Practically every car audio maker is now producing double din car stereo, even the unbranded manufacturers have numerous available. The features of these units are continually expanding to increase and improve functionality.
Some of the more popular brands in this segment are Alpine, Blaupunkt, JVC, Kenwood and Panasonic. Their units include the ability to hook up your ipods or iphones, and practically anything that can connect with bluetooth, including phones mp3 players and GPS units.
The double din car stereo will still come with the basic functions including CD/DVD playback, am/fm radio, as well as the increasing common usb ports with hard drive support. This allows the easy playback from your thumbdrives without the need to burn CDs or DVDs all the time and you can change your playlists without all the hassle. Plus, with thumbdrive capacities increasing all the time, you can have 64GB of music on hand without the pile of DVDs that would be necessary.
Many systems now have touch screens which opens up the possiblities of what is now included and what will be added in the future. The most basic of abilities this has given the ability to control the unit by pressing the controls on the screen without having to fidlle with nobs and dials. Most are already coming with wireless remote, and the aforementioned Bluetooth, iPod and iPhone support.
GPS is now included with many and is integrated into the touchscreen technology, some using CDs with the map data on and others including a hard drive with the maps on. Other uses of the screen include watching TV/movies from the comfort of your car (not advisable whilst actually driving) and showing information regarding the music/radio you’re listening to.
The double din car stereo has come a long way and I for one am looking forward to where they are going.