New Indash Recommendations

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thehumphries
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New Indash Recommendations

Postby thehumphries » Sun Dec 05, 2010 12:25 pm

I have a 2005 Path w/ Bose.

I would like to upgrade the unit to a Ipod/BlueTooth/Nav/SatRadio. Cheaper the better, but I want a good reliable unit.

Anyone have or know of a unit like this that they would recommend?

Thanks in advance - Nick


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USCJustice
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Postby USCJustice » Sun Dec 05, 2010 3:23 pm

I love the Pioneer AVIC Z110 that I have in my car. I have the AVIC X910BT in my Pathy and don't love it nearly as much. :-)

I would probably recommend the AVIC Z2 if looking a little at a budget. The AVIC D3 was also a pretty solid unit.

For pretty much any good unit, you are going to spend about 550 or better. then there are a couple different adapters that you can use for the Bose harness. Both of them are between 25 and 35 bucks.

Hope that helps.

05Pathfinder
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Postby 05Pathfinder » Sun Dec 05, 2010 5:10 pm

What dont you like about the X910BT?

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USCJustice
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Postby USCJustice » Sun Dec 05, 2010 9:26 pm

I have had several Pioneer Nav units, going back probably 7 or 8 years. I'm a bit of a junkie for them. I have had the units with separate hide away pieces that were a pain in the butt, and flip out screens and so on.

I'll just throw out my thoughts on three units and that hopefully will explain my issues with the X910...

AVIC D3. This was a great all around unit. Easy to understand, pretty clear graphics, easy to install, and easy to upgrade (Rips of new nav discs were everywhere). It also would take input from 6 or 12 disc CD changers and also from the 6 disc DVD player. Downsides: No SD card slot, no USB input, and disc had to be in dash in order to make use of the navigation.

AVIC X910BT. This unit was a massive jump forward in graphics. it was like going from windows 3.11 to Windows 7. Just that much difference. Very feature heavy. This was great for the SD card slot, no more nav discs as it was HD driven, and the USB input was a very nice touch as well. Did I mention the graphics? :-) They are so nice. Exit signs will pop up on screen even. The MSN Direct features (to be discontinued in Jan of 2012) were really nice, and it even came with Blutooth built in that would allow you to dial from the nav system instead of fumbling with your phone. Here are the downsides: The processor was not greatly improved from the D3 (or much maligned F series). What this means is HUGE lag times. When you first crank the car, there is a 20 second or so delay before the music comes on in the car. There is an additional 15 second delay or so before you have control over any of the touch screen functions. If you want to program a destination or any of that good stuff, you are a full 90 seconds into the car running before that becomes an option. When you flip from the FM or XM or Sirius to the SD card there is another long delay as the card is read. Probably 30 to 45 seconds. They may not sound long, but they get really annoying especially if you are hopping in and out of the car a lot while running errands. The Blutooth worked great as long as you were only using a simple phone. I don't have a simple phone. At the time I had a Blackberry that I use for work. There are about 350 contacts in the device. The first time I connected the Blutooth, it automatically imported all the contacts. This caused it to promptly crash and lock up the unit. Pretty much every time I tried to use the Blutooth after that, something would happen. Several times (at least 5) when the call was completed, the unit would not un-mute. The only solution in order to get music back in the car was to pull over, turn the car off, wait 30 seconds and then crank it up again. The only real solution was to turn off the Blutooth feature and not make use of it at all.

OK that being said, let me also say that I still have the X910 in my Pathfinder. For Nav purposes and the stereo features, it works fine and I don't see myself swapping it out anytime soon. You just have to accept that there are going to be some delays, and that not all the features (Blutooth in particular) are going to work. I enjoy the graphics, I like the routing features in the Nav, and I do like the USB and SD card options.

In my 05 Altima SE-R, I now have the AVIC Z110BT. I can honestly say I love this unit. it's a full touch screen (as opposed to the X910 that has a turn knob on the left). The graphics are nearly the same as that of the X910BT. The biggest differences are that the screen folds down in order to use the DVD/CD slot and the to reveal the SD slot, and most importantly the processor. The Z110 has a MUCH MUCH faster processor. All of the delays that I dislike about the 910 are gone in the 110. 3 to 7 seconds from cranking the car and I have music, within 15 seconds and I have FULL control over everything in the car. I have since changed phones and now have a Droid X. The Z110 will take care of all the Blutooth functionality that didn't work as well with the 910, and in addition, it will also allow you to stream music via blutooth (plan to play with streaming SPAM DO NOT CLICK radio to it soon).

I suppose the only dislike that I have about this unit (and applies to the X910 as well) is that Pioneer has relied upon other companies to supply things like the Google service (discontinued in Nov, 2010) and the MSN Direct service (discontinued Jan 2012). Unfortunately this leaves dead icons on your screen. I would just as soon have the ability to remove or uninstall these from the unit itself, but that is not available.

Hope this helps and isn't too long winded. :-)

As a side note, a lot of people do like the Kenwood units because they use the Garmin software for Nav. I tend to stay away from Kenwood, as I have had bad experiences with their products years ago, and I'm just not willing to try it again.

05Pathfinder
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Postby 05Pathfinder » Mon Dec 06, 2010 5:43 pm

Great write up. Thanks for your input.

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USCJustice
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Postby USCJustice » Mon Dec 06, 2010 6:06 pm

No problem, hope it helps.

thehumphries
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Postby thehumphries » Thu Dec 16, 2010 8:32 am

Anyone have any experiences with the Pioneer AVH-P3200BT?

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JAHBLESSINGS
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Postby JAHBLESSINGS » Thu Dec 16, 2010 9:09 am

thehumphries wrote:Anyone have any experiences with the Pioneer AVH-P3200BT?
I have the av-p3200dvd and i love it. i did not want the bluetooth version.


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