Are head units regional?

Seen a brand new HU on ebay from the US which isnt yet available here. Would there be any reason why it wouldnt work? thinking FM/MW radio frequencies, features etc

IIRC the frequency bands are different so you won't be able to pick up the stations.

Don't think US has RDS either (??).

The US radio steppings are totally different.

Ours are .05 , so we can get 97.9 , 97.95 , 98.0 etc etc

Theirs are .2 so you could get 97.9 , 98.1 , 98.3 etc etc

*some* head units will let you switch between UK and US steppings but not all.

Oh , and the US doesn't have RDS.

Which HU was it in particular?

Mate of mine bought a US unit home from him. Kenwood if i recall.

He spent ages looking for a place that would do it an I believe had to have an update done to the unit to allow it to work for UK frequencies. IIRC he had to provide kenwood with proof he had lived over there or something, but basically it can be done but isn't easy.

I've been looking out for one of the new sony HU, MEX-1GP as it sounds good in principle. CD's CDR/W MP3's plus 1 gig of mem you can attach to your PC to add files to. Plus i can fit a minidisc changer (later on) so i can use all my MD laying around gathering dust.

Just do a search on ebay, its the only there!

I think the steppings here are more like 0.1 on most US Tuners, so I imgine anything bought from the US would be set to seek only in steps of .1

However, some UK head units (and this may also be true for some US HUs) you can change the stepping in the set up, from 0.05 to .1, I can do this on my Pioneer DEH-7400MP MP3/Tuner in the setup menu.

I bought a UK spec Pioneer to the US from the UK - it has RDS & most but not all staions broadcast text so you get the usual information. Most standard fit car stereos here now have basic RDS information (radio station name).

Spanner, what is the make and model of this Head Unit you are after?

Maybe you can get a download of the user guide from the manufacturer site which may have mention of tuner stepping in on the specifications page of the guide?

edit: MEX-1GP, then

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=MEX1GP

Mates US one only worked in 0.2 before he had it altered.

not being funny but why go to all this trouble whn you can easily and cheaply get a UK JVC DVD unit that looks like a normal stereo but plays mp3's and wma's off of a dvd?

they can be got brand new for about £170