Buying Pioneer Deh-P7100BT

plaver · 18-11-2009, 9:37 PM

As per the title, I'm about to purchase the 7100 HU after looking around for a while now. I would be interested in comments from owners good or bad.

I intend to use my 3Gs iphone via hard wire and Bluetooth for phone and music again I would be interested in users comments with the same or simular set-up.

plaver · 19-11-2009, 8:05 PM

I thought this might be the best place, pioneer owners. Looks like I was wrong, can the thread be moved to ICE. Thanks

leo85 · 04-12-2009, 9:37 PM

Did you purchase this? Thoughts?

plaver · 04-12-2009, 9:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leo85

Did you purchase this? Thoughts?

I didn't buy a P7100BT in the end I got a FH-P80BT from a seller on here only the other day, don't tell me you have P7100BT for sale???

Imran_UK · 09-12-2009, 4:21 PM

Does anyone know if the DEH-P7100BT will output audio from Co-Pilot on a iPhone 3G when connected via USB or Bluetooth?

plaver · 09-12-2009, 7:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imran_UK

Does anyone know if the DEH-P7100BT will output audio from Co-Pilot on a iPhone 3G when connected via USB or Bluetooth?

It should work the same as Music, and work on both bluetooth and USB.

leo85 · 09-12-2009, 8:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plaver

I didn't buy a P7100BT in the end I got a FH-P80BT from a seller on here only the other day, don't tell me you have P7100BT for sale???

No I don't - I'm looking to buy one, I'm just trying to confirm that it is the right choice!

chrisfh · 15-12-2009, 10:41 AM

I've just got one.

Not had a chance to really use it thoroughly yet but so far I would recommend it. The sound quality is very good and there are plenty of adjustments, though I am yet to find the stated Low Pass Filter it claims to have (i.e. I don't think it does) - High Pass is there though to limit bass distortion.

Menus are fairly well laid out and easy enough to navigate. The multi control is OK, it's one of those joystick controls that turns for the volume, goes up down left right and pushes in as a button. Whilst in some ways this is good as it allows you to control the device using one control, it can be a bit fiddly to use properly at times - one of the aftermarket remotes might fix this as they look to be all button based.

Bluetooth sync works well on my iPhone for voice calls, affraid I can't tell you if the music sync is any good as I'm an original 2G man so no A2DP or whatever it's called for me...

Only other minor annoyance is the radio seek. One press left or right only nudges the radio frequency up or down one. You have to hold it to get it to search, but in doing this, I often find I miss the first few frequencies as I'm still holding it down. I would prefer to be able to set this so that it always seek searches at a single press, but you don't appear to be able to do this. Again, minor gripe.

On a positive note it seems to be working with my USB hard drive, but I'll post a seperate thread on that as it seems to be a hot topic at the moment.

Overall, very good sound quality, looks good, lots of sound functions to get the sound dialled in right. I'm happy and generally I'm a fairly critical customer!

Chris

leo85 · 15-12-2009, 12:12 PM

I'm pleased to see your review, as I actually purchased on Sunday, and I'm waiting for delivery as I type!

Bubbachuck · 16-12-2009, 10:52 AM

Hi,

I am also planning to buy this item. The package does not include the cable to connect the Ipod, right? Does the standard usb cable of ipod (the white cable that is used to connect to pc) works with DEH-P7100BT? Or should I really need to buy CD-IU50 cable separately? TIA!

chrisfh · 16-12-2009, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bubbachuck

Hi,

I am also planning to buy this item. The package does not include the cable to connect the Ipod, right? Does the standard usb cable of ipod (the white cable that is used to connect to pc) works with DEH-P7100BT? Or should I really need to buy CD-IU50 cable separately? TIA!

Standard cable is fine which makes the IU50 a total rip off!

Bubbachuck · 16-12-2009, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisfh

Standard cable is fine which makes the IU50 a total rip off!

Thanks!

Bubbachuck · 18-12-2009, 3:45 AM

I just ordered this unit. Does anybody know if this works fine with nokia phones? Hopefully it will work with my N70. I couldn't find list of compatible phones with it unlike other brands. Alphine and other brands have downloadable pdf file with the list of compatible phones.

Crocodile · 18-12-2009, 8:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bubbachuck

Alphine and other brands have downloadable pdf file with the list of compatible phones.

What, like this one?

piclic · 19-12-2009, 10:12 AM

Quote:

I just ordered this unit. Does anybody know if this works fine with nokia phones? Hopefully it will work with my N70. I couldn't find list of compatible phones with it unlike other brands. Alphine and other brands have downloadable pdf file with the list of compatible phones.

I think it works.

leo85 · 19-12-2009, 12:05 PM

Mine had a 400 mile test drive yesterday.
I went through Audio CDs, mp3 CDs, and played with bluetooth.

Sound quality is excellent, so much better than the stock player I had. I didn't even change any settings as I was so happy with the out-of-box sound (and it was snowing - eyes on the road!).

I had some issues with one of my mp3 discs skipping a lot, which may be due to VBR mp3 encoding, but I'll have to investigate further...

Bluetooth phone (Samsung i8910) calls are great, not managed to sync the phonebook yet, but dialing out on the phone automatically reverts through the unit, and receiving calls works fine, and the contact's name appears on the stereo's screen, nice.

Not played with USB yet (but there is Chrisfh's thread on that). I'm hoping to plug my currently redundant Iriver H340 in and hide it, if I can find room.

I got bluetooth audio working by playing music on my phone's player and selecting bluetooth audio input. No tags came up on the stereo though, and I can't seem to navigate through the tracks via the unit, which I assumed I'd be able to, perhaps I'm doing something wrong.

I had some installation issues as there are so many wires coming out of the unit, and it's hard to get into the space in my Laguna - I gave up trying to get it in properly as my hands were cut to shreds and so it sticks out a bit, but I'll have another go when my patience levels are replenished. Another thing to note is that I didn't need a connection adaptor like the Sony units I have had in the past as it was included.

The radio antenna connection is a lot deeper than the plug I have, so I left that for later too.

I just realised that this review is completely useless as I haven't tried everything out properly yet, but I'm so excited by it that I had to share!

Bubbachuck · 22-12-2009, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crocodile

What, like this one?

Thanks for the link!

Chester · 29-12-2009, 6:09 PM

The Pioneer IU50 (USB iPod cable) is a really good automotive grade product so better than a white one. I've got one that I leave permanently connected to my iPod Classic (with the entire CD collection on it. That said, I also have a cable tied white Apple cable that I connect on occasion to my iPhone for podcasts. Handy having two USB connectors (on the P8100BT).

MunkyHeed · 30-12-2009, 6:19 PM

Maybe a daft question - does the iphone charge when it's plugged in?

Also, has anyone tried playing a digital radio app on the iphone through this? I don't think it is able to play digi radio apps via the connector at the bottom, but may be able to via Bluetooth? Clarification would be lovely! Thanks all.

P.S. What's the cheapest price for these head units? I've seen appx £160 on eBay.

plaver · 30-12-2009, 7:43 PM

Has any owner here used this unit or the 6100 or 8100 with the iphone and a sat-nav app................. Does the sound (music) mute when the sat nav gives directions

Chester · 31-12-2009, 8:37 AM

MunkyHeed: Any sound from the iPod can be directed over BlueTooth or USB. For instance, when I lock my iPhone, I even get that sound through the car's speakers! It's much better quality over USB. I get different results from Bluetooth seemingly every time I connect with streaming audio. The phone connection is spot-on though a bit of a faff to change between handsets. Would have been nice to sync up with multiple handsets; maybe I'm asking too much.

Plaver: This is an interesting one. I don't know how you'd get a manufacturer to add mixing to their head units to allow one source to 'talk over' another. So unless you set say your sat nav over Bluetooth as the source, and play music from there, don't know how you would do that. But if your sat nav has the function to play music and 'talk over' it, it should with any head unit you can connect to.

Note: I have the P8100BT. It may have functional differences to other Pioneer head units.

Bubbachuck · 07-01-2010, 3:59 AM

Hi,

Did you register your product? What's the benefits of registering them? What happens if I don't register?

Chester · 07-01-2010, 12:53 PM

Yeah think I did. I think it was only for warranty purposes though.

jegbert · 07-02-2010, 5:48 AM

Anyone else have any issues with using an iPhone with this device. Seems like I can only connect my 3g only with USB for audio or with BT for the phone and not both. The minute I connect to the phone with BT the unit stops recognizing it as being connected on the USB port and stops charging it.

Chester · 07-02-2010, 4:28 PM

No. The only problems I have is that it breaks the Bluetooth connection to the phone when I start the engine after the accessories circuit has been on long enough for it to establish a connection in the first place. And if it does re-establish a Bluetooth connection to my iPhone and I'm playing music over USB, I have to cycle round the inputs so it plays by USB again. It really isn't a big deal though as I make sure it establishes the Bluetooth connection first, then play music over USB.

I have noticed that if I use the Maps app, it drains the battery faster than the head unit can charge it! Again, it's a small issue for me as I don't really use it for navigation that much unless I don't know the area very well.

jegbert · 07-02-2010, 9:48 PM

My regular car charger does that to. If I'm in maps with blue tooth, 3g and everything else on it runs the battery faster then it can charge so I don't think that would be the fault of this head unit but a fault with the phone.

I've only had a day to play with this head unit so but but my phone still was consistently locking up the head units USB when switching between iPod playing and placing a phone call when I use the head unit to place the call from my address book. It seems to happen less often when the phone is set to the iPod mode even when it's just sleeping in that mode.

When the head unit locks up from this it says to "check USB". Nothing plugged into either of the USB ports will work while it says this. The book says that you have to turn the ignition off and back on to resolve that issue. I found that removing the face plate, enough to activate the button that detects if the faceplate is connected, and putting it back on resets the unit enough to reset the USB ports and then all seems happy again.

PoisonJam · 24-02-2010, 10:26 PM

I currently have a Blaupunkt with rear USB and SD slot (non-HC!) but the interface is so simplistic and the worst bit is it doesn't allow me to order the MP3s on the USB stick - it sorts them by date added! Why not alphabetical order by folder name?

How is the user interface on this for scrolling through MP3 folders, does it sort by folder name and can you choose the first letter of the artist from the alphabet then it takes you directly to all artists beginning with that letter?

Is it just me or is this unit a little difficult to find online now?

jegbert · 24-02-2010, 11:13 PM

What's strange about the user interface on this is that when your browsing your contacts in your phone on the unit you can scroll for the first letter of a name and then for the entry like what you are suggesting. That is not the case for looking for music.

If you have 50 folders then you have to scroll through each of them, no quick scrolling for the first letter. The deck does sort folders in alphabetical order, once in a folder you then have and sub folders or songs listed in alpha order.

I got my unit for a pretty good deal from Toll Free: 1-800-231-5358 - Car Audio Xperts. It was $225 when I got mine just a few weeks ago.

PoisonJam · 25-02-2010, 9:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jegbert

If you have 50 folders then you have to scroll through each of them, no quick scrolling for the first letter. The deck does sort folders in alphabetical order, once in a folder you then have and sub folders or songs listed in alpha order.

Not perfect but much, much better than my Blaupunkt!

Currently I have to scroll through all folders regardless of whether they are root or sub and the screen is too small to display many characters so I need to shorten everything down e.g. Grbg - Bleed (Garbage - Bleed Like Me). To get them in alphabetical order I need to use a program to reset the date of all the files so they are the same and it will then sort by name. So I basically have to copies of my music collection on my PC!

I think it would be safe to assume that all similar, modern Pioneer units handle USB sticks in the same way?

Chester · 25-02-2010, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jegbert

What's strange about the user interface on this is that when your browsing your contacts in your phone on the unit you can scroll for the first letter of a name and then for the entry like what you are suggesting. That is not the case for looking for music.

If you have 50 folders then you have to scroll through each of them, no quick scrolling for the first letter. The deck does sort folders in alphabetical order, once in a folder you then have and sub folders or songs listed in alpha order.

I got my unit for a pretty good deal from Toll Free: 1-800-231-5358 - Car Audio Xperts. It was $225 when I got mine just a few weeks ago.

Ah, but use an iPod/iPhone on USB and you can use the List button to scroll through the alphabet for first letter based on album, artist, songs, etc. You can also use playlists and access podcasts. I use an 80GB classic. I've found Genuis Mixes work too. You get a Pioneer logo on the iPod screen too! Mines in the glove box. It's a little harder to see it in there!