Panasonic CQ-VD7005N

A single DIN car DVD player with 7 inch touch screen LCD screen. It has Front, Centre and Rear RCA outputs and a Subwoofer output with phase control for use with surround sound. It is equipped with Dolby and dts decoders as well as SRS Circle Surround circuitry. It can be used with an iPod with the optional £50 CA-VDC300N cable and can also be accessorised with a Bluetooth handsfree kit. (CY-BT100N) You can also add a CD changer, DVD changer, TV tuner (CY-TUP153N) or Navigation system, all of which are dealt with graphically by the touch screen. There is a dedicated input lead for use with a CY-RC50KN rear view camera. The Panasonic AV Expansion module is compatible with this deck. It has two further sets of audio-visual RCA inputs and an output for feeding sound and vision to another monitor. It can also be used as a two-zone player with say, radio in the front and DVD sound in the back.
– 4 x 50w MOSFET amp on board (or 4 x 22w @ 4 ohms honest specs given – impressive.)
– Dolby Digital and dts decoders and SRS CS Auto sound processing
– Plays Windows Media Audio and MP3 files
– Part of the Made For iPod programme via CA-DC300N connecting cable
– Bluetooth ready with optional CY-BT100N hands free kit
– 7.0 inch touch panel control with full graphic user interface (336,960 pixels)
– 2 RCA A/V In
– 1 RCA A/V Out @ 2V RMS
– 2 further umbilicus cables for use with ancillary equipment, inc. Red Green Blue input for navigation.
– 5.1 channels of RCA outs (FL/FC/FR/RL/RR/Sub) for Dolby Digital and dts surround sound use
– 1 RCA Video Input for Rear View Camera (reverse sensing)
– Can be set in any language display from Abkhazian to Zulu via Esperanto & Volapuk, Even Latin!
– Can play different sources front and rear.
– Dynamic range compressor for low level listening
– Time Alignment facility with subwoofer phase control and independent speaker level control.
– 4 Stage display dimmer control
– Seven band, six adjustable presets ‘SQ7’ graphic equaliser
– Two-way crossover
– ‘Car AV’ Infra red remote control supplied
– Code security
– Separate (six language) manuals one for the unit, one just about system upgrades
– Signal to Noise Ratio 100dB
– Fan Cooled
Review by Adam Rayner
Panasonic’s flagship DVD deck is a full on surround sound item, with dts as well as Dolby Digital surround sound decoding circuitry. The dts feature is not included on the lower model CQ-VD5005N and yet this one does not support the popular DivX internet movie format whereas the lower priced deck does. Wonderfully rich in outputs and inputs, 7005 has a slew of RCAs in clusters around the back. You can add the inexpensive expansion module to make the system into a full on in car audio visual festival or else plug in things like your iPod or a navigation system or even a rear view camera via dedicated plug sockets for each. The looks of the thing are superb. Very glossy black and smart. Very Japanese. In fact maybe just a little bit too trusting as the thing is solely protected by code security which is a nod to the rest of the world’s problems as this sort of thing simply doesn’t get thieved in Japan. So it is really for the well hidden, tinted-of-window or garaged.
The sound is open and clean with a good and healthy high 100dB signal to noise ratio, making it perfectly able to be thought of as being good enough to use as the source to test a set of �1,400 Morel loudspeakers. It plays DVDs via an industry standard 336,960 pixel resolution seven inch touch panel and you can control the action intuitively by tickling the on screen graphics. Or you can use the Panasonic Graphic User Interface (GUI) which is utterly prat-proof. The touch screen’s menus and icons are simple and yet it has just enough real buttons elsewhere for direct access to things like source changing or opening/closing of the screen. So you don’t need a ‘Help-get-me-back-to-wherever-I-was! Graphic button, like you do on the flash Pioneer system. Not as graphically ornate as some but beautifully made and bright and clear. It seems to ooze quality. This is no imitator of posh kit, made somewhere odd and branded Cave-Toad, (there really is a ‘Treefrog’ car audio brand I’ve seen them at Oriental City shopping centre in Colindale!) this is desirable stuff.
The history of the brand is strong in surround sound Panasonic were famously (to me anyway) the very first in car electronics manufacturer to provide a DVD-Audio player. Now they continue this with a strong player in the in-car cinema stakes, both for crisp picture and well defined and controllable multi channel audio. It even has SRS Surround for playing with stereo sourced music off CD.
The deck comes with a neat yet ‘proper’ remote control, not a card membrane switch thing, with real buttons (16 if you count the two rocker buttons as two each) that can boss the whole shebang but extra add-ons will mean accessories, from �50 to add your iPod to �200 for that rear view camera. The point is, you get to choose what you do or don’t need, rather than having to include it in the price and the Expansion Module system they have allows things to be added on with far less initial cost than the necessity of adding a full-on ‘brain’ as is done with many other brands.
Thus the not-cheap price tag is about quality electronics and posh codecs and algorithms, all licensed off the SRS, Dolby and dts people. This is a worthy flagship and a beautiful, desirable piece of kit. Only thing is, you’ll want to keep a glasses cleaning cloth to hand to keep the greasy mitt-marks off your piano black glossy panels.
Sound Quality 9.0
Appearance/Display 9.0
Ease Of Use/HMI 10.0
Features 9.0
Value For Money 8.0
Overall rating 9.0