Headunit questions

[Deanja]

Hi Guys, we are thinking about buying a new headunit for our Prodigy, Auspack, Dig Options etc. I gained a lot from monitoring the posts about these units but have a couple of questions to those who already have them installed.

1: Has anyone out there installed one of the opitional Digital TV tuners (DVBT) if so what are your thoughts, what sort of aerial do you use and where have you mounted it in your vehicle. I had seen some aerials that can be stuck to windshield or back window, they look rather like the heater elerment in the back window or buiilt in radio aerial that we have in the Aurion etc.

2: The idea of purchasing one of these units has to be approved by my cheif purchasing officer !! Wifey. Having just about finished training her to use a Tom Tom GPS, I was wondering if anyone is running Tom Tom maps system on their unit, would be easier than haveing to go through the hastles of re-training her to use something new.

I look forward to some help with these questions

regards

Jeff Dean

[httttt]

I don't mean to be rude... but........ All of this information is available here already. Although it is a little bit scattered the information could have been found in less time than it takes to create and write a new thread with questions and wait for someone willing to repeat them self.

Also, creating a new thread doesn't always yield the best results because there are usually existing active threads with like minded people have the same discussion. Most of the vets around here couldn't be bothered to keep repeating them self.

Search and Google is your friend.

I understand the time I took to write this could have been used to help you with your questions...... meh.

BTW the chief purchasing officer part cracked me up! :D

[Deanja]

:(

I don't mean to be rude... but........ All of this information is available here already. Although it is a little bit scattered the information could have been found in less time than it takes to create and write a new thread with questions and wait for someone willing to repeat them self.

Also, creating a new thread doesn't always yield the best results because there are usually existing active threads with like minded people have the same discussion. Most of the vets around here couldn't be bothered to keep repeating them self.

Search and Google is your friend.

I understand the time I took to write this could have been used to help you with your questions...... meh.

BTW the chief purchasing officer part cracked me up! :D

Ok then, as I said have followed a lot of the posts on this subject but haven't seen anything that answers my questions, if you know here they are, then point me in the right direction !!!!!!!

[DJKOR]

The reason why the two main questions you have asked have minimal coverage is because the simple answer is that no-one has gotten the digital TV upgrade and no-one is using TomTom on their navigation unit.

Firstly, the antenna placment though has been answered and such a thread is the following. If you were to get the digital TV tuner, the same still applies:

TV antenna

TV antenna's on a car is not always the easiest thing to integrate. When it comes to TV reception, a Yagi antenna is on of the best designs. Problem is, it is directional and on a car, is pretty much impossible. Therefore you are left with a variety of dual or quad mast antenna's. For best reception, you are best mounting on the exterior of the car. You can get ones that are like mobile phone car kit antenna's that stick on both sides of the glass as well. That will save you from running cables to the outside of the car. Otherwise you could go for a boomerang design like the limos have, LOL. But even still; reception is pretty subjective to your location.

If you absolutely must have TV, antenna's like this would provide you with decent reception if you are willing to sacrifice the clean looks on the outside of your car:

Secondly, TomTom is either made to run on specific TomTom units or Windows Mobile. Getting it to run on Windows CE which is what these head units use requires a bit of work to try and unpackage everything and get it running perfectly. As a result, you won't really find anyone using it. In most of our navigation head unit threads, we have discussed the different software and iGO8 appears to be the most user friendly.

[Deanja]

The reason why the two main questions you have asked have minimal coverage is because the simple answer is that no-one has gotten the digital TV upgrade and no-one is using TomTom on their navigation unit.

Firstly, the antenna placment though has been answered and such a thread is the following. If you were to get the digital TV tuner, the same still applies:

TV antenna

TV antenna's on a car is not always the easiest thing to integrate. When it comes to TV reception, a Yagi antenna is on of the best designs. Problem is, it is directional and on a car, is pretty much impossible. Therefore you are left with a variety of dual or quad mast antenna's. For best reception, you are best mounting on the exterior of the car. You can get ones that are like mobile phone car kit antenna's that stick on both sides of the glass as well. That will save you from running cables to the outside of the car. Otherwise you could go for a boomerang design like the limos have, LOL. But even still; reception is pretty subjective to your location.

If you absolutely must have TV, antenna's like this would provide you with decent reception if you are willing to sacrifice the clean looks on the outside of your car:

Secondly, TomTom is either made to run on specific TomTom units or Windows Mobile. Getting it to run on Windows CE which is what these head units use requires a bit of work to try and unpackage everything and get it running perfectly. As a result, you won't really find anyone using it. In most of our navigation head unit threads, we have discussed the different software and iGO8 appears to be the most user friendly.

Thankyou for that information, nice that someone WILL take the time to help rather than be sarcastic, thnaks again.

[httttt]

Thankyou for that information, nice that someone WILL take the time to help rather than be sarcastic, thnaks again.

I know that you didnt directly say I was sarcastic but.... I wasnt being sarcastic. I was being blunt.

My apologies if I offended anyone.

p.s. I recommend the dig options unit although the software interface is a little on the ugly side. Also, look out for some of the units that have blue lights in the buttons as they don't suit the interior at all.

[DJKOR]

Thankyou for that information, nice that someone WILL take the time to help rather than be sarcastic, thnaks again.

It's not that I didn't want to be sarcastic or blunt (HT saved me from that), it's just I was bored and had nothing better to do. In most cases I will advise to bring it up in a thread that is active with discussion along the lines of what you want to ask, but once again HT also said what I was originally going to.

[prodigy]

Secondly, TomTom is either made to run on specific TomTom units or Windows Mobile. Getting it to run on Windows CE which is what these head units use requires a bit of work to try and unpackage everything and get it running perfectly. As a result, you won't really find anyone using it. In most of our navigation head unit threads, we have discussed the different software and iGO8 appears to be the most user friendly.

I am new to posting but a silent observer for a long time. Thought i should reply as i am using TomTom. I recently purchased a headunit from Auspack and it has both IGO8 and TomTom. I can select whatever i want.

HTH

[Deanja]

Secondly, TomTom is either made to run on specific TomTom units or Windows Mobile. Getting it to run on Windows CE which is what these head units use requires a bit of work to try and unpackage everything and get it running perfectly. As a result, you won't really find anyone using it. In most of our navigation head unit threads, we have discussed the different software and iGO8 appears to be the most user friendly.

I am new to posting but a silent observer for a long time. Thought i should reply as i am using TomTom. I recently purchased a headunit from Auspack and it has both IGO8 and TomTom. I can select whatever i want.

HTH

Thanks for the info, I thought Tom Tom gear should work with these units as they are now running the corret prtogram that should handle them, which do you prefer, IGO8 or the Tom Tom, how do you find the Auspack unit, I've been tossing up between that unit and the Dig Options unit, Did you instal the rear view camera they supply, if so is it OK?

[prodigy]

Thanks for the info, I thought Tom Tom gear should work with these units as they are now running the corret prtogram that should handle them, which do you prefer, IGO8 or the Tom Tom, how do you find the Auspack unit, I've been tossing up between that unit and the Dig Options unit, Did you instal the rear view camera they supply, if so is it OK?

I got it installed last week. I got the rear view camera also installed along with the unit. I didnot find much difference with the auspack unit and dig_options unit and the only thing which made me go with the auspack unit was, the reverse camera ( a little bit of aurion presara type camera) and the prompt response from the seller. Ididnot know until the last minute that TomTom was also installed in the SD card delivered with the unit. I prefer using TomTom because i am used to the TomTom's graphics and feel and i have never used IGO8. As for TomTom, i remember being told that they had to do a little bit of tweeking to run the TomTom on these units.

HTH

[DJKOR]

... Did you instal the rear view camera they supply, if so is it OK?

Edit: It appears Auspacks now provide a new design camera. Below posts refer to older style infra-red camera.

Just for reference (this is the Auspack reverse camera):

If you choose to go for camera '167', this is what my installation was like. My camera installation required drilling one hole in the boot lid and quite a lot of hacking at the plastic trim that covers it. The opening for my camera is about 2 times larger than what it could have been, which was due to my chunky personalised plate. I needed to mount it further back which required more plastic to be trimmed away to give it a good field of view. With a normal number plate, the camera can be mounted such that it sticks out further which will mean the resulting hole in the plastic only needs to be large enough to fit the camera through.

I had to pull mine all apart today to trim more plastic to fix some blind spots and to add some silicone to water seal it, so I took the opportunity to take some photos.

The hole drilled into the boot lid:

The camera mounted with some silicone to water seal it. Was quite a mess to do:

This is what the cut out in the plastic trim ended up looking like. It's a pretty big hole, but there was nothing I could do because of my number plate:

The end result:

This is what the camera can see. As well I have taken a photo with my digital camera positioned in the same spot as the reverse camera:

Thanks, is 92 degree view angle wide enough for Aurion?

For me, the 92 degree viewing angle seems sufficient. It depends on how you want to use your camera. The main purpose of mine is to let me park properly. I always reverse park and prior to the camera, I would always have to open the door and stick my head out to gauge the distance. The camera had make it many times easier now.

If you need to to make sure you don't hit any kids behind the car, you will find that whatever the camera doesn't see, your side mirrors will. So with that combination, a 92 degree field of view seems fairly sufficient. I was going to reverse out onto the street and set up some makers and take photos to give an idea of what the camera can see, but I just dried it after washing it... and it's raining. I'm quite fussy about having a clean car.

Edit: Here are a couple of photos to show how close a small object on the ground needs to be to the rear of the car to be seen. Of course you can see objects that are closer to the car, so long as they are taller.