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Innovatek 365 - FYI

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URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=93319
Printed Date: March 28, 2024 at 12:01 PM


Topic: Innovatek 365 - FYI

Posted By: darkhorse3d
Subject: Innovatek 365 - FYI
Date Posted: April 25, 2007 at 7:17 AM

I just purchased and installed the Innovatek 365 in dash receiver. i stepped out on this one because I've not read a single review on the internet yet for it. I figured I'd cover the install a little bit for anyone looking to try. When I first got the product I was pretty impressed with the clean look of it, and couldn't wait to get it installed.

I Opened the box and took a look at everything. The construction seemed pretty good and the unit felt sturdy as well. There is a switch on the side which lets you toggle between US and Euro frequency's mine was set to Euro so I went ahead and flipped it to US.

I then removed my old stock head unit (Mazda MX-3 stock tape AM/FM). It may have just been me, but there seemed the wiring harness was exceptionally long which isn't too bad as you can always cut off or Zip tie what you don't need. The wires were labeled well and much better than I hear their previous similar units were.

There is the Sub out, RCA front and RCA rear, Video Out, and Rear Camera in. There is also a Coax out. All are clearly labeled. Som I went to work on it... The install was pretty straight forward. I used a wiring schematic from MX-3.com as the mazda wires were not always standard, and the12volt's schematic didn't match my color scheme. (it did my friends, however)

I used quick splices on it and preserved the stock harness so if I sell the car I can pop the stock radio back in. There is an input for a TV tuner antenna. I did not hook this up yet as I do not have a TV antenna and i want to get a good one with a gain boost. So I was left with the long green wire labled "Brake (-)" Now most units require you to connect to your parking brake in order to view the screen. The parking brake switch shows (-) when the ebrake is engaged on my car, however it makes sence, and many people do who install head units like this to just tap the Green wire to (earth). Being adventurous i decided to see how well set up Innovatek's safety feature was and I just left the crazy thing unhooked.

So I slid it back into the dash and powere her up. I was actually very impressed with the nice clean look of the unit under power. The buttons had a nice cool blue glow as did the joysticks (the left one is actually a knob) The screen came up to radio mode and the first thing I noticed was the cleanliness of the screen. It's very simple, which I tend to like some of you may not. The screen layout consists of a bouncing EQ graphic at the bottom and some nice large, easy to read numbers for station selection. As I said I'm a fan of nice simple and clean to me it's kind of an elegant look. Also the EQ loop is based on volume and has a nice yellow, green, and red scheme which those familiar with spectrum analysis will appreciate.

So next I went to try out the DVD. I poped in a DVD and was pleased at the ease of insertion. I waited for the DVD to load and noticed *THIS IS NOT A LIGHTNING FAST READER* Thus far this is my first beef with the unit and honestly it's very livable to me I have seen units load slower... even some MUCH slower. I was please to see that with the parking brake wire completely disconnected, the DVD began to play. The screen clarity was pretty decent and actually exceeded my expectations. The screen is a 3.6" diagonal and it actually can be seen very well from the seats of my Mazda. The color Brightness and Contrast can be adjusted and they do have a pretty decent adjust ratio. You can also control the color saturation. All in all I was very pleased with the units DVD playback. Also I'll note this was a DVD-R disk. I also tried CD-R and CD-RW and of course they worked as well.

There are various features to the device. It comes with preset EQ settings of "flat" "Classic" "Jazz" "Rock" and "Pop" but it also allows you to adjust Bass, Treble, and Sub individually if you so choose.

I was also pleased with the motorized screen. It moved smoothly and quietly and really seemed to be well constructed. It has 4 angles and one of them is almost always ideal for current lighting conditions. Many of you are probably already familiar with this. The Sub output is switchable and you can simply turn off the sub channel if you want or need to at any time and it will kill the Sub signal. The tracking is not of the style I particularly like in that if you click back while playing a song it plays the previous track rather than restarting the current one, but again thats very livable. The remote was not of GREAT quality, but I didn't find it of significantly less than any other sterio card remote I've had. The face is removable, but it can be a real pain to get back on the first few times after you get the hang of it though, it's not that bad.

The biggest beef I have with Innovatek is their DOCUMENTATION. Listen, their documentation is horrific. I mean I'm just going to go ahead on and say that. It's a nightmare. It doesn't fully explain all the features, and it's got a pretty simple wiring diagram. Anyone who has installed head units before, however should be able to get past this. A beginner may want to ask for a little help with this as with any other head unit.

All in all this head unit is a keeper for me, especially consider for it's price you'll be hard pressed to find anything even close. It offers good features that you find in many other higher priced items and performs at a level that is honestly exceeding the price I paid for it. The install was simple and straight forward and they included everything necessary in the box as one should expect. i'd give this product a 7.5 out of 10 in my book with the main problems being in documentation and disk load speed. hope this helps someone out. Any questiosn look me up






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