I've had this in (AVIC-W8500NEX) for a little over 2 weeks now, and loving it. I Previously owned an AVIC-N1 back in the days in my old 97 Altima... I'm happy I was able to find this forum for questions and such. I see there are ways to "Jailbreak" these machines now and I will be reading things through to see if anything applies to me for the possibility of "unlocking" this device for more fun  . If there is anything I should know feel free to post it here because it's been quite sometime since I've owned/operated an AVIC device and I'm open to any tips/tricks/suggestions. The old Pioneer GPS system was a lot better than this one IMO... hell google maps is better lol. I personally do not like using Android Auto... feels dumb and limiting.

I also went with the 5-way YS-A6970F in the front and the 4-way TS-A6960F for the rear.

It looks like these newer units have had the debug password changed. We need to figure out what it is!

I was tinkering with my head unit yesterday and the PAC (easy bypass cable thing) wasn't doing as it's suppose to... I disconnected that and connected the appropriate wiring to do a manual bypass and still the video was restricted even after grounding the parking brake(green) to ground and the remote directly... I had a hunch since the GPS was reading my car's speed via satellite to disconnect the GPS cable from the head unit. This allowed for video playback while the car was moving (tested at higher speeds up to 60MPH without any restrictions). I'm not sure if this was the same issue with the 8400NEX but it does suck to purchase a higher end unit to eliminate the built in GPS... still, google maps is better than Pioneer's naviextra package and simply screen mirroring to the device would fix the not having GPS thing but not worth the money with those limitations. 

All-in-all, my 8500NEX plays videos/mirrors without limitations just GPS is down for the time being.  

You need to do the on screen parking brake bypass....

The on screen bypass doesn't work on the 8500. I turned off the display from the AV menu and the screen went black and held my finger in the space where everyone said for 10 to 15 seconds and no prompt showed. Unless you know of a trick with the w8500nex, let me know.

I just use my whole thumb on lower left corner. I can comfim.it work cause I have the unit.

I've also got the w8500NEX and the on screen bypass worked like a charm. GPS antenna is still connected. I just straight grounded the parking brake wire and everything works at all speeds. I did get the error for the first time today saying that the system has detected an improperly connected brake wire, but you just press Okay and that's the end of it. Maybe try removing the PAC piece and grounding the parking brake wire if its easy enough to get to? Or just keep trying the touch method in slightly different spots. It also could be that you have the source off as opposed to having the unit off (or vice versa, I forget which way it had to be done)

From what I remember They were in the home screen where you can quick select your options. Then they pressed "AV" and it opened a menu. At the bottom they hit off and their screen went into a screen saver/standby mode. Mine went to black. I since my last post removed the PAC bypass and hardwired the parking brake (green) to ground (black)... just disconnected the  GPS which ended up working for me. I'll keep tinkering with the screen option to see if I can get it to work that way and reconnect the GPS tomorrow. ty sir

A little update... Yesterday morning before leaving to Marco Island I took things apart and reconnected the GPS and my mistake was I turned off the unit completely instead of source as mentioned above. I then did the bottom left touch for 10 seconds + and it said "Set On" so it still works as mentioned on 8500 ty...

Tested it on the trip every function at our fingertips while the car is in motions. 

So when you were able to get the onscreen bypass to work, did you have to wire it a certain way?  Or just connect the parking brake wire normally?  I am thinking about purchasing the 8500 and will use the maestro unit to maintain factory controls, will the bypass still work with that?

you have to do the bypass in "source off" mode not device off"

Source off

Since the post back in May the bypass worked flawlessly, ty all.

Hi.

(This posts questions are directed to the original poster. But to others, please feel free to chime in any thoughts as well.)

I'm late to the party but have a question to the OP as I am considering getting the 8500NEX.

You said that you were loving the unit but did not care for Android Auto or the units navigation system. I have not read in anyone's posts on any site saying they did not like A.A. so I was curious about that.

Did you consider buying a less expensive unit that didn't have navigation(I've read some posts from owners and installers as well where both preferred plugging in their phones for Google Maps for nav) and plug in Android Auto only so the unit might be a few hundred dollars cheaper? It's been 4+ months since your original post. Have your feelings changed?

Are there other abilities the unit has that lesser cost units do not that you really like and use.

The capacitive screen might be worth the $200+ alone?

The price of the 8500 has come down a bit since you purchased yours. I've seen it on Amazon for $652 and $759. I'm trying to figure out if the $652 is for everything included with  the $759 unit. I will have a pro installer do the job......If a shop isn't a Pioneer dealer, do they prefer you buy the unit and they install it? Or they'd prefer to buy it.

Thank you. I appreciate it.