Lookie what I just bought - DVD headunit

[GT Wagon]

Looks a lot like a certain Alpine 9815 headunit ??



My last headunit was an Alpine 9815, great deck that plays MP3's. Well seeing as I gave my fiance the Jetta, she also inheritted the deck with the car. I could have taken it out but well, I'm not.

The new deck is an Innovatek DVD deck that's DVD/VCD/MP3/MP4/CD-R Compatible. Translation: Its a shop in Montreal Canada that has imported these decks from China. I know I'm taking a risk but well, it only cost me $96 brand new so let's have fun and see how well it works.

I really wanted to get a deck that plays DVD's and they're pretty rare & expensive for brand name one's at the moment. Let's face it, Alpine, Pioneer, Kenwood.... are made in China these days anyway, odds are its the same factories churning out these knock-offs using the same parts. This deck is almost identical to my Alpine 9815, I'll take side by side pics of the faceplates later next week.

The shop has a decent reputation for the screens it sells, if the headunit holds up past two weeks I'll pick one of those up as well for kicks. Honestly, I don't care to play movies or videos in my car as I'm not into that scene. What I do want is to shoot video when I race the car and the in-car video will help make sure my cameras are correctly aimed. Also, I'd like to see how well the "backup" camera function works as I do have a wagon. If it works out that the wife can record and watch a few TV shows for while we go on road trips all the better.

[galek_98gt]

wow, $96 are you serious. please hookup a link so i can try and get in on that deal. you're probably right about it being made of the same parts as an Alpine giving how much it looks alike.

[Wiscon_Mark]

same parts, different manufacturing. The cheap one was probably made in a sweatshop or something. Not trying to guilt trip you, just pondering how they would make it so cheap.

[2deadlegs]

Post up a link!!

I want one!

[masube81]

I think I saw one of those on ebay the other day. I'm about to bid one for my ride Tell us more when you get it.

[jdmconnected]

You tend to get what you pay for.

Compare the Alpine 2.5 line display to the crappy single line one. Unless that thing has OSD or the display isn't being fully used by the demo navigating through MP3s will be a PITA

Good components cost money. If there is such a big difference in just the display, just think what other internal components they skimped on. I'd hate to see what thing looks like on the inside.

Not to say that the major manufacturers don't build garbage or unreliable stuff.

Some cheap stuff can last a long time...or not

[GT Wagon]

Here's the Ebay link to all the DVD players for sale:

Innovatek 389 In-Dash CAR DVD/MP3/CD-RW PLAYER for tv

http://search.ebay.com/Innovatek-389-In ... 20forQ20tv

Don't confuse it with the cheaper CD player with the same model # whcih sells for $79. Make sure it says DVD in the name.

The vendor name is: mp3playerstore.com, I've watched the auctions for about a week. You can "buy it now" for $129 or try to be the highest bidder to get it cheaper. They've sold for $65-$110 on the auctions, $85 seems to be the average. I kept getting outbid with my $87 top bid so I just paid a few bucks extra and outbid someone else at the last minute. JUST BE AWARE that they charge a lot for shipping. $29 for buy it now and $39 for regular auction. Still, that's $125 shipped to my door and I'm 2 hours from Montreal Canada where they are located.


jdmconnected - You're just jealous Seriously, I am not expecting to get Alpine-like performance and quality. Originally I was planning on buying a used Alpine 9815 off Ebay and they go for $150-250 however I really want DVD capability for increased storage. I'm still not about to drop $500 on a car PC either. This purchase is a calculated risk, for less than $150 I'm willing to give it a spin.

They are many many reasons why the big names charge more money.

- You are paying for the name
- You are paying for all the middle men: the manufactures cut, the local area wholesaler and then the final car audio store's profit margin...and all shipping costs in between. In this instance Innovatek has a Chinese company build its equipment and ship directly to them
- You are paying for marketing expenses such as advertisements, sponsored competitors and promotional events
- You are paying in advance for everyone elses repairs. Marketing calls it "WARRANTY"
- You may or may not, be paying for better components.

In my case I always use external amplifiers so if they skimped there, all the better. I'm also hoping they skimped on tacky features like the motorized faceplate. You don't need it and its one more thing to break. Recall the first removeable faceplates from Pioneer in the early 90's . You pressed a release button and they slowly folded down using gravity. A large percentage of repairs to "high-end" head units today involve the faceplate motor motors/gears.... failing. The deck itself is still working great but you can't get a CD in/out of it because the faceplate is stuck halfway down. Its a gimick and Alpine/Pioneer/Kenwood... skimped on quality parts so the failure rate is unacceptably high. These days with everything driven by soft touch buttons and software there's not much mechanical to fail besides the motors.

Keep It Simple Stupid - That is the key to success, the less you have in there, the less there is to break. This also keeps the final price down.

What I care about most is the DVD player (laser & motor) itself and the software. CD / DVD players have been on the market long enough that the price point to manufacture a decent one is peanuts. If it lasts two years that's more than enough. By that time everyone will make these and the price point will be reasonable. I'll probably have gone "Car PC within the year anway.

The Chinese are NOTORIOUS for copying/stealing Western technology (call it what you want , they do it openly) and rebranding it to sell it to Asian markets. There's a fair chance this one already has the software for a yet unreleased Alpine unit. That would not surpise me...... Or they could have just copied the faceplate design.


Only time will tell. I've been into car audio for a good 15 years so I'd like to think I'm a good judge of a quality product and I certainly know a piece of crap when I see it. If this deck totally sucks trust me pride will not get in my way and I will gladly let everyone know.

On the topic of single/2.5 line display. I never really found the Alpine's display helped me a whole lot when it came to nagivating around. Folders are sorted alphabetically so its still a matter of scrolling down through them. Whether I can see one or three folders (or songs) at a time doesn't make it a whole lot easier to use.

Hopefully this is not coming off as a rant, certainly not directed at JDMCONNECTED either. I'm trying to be informative and neutral at the same time. Why don't you guys give me a month with this unit before buying one. I'll have it sometime this coming week and try to install quickly. Give me a month and if it hasn't malfunctioned in some way I'll give an honest report on it. Since I won't have a video screen in the car I plan on testing that feature in the house. I have a 12 volt power supply and will plugs it into our new and reasonably good quality Toshiba 32 TV. That should provide for a few interesting screen shots, I'll compare video quality between the Innovatek and our Phillips DVD player (bought that one to play DIVX movies)

[jdmconnected]

I am neither an economist, electronics engineer, or marketing director.

What I do know is there is a difference in design and quality between different manufacturers of cheap electronic products and more expensive ones.
Everyone is out to either make or save money and you don't get anything for free.
No company is going to sell such a (rebadged or otherwise) car audio product worth $400 for <$120. Sure, we all know the $400 product is "overpriced" but thats the going value set by the market, which may in time be driven lower by the $120 product.

If the consumer is happy with the inexpensive product and it works for them, great. Thats more money saved for food, gas, beer, body kits, and blow-off valves.

Personally, I am not currently in the market for such a device, brand name or otherwise.