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AR Unchained is not required, but it allows you to mirror and control your entire phone from the head unit. The video is always mirrored, but touch control is limited to Pioneer approved applications (i.e. Waze, etc) unless you use AR Unchained. It's incredibly useful...

The capacitive screen is the brightest screen I've ever tested on a car stereo unit... You can search for a thread I posted where I have the actual brightness results. If you need a bright and crisp screen, I wouldn't even consider anything else.

I've been able to successfully play both 720p (1280x720) and 1080p (1920x1080) and from the SD card. The manual does say it can only play 480p or something like that, but it does support much, much higher resolution. I bet it depends on the video bitrate though.

Ahhh, OK... Do you know the model of the headrest monitor?

I'm really enjoying my 8000NEX but I'd like to connect a headrest monitor so my son can watch videos in the back of the car. Does anybody have any recommendations or difficulty of installation?

Just to update this topic... Pioneer announced today that they are adding CarPlay support to the NEX receivers this summer!

Wow! I'm completely shocked and extremely happy with this news. I'm currently using an Android (Nexus 5) but am thinking about switching back to iOS if the rumors are true and they introduce a larger phone. Hopefully CarPlay also gets some more features like video playback and support for other applications...

I agree that the HDMI input isn't fantastic. I've tested it with an iPad Air (Digital A/V adapter) and my Nexus 5 phone. The output looks fine but it's considerably softer than the rest of the UI. If it makes you feel any better, the HDMI looks even worse on the Kenwood units (DNX891HD, DDX8901HD) and looks the same on the Pioneer AppRadio 3. However, because the navigation is fantastic on the 8000NEX, I really don't see any need to use AppRadio mode. It's nice to have as a "backup" though and it works perfectly fine with AR Unchained, etc.

I'm using an AData 32 GB SDHC card and it works great. I've filled the device with about 12 GB of music (not sure how many songs) and using a stopwatch it took 4 minutes 5 seconds to load the first time. (you can listen/watch other stuff like HD Radio or SiriusXM while it's loading as well) After the first time, it loads in under 5 seconds even if I remove and reinsert the SD card. Also, searching by ID3 tag is fantastic and it can skip through songs extremely quickly. sstrong42, I know you mentioned the Kenwood being better because it displays filename and path but the Pioneer c

Worked perfectly on my 8000NEX. (I have the parking wire permanently grounded as described)

I believe the reason it takes so long to read the SD/USB stick is because it's reading the ID3 tags and generating a database of artist, album, and song information. This lets you browse the device using the metadata and you don't have to look throuh the files manually, etc. In my opinion, it's a incredibly useful feature but it seems strange that it would take so long. I'm guessing it only happens the first time or when it's updated?

The default voice doesn't announce street names. You need to select the "TTS" voice for text-to-speech street names.

I've recently purchased a number of different car stereo head units and after several years of looking for one that fits my needs, I've finally found it and it's the AVIC-8000NEX. In case anybody is wondering on my background, I'm a 33 year old software developer. I'm not an audio expert and I can't comment on audio quality, but I'm a gadget guy who loves to have the latest and greatest. I've been looking for a car stereo for a couple of years and have always found major flaws and couldn't justify spending $1,000 or more on any of the car stereos that were available. Last year I tested

Well, I have the following five units on my work desk: Pioneer AppRadio3 (SPH-DA110) Pioneer AVIC-8000NEX Kenwood DDX770 Kenwood DNX8901HD Kenwood DNX891HD I've been testing them with my colorimeter for maximum brightness (luminance). I'm going to post some lengthy details soon, but preliminary results show the AVIC-8000NEX much, much, much brighter than anything else. It's even brighter than my Google Nexus 5 smartphone. I'll post lots of details and calibration reports on all these units soon.

I'm interested in finding that out too, but I thought Pioneer wrote their own software but used NavTeq maps. Also... are you Koush from Cyanogenmod?

Any more information on the screen brightness of the 8000 and washing out in daylight? It sounds like the 8000 might be a nice unit but I'm still really worried about sunlight...

Awesome, thanks for the info!

Are you still using the DNX891HD? You said that screen was better (past tense) so I'm wondering if you exchanged it for something else. Right now I have an AppRadio 3 at home and a DNX891HD. AppRadio 3 with "AR Unchained" (full phone mirroring) with my Android phone is fantastic, but there are a LOT more things that can go wrong, and I still think the AR3 screen isn't as bright as the DNX891HD. The DNX891HD has a new multi-processor (new for Kenwood 2014) but I still find the interface and GPS to be awfully slow, but it does have an extremely bright screen, reverse tilt angle, AND bu

Thanks for the information! I'm extremely curious to know what you find out. Have you tested Kenwood units or the AppRadio3? If so, how does the 7000 compare? I'm not sure why, but Kenwood units are much, much brighter from what I've seen but I really want a Pioneer unit... I'm debating between the AVIC-4000NEX, AppRadio 3, or a Kenwood. The screen brightness is a huge factor for me...

Unfortunately the dashboard in my car is setup in such a way where sunlight directly shines on the car stereo so on a bright and sunny day, most car stereo screens get completely washed out. I've tried last year's AVH-X8500BHS and it was not very bright. For some reason, the Kenwood's are MUCH brighter but I'm a bigger fan of Pioneer so I'm wondering if the new AVIC-4000NEX has a brighter screen than the X8500BHS. Has anybody compared them?

Yeah, I noticed that too but on the iDatalink website it doesn't show it as being compatible. I'll investigate it a bit though with Crutchfield... Unfortunately I -just- ordered a Kenwood DDX770 before I saw your original post and the the preset issue was a big deal for me but now I'll have to think about exchanging it or thinking about what I want to do. The only other thing I had problems with in the past (even with my short time with the X8500BHS) is the daytime visibility of the unit. In my car the stereo is at the top of the dash angled towards the windshield so it's the wors

Wow, that Meastro steering wheel adapter looks PERFECT, but according to their website it's not compatible with my car (2011 Toyota RAV4). Thanks so much for the detailed explanation though!

Wait, are you saying that you can cycle through your radio presets with your steering wheel? If so, how? My car has the following steering wheel buttons: [Track +], [Track -], [Volume +], [Volume -], [source] When I press [Track +] using the radio, it changes to the next frequency but NOT the next preset. This was a deal-breaker for me, but if you have it working where the steering wheel skips through presets please let me know!

Has the firmware been updated for the AVH-X5500BHS? I just want music output and control for my iPhone 5 and don't care too much about App Mode.

Darn... That's incredibly annoying. I guess there is no such thing as a "perfect" car stereo...