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Hey...I've got a quick question. I've seen a few stock head units in different cars that have a feature that can "read" the track titles, station names, etc. from the radio station. I did some quick research and coundn't come up with any good information on and aftermarket head units that incorporate this feature...

Just curious...Anyone know of any that can do this?

 
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my kenwood x-869 does. many higher end aftermarket ones do.

this is from crutchfield:

Radio Data System: The KDC-X869's tuner features RDS (Radio Data System). RDS is a service used by some radio stations to transmit data outside of normal radio broadcast signals. When an RDS station is received, you can immediately find out what kind of data is being transmitted by looking at the program service name which appears in the display after the frequency. RDS features an emergency transmission function which interrupts regular programming to broadcast an emergency announcement (such as a tornado or severe storm). There is also a switchable Traffic Information function, which will automatically tune a traffic bulletin when it is broadcast, even when you're not listening to the radio

i bet any HU that has this would have the ability you are looking for.

 
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My JVC SH-55 does,

for it to read cd tracks, the cd must have the track names recorded on it for that to work.

 
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my jvc kameleon does it

 
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From Cds, it's called CD Text, you can burn cds in Nero with CD text. For radio stations, i don't know, but what was said above about the RDS seems right.

 
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Yeah...RDS was what I found to be the closest to the radio text. It seems as if just about every head unit had the CD Text ability now, but as far as finding a head unit with RDS is another matter. Thanks again everyone.

 
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OK the RDS is how a headunit (Stock or aftermarket) gets radio staion info so if your headunit has this function then you should get most radio staion names and categories. CD text is a little different since this has to be encoded on the CD itself. Most burning software's allow you to add the cd text while burning your own disc, and the only "store bought" CD's that have CD text are CD's from Sony music studio's since I believe they hold the patent for that feature.

 
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i was gonna say the only cds i bought that come up with CD text are audioslave (rage against the machine was sony so i assume audioslave is too) and incubus (dunno their label, but now i bet i do)

but most mp3 cds have text, so it's ok.

 
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most of the upper-end head units have RDS. RDS is not just naming radio stations. They're actual messages being sent out over the air.

As for CD-Text, you can add it to CDs when you burn with Nero