Pioneer AVH-P8400 BH? Anyone?

[NDC123]

Does anyone have or used this radio? Reviews etc?

[darkrider01]

I like it a lot so far (just installed it this weekend).

Likes:
1. Resolution is great. Movies and pictures look great. Color is nice.
2. Works well with the Scosche kit I got. Volume, mute, source buttons work great. (see Dislikes 2)
3. LOVE LOVE LOVE the way it works with my Moto Droid Bionic phone. Has excellent and fast access to phone book and bluetooth streaming music. MUCH better than my factory radio did. I was actually concerned about this as I thought my factory radio did a decent job of it.
4. Bluetooth audio sounds better/cleaner than my factory radio did.
5. Mixtrax is very interesting. I will try it with my SD card this evening and add more info then. I have it on my PC and like it (see Dislikes 4).
6. Like the ability to use a dancing graphic EQ as a background. (see Dislikes 6)
7. DVD controls are excellent. They are laid out well and easy to use.
8. UI is good. Takes a little getting used to, but afterwards is pretty awesome. You can usually get anywhere from anywhere in like 2 clicks.
9. 2 x USB connections. I have one run to my factory USB jack, other in glovebox. You can run 2 iPods at once. Awesome.

Dislikes:
1. The HD radio is a little funky, but since I've not had HD radio before, it may be normal. You have to wait until the primary station is tuned in before you can tune to the alternates.
2. The up and down steering wheel controls change to next frequency instead of next preset when using radio. This may be the fault of the Scosche kit - not sure.
3. Can be hard/impossible to see in direct sunlight. Hasn't be a huge problem, but worth mentioning.
4. Mixtrax is terrible with iPods so far. I have only heard one sound effect when mixing between songs, and its the same one over and over - very annoying. I will mess with it again tonight as I need to see if it will carry over the effects from the SD card. The factory base effect they use is just bad.
5. Screen has locked up on me once. Remote and buttons still worked, but would not respond to touch. Had to turn off car/open door to reset (basically cycle power to unit). has not happened again since that one time.
6. Can't use the dancing graphic EQ in front of a custom background. That's just lame.

[NDC123]

Awesome review thanks. I have read a ton of reviews on it and it seems to be the best overall head unit out there right now. Thanks for the time you took on the feedback.

[CrutchfieldBrooke]

Although I don't own this receiver, I will say that I've had several customers call me back with great feedback on it!

[NDC123]

Ya seems to me like pioneer and JVC are owning the market right now and alpine has went way downhill or hasn't kept up since around the late 90s. It used to be great and that's what everyone wanted but now I just see an extreme decline in their product quality and design.

[CrutchfieldBrooke]

Alpine hasn't really went downhill, they just haven't had any options for a good in-dash DVD unit for a couple years now like Pioneer has. They still do an awesome job with their navigation units and have filled the missing void in their CD lineup this year too. JVC has certainly made a name for themselves over past couple years in CD, DVD, and Nav units!

[intensifi]

I don't have this particular Pioneer unit. I have an AVIC 920 with the 930 software upgrade on my X5.

The biggest issues with it are:
- responsiveness of the touchscreen
- very poor layout and data entry for the nav system
- steering wheel up/down are seek controls not cycle through presets and there is no way to change this.

[NDC123]

Yea I read that too but I never use the radio I hate commercials lol. As long as it works to seek through songs on an iPod or iPhone I am good