View Single Post
  #10  
Old 10-01-2009, 10:49 AM
TJ05FX4 TJ05FX4 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Austin TX
Vehicle: 2005 Ford F150
Posts: 572
Send a message via AIM to TJ05FX4 Send a message via Yahoo to TJ05FX4
Wow ok lots of questions to answer I'll take the easy ones first.

1. The backup camera is just an inexpensive $30 dollar Ebay camera that fits perfectly into the camera port. It is a TINY bit smaller, so a little electrical tape to thicken the camera a bit worked great. I also siliconed it from the backside so its nice and extra secure and no water can get back there now.

2. The tailgate handle is Ford part# 8L3Z9943400AC. It's just the 2008 rear handle w/ camera port.

3. I use an external hard drive iwth it now and it works great. Movies work perfect, songs, etc. It all works great. I never used that feature on the 7000 when I had it, but the previous owner tells me it works great too.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok as far as the differences of the 7000 vs the NT-1. Let me start by saying the 7000 is an excellent unit and worked great for me. Most of the things I didn't like about it are all subjective and some people may be perfectly ok with them, just my opinion.

Mounting - the 7000's motorized face does not allow for a smooth and flush mount to the F150 dash. Modifications to the dash kit face and mounting holes are required to get it to sit flush. I dno't have the steadiest hand w/ the dremel and was never able to fit the 7000 how I wanted it. The NT-1, while still detachable, is not motorized and it fits perfectly flush.

Appearance & Visuals - the 7000 is just too damn bright plain and simple. The colors are far too vibrant and bright and driving at night was damn near difficult with it. Even with it dimmer at night, it just was always always too bright. I would turn it off at times at night while driving or just put it on the Nav screen which was a black background. The NT-1 has a black background already and has much smoother and softer colors to it. It all blends in very nicely with the truck and is not bright at ALL at night.

Bootup - the NT-1 takes about 1/3 of the time to boot up and be useable that the 7000 did. If you are listening to XM or SIrius, within about 3 seconds of starting the truck it will be playing. The SD card and DVD takes about 10 seconds total to start playing from starting the truck. The 7000 took significantly longer

Ease of use - the 7000 always felt sluggish when navigating through the menus. Never quite could keep up with how quickly I wanted to Navigate through them. It would hesitate when entering addresses and places on the Nav screen. NT-1 was updated to a better software or firmware and runs MUCH MUCH faster. The 7000 while on Nav screen you only saw the nav screen. The NT-1 has the ability to view the station you are on or track you are on while on the Nav screen and make adjustments to it. The 7000 did not have this feature

Satellite & Bluetooth - Both of course will do XM or Sirius, but the NT-1has a 10key pad to type in a station if you want. MAJOR issue I had with the 7000 not being able to do this. The 7000 almost always had reception issues and would sometimes forget the presets I had as well. Not so on the NT-1. The bluetooth on the NT-1 is also much better. Quicker to answer calls and hang up, much clearer signal and hearing on both ends, better microphone, more options within the bluetooth menu, etc.

Bottom line they are both great decks, but it just came down to personal preference for me. The 7000 has the 7" screen, the Nt-1 a 6.1". Barely noticeable. They both use SD cards for MP3's, both use SD for Nav maps, both have great Nav capabilities, and both work very very well. To me it just came down to which one was better for what I wanted in all the areas listed above and the NT-1 took it, hands down.
Reply With Quote