My review of the new AVIC-X920BT

[danykane]

Ok. I recently had the AVIC-X920BT installed. Awesome. For anyone interested, I also got the rear camera, Bluetooth, Sirius, hands-free, USB and steering wheel control added.

 

First, this head unit will allow you to adjust the colour of the buttons to match ANY vehicle interior. The NAV system works well but it is slightly different than my current portable Garmin GPS. It only does "text to speech" if you are on major highways (announcing names of roads instead of just saying "in 100ft, turn right). But this Nav display provides much more information on screen and has better picture detail when you approach your turns using a "zoom" feature with a shrinking distance bar on the left so it's really hard to miss a turn.

 

The rear camera works great and there are some cool features like splitting the display to show half rear view and half nav to show you a constant visual of what is behind you while driving (for ex. towing a boat behind you)

 

The shop that installed the unit spent a lot of time testing different placements for the hands-free mic and the best result on a Forester 2010 is just to the left of the rear view mirror at top. The clarity of the hands free is amazing with no echo and everyone I speak to over the hands free can't even tell that I'm speaking in my car (The Forester is known for bad wind/ road noise)

 

The USB that was installed replaced the "Aux" Jack that was in the centre console and now has USB/AUX plug made specific for iPod etc. The integration of the iPod or any USB device is fantastic! Some new "finger" scrolling features on this unit make it a breeze to navigate your playlists.... along with the "MusicShere" which I am still waiting for... actually, in Canada we are also waiting for a version of the AVIC FEEDS which will work with this unit. I tried everything but the current version does not work. However, I did manage to get the Splash Screen images to upload. !!Please note: the resolution has to be 800 x 480!!

 

Steering wheel controls work flawlessly. I believe this is a third party control switch called PAC SWI-PS - Pioneer and Sony Steering Wheel Radio Control Interface

 

I had the bypass done so I can let my front seat passenger watch movies while driving. Also, this bypass allows you to enter and change navigation addresses while in drive as well... although, I would never do such a thing for safety reasons!

 

Some things that aren't so cool... First, that 1980's Mac computer style female voice that is known as the "VR - Voice Recognition" feature. And I believe it is true that the more you use the Voice Recognition the more consistent and accurate it becomes. At first, I had a lot of trouble getting the VR to recognize phone book contacts but it turns out I didn't let the VR sync to my Blackberry Bluetooth long enough the first time. Now it syncs to my phone in seconds! Tip: Be patient when you first get this unit to sync with your phone over bluetooth and if you change a lot of contacts on your phone be sure to delete the contacts on the X920BT and re-transfer your contacts from your phone to the X920BT.

 

You can't use the Pandora feature in Canada so for those who are keeping track, this unit is very similar to the Z110BT without the AVIC FEEDS etc. I chose this unit because I REALLY wanted to get an after market Nav that looked as "factory" as possible. The larger screen on the Z110BT would be better for watching DVDs but I heard it was a larger target for theft. Maybe? Maybe not? Either way, I'm SO happy with this unit and highly recommend it!

 

Thanks,

D.

[danykane]

NOTE**

 

I just discovered that if you have a remote starter and have the car start up without your Bluetooth phone near by to sync the VR will take MUCH longer to recognize voice commands for your contacts. You will hear the dreaded "I'm sorry, I didn't understand? etc."

 

All you need to do is turn off your Bluetooth on your phone and turn it on again and the VR - Voice Recognition should be ready to go in a very short while.

 

D.

[VBLUE42]

The problem is related to the BT connecting before the map OK button is pressed. In this case, when you get in your car, just go to the BT contact transfer screen and re-transfer your contacts. That should clear up the issue.

[danykane]

The problem is related to the BT connecting before the map OK button is pressed. In this case, when you get in your car, just go to the BT contact transfer screen and re-transfer your contacts. That should clear up the issue.

 

 

Hey, thanks for the heads up. I was going to put another post because I noticed that when I first drove my car to go shopping this morning the VR wouldn't recognize my commands to "Call" my friend. This went on for 10 minutes with no connection. So I gave up trying. After I finished shopping I decided to time how long it took to sync my phone to the NAV and have the VR work for contact commands and it was fully up and running AND WORKNIG within 1 minute.

 

So you are saying that the phone should NOT sync via Bluetooth to the Nav BEFORE the "map warning ok" is pressed?

 

 

Hmmm... I'll try it.

 

Thanks,

 

D.

[VBLUE42]

Yes. This is a carry over from the Z110BT that we verified over a year ago. The 920 has the same bug in the software. Hit the map OK button before BT connects and BT calling will always work flawlessly.

[danykane]

Yes. This is a carry over from the Z110BT that we verified over a year ago. The 920 has the same bug in the software. Hit the map OK button before BT connects and BT calling will always work flawlessly.

 

This forum is great! Thanks VBLUE. I just tested this out on the 920BT 4 separate times with and without hitting the OK button and you are correct! I would be going nuts right now if you didn't provide the info.

 

Any other "bugs" I should be aware of?

 

Actually, I do have a question... "Is there a way to answer a "call waiting" phone call while you are already on a hands-free call? I heard the tone indicating that I had another call on the line but had no way to get to it from the Nav display?

 

 

 

D.

[VBLUE42]

You know that is a good question. If the green call pick up icon lights, you should be able to touch it and switch to the other call. If it doesn't I would assume that is not a supported feature.

[VBLUE42]

Any other "bugs" I should be aware of?

 

Not that I can remember.

[danykane]

You know that is a good question. If the green call pick up icon lights, you should be able to touch it and switch to the other call. If it doesn't I would assume that is not a supported feature.

 

Actually, the Nav display just shows buttons of the call I am on already.... you know, the hang up button, and volume controls of the current call. When the second call comes in nothing on the display changes but I hear my phone cutting out indicating another call is coming in. I guess this would just be considered a Non-Feature.

 

D.

[djrahul]

Can anyone tell me, after how many seconds (after turning on your car) the music starts to play if you use microSD-Cards?

On my F900BT it takes about 45sek to one minute...

[danykane]

Can anyone tell me, after how many seconds (after turning on your car) the music starts to play if you use microSD-Cards?

On my F900BT it takes about 45sek to one minute...

 

 

Hey,

 

So I went out and tested this for you today. I used a 4 GB Micro SD card and loaded it with about 100 songs (Dragged and dropped directly from iTunes) just to test.

 

After the usual screen start up I just went to the AV source and picked "SD" and it showed my song list and started play back right away.

 

If I had the AV source set to SD before shutting off the car, the next time I started the car the songs started playback immediately...during the start up screen. It's a really cool feature!

 

D.

[Inertius]

That's good news about the SD slot - I was interested in using that as well. Although, seeing that the iPod interface is pretty good, I might break down and buy one =\

 

(Oh, and I have a 2010 WRX - It looks good in the dash of your STI =D)

 

I do have some questions regarding using the unit at night:

Does it dim with the interior lights, and can you adjust the dimming? One of my biggest complaints with some aftermarket radios is that they're too bright at night.

[rgarjr]

Does the iPod or the SD feature have a scrub slider to slide to like the middle of a song? Does it have the sound level compression enhancer feature for mp3s like the 4200/3200 series?

[VBLUE42]

No.

[swong46]

What are the differences in the 920 and the z110bt?