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JVC El Kameleon KD-AVX44 review: JVC El Kameleon KD-AVX44

JVC El Kameleon KD-AVX44

Antuan Goodwin Reviews Editor / Cars
Antuan Goodwin gained his automotive knowledge the old fashioned way, by turning wrenches in a driveway and picking up speeding tickets. From drivetrain tech and electrification to car audio installs and cabin tech, if it's on wheels, Antuan is knowledgeable.
Expertise Reviewing cars and car technology since 2008 focusing on electrification, driver assistance and infotainment Credentials
  • North American Car, Truck and SUV of the Year (NACTOY) Awards Juror
Antuan Goodwin
6 min read

The simple, blank faceplate of the JVC El Kameleon KD-AVX44 belies a plethora of features, including in-dash DVD/DivX playback, Bluetooth connectivity, and USB digital audio playback, and that's just the beginning of this receiver's abilities.

8.0

JVC El Kameleon KD-AVX44

MSRP

The Good

The JVC El Kameleon KD-AVX44 is great for lovers of digital media, offering DVD/DivX-video playback and MP3/AAC/WMA playback from an iPod, USB device, or A2DP Bluetooth device. Innovative proximity-based controls create a design that won't clutter the vehicle's interior.

The Bad

Button-free interface can be sluggish to accept inputs, such as quickly raising or lowering the volume. Included screen is too small to be used for extended viewing.

The Bottom Line

The vast array of features offered by the JVC El Kameleon KD-AVX44 creates a car audio experience that rivals all but the best preinstalled receivers.

Design
When powered off, the El Kameleon presents the user with a blank face of black glossy plastic. Four unlabeled, almost indiscernible buttons sit at its corners. When powered on, the faceplate comes alive with a full-color LCD display dominating the right two-thirds of the unit. Placing your hand near the display causes a proximity-activated touch-sensitive display to illuminate in the remaining left third. When you remove your hand, the interface goes blank again after a few seconds. The proximity sensor can be set to leave everything always on, to control the touch interface only, or to deactivate the entire display for what we like to call stealth mode.

The interface itself is styled to resemble a compass, with most commands input by tapping primary directions (north, south, etc.) or secondary (such as northeast). Tapping east and west skips songs, while holding north or south puts the unit into browsing mode, where media can be selected. Volume is controlled by spinning your finger around the perimeter of the interface to simulate turning a dial. We're sure it's no coincidence that the aesthetic resembles the venerable iPod click wheel, as iPod integration is one of the unit's major selling points.

With the proximity sensor tripped, the four buttons at the corners have illuminated labels for changing the source, ejecting a disc, power, and removing the detachable faceplate. Hitting the eject button causes the motorized faceplate to rotate down, revealing the disc slot.

Our only real complaint is that the unit is, at times, sluggish to accept commands. Also, the lack of any sort of touch feedback means you'll have to look at the unit to know for certain that you're skipping a track or even touching the right part of the faceplate. We like the sleek aesthetic of the touch-pad interface and how it's decidedly not gaudy. We also understand that you can't always have your cake and eat it too, but after a few days of sliding our finger around the touch pad, we really missed having a proper volume knob.

Features
A built-in Bluetooth wireless transmitter and microphone allow the El Kameleon to sync with a compatible phone for hands-free calling. Caller ID information is displayed onscreen and music/movies are paused for the duration of the call. The unit also allows uploading of phonebook entries for easy access, but the process is excruciatingly slow and only allows entries to be sent one at a time. Call quality is satisfactory, although ultimately dependent on quality of service and the phone itself.


Pairing the El Kameleon with a Bluetooth phone is simple using the onscreen prompts.

We were surprised to learn that the unit also supports A2DP-audio streaming from Bluetooth devices. We were easily able to control playback of music stored on our Windows Mobile phone. Even though JVC places much emphasis on iPod integration, for us the Bluetooth integration is the killer app. Playing music and making calls from a device that's still in our pocket is the ultimate in ease of use. It's too bad the iPhone doesn't support A2DP streaming.

The disc slot hidden behind the faceplate accepts a wide range of media, from non-DRM MP3, AAC, WMA, and WAV CDs, to DVD movies and DivX encoded videos. The unit only displays video when the parking brake is engaged.

The built-in display is suitable for occasional viewing from the driver's seat, but for entertaining backseat passengers you're going to want something bigger. With that in mind, the El Kameleon sports a full array of audio/video outputs to expand the unit's capabilities. A video output allows the addition of an external monitor and 5.1 Dolby Digital surround capabilities. The system allows you to specify in a menu the number and arrangement of your speakers, and adjusts to give the best sound possible. The sound's character is further customizable with a seven-band EQ.


When connected to an iPod, the El Kameleon allows songs to be browsed by artist, genre, etc.

Aside from disc-based media, the El Kameleon comes equipped with a USB pigtail that can read digital music from a USB drive, iPod, or other MP3 player. The unit doesn't come with a dock connector, so you'll have to bring your own sync cable to pair an iPod. Once connected with an iPod, the unit sorts songs by artist, album, playlist, podcasts, and other criteria. Navigation is slow when browsing songs stored on an iPod, particularly for hard-drive based models. While the El Kameleon is able to display videos stored on an iPod, it doesn't support the functionality out of the box. The unit requires the additional purchase of a KS-U20 module from JVC to enable video. The El Kameleon is also upgradable for satellite radio, HD radio, and reverse camera integration.

Performance
When installing the unit, we came across two very minor issues. The first is that the El Kameleon doesn't come with screws for use with mounting brackets, requiring a run to the local hardware store to complete the installation. The other is that the sheer number of connectivity options meant that there were more than a dozen RCA pigtails coming off of the back of the unit, in addition to the standard power and speaker cables. Stuffing this mess of wires behind the device and into the dash was daunting in our small test car, particularly because, unlike most in-dash receivers, the El Kameleon has a rear fan that must be kept clear for cooling purposes. However, people opting for professional installation will never encounter these issues.

Once installed, the El Kameleon performed brilliantly. With 50-max watts playing through four discrete channels, the sound quality was clear and free of distortion at listening volume. The internal amplifier can be adjusted to high power for aftermarket speakers, low power, which makes stock speakers sound great, or off, for use with a completely externally amplified system. There are preamp outputs for the front, rear, subwoofer, and center speakers to build a full, 5.1-surround system. Also present are video out and second audio out for dual zone playback, and audio/video in for use with an external source or backup camera.


We were able to watch movies on the clear, albeit small, screen thanks to DVD- and DivX-video playback.

Video playback is crisp and smooth with DVD or DivX. We tried a disc with a few Xvid AVI files and surprisingly the files played, so it's possible that the device supports any MPEG-4 encoded video, but since it's not explicitly stated, we can't be sure.

In sum
Able to handle just about all of your in-car audiovisual needs with a great-looking touch-pad display that won't utterly dominate your dash, the JVC El Kameleon KD-AVX44 is a huge value for its $499 price point. The El Kameleon crams just about all of the features you'd expect to find in a big double-DIN receiver into a svelte single-DIN package.

The screen is not practical for extended viewing because of its small size, but you can't safely watch a movie while driving anyway. For a similar price, other units can be had with larger motorized screens. The extra screen real estate can mean better viewing experience, but moving parts can be clunky and prone to breakage. Also, these units often require multiple adapters at an additional cost to reach the same level of functionality offered out of the box with the El Kameleon.

8.0

JVC El Kameleon KD-AVX44

MSRP

Score Breakdown

Design 8Features 9Performance 7