Pioneer AVIC-F900BT In-Dash Navigation Audio/Video ...

Great after Update:
I originally had the F700BT for 2 weeks and though I liked it I sent it back due to the following issues. 1. I had all the same issues as described on avic411 forum but I was not sure I wanted to wait for a firmware update. These problems are mentioned in other reviews. 2. There was no quick way to reroute/detour if you seen traffic ahead 3. MSN Direct could not be added later So I returned it and ordered this F900BT. It was backordered for a long time because Pioneer was working on fixing the multiple issues. Now I have had it installed with the firmware update for about a week and went on a 17hr road trip to test it out fully. Now I am glad to say this stereo is meeting my expectations from the previews months ago. Sound: Better than my factory of course with the usual Pioneer EQs such as Powerful, Super Bass etc.. Screen: Preupdate, the screen only looked good in the shade and washed out a lot in sunlight but after the update I can see it a lot better along with greyed out icons. The splash/startup screen can be customized with a jpg by SD card or usb drive. The button lighting can also be adjusted to match your car interior. The responsiveness is ok after startup. But sometimes it can be picky. Nav: The Nav is nice. I'm coming from a Garmin Nuvi 200 and a Kenwood 5120. Since the 900 comes with Bluetooth you can call the POIs in the device with a touch of a button. You can create a trip/route with stops/waypoints in it and manage them. You can preplan restroom and food breaks or site-see. There is a screen for progress and itinerary info. This screen can show you your progress along the trip whether its miles left or hours left or you can view the trip as turn by turn. Your map screen can show you a lot of info such as speed limit, your speed, next turn and second turn, time to destination/turn and estimated arrival. The only annoying them after the update is the green turn boxes stay on screen even if you have no route in. Another minor thing is the voice prompts happen to frequently, you'll notice this when entering/exiting a hwy or approaching a turn. There is also a button on the corner that shows what your currently listening to, that you can press and be sent to that screen. For instance, if its ipod, the current song will show on bottom along with album art. If you press the button it will take you to the main ipod screen with all the info. There are also tons of POIs in the unit, you can find them by: along route, near cursur, near destination, by current position. There is also a shortcut to POIs if you're just cruising around. Press the info button on right side of map, this will show you a zoomed out image of where you are. From here you can save your location or press "info" and it'll tell you all the POIs near you. You can also turn on speed warnings where it'll warn you when you're speeding. In the future Pioneer will introduce a POI creator. I'm not sure if this will enable proximity alerts such as Garmin's red light/speed cam warnings. HD radio (add-on): First, Pioneer does not tell you this but you need an antenna splitter or additional antenna for HD Radio Tuner to work. I got one off Ebay for $6 shipped. The antenna goes to HD and stereo, stereo needs it for MSN to work but if you're not using MSN then its fine. Pioneer told me this was aimed at the F700 since it doesn't have MSN, but anyway. Ok, I'm in Raleigh and we have about 12 HD channels and they sound GOOD. It was like night and day when I put my antenna back into stereo while waiting for the splitter. Plus with the $50 HD rebate this was a cheap upgrade. HD integrates into interface and takes control of FM/AM if no splitter is present. When you select the HD source you'll get 3 sets of FM presets and 1 set of AM presets. If you have a splitter this number is doubled because the FM source has its own 3 sets. Things work as expected but I have had two issues. One, when you press the next preset button (P. Ch > ) it tends to skip. For instance I'll be on P6 and it'll skip to P4 instead of P1. Two, preset info doesn't show up on the Preset list. You just have to remember whats there. In FM mode the presets are listed as 88.9, 97.5, 99.1 and so on but in HD mode its just blank. While in HD you can do HD Seek where it will find the next HD channel instead of static from standard FM. Yes you can still listen to standard FM while in HD source. At car startup music will begin in about 5 secs. iPod: iPod interface is great. I wouldn't say the manual searching is quick though but it has a huge shortcut, voice control. Just like Ford Sync, you can press a button and say "play artist..." and it will play that artist/album. You can tell it to show you artists, playlists and albums. It is really cool and is spot on. I was surprised by it getting Gnarls Barkley. Before the update the stereo had to catalogue the ipod at startup each time which was a pain but now you only need to do it once. Album art also shows up on the map as well. Videos look well also but I don't think videos work when you have a nav route on (dvds do though)(assuming you have the bypass connected, be safe and watch the road). Full startup time on mine is about 1:45 when ipod is left as default (left on when car turned off), but music begins after about 30 secs. DVD: DVDs look good to me not much to say here. You have a set of controls come up when the movie is playing such as pause and next, but you can also skip chapters by pressing the knob. On the main menu screen you get arrow controls and a enter button. When I put in my first dvd the unit became unresponsive to the controls and wouldn't eject but a reboot fixed that and it worked fine afterwards. If you're in route the voice prompts will mute the audio. You can either pause the movie or press `map' to see whats coming up and then return to movie. I only did this for my passengers so they wont annoy me. MSN: Depending on your area the info can be great. In Raleigh you get a lot of info but in Durham the signal is weak. Info comes through the FM antenna hence the need for a splitter for HD. If in a strong area, info comes in about 2 min. Traffic info will overlay on your map and if in route you will be guided around it. You can route to movie theatres or gas stations as well. Movie showtimes show up for the entire day and Gas prices may or may not be current but it tells you like this, $3.79 (+2 days) or $1.48 (today) wishful thinking I know. Bluetooth: Ok lets get the obvious out of the way, Blackberries are hit and miss with this. But I have a Samsung A900 and its works ok. Sounds good on my end and haven't had complaints on callers end. My friends Treo 755 works really well. You can transfer your phonebook, store 5 phones, call contacts by name (Call Mike) or number (call 919-771-7771). It says you can receive/view incoming txts as well but I have not got any while in car to test this. Others report it works though. Overall I have to same I am very very satisfied with the unit. Glad I waited for it.

Close but has problems:
The bottom line is the bottom line---if I had it to do again I would not get the Pioneer AVIC-F900BT. It has some great features but is missing on some important points: A) Can only download contacts through Bluetooth-my Treo won't B) Voice commands are like trying to talk to a wild puppy-only hears some of the commands & does't understand what it does hear C) Navigation is NOT "turn right on main street" but rather "turn right ahead" D) Glare, glare, glare on the screen E) Manual is a pdf. CD for that kind of money they can't even give you a printed manual!!?? F) Not very intuitive to operate, requires several steps to do about anything G) S-L-O-W start-up H) Like I said-some features are nice but in the long run save your maoney & go elsewhere

Great System (Once it is installed properly):
I purchased this for our 2005 Honda Odyssey. Crutchfield did not have the mounting kit so I ordered it from another company. I also purchased the PAC SWI-PS for the steering wheel buttons. When I tried installing it myself I had an annoying hiss coming from the speakers. Also, the computer voice was very scratchy. I called Crutchfield and they sent me a noise filter. I wasn't sure that was the problem so I checked some forums, avic411.com, and found that someone else had the same problem and they installed a PAC OEM-2. The problem stemmed from my factory amp putting off too much voltage and this PAC OEM-2 allows you to lower the amount of volts that go into the speakers (or something like that). I ordered one from Crutchfield. I then paid someone to install it. He did an excellent job. He is in Baltimore (12 Voltz is the name of his company) and is very reasonably priced. Crutchfield is definitely a top notch company. They helped me as much as they could through my first atept at installing this stereo. I literally called them about 15 times. For the price, this stereo has everything that you want. The sound is excellent and the navigation works great. So if you have a factory amp and you are having a hiss (soft shushing noise) from your speakers definitely order the PAC OEM-2 with this stereo.

dissapointing:
The unit takes a nearly two minutes to boot up completly!! the bluetooth disconnects every two minutes from my blackberry, when I called the company they said "sorry, we havnt been able to make the avic stay connected to blackberry" the guy said that they havnt smoothed out the software glitches yet!! this unit seemed very apealing based on write up and specs. Unfortunatly using the the unit is a dissapointment. cant use it for calls... what a waste HEY PIONEER, PLEASE SMOOTH OUT THE GLITCHES BEFORE YOU RELEASE A PRODUCT.

Ignore the Outdated Reviews - Unit is almost perfect:
I was hesitant to buy this unit but after reading about the new 2.0 update my fears were eased a bit. I purchased this unit on Amazon and had Best Buy install it in my truck because I didn't trust myself to do the wiring. They did a professional job and the the F-900bt looks like it could be a factory unit. Overall, I'm happy with my purchase even though it's still not perfect. I'm sure Pioneer has future updates down the road that will make the unit even better. I saved a ton of money by purchasing this on Amazon! My local shop wanted $1,100 just for the unit. Pro's: DVD Playback- The DVD playback loads fast and the picture is great for such a small screen. Navigation - Very solid, the 3-D mode is fantastic and a lot easier for me to use. There is an endless amount of waypoints stored in the unit. It's also nice that all the maps are stored inside the unit. Bluetooth - Best Buy installed the microphone just above my rear view mirror and I have had good results. I use an iPhone and connect without a hitch each time I start my car. I'm still working on getting the phonebook set up. XM Integration - I really like the way Pioneer has integrated XM. The screen is clear and allows for the Title and Artist to be read easily at a glance. I'm hoping they release a update that fills in the channel logos for the stations that have recently changed. There is 3 XM "Bands" so you can have 3 different sets of presets. iPod- Wow, this is one of the best features of this unit. You can use voice recognition to play an artist or playlist. The "clickwheel" on the mail screen allows for quick access to the most commonly used features of the iPod. The cover art even makes it way over to the screen of the unit! Cons- MSN Direct- I'm not really impressed with this feature yet. I think part of the problem is that the areas I drive in most don't have a strong service signal. I have heard that people driving in big cities have better sucesss. At times I don't any data at all making the service useless. Atleast they give you 3 month free trial to demo the service. Start Up Time- I don't have a huge problem with this, the XM audio turns on in 15 seconds. However connection bluetooth and using Navigation can take a 60 seconds to get to. Not a huge deal breaker for me but I can understand others frustration.

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