Hi all,

I just updated the firmware and ran the HDMI cable + Lightning AV adapter + USB Lightning(on old 30 pin cable) and i'm frustrated that in order for the AppRadio to work, bluetooth must be paired.

REALLY?????

What for? My guess is for the audio part? If so, why is Pandora artwork and list of artists so laggy to load up? 

The HDMI adaptor does not transfer data. I'm honestly personally surprised the lightning port was able to push HDMI at all. Regardless the HDMI adaptor's USB port is solely for power. With this in mind Pioneer has no other way to interface with the phone besides bluetooth. 

Bluetooth is needed because the lightning connector will not output analog video like old 30 used to.  Bluetooth allows the unit to track your touch inputs and relay to the phone, so it knows when and where your input registered.

Other than Pandora being a little sluggish I've enjoyed the experience thus far on Iphone 5. Android users have the same solution implemented since the beginning.  While lightning has shaken up the industry and everyone has been left scrambling, it's a much better connector than the 30 pin and in a couple years the old 30 pin won't even be missed.

I'm a little confused on this...

The lightning digital a/v adapter can output both audio and video over HDMI, so what is this about it not being able to pass audio?

I know that HDMI isn't analog audio, but it can be PCM (digital; uncompressed) which I would have expected the Pioneer receiver to handle since it's not compressed like Dolby Digital or DTS, etc.

The only thing I'm unsure of is how it's passing the touch-screen information between the two devices... (is it using the HDMI audio channel maybe?!)

No no no. The HDMI sends both audio and video. the USB provides power. Touch controls are handled via the bluetooth connection. 

^^^^ this.  Though i'm unsure why Pandora performance has suffered because of connector switch.

Pandora only uses the built-in HDMI for audio. Does not use it for any of the video source, so all of the stations have to be imported into Pandora via the Bluetooth. This slows the whole machine.

The reason for this is that Pandora is not an app that is actually displayed via the iPhone. It is a built-in app in the pioneer radio. Honestly it is the worst way to do the application, the better way would be the same way The other applications run on the radio.

The reason for this is that Pandora is not an app that is actually displayed via the iPhone. It is a built-in app in the pioneer radio. Honestly it is the worst way to do the application, the better way would be the same way The other applications run on the radio.

Ok, here's the thing:

Before i updated the firmware and got the AV adapter, i was using the 30 pin to lightning adapter and it was working perfect, no bluetooth connection, so this means all touchscreen+audio+video running on the cable. 

Then updated and swapped to lighting av + usb lighting over original pioneer cable... I honestly thought the the hdmi part was carrying the audio+video and the usb part was doing the software talk(touch input) + charging. 

Pandora on the AppRadio is a built in application. Everything you see on the display is run by the AppRadio completely with stuff like the album art, artist, and track names being read from the phone and then printed on the screen by the built in app. That is why pandora looks and acts differently on the AppRadio 1 vs the 2 and why the apps never get any of the new features that Pandora launches with each of their updates. So how does it work and how has the change to lightning affected it?

The lightning to 30 pin transfers data and the audio but does not transfer video. This does not work for any of the Advanced App Mode apps but it works perfectly for Pandora. The Pandora application normally works by routing the audio from the phone to the radio and retrieving the artist, track and album art information from the USB data port. The data port was also used for controlling the phone. Since the Lightning to 30 pin provides exactly that and nothing more the Pandora application works exactly like it did before.  

Now the lightning AV adaptor is different. Instead of audio and data it produces audio and video. It does have a lightning port on it, but that port is solely for power. No data comes from that port. Well that doesn't work for anything AppRadio needs because you need a way to control the actions on the screen. Enter bluetooth. For all Advanced App Mode applications the HDMI port provides the video and audio you see and hear, while bluetooth handles routing the touch inputs to the phone. However like I said before Pandora doesn't use the video signal. It needs the data port to read the information the Pandora app is producing and route that data to the built in app. However again the Lightning AV adaptor doesn't give you data. So bluetooth has to supplement the job of the data port for it. Problem is bluetooth is slow. In my testing I've found its data rate to be about 1-2 Megabits per second VS the 480 Megabits per second transfer rate of USB 2.0. Also anything wireless will lag in comparison to a wired connection.  That is why when you open pandora it takes a few seconds for all your artists to load. It is reading the data for the artists from bluetooth which again is slow, but once loaded the app runs the same as before because all animations are done by the Pioneer headunit so there is no lag. 

Went a little overboard with the explanation but I hope I cleared up any confusion. 

Short version. Lightning to 30 pin does transfer data, lightning to HDMI does not. Pandora needs the former. 

@danhyz - good explanation, your'e right on the money. I've done the 8.30 update and paired my iPhone 5, it works great. If anyone hasn't done it yet and want to see what it looks like, here it is:

Thanks for the video, I haven't updated yet but I'm wanting to know, can I still 'mirror' audio and video from my iphone 5? How would I do that with the new update as right now I use the 'app' button to bring up my phone screen (av adaptor + lightning cable)