XO Vision XO1915BT Car DVD Player

Background:
I had all but given up on getting my wife off of her cellphone while she drives. I got her a bluetooth headset, but she would not remember to keep it charged. I got her a good wired headset, which she used sometimes - when the wires were not too tangled to reach. So I decided to upgrade the stereo in her car to one that had bluetooth built in. This way, she would "connect" automatically and be literally unable to use her phone the old-fashioned way, unless she were to manually disable bluetooth.

I kept seeing this particular radio on sale for around $200, but because Crutchfield (my new love for stereos) did not carry it, I kept postponing my purchase. Then I saw circuit city was carrying it online. And it was on sale for $170. I went to my local store and the installer told me the fee was $100 plus the cost of any special adapters. He suggested I go to Crutchfield to buy them and return to have him do the installation. I did not even know you could buy the adapter kits from Crutchfield without buying a radio. I was pleased to find out you could; I did; and I installed this xovision xo1915bt by myself. The installation was quick, easy, and I encountered no problems.

Features. "Mobile Theater" with a large 3" wide touch screen display provides a very clear image allowing you to watch movies or simply listen to music in the comfort of your car with 320 watts of power. The picture is amazingly clear from the front seat and not too bad from the back seat. My 4 year old son was very happy to see one of his favorite movies on the screen the day we tested it, and said it looked fine to him - although we do not actually plan to watch movies in the car.

Touch screen. Many of the stereo's settings (eq, time, balance, fader, screen color, etc.) are accessed through the touch screen menus. I was surprised how intuitive the menus and features are. There are sub menus for audio, video, and system settings, and you simply click the screen and change the settings.

Flip down screen. In order to maximize the display, which is a 3" screen, the screen flips down to reveal the disk slot as well as the sd card slot. Very cool.

Multiple Video Formats. The Zpodlink allows you to connect your iPod?, iPod? Video or any other MP3 player - watch your videos right on this screen and listen to your music through your car speakers. This will play just about anything including burned DVD's, CD-R's, MP3, and Divx.

Bluetooth. Effortlessly answer your calls from the touchscreen. Dial a number directly on the touch screen display allowing you to drive safely with your cell phone stored in your pocket. The pairing process was just like with any other bluetooth device. Set the phone and the stereo to search, enter the passcode (0000) and voila! Every time the stereo is turned on (or if the car is turned on and the radio was left on) the stereo connects to the phone. Incoming callers' numbers are displayed on the screen, you hear your ringer through the speakers, and if you hit the "send" button, you have your conversation through the speakers in your car. The microphone is built into the radio (not external) and this was actually my biggest concern. Having tested it and having spoken to my wife while she's driving, though, I can honestly say the quality is acceptable (not the absolute best, but considering the alternatives, no complaints here). Dialing is just as easy. You switch to bluetooth and dial your number right on the touch-screen. There's a folder icon, but it apparently only lets you browse through the history of calls sent and received, and you can click on a number to call someone from there. I have found no way yet to save address book entries by name or speed dial, but if i do I will update this ad. This leads me to a complaint about this radio.

Operation Instructions.
The English used is poor (at best) and some of the instructions are described in cryptic, difficult to understand phrases. In fact, I was not able to figure out how to program the presets, so I emailed tech support. They explained that you do it with the remote control. The manual is silent on this aspect of programming - and I had not even given the remote a second thought after unpacking it. I actually put it away thinking I would never use it. Oh well, now it's in the glove box in case we ever need it to program the radio.

USB/AUX
The USB and Auxilliary inputs are conveniently located on the front of the unit allowing you to easily play your songs off your flash drive or SD card. The instructions say sd and usb drives up to 2 gigs. I only have a 2 gig sd card, which worked flawlessly, but I tested a 4 gig USb drive, which also worked flawlessly despite being too large according to the instructions. You might get lucky, too, but don't count on using more than 2 gb cards/usb drives.

Sub woofer. The radio puts out 320 watts of sound with a dedicated sub woofer output. We don't have a sub woofer in our car, so I cannot tell you whether it works well, but I have no reason to doubt it.

Security. The face is fully detachable so you can take it out with you when you leave your car.

Before my purchase.
I emailed xovision because I could not find their installation manual online. The tech was nice enough to scan and email me the manual. It looked simple enough. I later emailed him a question about programming the presets, and he emailed me a quick and easy answer. So, although this review is not of the company or it's tech support, I highly recommend them.

Out of the box.
The installation was a breeze. The back of the radio had a wiring diagram and I really did not need to resort to the manual to do any of the wiring. The radio slides into the same metal bracket as any other car stereo I've seen installed.

Included in the box is a remote control similar to one you would see on most television/dvd combination units, since the stereo can play DVDs or any other "tv" source you want to input, including a back-up camera.

Sound quality.
I am no audiophile, so please keep this in mind. As far as I can tell the stereo is at least as loud, and sounds as good as the factory radio, with which I was pleased. I only upgraded the radio because I wanted bluetooth built in. The sound, though, when playing movies, is extraordinary. Although I guess it's not technically "surround" sound because we have only 4 speakers, you can definitely hear things going from left to right and front to back during the playback and you definitely feel like you're in a theater - at least from the sound's point of view (3" screen will blow the effect, though).

HINT: I did not connect the blue automatic antenna wire, thinking that since I did not have an automatic antenna, I did not need it. My antenna adapter (to connect my Honda wiring to a standard stereo antenna) also had a blue wire, but I did not give it any thought either. For the first couple of days, radio reception was very poor. I finally considered grounding the blue wire from the antenna adapter, but that did not help. A tech at crutchfield told me to connect the blue wires because in my particular car (Honda CRV) the blue wire connects the antenna to a signal booster. once I connected the blue wires, radio reception was up to where it should have been.

A nice feature of the bluetooth, which was not advertised - and which I have not seen before - is the ability to "transfer" calls. If you are on the phone, for example, and you need privacy you hit transfer on the touch screen during the call and you are toggled between speakers (speakerphone) and your telephone handset (regular call). Nice for times when you're not alone in the car and you need privacy (and are not driving).

Bottom line. For under $200, the bluetooth feature alone was worthwhile. It works well, and is easy to operate and impossible to forget to use or to charge. It turned out to be a very nice radio, otherwise, and we enjoy the touch screen, sound quality, and the ability to watch dvds, though we do not really expect ever to do so. Having an input for a backup camera is very nice, too, and we might consider adding one of those eventually.

Highly recommended

** Manufacturer Specs **

* 3" Wide Touch screen TFT/LCD Monitor
* Bluetooth w/ built-in mic
* Dial/Answer Using Touchscreen
* Back up camera input
* Plays DVD-R's, MP3's, Divx and much more
* Fully Detachable face
* 80w x 4 peak power
* subwoofer output
* front panel usb port