I have tasted the AVIC-N1, and it's juices are sweet...

[Jahntassa]

I have had the pleasure of installing two of these units in the past week...and..I can say, without a doubt, they live up to the hype!Granted, neither install was in my vibe (cry!), but it was impressive, even for the short amount of time I saw it!The thing was faster than the stock navigation, in terms of keeping up with your position. The 3D driver's view was awesome, and spot-on. It even told you the turns on those tricky "turn-left then turn -right" turns the stock NAV doesn't do well on!The touchscreen is sensitive enough, yet not over sensitive. You need to "tap"..so it won't just randomly start doing it's own thing. The video was a little dark, to start, but I also had no time to really tune it to the way it should be...My only gripe is you NEED an external DVD player, and the external unit-controlled multi-disc changer is around $1,000. But..it does hold 10 DVD/CDs.. Anyway...I still want this thing..it's tres cool.. Just wanted to share!

[ragingfish]

So the only way to play DVD or CD is via an external changer?

[Jahntassa]

Nono. I was not specific enough..The AVIC is sorta the same as the Stock system, it needs the nav disc in the drive in order for the nav to work, unless you've preplanned a route and it saved that route to memory, or you specified a certain part of where you daily commute to save to memory. It has a DVD/CD drive in the front, but as i'd want the NAV most of the time, i'd want to leave the disc in there, which would also prevent it from getting lost/damaged.It plays movies and CDs fine from the slot under the screen, but me being picky, i'd want a second drive, just so I could keep the NAV disc in there full-time.So to clarify, there is a player built-into the dash unit, which can do DVD movies, Nav, and CDs (and MP3 CDs, I believe). The unit has a memory for the Nav, so you don't need the disc all the time, and can enjoy CDs/DVDs while the Nav is running.