J. Finkel "Jack of Trades" Say: Sony XNV-770BT
Decent but Lacking, 2011-09-19
This review is for: Sony XNV-770BT
The Sony 770BT 7" In-Dash receiver/GPS is a competent unit, but lacks the high-end appeal that its price tag suggests. The cheaper 660BT unit, is probably a better choice for most. This unit ends up being a middle of the road receiver/gps whereas most people are probably interested in either higher end units capable of powering premium speakers or budget minded units with a lower price tag.The sound of this unit is one of the major problems. It won't drive high-end speakers well enough. If you are spending the cash to get a premium set of speakers, it won't surprise you that you should be looking closer to the $1k+ range for a decent receiver. For those with factory speakers, the receiver will perform well, but maybe just as well as some cheaper options.The GPS is provided by TomTom and given the 7" screen, it is a nice navigator. While I lean toward Garmin GPS devices, I found the TomTom comparable to most Navteq devices in ease of use and the map updates are priced much more reasonably. I haven't tried updating the maps myself.The buttons on the unit are another annoyance. It's not a big deal, but they could be more responsive and are not designed for easy use while driving. The other featuers of this unit, like bluetooth, usb, satellite radio, perform well.Overall, this unit is a decent mid-range receiver/GPS that fails to offer a high enough price to performance ration to really draw in consumers. The 660BT is a good alternative to consider. I'd recommend this unit for those with mid-range speakers and a need for a large-screen GPS, but hesitant to spend more on a high-end unit.

dennis b "dennis@barbier.com" Say: Sony XNV-770BT
Could be an Awesome HU.... heres hoping for a firmware update...., 2011-04-02
This review is for: Sony XNV-770BT
This is the third edit I've done on this review. Originally had nothing but great things to say about this HU. After using it for a while, my opinions on this have changed drastically.The Sony XNV 770 has so much potential. You want to overlook things because you know how great it could be. The reality is, it has many flaws that arent apparent on paper or at first use but come out over time, I thought since I rated this 5 stars it would be irresponsible of me not to give an updated impression, after a few months of real world use.The first problem I would say, something I absolutely hate about this head unit, as at least in my case, the GPS has proven to be completely unreliable. At least four or five times, the GPS has given up on me, saying it was unable to acquire satelite lock, even though the sky was completely clear. One of these times this was quite serious - it was 3 AM, the GPS was taking me home through completely unfamiliar roads, and suddenly it 'lost signal'. Again - perfectly clear night. Now, at 3 in the morning, in unfamiliar territory, I have no clue where I am. Maybe I shouldnt put so much faith in an electronic device - but in 7 years of use, my Garmin GPS' have never failed me, not once. Not in the worst thunderstorms, blizzards - I've never not been able to lock satelites. There are no updates scheduled from either TomTom or Sony - just go ahead and google this thing - people all over the internet are reporting the same problem.After pulling over to the side of the road , trying to find where I was with a paper map (remember those?) it then dawned on me I could use my blackberry GPS to help locate myself. The paper map did nothing for me because I had no idea where I was to begin with. Luckily the blackberry pinpointed my location and using a combination of the berry and the old fashioned paper maps, I was able to get home.The next day I began the process of trying to find out what happened with the unit. The next question is - where do you get updates for this device. Sony? Or TomTom? Well, depends on what part you want to update. The maps and Nav unit come from TomTom, but finding support for it is less than easy. There is next to nothing on Sony's website to find support information for this unit.A couple other gripes - as others have said, the graphics for the tom tom navigation on the unit are not designed for a screen this large - so instead of upping the resolution, they simply 'stretch' them out - which makes the maps look blurry, not crisp at all. At first it didnt bother me, but considering the price of this unit, you would hope that this could be resolved somehow.Another total GPS Gripe - you cannot, I repeat, CANNOT backup your GPS data. So , not only does this piece of crap freeze / lock up about once a week, when it does, you need to factory reset it. Once you do that, you lose all of your POIs, your settings, basically you are opening the thing back up as if it came out of the box. Make sure that sinks in. YOU CANNOT BACKUP YOUR WAYPOINTS, favorites, or anything at all from this device. Now - I can back up my 10 year old Garmin - but I cant back up the GPS data from a product produced in 2010 by two of the biggest electronics names in their respected industries. This thing is a total joke!The iPod interface is not the best - Sony should really take a page from Alpine for this = but what can I say, I dont use the ipod feature since you can play directly from flash drives.Other problems - the touch screen can be very finicky. It gets annoying after a while - by this I mean, you click an on screen button, and occassionaly nothing happens - as if you didnt press anything. Only problem is, the on screen buttons change color when they are depressed, so - the button will change color - you know the screen is registering the input, yet, it does nothing. Press it again a little harder , and you get the screen you want. Ridiculous.I would not buy this unit again. I might consider the XAV - which is basically this unit, without the flawed TomTom navigation. But at its price point, id probably go with an Alpine HU. I cannot, repeat CANNOT believe anyone would give this device five stars. The only way that to me would be possible, is a new owner, excited after using it for a week, and hasnt gone through the countless hours of frustration, let downs and everything else this unit will bring you.Buyer beware.If after all of this , anyone out there would still consider paying hard earned money for what is essentially a defective piece of junk, send me an email. I'd be glad to get rid of mine!!FWIWI spent a good amount of time reviewing both this unit and similarily priced navigation units before finally deciding on this Sony. So far, I am extremely happy with my purchase. I bought the package on Amazon that came with this HU + the matchin Sony backup camera, and its fantastic.The first thing I wanted to comment on is the interface. Of course this is an item of personal preference - but I find alot of the competing head units have interfaces aimed at 13 year old kids. Ive been a garmin user for 5 years, and really love the Garmin GPS system, so naturally one of the first HU's i looked at was the Kenwood lineup. To me, Kenwoods interface looks like it was designed to appeal to 15 year old boys, and not at all an even slightly mature audience (for the record, I'm in my early thirties).This unit allows you to play directly from a USB Flash drive - which many units do, but its still pretty awesome. I have had it for three weeks now and still havent put a disc in it. Why would I? I loaded a couple gigs of music onto a spare 8gb flash key I had lying around, and it works perfectly. FWIW, the manual states only a small list of officially "supported" flash drives, but I have used two non supported drives without any problems. When you first plug the drive in, there is a bit of a delay until you can select the album / folder you'd like to listen to (only the first time) but once that completes, browing / navigating the flash drive is quite quick and works really well. Mine did come with the iPod cable as well, but so far I havent had a need for it.The included TomTom navigation is a huge improvement over a several-years-old TomTom One that I was given from my employer. If I would have known the TomTom interface had improved this much I would have never looked at the Kenwood / Garmin units. One caveat that kind of peeved me off - NO TomTom live! services are available in Canada. Not a huge deal, except this wasnt advertised anywhere when I bought the unit. It wouldnt have been a deal breaker by any means, but I was really looking forward to the Google search feature, which apparently only works if you have TomTom live.I had the optional Sony backup camera thrown in as part of the deal as well, and its awesome. I always thought of backup cameras as a bit of a novelty item, until I got my truck. Its a full size RAM crew cab, and I live / work in a fair sized city, so parking spots are usually tight. The backup camera has made parking the vehicle so much easier that its amazing. The HU has adjustable marker lines on it allowing you to set three different markers on the screen when the backup camera is enabled. I mention they are adjustable, as this allowed me to lay a tape measure down behind the truck and put the markers exactly at 1, 3, and 5 feet from the bumper. Its pretty sweet being able to pull within 1 foot of a car behind me in the parking lot at first try. As I said, parking a truck this size in the city is a bit of a chore sometimes, but the backup camera makes it almost painless.Overall I am very happy with this head unit and would recomend it to anyone. It has tonnes of power, great sound, a great radio, plays from all kinds of sources, and a clean interface. Highly recommended!