When people ask you, How do you review your head unit?

[mattlach]

I was recently asked this question on another board I frequent

 

So, Matt ... how do you like it now that you have had it for a while?

 

I had to think about it for a while, and I eventually typed this rather long response:

 

I enjoy it. It is a good head unit, but still not without its quirks. I am getting used to them and are less likely to have problems as time goes on.

 

I have to remind myself to be patient with the head unit in the first few minutes of on-time as it can be slow, and if i push too many buttons it can start acting up. Once it is good and booted it is great! I used to be frustrated by the relatively long boot up time, but I have gotten used to it, and it doesn't bother me much anymore, especially now that it is quicker with the 2.0 update.

 

In most listening I agree with Wulf that the sound quality is a little better than the stock head unit. I have found on the rare occasions when I really want to crank it up (I used to do this all the time when I was younger) the sound quality is not as good as with the stock head unit. This could be because I haven't got the configuration right yet. I have been playing with the optimal combination of the "loudness" and "bass boost" settings in the AV sound settings menu, and I keep going back and forht between what I think sounds best.

 

Right now I have loudness set to "low" and bass boost to 0. Sometimes i go up to 1, but usually bring it back down again right away, cause the bass starts sounding distorted.

 

I can't help but remember getting a more powerful and clean bass sound from the stock head unit, with the bass knob turned all the way up...

 

I am using the now discontinued 160Gb iPod classic. It works pretty well, but updating the VR catalog takes over an hour with the amount of songs I have on my iPod, so I only do this when I add new music to my iPod. During normal use I keep the "update VR catalog" setting off.

 

Sometimes my iPod doesn't show up in the AV screen, and is replaced by the grayed out USB icon. Every time this happens it appears to be due to my iPod locking up, and not a connectivity issue. Holding down the appropriate buttons on the iPod forces a restart and then everything is fine again. This happens very rarely. I don't know if the head unit is confusing the iPod and making it hang, or if I have a defective iPod. I bought the iPod second hand on craigslist after I realized that the music playing function of the head unit wasn't supported wasn't supported on my iPhone

 

Voice commands work pretty well, though occasionally I get annoyed by having to bastardize the names of foreign bands because the voice recognition interprets names as if written in English. Even with bastardizing pronunciation I have never succeeded in getting the VR to understand me say "Depeche Mode". I've tried all kinds of iterations including "depetsché" mode without success. Wolfsheim is OK, cause I just have to pronounce it with a soft W instead of the V-like W of German. Swedish band Page (pronounced sortof like "posh" only loads if I pronounce it like the page of a book. Swedish band "Sista Mannen på Jorden" is just not even worth trying.

 

Voice commands for calling people usually work pretty OK, but occasionally the head unit becomes feisty and will not understand what I am saying for several tries in a row. Example: Me: "Call Erin on her cell" Head unit: "Now calling Karen mobile." This results in a mad dash for the hangup button so the call doesn't go through. Its really funny, because it works excellently 99% of the time, just every once and a while it will make the same mistake repeatedly. I wonder if I'm angling my head wrong relative to the mic or something on those days.

 

For some strange reason saving presets using the HD radio unit just does not work. I have no idea why. This really isn't an issue as I usually only listen to one radio station anyway (90.9 WBUR), but I could imagine it annoying others.

 

I don't have the steering wheel controls installed. My plan was to install them eventually, but now I am debating whether or not its worth the work. I find that the only touching I ever have to do on the unit is either the multi-button or the touch screen, neither of which are routable to the steering wheel anyway. I may do this down the road, but right now I'm leaning towards no.

 

One thing that does annoy me however is the selection of the EQ presets from the iPod and other AV input screens. I often switch between "S.Bass" and "powerful" (depending on the mix of music I am listening to) and "Flat" for news radio. Having to tap through every option in order to get to the one you want is frustrating, especially since the button is so small, and close to other buttons. If I'm in "powerful" listening to a song that has gobs of bass in the mix, and then the next song is a little weak on the bass, I need to cycle through all the EQ presets and this usually takes some time, especially since I often miss and hit the "video" button for iPod video playback and then have to hit the back button, and start pressing the EQ button again. I'm thinking this might be because I have large fingers, but I can't help but think there has got to be a better way to set this up.

 

Another annoyance is that there is no easy and quick way to toggle the navi voice on and off. You can go to the settings screen and turn it all the way down, but this is annoyi9ng and takes time, and even when all the way down there are "pops of silence" in the music you are listening to when the voice would have given directions if it were on. I find this distracting. I also wish it were easier to alter the volume of this voice. I have tried setting up the auto-speed -controlled voice volume, but it always seems either to quiet when I am driving slowly or absolutely deafening when I hit 90mph...

 

I don't know if you have noticed this in your area, but in mine it is also apparent that the maps are woefully obsolete. Roads and bridges that were built - in some cases as many as 10 years ago - are absent from the maps, making it take long unnecessary detours. It has also on occasion been utterly aware of "no left turn" signs, and made me break the law on occasion when I defaulted to following the directions and didn't notice the sign myself. I hope they come up with map updates, but I can't understand how the maps can be so out of date so soon after the units release. Some of the roads that are missing were built before the unit was likely even conceived of by Pioneer R&D...

 

I am also a little annoyed by the lack of contrast on the maps. My GF's portable Garmin unit is really easy to read due to high contrast visible maps. The map in the Pioneer is very busy and everything blends in together. In certain light it is very difficult to see what the ETA, Time to destination and remaining distance box says, because it overlaps with roadways of similar color behind the text.

 

I also don't understand why the unit does not identify saved names for incoming calls. The system will ring and say that "phone number redacted" is calling, even though that phone number is associated with a contact in the units database. Sometimes I have to dig for my phone to see who it is, and if I really want to answer.

 

I am probably forgetting things, but there it is. To sum it up, I feel like this unit was a brilliant concept, but it failed abysmally in execution. The human interface portion of the unit is an absolute disaster. It just doesn't feel like a unit that is ready for launch. It feels like I am beta-testing a pre-release product. I can't understand how Pioneer tested the product and came to the conclusion it was ready for launch.

 

That being said, I still like it. It brings me tons of functionality i didn't have before, and I wouldn't get rid of it. I'm just hoping for plenty of software revisions to come to make this more of a mature product.

 

So, short version, plenty off annoyances, but still worth it.

 

So, plenty of annoyances, but still worth it. Is that what you guys say as well?

[chriso]

Wow - I agree pretty much 100% with what you have said - and I cracked up at the mad dash to hang up when the voice control goes wrong - I'm afriad to use it for calling people.

 

Otherwise I live with the annoyances - and like the unit - just cannot wait until more updates come out. We all say it is a beta product which seems for sure - still though it is the best product out on the market. Lots of people are looking to get the new kenwood when it comes out - I ask this - how come you do not have a kenwood now (the current products do not match)

[spaceywilly]

Yeah I also agree with what you say, especially the sound quality. I find myself fiddling with the EQ trying to get it to sound right constantly, but it just never seems to sound right to me. Also the sound is different for every source, I need to adjust the EQ when going between my iPod, iPhone, and FM radio. I'm going to get a sub and amp the speakers in my car though, so hopefully that will fix all my sound quality issues.

 

Also I've given up on voice commands in general, it's slow and not accurate enough for it to be useful for me. To be perfectly honest it usually just ends up pissing me off. It is nice to have the option though, the one thing I do use it for a lot is changing the source. It works consistently for that since there's only a few things you can say and it's a whole lot easier than trying to shift, steer, and play with the radio at the same time.

 

It's worth noting that some of the things you mentioned can be fixed by applying the hacks people have made, especially regarding the nav features. There is a mod to add a mute button, update the maps, and plenty of different color schemes available.

 

For me the amazing amount of features you get for your money, and the awesome hackability options, make this unit really worth it for me. Usually only expensive luxury cars have bluetooth, nav, and ipod control built in. With the AVIC you get all that for much less than you'd pay from the factory, and it looks great too. Jeez I sound like an infomercial announcer...

[Heftiger]

Sometimes my iPod doesn't show up in the AV screen, and is replaced by the grayed out USB icon. Every time this happens it appears to be due to my iPod locking up, and not a connectivity issue. Holding down the appropriate buttons on the iPod forces a restart and then everything is fine again. This happens very rarely. I don't know if the head unit is confusing the iPod and making it hang, or if I have a defective iPod. I bought the iPod second hand on craigslist after I realized that the music playing function of the head unit wasn't supported wasn't supported on my iPhone

 

Are you sure that this is your Ipod's fault? I've been having this problem (with my Ipod Video) and I used to reset my Ipod to get it to work. Then I started unplugging the Ipod and then plugging it back in, and that worked. Then I started only unplugging the USB portion of the Ipod, and that worked too. I figured it was a problem with my Ipod until I noticed similar behavior with my USB thumb drive. I plugged in the thumb drive, and left it. The next time I turned on my car the USB icon was grayed out and the activity light on the drive wasn't blinking like normal. After unplugging it then plugging it back in I realized that it was the head unit's fault, not my Ipod. I contacted Pioneer and they asked me to send the unit in for warranty repair. Now I'm just waiting until I have time to pull the unit out.

[gruvncubn]

Sometimes my iPod doesn't show up in the AV screen, and is replaced by the grayed out USB icon. Every time this happens it appears to be due to my iPod locking up, and not a connectivity issue. Holding down the appropriate buttons on the iPod forces a restart and then everything is fine again. This happens very rarely. I don't know if the head unit is confusing the iPod and making it hang, or if I have a defective iPod. I bought the iPod second hand on craigslist after I realized that the music playing function of the head unit wasn't supported wasn't supported on my iPhone

 

Are you sure that this is your Ipod's fault? I've been having this problem (with my Ipod Video) and I used to reset my Ipod to get it to work. Then I started unplugging the Ipod and then plugging it back in, and that worked. Then I started only unplugging the USB portion of the Ipod, and that worked too. I figured it was a problem with my Ipod until I noticed similar behavior with my USB thumb drive. I plugged in the thumb drive, and left it. The next time I turned on my car the USB icon was grayed out and the activity light on the drive wasn't blinking like normal. After unplugging it then plugging it back in I realized that it was the head unit's fault, not my Ipod. I contacted Pioneer and they asked me to send the unit in for warranty repair. Now I'm just waiting until I have time to pull the unit out.

I am pretty sure it is the iPod. I have an 30 Gig iPod 5Gen and it does the same thing. It also did it on all 3 of my Alpines.

[mattlach]

I am pretty sure it is the iPod. I have an 30 Gig iPod 5Gen and it does the same thing. It also did it on all 3 of my Alpines.

 

yeah, mine is a 6th gen. The iPod hard locks and is unresponsive, so you have to do a hard reset by holding down the center and menu buttons until the apple logo appears and the ipod reboots.

 

Based on what happens I am leaning towards an iPod problem, but it is not completely out of the question that something about the USB link to the head unit is confusing the iPod and making it crash.

[shaver]

I've had my unit in my CTS for 3 days now, and I like it. I'm used to the Garmin GPS, so this new one is taking some getting used to. Overall it's pretty easy to navigate through, and I'm getting lazy with the bluetooth system. Now my phone rings on the table, and I automaticly put it in speaker mode so I don't have to hold it.

 

Other than that it's a good unit. I can't get my address book to load either, it keeps telling me "no phone number". I'll search and figure out why.

 

When someone asks me "how do you review your head unit" I reply, It's nice. I like it alot.

[PeterUbers]

Buggy for SURE ... but as you get used to the response times, giving it's "time" to process, and never intentionally overloading it with too many request too fast.. you find that "sweet" spot for it's processing power.

 

Issues:

1) BT reliablity varies from phone to phone -- Moto RZR will hang the system once in a while, while BB Curve never hangs the system, sound quality on both via the mic is great!

 

2) Map -- in 2D it will zoom out to outer space sometimes .. until i hit the zoom in to stop it .. annoying, but easily remedied... Navi seems to work fine otherwise, i don't mind the excessive directions b/c i forget sometimes that i'm using navi and i need constant reminders.

 

3) Ipod -- yeah, my ipod will lose connectivity at times .. i'll unhook it and rehook it -- VERY annoying, and probably the most annoying thing right now as while i'm driving, i dont wanna mess w/the ipod. However, i've read A TON on this forum (thank God for this forum) and i'll try the Apply composite cables and hopefully have a little more reliability as many have seemed to remedy this problem with the new cable.

 

4) load times -- whatever, it doesn't seem as bad in real time as I was worried about prior to installing this unit and just reading all the load time grievances.

 

I just hope this thing holds up for at least two years so I can replace it with the next latest and greatest at that time... i don't expect this thing to last as long as my single DIN pioneer units (which were AWESOME)... which lasted years and years and produced FLAWLESS music.

 

5) the sound quality is AWESOME for me and hands down much better than the stock Infiniti G35 Bose system...

 

6) Reverse cam comes on within a few seconds when i shift into reverse, even while its loading up -- no problems -- i was seriously worried this would be an issue prior to installation.

 

All in all -- time will tell, but it's well worth the money I paid, not a dollar more. This thing is a WASTE of money at the MSRP $1200, but a decent value at $550. it's ability to modified is a plus, but i don't really intend to do this.

[VTEC976]

I would agree with the sound quality issue. It is really the only thing I complain about, otherwise I am very happy with mine. Considering what it does, I think a lot of us have become hypersensitive about operations and what it "should" do and how.

 

I always review it as a satisfied customer.