 Great Multimedia Car Device |
| Review Date: December 4, 2008 |
| Reviewer: M. Harewood, NYC, NY |
I received my AVIC F500BT yesterday, and I spent the longest 30 mins of my life waiting for the battery to charge just so I can turn it on. It is an absolutely amazing device as far as I have seen. I registered my Blackberry Curve with it and made a couple test calls. Perfect! I connected a SDHC 8gb card as well as a 2gb Usb drive to test out the Music and Video capabilites. Perfect! It actually plays much more video file formats than documented. I had converted a movie to MP4 to watch on it and I had a WMV on the card as well. Surprisingly both videos played well. Though the WMV had just a little lag, which I believe is due to the fact it was not converted to the correct frame rate designated for the device.
Copying my entire contacts list to the phone over bluetooth took less than 5 minutes.
Also most important is that the device is HUGE but not very heavy. It came with all the cables for having it fully installed to enable the parking restriction and rear view camera. But it can be used with just the car power adapter. The Speaker is quite low, BUT since my 08 CIVIC LX came with an auxiliary input and this device has a headphone jack.... I AM IN CAR ENTERTAINMENT HEAVEN. Their could not have been a better device for the under $400 price range.
Oh, did I forget to mention I purchased a 16gb sdhc card for this said device. IN CAR HARD DRIVE. I basically have Movies On Demand in My CAR!!!! |
Pioneer Engineers needs to pay a little more attention
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| Review Date: March 3, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Omar Masood, USA |
Pros: Good screen size, excellent blue tooth.
Cons: Inability to change 2D North Up only, Not having a split screen.
This is an excellent Navigation system. I have used Garmin, Megallen, Pioneer before this one. It has lots of feature for the price. Screen size is excellent. I did not use IPOD connection.
As compared to other reviewers, I had pretty good experience, one reviewer has mentioned sound quality, initially it is a little difficult to figure out how to maximze the volume b/c there are several ways to do it. Once I increased the sound to max - I had to go back and decrease the volume. I agree with other reviewer that in 2D it always stays North Up so you have to make yourself used to this feature I will request to Pioneer to change it in future version upgrade or Map upgrade. In 3D mode there is a way to make it look like 2D by adjusting the orientation but zomming out is limited so it becomes virtual 2D with zoomed in / close up streets.
It has an excellent POI database 12 million & you can make the navigation display icons on the map - however unlike Pioneer it does not display specific logo/icons like M for McDonalds etc.
One feature I loved was you can click anywhere on Map - it will give you an option for info - once you click info it will give you the lat/log or address and then you can select this info as your next destination and it will route it - this was very helpful as while I was travelling I wanted to go to another community but I did not have address so I clicked on approx. point & the system showed me directions.
As for blue tooth connection it connected well with my Samsung cell phone - I did not read any instruction but was able to transfer all the phone book. As soon as I start navigation system - it automatically connected to my cell phone. Voice quality was good, It also connected to my cell phone while I was outside my car at approx 75 feet.
My system had firmware 1.0, I did not use hard wiring, I only used cigarette lighter to power the system & unlike some other user my system never went for cold start while going from ACC to start switch. Every time it caught satellites very quickly except once early in morning in one week, route recalculation was very quick, quicker then every other system I have used before, & time to destination was very accurate.
One issue I had was design flaw - the power button is on front & it does not come with carrying case like every other system on market. While travelling I put it with my laptop and during the whole flight it stayed on b/c power button is on front something will touch it and start the system. Since a lot of people travel with laptop - I think I do not have to worry about keeping it in pocket. In future if Pioneer provides a carrying case or change the location of power button it will be helpful. All buttons have backlight but I do not know why they have not kept the button symbols illuminated by backlight. Also the buttons can be moved on top and bottom of system instead of creating an extra 3 cm space on left side.
I was disappointed to see 07Maps in 09. I hope pioneer will provide updated maps, provide a better lane assist system, update system with "Destination on right or Left" provide option in 2D for Driving up instead of North up ONLY. Also if they can update the compass feature where it can give me 360 degree orientation like Megallen - I will give it 6 star rating.
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Amazing GPS for $200
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| Review Date: April 1, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Mark, San Francisco, CA |
I own several GPS systems. Garmin NUVI 660, TomTom 920, Magellan 3450, Pioneer AVIC-D3 (built in) and this. I wait til they get cheaper before I buy them.
I just got this AVIC-F500 from Amazon. Its got a 5.8 inch screen, portable and as a GPS system probably better than the others.
When I saw them go down to $200 I really thought that was a good deal. Even though I have an avic built in GPS in my newer car I could use this in my 20 year old car.
The GPS works much faster than the AVIC-D3. It locks on fast and stays locked anywhere around San Francisco. The sound is the best for a portable GPS. The Thing is big compared to other regular GPSs.
The sound is excellent, even the TTS.
The battery lasts maybe 20 minutes so you will need to keep it plugged in. The screen can be either 2D or 3D unlike the AVIC-D3. This system can be connected to your stereo system through a ton of cables. I just use it for a portable device.
The windsheild device is excellent and very strong to support the relatively heavy GPS.
The bluetooth easily synced with with my iphone 3G. Voice control is ok as long as you talk clearly.
For $200, its a steal. I use it a lot in my car with the old AVIC-D3 as its actually better. Highly recommended, especially for this price.
Make sure you upgrade the firmware to 2.0. Its much faster start up time and more responsive screen is well worth the upgrade. |
Great gadget!
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| Review Date: April 6, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Johnny Mac, Reno, NV |
Once I got it dialed in (and hacked a little) I couldn't be happier.The one catch is, you NEED the optional amplifier. I suppose it would work just using the tiny internal speaker but... get real. The ND-G500 not only integrates the media audio with your existing stereo, it also enables some of the coolest features. Phone calls and navigation directions are output through your speakers while it automatically mutes the stereo. Very slick.
At less than $300.00 for the AVIC-F500BT and the ND-G500 amp, you can't beat it. To get all these features any other way would've been twice the price. |
Great buy for the price
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| Review Date: February 7, 2009 |
| Reviewer: W. Yu, CA, USA |
For under $200, this is a great buy. I have used many different portable GPS devices before, including TomTom, Garmin, Mio, Nokia, and Pharos. This is a portable device too, but it's more like a build-in (in-dash) GPS. Pioneer throws in a "fat" cable which you can connect to your car, and it'll function like those GPS comes with car. The unit will power on/off as you power on/off your car, and it limits your access to some functions/settings while the car is on the move for safety reason. If you don't like that, you can either "bypass" or don't connect the fat cable (plug the power directly into DC5V jack). You will have to manually turn on/off the unit if you don't use fat cable thou.
There are resources regarding how to bypass and many other hacks, including using other navigation software on it and displaying non-English characters. Check out avic411 dot com if you are interested. Even without hacking to the device to get more than what Pioneer offers, this is still a great buy.
Pros:
1) 5.8" screen with battery. Most GPS maker use external power only when it comes to 5" (or bigger) screen.
2) BT handfree
3) Voice control on BT and iPod (iPod control cable sold separately) and some basic voice command on SD/external USB music play.
4) 12 million POI (you get 1.5, 3, or max 6 million on other portable GPS)
5) Plays music/video from USB drive (and iPod of course).
Cons:
1) Map is a bit old (10/2007). But it works great in my area, and I don't think it's too bad compares to other devices. Garmin calls their software NT2009, but the map is actually 04/2008. Not much newer than this one.
2) Sometimes, a bit slow on reacting to the touch screen. There might be couple seconds of delay after your touch command, but this does not happen all the time.
3) Contacts was lost for the frist couple resets like another reviewer experienced. But it lasts for both hard/soft reset now. Might be just a glitch.
BTW, the map software is iGo 8.
PS: Don't forget to upgrade the firmware to 2.0 if yours comes with older version. |
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