Jensen VM8013 3.5-Inch Screen MultiMedia Receiver Review

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Widc7077!
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To install this radio, I removed my old Kenwood receiver that had a cassette deck with a 10 disc CD changer in the trunk that had a single line display. I went online and found a web site that sells instructions with photos on how to access the radio. They sell the instructions with photos for hundreds of different cars and trucks.
I like the Jensen VM8013 radio. There was some confusion because the Amazon information said HD radio was included, it was not. It is NOT a touch screen. It displays the song information three different ways on the screen at the same time.
A) Current Track Title (e.g. Ring of Fire)
B) ID3 Artist and Title Information (MP3/WMA only) (e.g. Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire)
C) Songs on Disc (e.g. Ring of Fire, Jackson, A Boy Named Sue, etc.)
It seems that with such little real estate on the screen, it is wasteful to essentially display the same information three times, three different ways.
The front panel can be removed easily, but it can be tricky getting it re-attached.
1) The Jensen VM8013 does not have HD radio. When I bought it from Amazon, it was listed as having HD radio (not "HD ready").
2) You are limited to 1500 songs from a CD/DVD/USB drive. I have a 32 GB USB drive and thought I would be able to have all my music on there. The radio ignores anything over 1500.
3) The reason for the 1500 song limit is because it scans the media source (the CD/DVD/USB drive) before playing to build a table of contents. It takes the radio a good 6 or 7 minutes to scan my 32 GB USB drive with 7500 songs. It is not playing any music during that time, so it is silent. Once its done, it only accesses/plays the first 1500 songs.
4) If you have your songs separated into folders (on the CD/DVD/USB drive) it will play them in sequential order as expected. But if you turn on the "Random" setting, it will only randomize inside the folder it is in, then move onto the next folder and play randomly inside there. I wanted it to play random selections from any folder. That way I could hear a mix of country, rock, dance, jazz, etc.
5) Even though it is a 3.5" screen, the time is displayed in a small section in a corner. I was hoping there would be a setting to make the time display bigger so it is easier to read.
6) When playing songs it counts up to show elapsed time. I do not care how much time has passed in the song. I want to know how much time remains in the songs. There is no option for time remaining.
7) There are buttons on the included remote that are not on the radio that let you access additional settings and options; so do not lose the remote.
8) I have pictures on an SD card, they look fine on the 3.5" screen.
9) I play music via the radio, MP3s on DVDs, MP3s on a USB drive.
10) I attached a 3.5mm male to male cable to the AUX port on the front. I ran the cable under the radio, inside the dash and it comes out where the center console and the dash meet. I use the 3.5mm cable to plug into my Slacker G2 radio (www.Slacker.com) 3.5mm headphone out port and my Sirius S50 3.5mm headphone out port. This way I can hear them through the car stereo system. With the previous radio I had to tune the radio to a station and have the Slacker and Sirius radios broadcast their signal. There was always the issue of radio wave interference causing static with the signal. Now that is not an issue since I am using a cable to get the signal into the radio (and out the speakers). When either one is being used nothing other than the time is displayed on the screen. That means you cannot use the radios screen to know what songs is being played. But that is okay since the song information is displayed on the Sirius S50 or Slacker G2 radio anyway.
11) I attached a USB extension cable to the USB port on the front. I ran the cable under the radio, inside the dash and it comes out on a flat area of the dash near the speedometer. This way I can attach a USB drive and lay it on the dash out of the way, but still attached at all times.
12) I connected the iPod cable and ran it to the console in case I get an iPod in the future or a friend brings their iPod along.
13) Dimmer - Press the DIM button to dim the screen by 1/2. Press again to darken the screen completely. Press a third time to resume full
brightness.
User Manual
http://mobile.jensen.com/jensen/docs/man/VM8013_DOC_OM.PDF

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