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NAV AT IT Car stereos with hard-disk drives (HDD) made a splash a few years ago - then quickly sank into obsolescence beneath the rising tide of iPods. But the double-DIN Eclipse AVN5495 DVD receiver is buoyed by its split personality: Its 30-gigabyte HDD doubles as a navigation database in addition to functioning as a music server. A third of the HDD's space is devoted to the nav system to provide swift loading of turn-by-turn directions to destinations in the continental U.S. and Canada, as well as info on thousands of points of interest such as gas stations, ATMs, and hotels. The other two-thirds stores up to 3,000 tracks of CD-quality music ripped directly from the AVN5495's CD/DVD drive.

VIDEO TO GO With DVD onboard, the AVN5495 can serve as the hub of an elaborate mobile-video system when extra screens are attached and controlled via the unit's own 6.5-inch touchscreen. The AVN5495 features a 4 x 50-watt MOSFET amplifier, a 5-volt preamp output, and sophisticated signal-processing. It's also Sirius Satellite Radio-ready and can play music files loaded onto a Memory Stick. Plus, it has an auxiliary input for an iPod . . . proving that it can peacefully coexist with other hard drives. $2,700 www.eclipse-web.com 310-327-2151

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