AVIC-7000NEX in hand

[diablo2112]

I've been patiently waiting for the release of the 8000NEX.  I've been postponing an install on my 2007 SL550 as I waited for release, now postponed almost a month.  I got a bit antsy, and headed down to my local shop in Albuquerque to check out the 8" Alpine as an alternative.  I was about to pull the trigger on the Alpine, and was at the checkout with credit card in hand when lo-and-behold, I noticed 2 Pioneer boxes behind the counter.  They had both a 5000 and 7000NEX!

 

They said they came in yesterday.  Long story short, I picked up the 7000.  $200 cheaper than the 8000, and only difference is lack of capacitive touchscreen, otherwise identical.  It's sitting new-in-the-box on my table now, and I'll start the install tomorrow.

 

Hadn't heard of anyone else having these in stock.  I did have my local shop check on the 8000NEX, it still shows as preorder.  Check your local dealer; obviously, these are starting to ship.

 

[GHII]

 I am in the same boat with the 8000, I just need to get this install done! Green envy looking at your unit, nice find, Im trying to get one now.  I live in a small town theres no way our dealer would have any, 929 is trying to help me get one from his shop, nice guy.

[949]

hey did the shop owner call you yet?

 

oh how much did you pay for the 7000nex?

[diablo2112]

Paid $1199 for the 7000; got a rear-view camera thrown in as part of the deal (Kenwood CMOS-210).

[GHII]

hey did the shop owner call you yet?

 

oh how much did you pay for the 7000nex?

 

Hasn't called yet, have CC in hand

[koush]

What navigation software does it have? Can you get a video up once its up and running?

 

Koush

[diablo2112]

Not sure who does Nav software, its nothing I recognize.  Nav is just ok on this unit, not great.  Still doesn't directly label streets, and even at the highest mag, doesn't label every street on the screen.  Street labels are horizontal only, in a white box, with an arrow pointing to the street.  Personally, I really don't like these types of labels.  Much, much prefer text oriented in the street direction and overlaid.  And just try and force the map view to 2D: good luck with that.  Took me about 2 hours to figure it out.  You'd think when you touch the screen and bring up the zoom button, compass, etc. that touching the "3D/2D" button would do it.  It does indeed change current view to 2D/3D, but when you exit the screen, it reverts back to its previous setting!  Terrible interface here.  After hours of searching, reading the manual (no help here), I found a banner at the bottom in one of the modes that had a 2D/3D toggle.   Too bad, really, was hoping Pioneer would reach OEM level of interface and functionality.  Sadly, it hasn't.  Still about 5 years behind.

 

I'll have a full review of the 7000NEX up shortly.  Some good stuff, some ok stuff, some head scratching terrible stuff.  Appmode still is highly buggy, and almost inoperative with my iPhone 5s.  More gimic than useful.  Videos work great, no issue there as long as you properly wire the parking brake (bypassed via a relay; took me 2 attempts to get this right in my install, the only issue I had).

[GHII]

Mind of giving a sneak peak at what some of the head scratching terrible stuff was?

[diablo2112]

Terrible stuff:  

 

App mode doesn't work at all with my iPhone 5s, and I've hooked it up with the recommended Pioneer Cables.  A huge, hot mess, all of it.  Waze doesn't run at all, what apps I can get to run boot out of app mode on either the iPhone or 7000 NEX at apparently random points.  
 

Siri eyes free doesn't work.  It takes my command, gives a beep, then provides 3 seconds of hissing static noise.  

 

You cannot set the zoom level on the map.  It defaults back to whatever zoom it had when hard power was last applied to the head unit (don't ask how I figure that out).  I've spent a few hours trying to get the map to hold a given zoom setting, simply can't find a way to do this.  Nav overall is bad on this unit, nothing at all like the current Garmin and Tomtoms, of which I own several.

 

Dimmer mode is confusing as hell.  Very confusing.  I finally found an item buried deep in the manual that when the illumination lead is triggered (by your lights), that the screen has a separate set of settings.  Fair enough, but the default is the same as the day mode!  Terrible for those unfamiliar!  Also, the dimmer only adjusts the screen, not the LED lights on the buttons.  You can dim these separately, but then they stay dim in bright light.  These lights should also switch with day/night mode.

 

Parking brake override DOES NOT WORK.  Unlike the 4000NEX (without Nav), my unit figured out after about 5 miles that it was moving, even with a relay-installed parking brake bypass.  After this point, it simply wouldn't allow many functions to be accessed unless the speed was below some low point (around 5mph or so).

 

Most modes have huge fonts with limited characters on screen and scroll the album/artist/title names.  I hate this!  This unit has a WXGA display; please, please, please just use a smaller font and show the whole damn title/artist/album name.  This is really annoying with Sirius as well.

 

No animated background screens or wallpapers with the 7000NEX (this was shown in the demo video of the 8000NEX).

 

No album art over bluetooth (there is album art via USB).  

 

No ipod connectivity in app mode (using digital AV connection as recommended.)  You have to run an app on your phone, and it's a hot mess like above.  Randomly boots out, required multiple confirmations on both head unit and iPhone, etc.

 

SC card files are organized by Artist/Album/Genre.  However, when you selected an album, it plays tracks in alphabetical order!  Completely unacceptable!  They only way to play tracks in track-order is to go into the file system itself and find your album that way.  If you search by "tag", it only plays in alphabetic order.

 

That's a partial list.  

 

Frankly, hardware is ok.  Software is incomplete, very buggy.  This unit is NOT ready for primetime.  The joys of being an early adopter.

[diablo2112]

And to be fair, here's a few good things about the unit:

 

Audio quality is stellar.  Sounds fantastic through my stock amp and speakers (Bose Factory unit on a Mercedes SL550) connected via a custom MOST fiber interface.

 

Startup is reasonably fast, much faster than other aftermarket units I've tried.

 

Scrolling in map mode while moving is very, very smooth.  Easily up above 24 fps.  Very fluid (if only you could set the zoom level).

 

Menu navigation is very responsive.  You can move around quickly with little delay.

 

The bluetooth phone speaker and mic quality is excellent.  I installed the included mic on my overhead console at the top of the windscreen (I have a convertible; this is where the interior lights are located).  Sound quality of the phone in the car (via bluetooth) is top notch, and my wife on the other end said it was quite clear, much better than the OEM Mercedes unit, in fact. 

 

HD radio reception is very good.  This unit received several HD radio stations in places my other units couldn't pickup a digital signal.

 

That's also a partial list.  I'm still exploring and getting to know the unit.

[sstrong42]

Terrible stuff:  

 

App mode doesn't work at all with my iPhone 5s, and I've hooked it up with the recommended Pioneer Cables.  A huge, hot mess, all of it.  Waze doesn't run at all, what apps I can get to run boot out of app mode on either the iPhone or 7000 NEX at apparently random points.  

 

Siri eyes free doesn't work.  It takes my command, gives a beep, then provides 3 seconds of hissing static noise.  

 

You cannot set the zoom level on the map.  It defaults back to whatever zoom it had when hard power was last applied to the head unit (don't ask how I figure that out).  I've spent a few hours trying to get the map to hold a given zoom setting, simply can't find a way to do this.  Nav overall is bad on this unit, nothing at all like the current Garmin and Tomtoms, of which I own several.

 

Dimmer mode is confusing as hell.  Very confusing.  I finally found an item buried deep in the manual that when the illumination lead is triggered (by your lights), that the screen has a separate set of settings.  Fair enough, but the default is the same as the day mode!  Terrible for those unfamiliar!  Also, the dimmer only adjusts the screen, not the LED lights on the buttons.  You can dim these separately, but then they stay dim in bright light.  These lights should also switch with day/night mode.

 

Parking brake override DOES NOT WORK.  Unlike the 4000NEX (without Nav), my unit figured out after about 5 miles that it was moving, even with a relay-installed parking brake bypass.  After this point, it simply wouldn't allow many functions to be accessed unless the speed was below some low point (around 5mph or so).

 

Most modes have huge fonts with limited characters on screen and scroll the album/artist/title names.  I hate this!  This unit has a WXGA display; please, please, please just use a smaller font and show the whole damn title/artist/album name.  This is really annoying with Sirius as well.

 

No animated background screens or wallpapers with the 7000NEX (this was shown in the demo video of the 8000NEX).

 

No album art over bluetooth (there is album art via USB).  

 

No ipod connectivity in app mode (using digital AV connection as recommended.)  You have to run an app on your phone, and it's a hot mess like above.  Randomly boots out, required multiple confirmations on both head unit and iPhone, etc.

 

SC card files are organized by Artist/Album/Genre.  However, when you selected an album, it plays tracks in alphabetical order!  Completely unacceptable!  They only way to play tracks in track-order is to go into the file system itself and find your album that way.  If you search by "tag", it only plays in alphabetic order.

 

That's a partial list.  

 

Frankly, hardware is ok.  Software is incomplete, very buggy.  This unit is NOT ready for primetime.  The joys of being an early adopter.

 

How big was the SD card that you got it to recognize and read?  If you browse by folder and "play all" it plays it numerical order. Otherwise, you're right, it plays it in alphabetical order.  What's the point of ID3 tagging if it's just going to ignore the track number?  Have you contacted Pioneer yet?

[diablo2112]

SD card was 32GB with about 21 GB of music files.  

[douger]

Terrible stuff:  

 

App mode doesn't work at all with my iPhone 5s, and I've hooked it up with the recommended Pioneer Cables.  A huge, hot mess, all of it.  Waze doesn't run at all, what apps I can get to run boot out of app mode on either the iPhone or 7000 NEX at apparently random points.  

 

Siri eyes free doesn't work.  It takes my command, gives a beep, then provides 3 seconds of hissing static noise.  

 

You cannot set the zoom level on the map.  It defaults back to whatever zoom it had when hard power was last applied to the head unit (don't ask how I figure that out).  I've spent a few hours trying to get the map to hold a given zoom setting, simply can't find a way to do this.  Nav overall is bad on this unit, nothing at all like the current Garmin and Tomtoms, of which I own several.

 

Dimmer mode is confusing as hell.  Very confusing.  I finally found an item buried deep in the manual that when the illumination lead is triggered (by your lights), that the screen has a separate set of settings.  Fair enough, but the default is the same as the day mode!  Terrible for those unfamiliar!  Also, the dimmer only adjusts the screen, not the LED lights on the buttons.  You can dim these separately, but then they stay dim in bright light.  These lights should also switch with day/night mode.

 

Parking brake override DOES NOT WORK.  Unlike the 4000NEX (without Nav), my unit figured out after about 5 miles that it was moving, even with a relay-installed parking brake bypass.  After this point, it simply wouldn't allow many functions to be accessed unless the speed was below some low point (around 5mph or so).

 

Most modes have huge fonts with limited characters on screen and scroll the album/artist/title names.  I hate this!  This unit has a WXGA display; please, please, please just use a smaller font and show the whole damn title/artist/album name.  This is really annoying with Sirius as well.

 

No animated background screens or wallpapers with the 7000NEX (this was shown in the demo video of the 8000NEX).

 

No album art over bluetooth (there is album art via USB).  

 

No ipod connectivity in app mode (using digital AV connection as recommended.)  You have to run an app on your phone, and it's a hot mess like above.  Randomly boots out, required multiple confirmations on both head unit and iPhone, etc.

 

SC card files are organized by Artist/Album/Genre.  However, when you selected an album, it plays tracks in alphabetical order!  Completely unacceptable!  They only way to play tracks in track-order is to go into the file system itself and find your album that way.  If you search by "tag", it only plays in alphabetic order.

 

That's a partial list.  

 

Frankly, hardware is ok.  Software is incomplete, very buggy.  This unit is NOT ready for primetime.  The joys of being an early adopter.

I was looking at going with the 4000 NEX. I can't see spending the extra money for navigation if the maps database is going to be obsolete out of the box.

 

It seems AppMode is the same crap that they've been peddling for years now. You'd think that they'd either fix it or ditch it. Your description of it is exactly my experience with it using a Samsung S4 on a Z150. In other words, it's practically unusable. 

 

What I'm hoping for is someone to give a report on how well Mirrorlink works. There is a hacked version of it that gives full screen mirroring. My biggest question: does it cut off the head unit's sourcing to operate in Mirrorlink mode like AppMode does? I'd love for the unit to be able to display Waze on its screen while I played music from a mass storage device, with the ability to swap back and forth between the music app and the nav app.

 

As an aside: you can use media managers such as Media Monkey to rename your files to add track to the beginning of the file name in case Pioneer can't figure out how to use track number from the metadata to sort and play music. In fact, Pioneer would be well served if it paired with a company like Poweramp to develop an interface to play music from mass storage devices. I can OTG a SSD to my S4 and Poweramp will read and play all 21,000 tracks regardless of the format. What I can't do with the Z150 is play music out of the S4 and into the Z150 as an aux input without losing the screen completely.

 

The really maddening thing about all of this? I just bought a 2013 Nexus 7 for $250 that from a hardware standpoint will do anything we'd want an infotainment system to do. There are people that are doing just that with their Nexus'. If I were 20 years younger and that adventurous, I'd give it a whirl. It's not for lack of imagination. Pioneer simply doesn't seem interested in capturing the market.

[sstrong42]

SD card was 32GB with about 21 GB of music files.  

 

Good to know that it does indeed work.  Maybe my unit is just defective.

[GHII]

Diablo where are you located? What shop did you get yours at?