Pioneer AVIC-X920BT 6.1-Inch In-Dash Double-Din Navigation A/V Receiver with DVD Playback, Built-In Bluetooth and Widescreen Display

Reviews

1. huge improvement

   by R. Campbell

   this is a huge improvement from the f series units. the software works fluently sound customization is even better than before and the Pandora link idea is great.
   
   the only quirks i have seen is the standard issue with voice recognition not working too well, but i dont use it to much the units moves fast enough for me to go through menus.
   
   also i am having issues with my stereo bluetooth playing smoothly it tends to fast forward all my songs the whole time its connected to my moto backflip, i will be going back to my blackberry soon so i will see how that works out.
   
   the navigation isn’t as good as the f-series with the updated garmin maps and the input format is a little weird it wont allow for zip code input which in large cities like Miami it helps in finding the address. it took me a while to learn how to input my own home address, but then again i didn’t read the manual i’m not one to read those things.
   
   overall for the price i got it for it was well worth it and best of all no software glitches that leave the unit in limbo.
   
   i have seen that the price has gone up which is bad considering the new z120bt should be coming out soon for a little over 1k, but i saw no reason to wait cuz the differences are subtle

2. Good iPod integration – TERRIBLE NAVIGATION

   by A. Milam

   For the new flagship from Pioneer, I’m very disappointed in the navigation. The deck has great sound quality, and great iPod integration, complete with album art and the ability to quickly browse artists or songs, even with 6000 plus songs on your iPod. The NAV system is useless and a real disappointment. A 2 year old $100 Garmin stand alone GPS performs light years ahead of this. I actually just came back from a 3 state road trip using both a $100 Garmin and this Pioneer. Four times on the trip, the Garmin said turn left, and the Pioneer said “turn right”. The Garmin was correct with the short and faster path all 4 times. Every trip I’ve used the Pioneer with has the estimated arrival time about two hours later than actual arrival time, and it doesn’t adjust until the final few miles of the trip. Completely inaccurate, bad directions, no speedometer. I could go on, but suffice it to say it’s BAD BAD BAD. I’ll probably be selling this one on eBay when someone finally comes out with a good iPOD interface AND good nav systems.
   

3. Great head unit, but needs some product support

   by Gun Driver

   I received this as a gift from my wife for my birthday. I’ve been looking at an double din in-dash head unit with GPS, bluetooth, and the ability to control my ipod. I was leaning toward the Kenwood DNX 8120, which is now out of production. I was excited to see that this unit has the ability to control my ipod and cell phone with voice commands. I do not have the HD, Satellite, or back-up camera modules connected to this unit.

   + The back lighting can be customized to any color under the spectrum to coordinate with your dash.

   + The stereo reception is excellent with the capability of showing the call sign and song being played if you live in a metro area that has stations that do this.

   + The bluetooth connection is also excellent, in both reception and transmission.

   + CD/MP3/WMA player is exceptional with the ability to play up to 4.7 gigs of MP3 off of a DVD.

   + DVD/MP4/DivX player is excellent and the only digitization noticed was with darker tones (typical with small led displays).

   + The GPS is accurate and was able to keep up with my vehicle in a seven story parking garage when I was on the bottom two floors. I could find no specifications on whom makes the actual GPS software/hardware for this head unit; but after using it I believe it is probably a Magellan based set-up. I have not navigated anywhere with this yet, having only traveled around town. See my next item regarding the voice for turn-by-turn. I’m afraid that I’ve been spoiled by my Garmin Nuvi 680 for so long that anything else will fail in comparison.

   +/- (mainly minus) The voice recognition is mediocre at best; hit or miss in functionality. I’ve got an ipod classic with about 45 gigs of music on it and it took almost four hours for the head unit to sync to the ipod. It will recognize some artist requests, no album requests, and will shuffle play. It will recognize your phone book and connect to multiple numbers but it’s diction and pronunciation of those items is awkward (i.e. mo-byle for mobile) Steven Hawking has better oratory skills than the AVIC x920bt does. It’s in desperate need of a software update in this regard, ala Garmin’s website.

   - Eco-drive is a gimmick that does absolutely nothing, kind of like the Ford Escape Hybrid’s dash screen with all the stupid leaves that “grow” on it when you’re driving in the most eco-friendly ways. Pioneer needs to puff-puff-pass and move on to some software that will actually benefit the driver, like a better voice command data push.

   - (big minus) The Music Sphere trump card that Pioneer and every other shop selling this item trumpets is non-existent to consumers. I called Pioneer’s customer service center about the voice recognition issues (which they said had no updates to the software, yet) and asked where I could find this on their website. I was told by the agent that they have been told not to mention it, nor are they able to tell anyone anything about it (release date, how big of a software push et cetera).

   All in all I am happy with this gift. I am disappointed with the customer service and some of the features of this head unit. Hopefully Pioneer will come around to supporting this new product the way it needs to be, especially since it is one of their flagship products.

4. Excellent product, works as advertised

   by Chad Bednarczyk

   First off, pandora link and the musicsphere app are not out yet as of this writing. So I couldn’t test those features.

   Pros-
   
   Fast boot up around 8 seconds.
   
   Excellent button response, there is no lag what so ever.
   
   Great use of screen size showing good information for ipod, album art, play time etc.
   
   3d transition effects are very neat and adds to the wow factor.
   
   FM tuner shows all the over the air data information when provided (station name, song playing etc)
   
   Very good physical button layout
   
   Navigation works ok very good on details and voice guidance is good. Has a lot of options.
   
   Enter address by voice, search by poi name like “find the nearest starbucks”.
   
   Search for artist, album etc using voice commands, works well.
   
   Great pairing with iphone, when listening to voice mails, an indicator on the stereo screen says “voicmaiil” and will disconnect when finished automatically.
   
   Clear voice quailty on bluetooth hands free
   
   Dial phone by voice and call using phone books names, (no need for phone book transfer its all done in the back round automatically)
   
   Supports stereo bluetooth
   
   Plays DVD’s and Video from ipod/iphone.
   
   Supports micro SD
   
   Love the layout buttons, and ability to custom the menu screen with icons, for frequently used options.
   
   MP3 dvd’s work grat, and show all good information
   
   I love the ability to drag the song lists up/down to view it instead of the button taps, all part of the 3d interface.

   Cons:
   
   Where is the pandora link app so I can use it with my iphone (get the song information album art etc)? Month in my car, still no sign of it, or word.
   
   Where is the musicsphere app? It’s missing in action.
   
   Dated look on map details like water, grass, street look etc.
   
   What’s up with the red line that connections your location arrow to the destination? And why can’t it be turned off?
   
   What is the real point of ecodrive feature? It’s pretty worthless.
   
   Enter address by voice almost takes longer then punching in the numbers manually. Also it defaults to alabama? No matter what state your in , which means you have to tell it, change state, then say your state name every time.
   
   You HAVE TO bring up the map screen to have any sort of voice recognition become functional. The VR engine will not startup until the map screen is selected, no clue why that is but its annoying.
   
   FM tuner is extremely confusing if you don’t read the manual. It is not intuiative at all, hidden buttons all over. You have no idea if your going to select preset station or .1 mhz up or down.
   
   The interface features on the ipod screen is also pretty confusing at first.

   YOU MUST READ THE MANUAL! I don’t always do that but it was a must with this unit. It’s very deep in features and you will miss out on a lot if you don’t.

   Overall an excellent upgrade from the f series I had. Every feature has been improved, upgraded or at least kept. I love the faster start up time. and the 100 percent better use of screen space and physical button layout. Also the quick select buttons for the source along the left is excellent and makes a lot of sense and its much easier to use. I can’t get over how great the new 3d drag to scroll and move things around is. It really makes any other unit i’ve seen on the market look dated by comparison.

   Pioneer has a winner on their hands, if they could just push out the pandora link app and music sphere app, I think i’d say this is worth 5 stars, until then its a solid 4.
   

5. Great Upgrade

   by icondaly

   Had this installed for one day. So far, so good. Replaced an Avic 900BT. I like the new menu interface. Flicking & scrolling using the fingers. Mostly used in the Ipod, FM/AM, XM screens.

   The navigation screen may take some getting used to. The maps don’t look as sharp. Seems a wee bit fuzzy around the edges of objects on the map whether in 2D or 3D mood.

   You will need the current Ipod (new) cable to get this unit to work with your Ipod. Also it’s now using a micro SD card. The sound quality is an improvement. Imaging is sharper/cleaner. I do feel that the manufacturer skimped about 64MB on the RAM. With these newer units going back about 3-4 years they’re beginning to behave more like a computer (what with boot-up times & being able to update firmware/wallpaper via SD card) so when they skimp on the RAM it really affects the overall minute to minute usability of the unit. Thankfully with this unit you don’t notice it as much but a bit more memory would have helped.

   The Ipod interface is really nice & has a 3D look to the menus. Same when in the XM/FM/AM radio menus. Touching names/items causes them to slide, flip & rotate to reveal additional choices. Very neat. I still like the way that Pioneer has been programing these units in the sense that if you’re driving & you touch a menu feature it doesn’t automatically time out & revert back to the original or home screen if you take too long to make a choice. Had a few Clarion units few years back that used to drive me crazy with this feature. Ohh, video off Ipod works as well.

   Will be purchasing a micro SD card so I can change the boot up picture from the Pioneer logo to an image of my choosing. Kinda sucks having to purchase a micro SD card for basically a one time use, but. . . . . . On my 900BT I had installed my own start-up photo but that unit used SD card so I just borrowed the card from my digital camera.

   Not too many comments on the GPS portion of the unit as yet. Going to have to figure out how to adjust the trip method on the fly (fastest route vs. shortest distance kind of thing).

   Ohh man, the Blue tooth feature works the way it’s supposed to. I’m using an Iphone & I was able to not only sync contacts onto the Pioneer but I was also able to stream music from the Iphone as well as other internet audio. Pandora & many other internet radio stations I play on my Iphone using various Apps. Can’t believe it worked so flawlessly. Didn’t even have to use the manual. My phone book synched in about 1 minute & I was able to stream audio via blue tooth in another 1 minute. On the unit’s menu you just select blue tooth audio & within seconds whatever is playing on the phone comes through the car speakers. No fuss, No scuss.

   So far I would say this was a great buy. I know that Pioneer will shortly be releasing more units using this menu interface but I decided not to wait & went ahead & jumped on the first one out the door. We’ll see how well that decision fares in the next few months. I still say that compared to other manufactures, who offer blue tooth as an additional item (module) to purchase I’ve always appreciated the fact that for the past 3 plus years Pioneer has built their blue tooth connectivity directly into the unit. I looked at the current Alpine “top of the line” unit a few days ago & they’re still asking you to buy a separate blue tooth module. While I’m willing to entertain arguments regarding unit stability & only paying for features you’re going to use, I still say Boo to those manufactures that implement this approach, and Yeahhhh to Pioneer for their blue tooth approach.