Comparing, Eclipse, Alpine, Kenwood, and Pioneer In-Dash Navigation Units

[darksparkz 10+ year member]

I'm looking for a double-din DVD/Navigation in-dash for a '07 Toyota Camry. I am looking for the movie features as well as Navigation as well, if I can play videos through an iPod or USB connection, that'd be great as well.

I've looked a few units:

Eclipse AVN6620

Alpine IVA-W505

Alpine IVA-W203/P1

Kenwood Excelon DNX8120

Pioneer AVIC-F90BT

Pioneer AVIC-F900BT

Pricing is somewhat similar across the units, I can find the AVIC-F90BT cheaper then the F900BT, even though Pioneer lists the F90BT as being a more expensive model for MSRP.

I'm not quite sure which one to go for, I will eventually add a backup camera as well as a full audio system for this HU, front comps and a sub.

Which one of these would be the best bet to use? In terms of sound quality or just ease of installation or bypassing for use of video/navi playback during driving.

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[datboiroy]

dnx8120, i ordered me 2 of them, if you want one, lemme know, i was told these are hard to find cause they are on backorder.

if you want something cheaper, then i would do the avn6620. i have one of those that came wit free bluetooth, i bought it since the kenwood was on backorder but when my shop got a hold of one, he called me and told me, so now i have an extra dnx8120 and avn6620.

 

[brunzie]

how much are you selling your dnx8120 for??

 

[datboiroy]

how much are you selling your dnx8120 for??

pm sent

 

[darksparkz 10+ year member]

I'm interested in pricing for the Eclipse and Kenwood units you have too.

But bump anyways, any other opinions?

 

[Sierra08! 10+ year member]

Go with the Kenwood, tons of features and it has Garmin, a good nav setup, with bluetooth and all other cool stuff

 

[lorideslo 10+ year member]

Go with the Kenwood, tons of features and it has Garmin, a good nav setup, with bluetooth and all other cool stuff

x2

 

[Qbenjamin 10+ year member]

I have had almost all of the Pioneer Nav units, and if you are looking for true navigation, Pioneer is not the way to go. Their nav units are notoriously inaccurate, but they tend to have the best features.

 

[916Kev 10+ year member]

I love my F90bt especially after the recent firmware update. Peep avic411.com for more info. Good luck.

 

[XTRProBoy 10+ year member]

I'm looking for a double-din DVD/Navigation in-dash for a '07 Toyota Camry. I am looking for the movie features as well as Navigation as well, if I can play videos through an iPod or USB connection, that'd be great as well.
I've looked a few units:

Eclipse AVN6620

Alpine IVA-W505

Alpine IVA-W203/P1

Kenwood Excelon DNX8120

Pioneer AVIC-F90BT

Pioneer AVIC-F900BT

Pricing is somewhat similar across the units, I can find the AVIC-F90BT cheaper then the F900BT, even though Pioneer lists the F90BT as being a more expensive model for MSRP.

Yeah the F90BT it seems people aren't "after" as much because they either don't know about it or just assume it's more expensive. I saw the same thing with the unauthorised prices--the F90BT was both easier to get and cheaper it seemed!

I looked into a lot of units the past few months, including pretty much all of those except the Eskips (sorry, old forums joke lol).

In the end I decided on the DNX8120 (but got the DDX812 + KNA-G510 to save some $$$). Read lots of reveiws, tried them out, etc. and in the end the Kenwood won. Features wise the thing is packed--pretty much everything is in there. It seems with the other units in one way or another they are always missing something compared to the Kenwood.

Among the features in the Kenwood that are notable:

-5V pre-outs

-Nav (and Garmin at that)

-13-band EQ + pretty good crossover facilities

-Dolby Digital and DTS decoding built-in (you won't find this in any other unit at the moment)

Pio Fs have a smaller, better resolution screen and SD card compatibility (Kenwood has an SD slot but ONLY for nav/map updates nothing else), but there are complaints about the brightness on the F-series. The UI is nicer and more modern than Kenwood. The Premier model has competitive pre-outs, but all the F-series still suffer from issues that people complain about. Yes there was an update, yes there is AVIC411.com (which is an awesome resource I must say), but even those don't do very much when many are still complaining. EQ and crossover can't compare; nav is apparently not as good but at least there is the Microsoft feature.

Alpine is nice with the removeable/portable Blackbird II, but I can only imagine that would be all that useful if you had another vehicle you wanted to use it in. The rest of the "missing" features just don't seem to make it worth it. Plus you'll probably want the IMPRINT processor which will add another $100 or so.

Video-in-motion bypass is incredibly easy on Kenwoods, you just ground the park brake wire and that's that. Pioneer is almost as easy but you still have to connect up to a pin not used in the harness, Kenwood there's not even that it's almost a joke how easy it is to "bypass".

Note that you can play videos on the Kenwood from the iPod and from CD/DVD-R/RWs but you cannot use the USB mass-storage interface to play video files. So be aware of that. It does have dual-USB though so you can use an iPod and flash memory or an HDD without disconnecting anything. Also the Kenwood lacks CD changer control.

Those are my main observations anyway. As I said I decided on the Kenwood but despite everything it has it still has some "mis-features". So there may be something you don't like about it that you like on another unit which may lead you to forego the Kenwood.