Control Profile) and SSP(Secure Socket Profile) technologies.
In this review, the Double Din Radios possess all the desirable features mentioned in the above Buyer’s Guide. However, the small differences that exist between them should help you pick a favorite.
The JVC KW-V25BT double din digital car stereo features a 6.2-inch touch screen display, a dedicated push-button panel on its left bezel and front-mounted USB and micro SD slots.
The KW-V25BT offers users a wide array of useful functions, which include: –