Had Clarion marketed the VRX755VD to the public at the time it presented the product to the press at last year's SEMA, they could have capitalized on the mad consumer rush for iPods during the holiday season. Of course, releasing the VRX a little bit past the frenzy that occurred doesn't preclude Clarion from still selling a million units--after all, there have been almost 16 million iPods sold so far. All of the preceding is a way of saying that after using this DVD player for a few weeks it's clear to us that it's exactly the kind of head unit that iPod users would want in their cars. In fact, Clarion and Apple should sell their wares as a combo unit (we're full of million dollar ideas like that).
Apple fans are a breed apart, or like to think they are. If PCs are for reactionaries, then Macs are for progressives. That explains the superiority of the latter. Jokes aside, some things that Apple aficionados have always appreciated about the computers from that company are great design and ease of use. When it conceived its little music player Apple obviously followed their high standards in that regard. Clearly the engineers and designers at Clarion bore that in mind when creating the VRX755VD. We've recently reviewed a few iPod interfaces and none come close it. Mainly that's because Clarion made the iPod functionality the central feature; moreover, the way they did it is the way we imagine Apple would have approached the problem: make it so easy that it's all self-explanatory.
The VRX755VD is a single-DIN DVD player with a 7-inch touchscreen. Aside from DVDs it also plays video CDs, CD Text and of course audio CDs. The iPod feature may be the key selling point but this is a versatile head unit that does a lot, and could do more with add-ons. And of the things it can do, interfacing with the iPod it does exceptionally well. You should know this, however: the VRX can control iPods with the following software: third generaton version 2.2, fourth gen version 3.01/3.02 and for the Mini, version 1.2. If you have a first or second gen iPod you're out of luck. You have to love early-adopters of technology, but they don't always do themselves favors rushing out to buy the latest cool gadget.
The ease of use can be summarized very briefly: connect, check out the display, push appropriate screen icons. But if you prefer the long version--connect your iPod (for this review we ran the direct-connect cable out through the tray under the head unit; for permanent installation you will probably want the cable to exit into the interior of your glove compartment), then hit the Open button and the widescreen monitor motorizes out smoothly (we should mention that you can set the display at five different angles). Select iPod using the Source button and something very similar to the configuration on your music player will appear in digital form on the liquid crystal panel. You can see here, with the available screen space you have more information and even better functionality with separate icons for Repeat, Shuffle, Browse and 2-zone. The window to the right shows you time and song/track information. Above you can easily reference the artist of the song, track title and album name.