Nav replacement questions....
 

I want to replace the factory nav unit in the 2006 H2 with a new double din unit from kenwood, jvc, pioneer, or Sony. I have a few questions. If anyone could help, I would appreciate it.

1. Steering wheel controls. I have read that most units will work with the steering wheel buttons. Do any of you know if any particular brand won't work or if there is something particular I should watch for?

2. On star mutes the radio now. Will a new unit most likely do this also?

3. I have the Bose system and am pretty happy with it. I don't want to change that. Will this be an issue?

4. Is the onstar system dependent on the factory nav unit and will the changeout cause an issue?

5. Does the factory DVD player in the center console have a standard video out cable (yellow RCA)?

The things I am looking to accomplish is no nav disk, iPod/iPhone hookup, movies in dash, Bluetooth, movies from headrest display playing in dash, hd radio, satellite radio, aux. inputs, nav control while moving, blah blah blah.

I have noticed that my factory nav doesn't have a fader (front to rear) or a balance (left to right). I don't need it. It's just the first radio I've seen without it.

well i can help with some of those questions . they sell a add on peace to keep the steering controls and the have an adaptor to keep onstar and bell chime. that adaptor is like $90. at best buy . you will need an anttena adaptor as well. you can go to bestbuy and they will look up your h2 and tell you what all you need . i to was looking into this and died after it heard all the extra cost. but i never looked at the real high end units they may come with some extras. i looked at the middle of the road stuff at like $550 unit and it was going to cost me an extra $200. for mine i walked out after that lol i like my stock unit for that price for now lol

Well I was looking at spending around $1000. I'm just tired of the same blue screen and lacking oem nav. If I can gt everything I'm looking for, then I'm going for it. Thanks for the info. I going to best buy today to see what they have.

Please post a follow-up as to what you find out. I have the same set-up in my 2005 H2. Bose, steering buttons, Onstar, plus a backup cam. I HATE this Nav. Discs are expensive, you have to know how a street or highway is EXACTLY listed in the file before it will find it!

I just bought the Alpine 910. It does everything you want it to do. You can go onto youtube to see it there. I have the 2005 H2 so I am adding a back up camera. The unit sells for around 1200.00 but you can get it off ebay for 838.00. It is the top of the line unit. By the time you had back up camera all the controls for steering wheel bose adapter, and eveything else plus labor it was 838.00 + 700.00 laber and acc. I know that is alot but you get what you pay for.

That looks nice. Who did your install? Best Buy?

I went to best buy and did find out that they will install things you didn't buy from them. They charge the same as if you did so if you don't like the units they have, then buy the one you want and just let them install.

One thing he did tell me was that I wouldn't be able to watch movies from the oem DVD player to the new radio. I don't believe this since there are video inputs on most of the units. I was looking at kenwoods top model. It has two video inputs.

not that it maters but the stock nav does have fader controls. You just have to use the interface to get to it.

You're right. I looked right over it. Actually, I sold my first H2 to my buddy and was saying the same thing to him. He looked at me like "what?" and proceeded to show me. haha thanks though. If you want to hide something, just put it in front of my face.

I was dead set on upgrading my head unit as well but like Coachwesh2 said for what they want to the onstar,bose, and steering wheel adapters, ect plus the DVD player wont play while the car is in drive. "which I totaly understand" but I'm not going to make my wife sit in the back on a road trip to watch a movie. I decided not to change it out. That is "NEW TIRES AGAIN" money. lol

Kdog what do you plan on doing with your old factory NAV unit?
I might be in the market for a factory NAV VS the non Nav I have in my 2003 H2

That is the easiest thing to override on the aftermarket decks...I think everyone now should be hooking them up as directed for liability reasons. All you have to do is tell them to wire in a toggle switch to the parking brake. That way they have installed it to not function in video mode while driving, and you can easily flip the switch so the nav unit thinks its in park. Hell I never even hooked that wire up on mine. NOTE: some features on some models are only available in park or motion.

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GO TO BEST BUY TO INSTALL ANYTHING IN YOUR VEHICLE. No exceptions, NEVER! Go to a car audio shop or do it yourself. Seriously, Never!

There is a badass Kenwood nav deck forsale in the classified section on one of the hummer forum sites. Few months old, $700 I think. Just posted in the last few days.

I had them install mine to where I can use my back up camera anytime and I can watch a movie anytime while driving. This was just a programming issue from what they told me. I can ride down the road and if someone is on my ass I just press a button and can see who it is. Then I pess another button and can shoot a missle at them. LOL I wish sometimes

Nice. I push a button and giant blow up dolls are deployed out the back. But missles, damn son you mean business.

There are build in triggers for relays on the keywood units. I control my offroad lights through my deck. Its not as convenient as a physical switch on your dash, but it works.

Crutchfield
 

What I did was Call crutchfield and they were really very helpful. They told me what I needed and took me the right direction to get a nice stereio for the H2. I can still use my on-star and steering controls. Hope it helps ya... good luck

Two of the shops out here told me I could keep the bose amp, steering wheel controls, and onstar but I would have to pay something like $300 for all the extra wireharness/adapters. Plus the radio plus the sirius tuner plus a new subscription to that. I laughter at the guy. I can put a boombox in the back seat for cheaper.

I was browsing through ebay looking at well... everything H2... I ran across this DVD Nav DVD bluetooth cam it-slices-it-dices NO NAME unit from china... not sure if a no name unit from china is good-or-bad but here is the link...

2 DIN DVD GPS NAV BT iPod CHEVROLET SILVERADO HUMMER H2 | eBay

-a

I have heard bad things about the no name stuff like that. Software issues. System crashing ect. I have found there are certain not to go cheap on. Electronics being one of them. Check to see how hard it would be for warranty work, and what you would need to go through to get it fixed being it is not a local retailer.

So I saw some tech specs they may have accidentally left in there which lead me to a Chinese manufacturer that sells this and a lot more for under 200 a pop. If your a hacker it runs windows ce 6.0 on a dual core 600mhz ARM cpu and appears to be skinable.

Double Din 7" In-dash Car DVD Player Ipod Bluetooth FM RDS TV USB Local Delivery | eBay

Here is one with a TV tuner in it 139, almost worth the risk to check it out.

I'm still spinning the fantasy of installing an ipad or 7" android tablet in the car... much more bang for the buck (and cool factor)...

I figured I can pull the DVD Nav which would leave me a double-din open... but still haven't figured out a mount... Scosche dropped there iKit plans... Can I put a ram-mount.com mount in a double din and bolt/screw it to something?

is there a single din mount so I can pull the onstar unit and use that real estate?

I havent been able to find any good answers to above... kinda rhetorical TBH... besides I'm tired and rambling...

-a

then again i might just go with bluefusion.... would have loved the new lockpick gmx550 but no go in the 2007 unit...

...still rambling...

OK, So You should really do your research before talking about any large company like Best Buy, especially about one of their servece departments. Ive been doing professional installation for 10 years now, Im one of only 198 MASTER MECP certified professional installers out of 22000 total installers in North America, and i also happen to be the supervisor of a Best Buy install bay in the Northern California. With that being said, ill let the comment go and assume it wasnt posted toward me personally or my professional experience, because i know it was not. But as with any service industry, there are hacks and crooks that will break your vehicle or just do an all around horrible job. But just because you might have seen someones install that went wrong that was done by Best Buy, does not warrant a blanketing of every installer at all 1500 international stores. I will say that you need to do your research and talk to a person before you just let them put hands on your vehicle, that goes for anywhere that you would get work done. But one thing that i know is done at Best Buys, is that you need to be at least MECP Basic Certified to be an installer for the corporation, they are one of the very few stores that require anything like that to work on a car. So please, before making broad judgments, understand that before saying "NEVER NEVER NEVER" let Best buy touch your car, that there those of us that are in their install bays, that are professionals and do know what we are doing, and do have the experience, certifications, and the portfolio of custom work to back it up. Thanks for reading my rant everyone, and i hope to see you in my Install Bay, cause i really do like working on H2's :D

You might find it offensive but I would never take any vehicle I owned to best buy for an install. I have had my own experience and known of a few others and read even more in form posts across the internet of others that weren't happy with what the installers there have done. You can claim it's different where you are and that you actually know what your doing. However, I can't imagine the people who did my install and others thought they themselves were clueless but the results speak for themselves and for me it isn't worth the risk and I wouldn't wish a best buy installer on anyone. you might think it's ignorance but others just call it experience.