Honda hacking your head unit the pros and cons explained.

Harlaquin

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So I have Honda Hacked my Head Unit and Played around with it a bit and here is my experience.

You can put anything on it and run it on screen even while driving but why people want that option I have no idea I know if you are driving and watching Netflix or videos im gonna stay clear of you. Your kids and passengers have phone they can look at so that arguments is not really valid. Plus look out a window and enjoy the sites gezzz. I have loaded Waze, google maps, Netflix, you tube and google play store, pretty much the basics. And it slows the head unit down considerably as it was not made to run these things.

In order to run apps it needs an internet connecting so if you cant hot spot the car to your phone there really is no reason to hack the unit as you wont be able to run anything anyway on the free version. The apps are there but just like your phone no internet nothing runs. Pro version allows you to pull maps from a usb drive. Other then that you need to be near a wifi and connected to it through the car to use the apps which only works if you are well parked near a wifi.

There is the same issues as using your phone, gotta keep the apps updated so there is that. Have to regularly clear out memory space and cache files as again this head unit wasn't meant to run all this data.

The up side is if you are in car waiting for people or have to spend a period of time in the car and have a wifi or hotspot hooked up, can load Netflix and youtube but you can do that on your phone as well unless you just need these things on your main screen.

For the average person unless you are just hell bent on having waze on the head unit then Ill be honest there really is not much reason to hack your head unit. As anything that can be done on the head unit with a hack can also be done on your phone anyway or with android auto or carplay. Netflix and you tube can play on phone and then Bluetooth the audio to car with out a hack.

The only people who need the hack and can use it for a meaningful use is the mod crowd as ktune and hondata have on screen states and diagnostics that are useful and need the head unit hacked to work.

Those of us everyday owners It really is not useful , doesn't do anything our phones don't and slows the head unit way down plus needs maintenance. To be honest Ill probably just factory reset mine back and remove the hack.

But for those curious here are my screen shots.
Honda Civic 10th gen Honda hacking your head unit the pros and cons explained. 20190223_183530
Honda Civic 10th gen Honda hacking your head unit the pros and cons explained. 20190223_183950
Honda Civic 10th gen Honda hacking your head unit the pros and cons explained. 20190223_184131
Honda Civic 10th gen Honda hacking your head unit the pros and cons explained. 20190223_185006
Honda Civic 10th gen Honda hacking your head unit the pros and cons explained. 20190223_190144
Honda Civic 10th gen Honda hacking your head unit the pros and cons explained. 20190223_190803
 

remc86007

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I did Honda Hack so I could install Tunerview...which is amazing, but then I discovered a bunch of other useful things it can do.

First, being able to remove the initial warning prompt and allow interaction with every part of the system regardless if the vehicle is moving is incredible! I think it is way more safe to be able to have a passenger type an address into the nav while moving than it is to try to use the voice prompts as the driver.

Second, I like the reduce volume while in reverse thing.

Third, I like being able to reprogram the steering wheel buttons so I can quickly switch between Spotify and my tunerview gauges.

Fourth, I downloaded the most recent version of Spotify and installed it directly on the headunit and then downloaded my entire library at the second highest quality setting to the head units storage. The app is rather slow, but it has more functionality than the limited carplay version, and most importantly...it sounds way, way better than Spotify through carplay. I think something about the multiple stages of decompression and compression that it takes for spotify to get from the phone, through the car play interface, and back out the head unit's DAC really messes up the sound. Playing the files natively is a huge improvement!

Finally, auto launching tunerview on startup is great.
 
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Harlaquin

Harlaquin

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I did Honda Hack so I could install Tunerview...which is amazing, but then I discovered a bunch of other useful things it can do.

First, being able to remove the initial warning prompt and allow interaction with every part of the system regardless if the vehicle is moving is incredible! I think it is way more safe to be able to have a passenger type an address into the nav while moving than it is to try to use the voice prompts as the driver.

Second, I like the reduce volume while in reverse thing.

Third, I like being able to reprogram the steering wheel buttons so I can quickly switch between Spotify and my tunerview gauges.

Fourth, I downloaded the most recent version of Spotify and installed it directly on the headunit and then downloaded my entire library at the second highest quality setting to the head units storage. The app is rather slow, but it has more functionality than the limited carplay version, and most importantly...it sounds way, way better than Spotify through carplay. I think something about the multiple stages of decompression and compression that it takes for spotify to get from the phone, through the car play interface, and back out the head unit's DAC really messes up the sound. Playing the files natively is a huge improvement!

Finally, auto launching tunerview on startup is great.
Yuppers like i said it has uses for tuners because tune software runs on unit. But for everyday crowd... the things that can be done are trivial and i personally don't think the additional slow down and maintenance is worth it. Bypassing the start up ok screen thats up for 3 seconds eh.. i dont use spotify. Whats the benefit of songs on head unit over phone? Seems to me managing songs on head unit downloading to phone to transfer to have to delete...seems like a lot of extra for not much benefit. But like you and i said for tuners ktune and hondata kinda needs it but everyday people I dont feel the trivial benefits out weigh the trouble. Just my two cents.
 

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The main reason that I want to get the hack is to deactivate the wonky sound equalization (I'm upgrading the sound system).
 
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Harlaquin

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The main reason that I want to get the hack is to deactivate the wonky sound equalization (I'm upgrading the sound system).
It does that? I haven't seen options for that.
 


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I did Honda Hack so I could install Tunerview...which is amazing, but then I discovered a bunch of other useful things it can do.

First, being able to remove the initial warning prompt and allow interaction with every part of the system regardless if the vehicle is moving is incredible! I think it is way more safe to be able to have a passenger type an address into the nav while moving than it is to try to use the voice prompts as the driver.

Second, I like the reduce volume while in reverse thing.

Third, I like being able to reprogram the steering wheel buttons so I can quickly switch between Spotify and my tunerview gauges.

Fourth, I downloaded the most recent version of Spotify and installed it directly on the headunit and then downloaded my entire library at the second highest quality setting to the head units storage. The app is rather slow, but it has more functionality than the limited carplay version, and most importantly...it sounds way, way better than Spotify through carplay. I think something about the multiple stages of decompression and compression that it takes for spotify to get from the phone, through the car play interface, and back out the head unit's DAC really messes up the sound. Playing the files natively is a huge improvement!

Finally, auto launching tunerview on startup is great.
I agree with you.. There are also many other useful apps you can load that are NOT just Video watching apps.

A decent media player, that supports Flac, with a decent equalizer, when run on the HU, (not over USB or Bluetooth), gives amazing sound.

Note: Only a very limited number of Apps will run over Android Auto or Car Play. So there are many apps you CANNOT run unless you run them Native on the HU, that is Honda Hacked.


Then there are LAUNCHER !!!

You "Can" change the whole look and feel of the Interface (If you want).

On the downside, if anything goes wrong with your HU, or it Bricks, you do not have any warranty claim.
 
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Harlaquin

Harlaquin

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I agree with you.. There are also many other useful apps you can load that are NOT just Video watching apps.

A decent media player, that supports Flac, with a decent equalizer, when run on the HU, (not over USB or Bluetooth), gives amazing sound.

Note: Only a very limited number of Apps will run over Android Auto or Car Play. So there are many apps you CANNOT run unless you run them Native on the HU, that is Honda Hacked.


Then there are LAUNCHER !!!

You "Can" change the whole look and feel of the Interface (If you want).

On the downside, if anything goes wrong with your HU, or it Bricks, you do not have any warranty claim.
So then yall who are happy with hack how you dealing with the slow down. The hack on mine has made it slower then snails.
 

SCOPESYS

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So then yall who are happy with hack how you dealing with the slow down. The hack on mine has made it slower then snails.
Very Happy ... My Honda Hacked Head Unit has not slowed down at all :headbang:
 

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It does that? I haven't seen options for that.
Yes. I read it in the audio upgrade thread and communicated with the Honda Hack website and they said that there is a script to deactivate the factory equalization. Haven’t done it yet, though. I bought an Audison bitOne so it may be redundant in my case.
 
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Harlaquin

Harlaquin

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Yes. I read it in the audio upgrade thread and communicated with the Honda Hack website and they said that there is a script to deactivate the factory equalization. Haven’t done it yet, though. I bought an Audison bitOne so it may be redundant in my case.
Oh its a script. Ok that why not in options
 


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Harlaquin

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I made this post i guess for laymen. The hondata and ktune people sure. People useing scripts and white lists sure. People transfering music to and from head unit and usb pen sure.. but everyday people its not really worth it. 320 kb music verses flac... eh .. flac files are huge. I would think the average person is just fine with pandora and spotify. And you dont need hack for that. And 320kb files if ya really want them can play native from thumb drive. Plus acc and wma files.

I saw lots posts wanting video playback on head unit. I tested it.. not really worth it. And its probably what slows unit down. Ill uninstall just video apps and see.
 

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I hacked mine pretty early on but I don't recall it being much slower. I use it for TunerView but also loaded MXPlayer on it so I can play some videos for my daughter for when she's riding in the car. Other than that, I really don't need HH these days.
 
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Harlaquin

Harlaquin

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I hacked mine pretty early on but I don't recall it being much slower. I use it for TunerView but also loaded MXPlayer on it so I can play some videos for my daughter for when she's riding in the car. Other than that, I really don't need HH these days.
Yeah that's kinda what im saying.. it does do anything special except make some phone stuff native. I just don't see me useing it unless i got a tune. Its neat and all but eh just extra steps to do stuff your phone does. Plus the apps that need your phones data through hotspot. Not worth it in the rare chance brick or warrenty comes up.
 

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I only use it for Tunerview. Seems to me if you load up on apps like Netflix and the like, you're just killing what little RAM our units have.
 
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Harlaquin

Harlaquin

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I only use it for Tunerview. Seems to me if you load up on apps like Netflix and the like, you're just killing what little RAM our units have.
Yeah thats what im thinking. Im gonna remove apps but maybe keep it hacked for if or when i get tune.
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