VanMan69

Hm... aside from that $2000 price tag just for the TS DVD/NAV...

Of course dedicated HUs are going to have a more 'seamless' interface. They perform minimal tasks, while at the same time having whole development teams just to make a smooth DVD interface. Most of the CarPC frontends are made by one person in their spare time. And even with one of the frontends, if you take the time to make sure everything is configured properly (which is what Alpine pays a team of R&D folks to do), then it can definitely be as seamless as a dedicated HU. Since I've had everything installed and running for a couple months, I've got everything set up and settled down and it's as smooth to use as anything. I haven't had any 'bugs' since the first couple weeks after install. Only thing that doesn't really work is my emulators, since I've used them maybe twice and never really configured the controls.

And as far as audio and video quality goes, if you've got the money to spend you can go with high end graphics cards (although most video cards can do what any HU can do) and full-on eq-ed heavy-duty firewire sound processors and 5.1 surround, and would still probably come in cheaper than the Alpine. You can get PC audio components that will blow the crap out of any HU (remember, they do professional audio engineering on computers, not head units).

Out of curiosity, after the intial install, do you ever have to put the navigation CD back in? I don't, unless I leave the continent.

DVD changers are no big whoop. I've got some 50 divx movies on my hdd (others have more). The quality difference really doesn't concern me in the least, but if it did, I could just as easily rip full quality DVDs, and still have room for more than 50. And there's all the cartoons (99% of the ATHF episodes, 99% of the Sealab episodes, 99% of the Invader Zim episodes, plus about another 20GB misc vids) that I've got on hand without having to change a single DVD.

Your main argument seems to be "it will never be as fluid & transparent in it's interface, & will never share the same rock solid always there feel or work like it was made for this alone". But like I said, if you've got a whole team of engineers making a glorified (and simplified) DVD/MP3 software it damn well better be solid (for $2000 to boot). Windows-based carputers are a relatively new phenomenon, and as more time goes into development, it will definitely be as solid as a HU. I'd say some of the frontends come pretty close already.

Basically, if you take the time to set it up right and work out the kinks in the beginning (again, what Alpine, and therefore you the customer, pays a team of developers to do), a carputer is unquestionably superior.

P.S. You mentioned that by playing MP3s from your computer through the HU you can apply Media Expander, "to increase the dynamic range of compressed digital files". How is your computer connected to the HU? Because if it's just by RCA, the HU is seeing analog, not digital. Does the HU play MP3s? Perhaps that's what Media Expander applies to. Or does it just increase the dynamic range of everything? (doesn't WMP have 'SRS Wow' or some crap that does the same thing?)

__________________
95 Chevy G20 Vroom Boom Room
...with a whole bunch of nifty ****... go check it out: VanDomain Page