Clarion has announced the first line of car navigation products for the Japanese market. They offer integrated hard drives, 7" widescreen LCDs, linkage with 5th gen iPods for audio and video playback,  and even terrestrial digital tuners.

As their first round of products intended for the Japanese market in their "Clarion" brand (announced worldwide in January of this year), Clarion has announced o­n the 14th that they will be introducing AV car navigation systems with internal hard drives from May of this year.

For models will be available: the "MAX960HD" (273,000 yen), "MAX860HD" (257,250 yen), "MAX760HD" (210,000 yen), and the "MAX560HD" (186,800 yen). Each is a 2DIN type, and has a 7" widescreen LCD.

The high-end "MAX960HD" features a chip that supports the playback of 192kHz audio, can play DVD-Audio without any downsampling, and supports the playback of video contents stored o­n a 5th generation iPod (requires Video iPod cable, sold separately).

With the addition of the "DTX760" TV tuner unit (set to be released in late July), the units also support the reception of terrestrial digital broadcasts. They can also play music even while ripping a different CD to the hard drive, play MP3/WMA files stored o­n a memory cards and Memory Stick PRO, and view images from a digital camera.

"FUN RING" is a 3D menu system used for a user interface, which can display a lot of information o­n a single screen -- the LCD is a touch panel, and the menu can be customized by just dragging a finger across it. The unit also features a traffic evasion function that incorporates "Statistics Congestion Information," which statistically processes VICS data and the newest VICS data; this means it can consider the traffic situation beforehand and give an arrival time estimation.

As additional navigation functions, it has "TV search," which contains information o­n about 192,000 shops that have been introduced o­n TV and in magazines (177,000 from TV, 1,500 from magazines), and "Map Click" that will display a chosen location as a QR code so it can be read by mobile phones that support QR codes.

Inspired by:
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/lifestyle/articles/0603/14/news073.html

Press Release:
http://www.clarion.co.jp/news/060314_1/index.cfm