OK, I finally found time to make a video of the installed Oxygen Audio O'Car in my Fit.

Unfortunately, the reason I have that extra time is I'm now unemployed. First time since 15 yo I'm without a job. Kinda' diggin' it, at least until my severance runs out. Oh well, this gives me ample time to put together the Fit system....

Here's a link to the video: http://vimeo.com/29239896

Some of my music and the Netflix example are NSFW (language, but no newdness'). Use your judgement.....

Yes, it's long.....
Yes, I'm driving during most of it, evidence of no lock-out, and thus the shakiness....
No, there's no neat video editing.......
Yes, feel free to skip through the vid.........
I know, I know, and your music collection sucks, too........

I also added some more pics to my gallery, here: Unofficial Honda FIT Forums - FITycent's Album: Oxygen Audio O'Car iPhone Head Unit

A sample:

Overall, I'm really, really impressed with O'Car.

The hardest part of the install was actually modifying the Metra bezel kit in order to get the radio to fit and function properly. You have to cut the cross-member for double-DIN purposes, flip the bottom pocket to the top, utilize the ISO/screw mounting tabs (not the OEM metal sleeve) and finally trim a piece of the double-DIN surround to fill in a small gap at the base of the radio. Overall, though, I think it looks pretty schweet.

Sound wise? Well, I'm only running the factory speakers with whizzer cone tweets. My comps, sub and amps will have to wait..... With proper components and amplification, this thing shall wang......

The sound quality is as good as you get out of your iPhone normally. That is, to say, you will notice some SQ differences among sources. Switching between Slacker, Pandora, iHeartRadio, XM Radio, your music library, your games, etc., with each having its own sound-shaping controls (or not), you will hear that difference.

HOWEVER, an app I HIGHLY recommend for tweakability is EQU, available on the App Store for like a buck or two. There's a part in the final quarter of the video (right about the 52 minute mark) that shows the EQ settings and tweaking that you can do to ANY song in your iPod/music library.

The BlueTooth works great. Sound quality is about as good as you'd expect from most systems. My wife says it sounds better than the factory BT system in her Highlander, if that's saying anything.

Downside: Neither the Oxygen Audio Sound or Oxygen Audio Radio applications that you download to your iPhone has adjustments for crossover settings or slope, or phase...... You only get high/mid/low/fader/balance/subwoofer control. BUT, if you set your amplifiers up properly and utilize a good EQ app like EQU, you shouldn't have any issues properly balancing your system. Future updates to the O'Car software may add some additional functionality (fingers crossed)......

One other "downside", but not really, is that the YouTube mobile app will not output video to the iPhone screen. HOWEVER, if you use Safari or Atomic Web (my personal favorite) and go to the main, non-mobile YouTube site, you CAN watch entire vids, no lock-out. The O'Car also has a dedicated video-out for external screens.

So for $300, you get a head unit with three sets of pre-outs, built in 22x4 RMS amplifier, built-in bluetooth with included microphone, a video-out connector and the absolute BEST iPhone integration effort I've seen to date.

Sure, the bigs like Pioneer, Alpine, etc. are adding Apple-compatible features, but this is the only one I've seen that lets you operate your iPhone like............well...........an iPhone. No more proprietary connector cables or interface modules for video or navigation "upgrade$", no more having an extra USB charger in tow (phone charges while docked), none of that stuff........ Plus, those big-guy efforts demand big-guy pricetags, upwards of $1,000 and you STILL don't get the same level of integration.

Now, if you're not an iPhone user, none of this really matters much to you. If you ARE a user of iPhones 3G, 3GS or 4G, you WILL WANT ONE OF THESE.

You're welcome.

BTW, I am not a rep for Oxygen, just a dude with a cool new toy.....

--Ryan

 

i think it's pretty cool that you can flip the phone in landscape or portrait. i'll have to watch the video later. thanks for the review.

 

It's pretty boring. I forgot I had the cam up and running for the first 20 minutes or so. Skip to 20:00, then the fun starts, though slowly. Minute 53 starts a look at EQU, the best equalizer app I've found so far, for my purposes....

If it holds up to normal use (meaning, no problems with the docking mechanism) over time, then this thing is a winner.

Can't wait to get the rest of the system in........

 

Wow that thing is *cool*. Watched pieces of the video...that's a much better setup than my vent mount with AUX cable. I watched very little of the video and without sound, so forgive me if I missed it, how are phone calls integrated into the system? Is there a mic on the radio, somewhere in the car, using the phone mic or none at all?

 

In the vid, I didn't have the BT synced up in advance (had to connect) which you see. For the number, I dialed something random, just to show it works properly.

The O'Car comes with a separate visor-mount microphone (will add pic to gallery). The cord is approximately 6' long.

You pair your iPhone to the O'Car bluetooth just as you would any other BT device.

When your iPhone is in the cradle and you receive a call, whatever you're watching/listening to is interrupted and the ignore/answer screen comes up (just as normal). When you end the call, you're automatically returned to the application you were watching/listening to.

I'm being 100% honest in that anything you can do on your iPhone, you can do on the O'Car, with only a couple of limitations that I've discovered thus far, like YouTube playback via browser vs. application.

Since there are soooooooo many iPhone applications, there are bound to be a number that aren't well-suited to the O'Car. People will figure that out on their own,.

In my own short, personal experience, this thing is very cool.......

 

Really awesome. Definitely interested.

 

You can call AAMP USA and ask them to ship one to a local authorized dealer. I had mine shipped from Florida to Texas in about three days and picked it up at an independent shop in town.

For just $300, compared to the money you can spend on other brands with less intergration capability, it's a steal.

 

this has to be the best car audio + iphone invention! pretty sweet stuff there. if i didnt buy my fit with the navi, this definitely would be the unit for me!

i noticed that u had a message alert come on from facebook. does the does the stereo play u set message sound? i know through the stock usb ipod interface it does and it can get annoying.

 

Hey, can someone reccommend a good FREE video editing software program that's user/idiot friendly?

I really want to take some additional video to show just how capable/awesome this thing is, but I'd really need to cut it up to cut out dead space.

Thanks, in advance.....

 

Hey, you could always pay just $300 for the O'Car, sell your factory NAV and STILL come out several hundred ahead.

Besides who needs separate NAV units or modules when you can just use the Apple Maps app, Google Maps or dowload any number of other GPS/Map applications?

This thing is scweet.....

--Ryan

 

On the notification sounds, yes, you still get them through the speakers, but you can turn the notification signal down low or disable them altogether. Mostly what you saw in my vid were sports scores popping up. Cool thing is that you can keep your music app running while you view ESPM Mobile, for example.

 

I just can't seem to find time to write up a decent review of the O'Car's capabilities (and limitations), so check out these recent reviews from other sources:

http://www.avhub.com.au/index.php/Pr...-receiver.html

http://www.thegadgetguycolumn.com/th...-o-car-review/

http://technabob.com/blog/2011/08/29...eo-controller/

Here's a much better, concise review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udy5Nnz4RL4

I'm telling you, iPhone users, GET one of these.

 

This looks awesome but I forsee a problem.

So I have an Iphone I love and charish and take everywhere. So what happens if it breaks, or I lose or forget it? No HUD anymore? can't even play a radio or tell the time? My wife doesnt have an Iphone, am I suppposed to give her my phone everytime she takes out the car?

 

Actually, there's a somewhat solution..........

When the phone isn't docked, the HU defaults to the last-tuned radio frequency.

When my wife needs to use the car, I tune to NPR (blech) prior to her taking it. She doesn't seem to mind the single audio option, but she's not "into" music that much and certainly doesn't have the knowledge/patience to use the iPhone (it's the devil's phone, in her mind).

I, personally, couldn't stand just one station option for too long........ I gots to have my variety.

But, yes, if one were to lose or break their iPhone, you'd be without except for the last-tuned radio station. A peril of use, I suppose.....

I'm glad that Oxygen included something, but it ain't much.

I've got an old HU on hand should the unthinkable occur........

 

What's it like in the night? Do you have to manually turn your phone brightness all the way down?

 

There's no traditional "dimmer" feature to reduce brightness when you turn on your running/headlights, so you basically find a happy medium that suits your tastes.

I've found a brightness setting that offers great illumination, day or night, and isn't distracting, to me, in the dark. Also, brightness is somewhat muted by the viewing angle you choose. Angle the phone display right at you and it's obviously going to be brighter than when viewing it slightly off-angle.

Personally, since adding the O'Car eliminates the factory radio clock, I normally run the "Clocks" application while driving. I use the digital "flip" display option.

It's a goood app, doesn't contain any advertisements, allows me to run all applications in the background, uses very little phone resources and is a heck of a lot easier to read than the iPhone's tiny little clock display.

There are other clock applications (Electroclock has cool displays), but it has added advertisements and uses up a lot of phone memory, sometimes causing whatever music app you're running to skip/pause.