Customer Reviews
Best IPOD device ever 
2008-08-16
Im gonna keep this short
This is a nice product that everyone should have if they own an ipod and likes to listen to his/her own tunes. it allows you to keep ur eye on the road while driving. ive bought one for myself and another for my friend and they are very easy to install and has enough cable so you can run them around your car under mats so it can be hidden.
to things of advice. if you plan on getting this make sure you have a location where you can place the remote. the remote should sit where the cup holder is it is about a 3 x3 inch space. my friend hd an issue where he had no space so we placed it on a platform inside his cup holder.
the only problem i have with this thing is that it does not allow you to have the EXACT ipod feel. by this i mean when you go thru ur ipod and select an artist there is they "ALL" tab so that you can play all the songs under one artist. however this gets rid of it so if there ar multiple albums under an artist you only can play one album.
other than that this product is exactly like an ipod. I love it i do recomend getting this one or even better if you want a gps get the upgraded version where you can play videos theres a touch screen it has gps and everything. but this is a cheap one
Garbage 
2008-08-09
Worked well for about a year... and by well, I mean better than a $10 FM transmitter but not nearly well enough to justify the $150 I paid for it. Good idea... bad implementation. Then, after a year... it just ceased to function at all.
Cool product that does what it says. 
2008-07-25
This product is so in sync with how iPod integration should work, that I suspect it will become obsolete as automobile manufacturers copy the approach and include it as OEM. There's a whiz-bang aspect and a safety aspect, as it works too-cool, and really does permit operation of the car and iPod with much increased safety. The controls and visuals are intuitive and otherwise great. A couple of points: (i) installation seems daunting at first (we thought we had made a mistake in buying the product), but when you take a deep breath, it really all hangs together quite well, (ii) we were able to install with no drilling or automotive disassembly into a Jeep Wrangler, and I admit I'm not sure how much we would love the product if we could find the cracks and crevices through which to run all the wires, (iii) similarly, our color match was incredible, and I'm not sure how perfect it all would be if we didn't happen to have a black/gray interior, (iv) the ability to run wired or wireless is also cool, but, be careful, because in high-density areas the wireless approach is good but not great, and (v) the flexibility they built in to the various bases of the controls to allow optimal orientation is to be commended. I know there's a second generation of the product, which I assume is pretty good if this first-generation effort was this good. For a while, my son wanted to take drives just so that he could control his iPod with this product!
A must have for those who like music on the go! 2008-06-20
I bought the Harman Kardon Drive and Play unit, and after it arrived and opened the box, the first thing that caught my attention was how small it really was! Note!! if you are familiar or have some knowledge of electronics and are willing to take apart your dashboard, you could install it yourself, however, it does require some skills and knowledge of car wiring, since the best way to install it is to hook it directly through the car's ignition system. And make sure your car stereo has an auxiliary input, since it offers the best sound quality, CD quality sound!! If you don't have an aux jack, then this unit may not be for you, you can use the included wireless fm transmitter, but be warned you will get interference all the time!. I put this device in my 06 Honda Civic, and it looks factory installed. Even the lights on the included controller's led light ring goes very well with the interior of the car. If your car has an auxiliary jack, and you love your music, trust me, you are going to love this, it makes it so easy to have thousands of songs in your hands, perfect for long trips! Also note that the first generation ipod it's not supported, only the newest ipods are. Well the only thing that could make me replace it, its the new model which it's wireless and has a full color screen, but the $400 dollar pricetag, and the fact that it's hard to find, kept it out of my budget. Good product overall, remember, you can get good deals on used systems, mine was a refurbished unit, but it looks new, I have had it for a months and no complaints so far!, and I am loving my music!!!!
Nice look, poor performance 2008-05-16
The product has a great outward appearance and is very easy to use. The problem is the background noise/interference that can be found on any of the pre-set settings. I have tried the custom frequency settings and, no matter what 'dead air' station I choose, the problem persists. I live in the rural midwest so finding an unoccupied channel is not a problem. Getting this product to perform adequately is. Unfortunately, I will be returning this item.
ipod interface 2008-04-21
Drive + Play puts the familiar iPod menu on a backlit display right on your car's dashboard or windshield, where you can read it at a glance. The system is controlled by an intuitive interface that mimics the navigation on your iPod, and is easy to use.
Great Product and now even more affordable.... 2008-03-28
I have had one of these in my 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix. It was installed by Best Buy and I'd tried numerous FM Modulators to connect my Ipod to my factory stereo. I had factory XM Sat and not way to use the auxiliary input.
This product allows the Ipod to connect directly to the antenna with a T-connector. It offers clear sound as long as you don't get it too close to a valid FM channel. It's easy to find another channel as well. It allowed me to install the Pod control stick on my console and in the tray to the front of the console they placed the screen.
Now that they have a "newer model" you can find this one for pennies on the dollar. Original one cost me $200 plus an install fee. This one was under $30 and I'll have it installed on my 2007 Mountaineer as an external mount since this car has an auxiliary jsck near the console.
Its a very good item for 20 bucks! 2008-03-27
If you are considering on getting an interface for your ipod, this is the way to go!
revision 2 of this gadget is way expensive and to my taste useless... get this... while they last!
Unbelievable value - but you MUST read this for best results 2008-01-05
It isn't perfect but I'm giving it a 5 star rating anyway because: 1) There is nowhere in the world where you can get such a safe-to-use interface for your music while driving. And 2) the price is unbelievable.
I was going to buy a zune, but when I saw this I bought an iPod instead ($40 for this plus $50 for an iPod from ebay for a dedicated car audio player). Note that the display is about 1000 TIMES EASIER TO READ THAN AN IPOD SCREEN, or any other MP3 screen for that matter (not to mention those tiny displays you have to navigate for built-in stereos - sheesh!). You can also put the display right in your line of sight (in my case, my wife's line of sight right in front of the windshield - I got it for her so she won't wreck while changing music), and then mount the control knob anywhere you want.
There are some pitfalls, but you can work around them (see below to avoid the headaches I experienced):
1) You can't, for example, select a genre and then shuffle among all albums in that genre. The work around is to create playlists for each way you might want to play music (in itunes, its easy enough to do). Then you shuffle the playlist.
2) The display is way too bright at night, and unless you do some fancy wiring it might forget your display-settings between drives. The work-around I used was a $9 flip-up pair of sunglasses from which I cut a darkening filter for the screen. Now I can change from day to night by flipping the filter - much faster than using the menu anyway.
3) The built-in FM modulator stinks EVEN WITH THE "Sold-seperately waste-O-cash" ANTENNAE ADAPTER, in fact DON'T WASTE MONEY ON THE ANTENNAE ADAPTER that plugs directly into the antennae because it hardly helps, and besides the plug probably won't fit your proprietary connectors and you'll end up splicing anyway like I did (not easy - ever spliced coax?). Fortunately you can use the iPod's headphone port instead and pipe that into your car stereo.
4) The built-in audio line-out is also of horrendous quality. Mine was mono! That's right, not even stereo! Not a problem though - like I said above, just use your ipod's headphone port for incredible ipod quality audio.
You'll need an AUX input to your receiver or a cassette player (get a casette adapter - I picked up one for $9). If you have neither upgrade your car stereo, buddy.
You can put all the extra cables and the control-box in the glove box. If you can handle drilling into plastic and pulling out your car stereo and putting it back together you can install everything yourself. If you use the included RC power adapter like I did be sure to rig it to the car's outlet so it doesn't come unplugged through road vibration.
Incidentally, even if my receiver could natively adapt to the iPod and control it I'd still use this device - at least for my wife. Like I said, it's the safest way to control and iPod while driving because of that big screen and line-of-sight viewing, and the controller is very intuitive if you know how to control an iPod.
Harman Kardon D&P 2008-01-02
It was a gift and my son really likes it. Now we just have to find someone mechanical to install it for him
