Of late, we have seen a resurgence of double-DIN head units. This time around, though, they tend to sport 6 1/2- to 7-inch touchscreen LCD panels as their displays. These new large displays make new radios easier to read, operate and add a number of awesome new capabilities that the digital displays of yesterday never dreamed of.
A great case in point happens to be this month's test subject, Panasonic's latest creation, the CQ-VD6503U. Not only does this bad boy have a 6 1/2-inch TFT active matrix touchscreen, it also has a 24-bit DVD transport that plays DVDs of all types as well as MP3s and WMAs. Because it reads at 24-bit, it makes a CD sound better than a regular CD player can. Plus, it adds on built-in 2-way crossovers, four channels of high power, onboard Dolby Digital and DTS multichannel decoders as well as Dolby ProLogic and SRS Circle Surround processing for stereo material, making this a full-featured system unto itself. Panasonic knows many of us can't leave things well enough alone and built this radio with the ability to take things much further, turning it into the nerve center for a multisource, multizone multimedia system.
Installation
Opening the box reveals the unit, mounting cage, trim bezel, harness, IR remote and no less than three manuals! There's an Installation Manual, the Owner's Manual and a System Upgrade Manual. All of these manuals are chalk full of useful and intelligent information that is clearly laid out and in clear English, not "Japanglish."
As a double-DIN chassis, the CQ-VD6503U can be ISO mounted in most Asian import vehicles. In some vehicles you can get away with using the DIN style-mounting ring that the CQ-VD6503U comes with. In most European and American vehicles, you will need to add a radio mount kit to fit it to the dash.
Looking at the back of the CQ-VD6503U reveals a wealth of input and output jacks for amplifiers and something I have not seen on any other double-DIN unit: two sets of A/V inputs, nice! This comes in real handy while using the CQ-VD6503U dual-zone ability. With dual-zone you can send a video signal to a rear seat entertainment system while listening to any other source up front. If you add on the CY-EM100U expansion module, you can expand the Panasonic data bus and run either or both satellite radio services, add an iPod interface, a CD changer, a TV tuner and a hands-free Bluetooth cell phone kit. Talk about sick flexibility and expansion! But wait, there's more: the CQ-VD6503U can handle a back-up camera and GPS navigation system. Get all this and you'll be pimpin' for sure.
Because the CQ-VD6503U can do discrete 5.1 surround sound, there are six RCA outputs on the back panel: Front channels are the left, center, right; rear channels are the left surround, right surround and subwoofer/LFE-all rated at 2 volts.
Operation
The LCD panel takes up the majority of the radio's face, aside from thin vertical rows of buttons along both edges of the screen. This is fine since it is a touchscreen. Pretty much anything you want to do is controlled by a nicely laid-out array of "hotspots" on the screen. The hotspots are large and easy to read-no fumbling around here! The buttons on the edges of the radio duplicate some functions, like volume or tuning. Pushing these highlights the corresponding on-screen hotspot, kind of like the radio is hinting you to use the touchscreen!
The main setup and global menus can be reached through either the hard buttons or an on-screen one. Here you have your usual choices, as well as the Dolby speaker setup, crossover settings, tone versus EQ versus Circle Surround and the like. Interestingly, you can also set the back-up camera to be the full-time background. This suggests some alternative uses, like a "kiddy-cam." One thing we were happy to note: You can see all of the submenus on one page and choosing any of those takes you to all of that function's selections. You only ever go two screens deep-no getting lost in a labyrinth of submenu upon submenu pon submenu.
We had no problems with the simple and familiar radio tuning. The same goes with presetting stations, which are very easy to use and set up. Stick a CD in and you get all your transport controls as well as random and repeat options. Any title information stored on the disc shows up on the nice, big display. It makes navigating the folders for your home-brewed MP3 collections easier. Trade the CD out for a DVD and the hotspot overlays are defeatable, as they should be. Touching the screen will bring them up and once you're done with them, touching the "DISP" hotspot banishes them again. You have transport controls, a "Top Menu" shortcut and the option for a numeric chapter access overlay. The CQ-VD6503U also implements the ability to navigate a DVD movie's main menus by touching the screen over their menu choices. While this feature is becoming more common, the CQ-VD6503U adds a cool twist. If there are several menu choices very close together and you have touched two at the same time, that part of the screen will zoom in to give you more space between each menu choice. The picture quality is very good and offers the usual video controls to adjust for software deficiencies.
There really is a lot of music now available on DVDs these days and the CQ-VD6503U's DVD transport allows you to buy Dual Discs and enjoy musical playback at a whole new level of quality. Since the CQ-VD6503U has Dolby Digital and DTS decoding on-board, you can take the musical environment to the experience of live recordings. As you improve your speakers and add power, those concerts and recordings will come more and more alive. Once you start getting spoiled on multichannel, especially with a center channel and sub, the SRS Circle Surround will keep you entertained on your old-school 2-channel listening selections.
All in all, Panasonic gives quite a lot of value with this package, especially at the asking price of only $999. By offering more A/V inputs than any other double-DIN on the market, the CQ-VD6503U also offers plenty of room to grow your system. You get all of this in one nice, clean, OE-styled chassis that won't scream "aftermarket!" in your dash or break your bank.