New Kenwood DDX-512 Head Unit

[davedude 10+ year member]

I just got the new Kenwood DDX-512 Head Unit. I thought I would let everyone know about it.

I just purchased this unit upgrading from my old kenwood head unit. I found out the hard way that there is some serious issues with this unit.

1. The unit is "Satellite XM/Sirius" Ready, but Kenwood has not released the cables needed to connected the unit to the Sirius unit. So basically if you buy this unit to listen to Satellite radio, you are out of luck until Kenwood releases the proper cable. I called Kenwood Usa support about this and they can't give a reason why the cables are not available, but said they should be available by April 2008. In the meantime I can't listen to my Sirius.

2. The unit claims to be able to play MP3, JPEG photos, and MPEG videos from a USB device (ext USB hard drive or thumb drive). I bought a external USB hard drive and it was able to play MP3s from it but no JPEG and no videos. I emailed Kenwood USA about this and they responded with this:

"The DNX-5120 and DDX-512 are currently unable to play MPEGs or JPEGs via USB. We are aware of this issue and currently working on a fix to solve the problem. When the fix is available, we will contact and email you the update."

So now I can't play my Satellite radio or play JPEG and Mpeg videos from my USB device! But there is more:

This is supposed to also have bluetooth with the optional BT-200 bluetooth unit. I called Kenwood and the Bluetooth add on will not be available until May 2008 according to Kenwood USA.

So I can't use my Bluetooth, Satellite Radio, or JPEG, MPEG files!

So basically if you are going to buy this unit, wait until May when they are supposedly going to have everything available. I am not a happy customer! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crying.gif.ec0ebefe590df0251476573bc49e46d8.gif:crying://content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crying.gif.ec0ebefe590df0251476573bc49e46d8.gif

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[djeazie 10+ year member]

Should have bought a D3. Send it back!

 

[davedude 10+ year member]

Should have bought a D3. Send it back!

I considered the D3, but the cost of the options for the D3 seemed to be WAY overpriced! To add the USB connectivity you had to buy a $250 add on!?!? On top of that the D3 would of cost me $100 more for the unit itself and THEN I would of had to buy the Sirius tuner from pioneer (also overpriced). And I didn't need the GPS because my cellphone has TomTom already. The Kenwood would of been a much better bargain if Kenwood didn't screw up the firmware and released the right cables and accessories on time!

 

[edzy 10+ year member]

thats poor service. Be like ford selling a car with no engine yet. Just park it in the drive way till it comes out in may.

On the plus side, it will be a killer HU when it has all the apps installed, but by then it will be outdated technoligy . Also, I hear Kenwood will be the first to have mobile tv on the HU, late this year or early next. Called MPH, in-band mobile digital TV.

 

[speedfreek09 10+ year member]

i dont know about the shop you bought it from but we have BOTH the cable to hook up the sirius and the bluetooth in stock they showed up today, so you shouldn't have to wait till May like you were saying.

just updating you on this,

also the aux vid input on the front cables are available now too

 

[99StangGt 10+ year member]

I bought a BT-200 bluetooth unit yesterday. They are in stock here and have been for a while. And they are cheaper then the BT-100s.

 

[JohnnyB4439 10+ year member]

UPDATE!

http://community.crutchfield.com/forums/thread/29000.aspx

 

[davedude 10+ year member]

I just did the update that was just released to my DDX-512 (Firmware 1.4.0)

It now can read VIDEO (Mpeg 1 and MPEG 2) files off a USB device (Thumb drive or USB hard drive) ...but I am having issues with it playing the video SLOWLY off the drive (it skips and goes on and off while playing). I contacted Kenwood about this and they will have an answer for me from the engineer next week hopefully. In the meantime I went ahead and ordered the KCA-BT200 Bluetooth for it since I heard from people that it works well.

 

[davedude 10+ year member]

i dont know about the shop you bought it from but we have BOTH the cable to hook up the sirius and the bluetooth in stock they showed up today, so you shouldn't have to wait till May like you were saying.
just updating you on this,

also the aux vid input on the front cables are available now too

Yes I just ordered the cable for the sirius and BT-200 bluetooth today from crutchfield and should be here by late next week. Glad I didn't have to wait until May. Now if they could fix the USB video playback I would be happy.

 

[kodak314 10+ year member]

is this the only new kenwood that you know that can play mpegs thru the usb? Do the other dd play thru usb

 

[JohnnyB4439 10+ year member]

I just did the update that was just released to my DDX-512 (Firmware 1.4.0)
It now can read VIDEO (Mpeg 1 and MPEG 2) files off a USB device (Thumb drive or USB hard drive) ...but I am having issues with it playing the video SLOWLY off the drive (it skips and goes on and off while playing). I contacted Kenwood about this and they will have an answer for me from the engineer next week hopefully. In the meantime I went ahead and ordered the KCA-BT200 Bluetooth for it since I heard from people that it works well.

the only problem im having is that is doesnt play all the music on my 16gb thumb drive. About half of it is greyed out and will not let me play it. I dont know what the heck is going on.

 

[davedude 10+ year member]

the only problem im having is that is doesnt play all the music on my 16gb thumb drive. About half of it is greyed out and will not let me play it. I dont know what the heck is going on.

Wow I hope that there isn't a limit on USB storage with the DDX-512. I am attempting to use a 320GB USB Hard Drive with it! That would be upsetting. I will have to ask Kenwood Support about that.

 

[JohnnyB4439 10+ year member]

Let me know the outcome. I would be interested to know. Thanks.

 

[davedude 10+ year member]

I had a Kenwood Tech Support representative call me back today on my question about MPEG 2 video files on the DDX 512.

Sadly, he was somewhat rude and insulting and didn't have an answer to my question.

When I asked him what bitrate I should encode my videos to play on the unit, he gave me the MP3 bitrates (32-320) which I told him that those were AUDIO MP3 bitrates that were already documented and I needed the video bitrate. He finally agreed that those were audio bitrates and then told me "that's all the information they gave me".

He also said "Your problem is that you are trying to play VOB files and VOB files are not MPEG 2. You should know better than that!" (Yes he said those exact words).

I then corrected him and told him "VOB files are actually just DVD compliant MPEG 2 files and they do actually play on your unit, but they just studder because my bitrate is probably too high and you can't seem to recommend any MPEG 2 specification for me to make the best videos for the DDX 512."

I will give him points that he actually called me back, but he had no useful information and this "you should know better than that!" attitude kinda pissed me off.

So it looks like I will have to do testing myself and create a bunch of different video files on my computer and find out what is the best by trial and error and report my results. I know for a fact so far that the number has to be less than 5000kbps for MPEG 2 videos since I tried a 9600kpbs and a 5000kpbs video and neither played smooth //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif but one of the other guys on this forum tried a 1200kbps-2000kbps MPEG 2 video and it played smooth. So the magic number is somewhere between 1200 and 5000.

On other news..I just got in my CA-SR20V Cable to connect my SIRIUS tuner to the head unit in and my BT200 bluetooth unit! I'm gonna see if I can get them installed today and then I will make a movie on youtube showing all the features of the unit once everything is connected.

 

[JohnnyB4439 10+ year member]

What a dick, did you mention about the mp3 files being greyed out?