Thread: XENARC MDT-X7000 - Don't buy!

Hi Guys
Well Heres D BAD NEWS
I got the Screen and it worked for 2 DAYS before it gave up on me....
1... the gears move with jerks ... while extending at 1 point the gears slip.. and while retracting the screen ( at times ) fall horizontal and then retracts in ....
2... the BIGGER BAD NEWS.... It now shows ONLY BRIGHT WHITE BLANK DISPLAY...ie theres is no display ...just BRIGHT WHITE SCREEN......

Any 1 had this prob or can some 1 help .....

Thanks

Originally Posted by vicky_obee

Hi Guys
Well Heres D BAD NEWS
I got the Screen and it worked for 2 DAYS before it gave up on me....
1... the gears move with jerks ... while extending at 1 point the gears slip.. and while retracting the screen ( at times ) fall horizontal and then retracts in ....
2... the BIGGER BAD NEWS.... It now shows ONLY BRIGHT WHITE BLANK DISPLAY...ie theres is no display ...just BRIGHT WHITE SCREEN......

Any 1 had this prob or can some 1 help .....

Thanks

White screen usually signals a ribbon is loose.

Hmm But how does d Ribbon get loose on its own... I mean i did not fight to pull or pish the screen....
And any idea how to fix in the GEAR slipping problem...

Thanx

If you just got it 2 days ago, it should still be under warranty. Send it back to Xenarc or whoever you bought it from, for repair.

Originally Posted by AvWuff

Hi everyone,

I've had the XENARC MDT-X7000 for several months now and I figured I'd make sure anyone who would be considering a purchase of one of these units should know the issues that you can expect:

• The biggest one: The volume knob is trash. If you turn it slowly, you see the number increasing on the screen, 19.. 20... 21... but the actual volume doesn't apply until some random point in time later. So the volume will stay at 19 as the number on-screen increases until suddenly it jumps to 25. Same goes for turning the volume down. Makes it extremely difficult to dial into a volume.
• Built-in on-screen interface is total trash. Thankfully if you are just using a computer, you don't need to deal with this interface very often. But if you plan on using the built-in radio, or watching a DVD, or changing settings, you're going to use the menu and it really sucks. It's slow, it's complicated, and it suffers from the same problems the volume knob does. (where stuff doesn't 'apply' until later)
• The built-in DVD player is worthless. If you are buying the X7000 because of it's on-board DVD player, don't. It's absolutely horrible. It's slow, it freezes up, and it just isn't worth it's salt.
• The audio quality leaves much to be desired. It's not that bad, but there's ground loop problems and the amp seems to cut out at higher volumes.
• The cooling fan makes a noticeable whine. If the car is running you don't really hear it, but it's certainly not quiet.
• The touchscreen disconnects constantly. If you bring up any on-screen menu except the volume menu, the touchscreen physically unplugs itself from the computer (you can hear it going duh-duh in Windows) and then reconnects itself afterward. Naturally, this creates a long delay, and sometimes it doesn't come back.
• No 'Quick Access' button. If the fold-up touchscreen blocks some part of your car (in mine it blocks the temperature controls), there's no button to quickly fold it down so you can access them. You can use 'Angle Adjust', but it (1) disconnects the touchscreen, and (2) takes forever.
• Rather poor build quality The two knobs on the front feel flimsy and cheap, and the other knob has fallen off on me on more than one occasion. The touchscreen mechanism seems pretty solid, but it's started making weird grinding noises on me...
• Unpredictable behaviour If the power to the system is already "on" and then you start the car, 75% of the time the screen will go wonky and strange colours and patterns appear. To fix it, you need to turn it off and then turn it back on.
• Long startup times From power-on to ready-to-use is about a minute. It spends a long time displaying the XENARC logo, then it takes even longer to get the video signal, and once it's finally ready the "Menu" text is still on-screen so you need to wait for that to go away before you can touch it.

It's not all negative, though:

• Touchscreen The actual touchscreen is very good and very accurate and responsive.
• Screen itself The image quality is very good, and even in sunlight you can read the display, even though it's not transflective.
• DVD-ROM The USB-connected DVD ROM works well and I've had no problems installing software while driving.
• Front USB ports These also work fine and there's no problems there.

ok, i read the posts on this page... about 12 hours too late and this screen is already on its way to me... i had already planned on opening it up and changing the blue led's to red to match my interior. it's going in a 2002 pontiac trans am and it won't be blocking anything but a few ac vents so that's not a big deal to me. the computer is an acer aspireone mini lap top with no dvd drive but does have vga, usb, sound out, wireless networking, everything else you;d expect, plus a 1.6 ghz processor, 1gb ram and 120gb solid state hard drive, AMAZING little machine for anyone thinking about it. so here's my questions:

1.) if i were to force the knobs off then glue them back on, would that solve the flimsy problem?

2.) built in dvd player might be a problem for me, that IS why i bought it.

3.) the grinding you're hearing, most likely caused by crappy plastic or nylon gears: do you think that could that be fixed by replacing them with brass ones?

haha, obviously i'm trying to rationalize this purchase but like i said, i already planned on opening it up and i don't mind making some modifications.

are there any other single din drives that have a screen, dvd player and pass through sound for the pc (which i would think would be on them all but i can almost never find it listed as a feature)?

Hi, to answer your questions:

1. That would prevent them from falling off, but it wouldn't make them feel less flimsy. The volume knob on the right has a horrible response time, and the selector knob on the left feels like it's going to fall off because of the cheap plastic directional switch it's connected to.

2. The DVD player that connects to the computer is... sorta OK... if you don't mind your disc disappearing from the PC suddenly. But if you are hoping to use the standalone DVD player without the PC, it's worthless.

3. I'm pretty sure the gears are actually brass or metal. They grind because the screen is a piece of crap. I've mailed mine in for repair, we'll see how it goes.

-av

Originally Posted by TallgeeseIV

1.) if i were to force the knobs off then glue them back on, would that solve the flimsy problem?

2.) built in dvd player might be a problem for me, that IS why i bought it.

3.) the grinding you're hearing, most likely caused by crappy plastic or nylon gears: do you think that could that be fixed by replacing them with brass ones?

When you get it, what's their return policy, would it be worth it to just rebox it up and return it?

Wonder if you could refuse the package, have them redeliver it to you and not be out return shipping costs?

ok, i see.

well, i bought it off ebay for $$675 so we'll see whether it's a v1 or v2 but probably v1 at that price... probably have to re ebay it if it doesn't work out. and i don't mind playing dvd's and cd's and everything with the computer's own software anyway. i just needed one mounted in dash.

ok, not to completely discount you because obviously i don't know what you're dealing with but... are you sure yours isn't just broken??

i just watched mp3car's review and they make it sound pretty solid and the times it was taking to do things seemed quick and painless to me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py2bK...layer_embedded

In the video
- He mentions that the dials are high quality ... they're not.
- The PC Power button just connects two wires together. You have to figure out how to make them work yourself.
- In the video, when he brings the screen out, the picture shows up immediately -- this is because it was already turned on. If he had just started it (ie, car turn on) it would have been about a 1-minute delay.
- The remote is just a generic cheapo rubber membrane remote and not worth mentioning
- In the video, you see him using the screen and the touch... WHEN it's working, it works quite well. That's one of the MDT-X7000's few redeeming features is that the screen and touch is quite nice.
- You can hear the fan buzzing away loudly at about 2:30 in the video. It's very loud. You can hear it over your engine.
- At 3:30 he shows the adio options but these barely work... huge lag, like the volume knob. Not to mention that the built-in amp sounds like crap. I didn't think it was so bad until I got a Pioneer Premiere series
- At 4:30 in the video, you can see him closing the screen -- note the long delay between fold-down and retract. This gets really annoying.

When I get my screen back, I'll see how well it works, and then I can make a video illustrating the problems with it and why not to buy one, as I've listed at the start of this thread.