Car Audio

The most common and familiar piece of audio equipment is the radio/tape player/CD player/DVD Player which is generically described as a Head unit, which also can be called a head deck, after older tape decks. It is also the most likely component to be upgraded with an after market item. A recent development in head unit technology has been the addition of CD players with MP3, Ogg, WMA, AAC, and USB, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support. Even with the rampant ubiquity of solid state MP3 players, car audio systems with line-in jacks and other standards are only in their infancy, and that since tape adaptors are often used with tape players, people are now viewing car radios with built-in CD players as "misfeatures" of the audio system since people now often "rip" their CDs on computers.

Most modern cars include at least a CD player/ CD recorder, and some have the option for a CD changer, which holds multiple disks either in the head unit itself or in a separate unit usually located in a trunk or console.

More recent is the addition of DVD players and LCD screens. Depending on the head unit, the LCD screen is either integrated such that it slides out and folds up, or integrated into the instrument console. Otherwise, the DVD head unit feeds video output into separately mounted displays, either folding down from the roof, or mounted into the headrest for viewing by rear seat passengers.

The video screen may also show video output of an integrated component such as a navigation system 3G cell phone or parking cameras that could be automatically activated when the car is put into reverse.

This article was copied from Wikipedia.