Customer Reviews

Pioneer AVIC-N2 In-Dash DVD Multimedia AV Navigation Receiver

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased this item a few days ago and installed it myself. Let me start with a whole-hearted I LOVE IT!

Ok, details.

The Installation

I am not new to car stereo installs, and I thought this install was pretty easy, if longer than most. But then, there's about 5 times as much to set up, so no surprise there. I am assuming you know how to snake wires/cables all throughout your vehicle, from the battery under the hood to under your seats to the white reverse lights on the back of your car. If you've got that down, the hardest part is really just figuring out which wire on your ECU is the vehicle speed-pulse line. Other than that, it's all just busy work; a splice here, a t-tap there, and you're done!

It are a *lot* of wires, though. (Hey, what did you expect?) :)

The Video

Amazingly enough, it's visible in daylight, only becoming unwatchable in direct sunlight! The screen's display is adjustable enough such that it can be viewed in nearly any angle, and the "Wide" button even allows you to select a "zoom" level such that any movie you own will use as much (or little) of the screen as you want.

The Audio

While not as customizable or pro-audio as my last deck, the Pioneer DEH-960MP, I actually like the sound out of this one better. I still have a little tuning to do on my amps for the mids and lows, but the highs are much crisper than I could ever get out of my last deck.

The Navigation

I have no basis for comparison, but after playing with this thing for an hour or so, I had it all down pat; it's pretty easy and intuitive. As far as usefulness, well, it's gotten me around areas I already know very well with plenty of skill, so I'm confident that when I try to navigate someplace I don't know that I will be just fine.

Gripes

The intelligence of the unit in figuring out if you're moving or not is too good. I've heard about and think I like the AVIC-N1's relatively dumb parking-brake sensor better. I know it's illegal (and really just plain dumb) to watch a DVD while driving. But what about my passengers? I have the self-control to just not look at the screen, but now I don't even have that choice; the AVIC-N2 watches the speed (and, I'm thinking, its accelerometers, too) to know when I'm moving, and it blacks out the A/V, no matter how much little Billy was enjoying "The Incredibles."

(Here's a hint, though; plug the rear-display video output that's meant for an extra LCD mounted in the back seat into the rear camera video input. Then whenever you want to see a video up front while the vehicle is in motion, just view the rear-camera. Granted, it's squished to plain-old TV 4:3 because the nav map snippet still shows on the left, but it's better than nothing!)

Also, the IP-Bus is pretty much useless for some older components. Verify that any IP-Bus components you want to buy work with the AVIC-N2 before buying them! I had a Delphi XM tuner installed in my car and hooked up to my Pioner DEH-960MP and it worked wonderfully. On the AVIC-N2, I could get the audio over the IP-Bus via the "Aux" source, but I have no controls... I don't know about you, but having my XM Radio stuck on Channel 53 for the rest of eternity isn't acceptable. The newer XM tuners from Pioneer do work, though; I also bought their XM NavTraffic tuner. It hasn't arrived yet, but I'm willing to bet that it works and will be very, very cool.

Overall

This thing has got a coolness factor of, well... let me put it this way: After getting all this installed (I have an iPod and a PS2 hooked up to it, too... ) I have decided that I'm just plain the coolest person I know.

Party in my car, you're invited... :D

I was so excited to get Nav/DVD in our new SUV. However, I hate this unit! You can't watch DVDs unless the car is in park. The whole point was for me to watch movies in the passenger seat while my husband drove.
Also, you have to put in a Navigation CD everytime you want to look for a new address. This means you have to remove your DVD or music CD and put in this special disc. You then have to be in park to put your DVD back in and start it again (we have screens on the headrests).
The worst part is you can't use any features of the Nav system while you are driving! I have to pull over to enter an address or find a point of interest. While my husband drove, I figured I'd be able to use these functions.
It is not user friendly. We have read the manual and still cannot accomplish tasks such as programming the radio stations!
I regret this purchase immensely. I do not recommend this system to anyone unless you are willing to put the car in park ever time you want to use any of its functions!

I waited a while before submitting a review to give this unit a good try. I already had a portable unit (Garmin) but wanted an in-dash unit for my other car. At the time this unit was twice as much as the Garmin but it also played dvds. I was very disappointed once I got this unit which cost twice as much as the portable and more than most of the other units of the market. The biggest disappointment was that he does not guide you a fraction as well as any of the portable units on the market. The Garmin will take you right to the door of the address you put in. This unit (if it can find the address) gets you there and says "you have arrived..". But where, which side of the street, which building etc. My Garmin will take me right to my own front door and this expensive unit gets me in the area and then I am left to figure out which building (all having unique addresses) I am looking for.

The detachable controls for the unit would make you feel that you paid $200 for the unit. It feels like it is mostly plastic and that it couldn't cost them very much to make. The radio unit I had in the car prior had a great detachable unit with its own carrying case - you get no such thing with Pioneer. I thought that was a bit cheap of Pioneer not to even include a carrying case for such an expensive unit.

The interface with the unit is awkward and time consuming. When you put in an address it apparently searches in both the state of Washington (where I live) and in Oregon. I called pioneer to ask if I could just search in Washington since I didn't care about the addresses in other states at this time and when I did I could just put that state in. By the way, this is a regular feature on the portable units. Pioneer tap dances around the answer but the bottom line is - no. What can you expect from the only unit on the market where you have to put over to the side of the road and apply parking brakes multiple times before switching addresses.

I would get into the problems Pioneer has with getting its map upgrades out. Again, something I spoke to them about and you should hear the song and dance they give on that. However, if that was the only thing wrong with paying twice as much for a unit that delivers half as much as the portable units I would just complain to Pionner.

Save money. If you want a good reliable gps unit look at either the portable units or one of the other brands of in-dash ones. As for the built-in dvd players you can get one of those put in your car for a fraction of the price.

Remember you can always take back one of the portable units but with the Pioneer you have put out an extra $200 to get it installed as well so no real taking it back. I urge you to shop carefully if you are at all looking at purchasing this unit.

On a positive note, it is fun to watch the screen come out and pop up with you first turn it on. But I am not sure that the price was worth that.

I liked my Honda factory navigation, so I bought the Pioneer AVIC-N2 for my BMW. Since I could not found a demonstration unit, I bought it based on reviews and thought most of the navigation system will be similar. Now that it is installed, I quickly realized that it is a terrible navigation system. The AVIC-N2 does not allow the driver to change the destination or use majority of the navigation functions while the car is moving. Now I can NOT map to new locations, redirect to new routes while in traffic, find restaurants, locate point of interests in the area, and many other normal navigation functions unless I PARK the car first. I called the Pioneer customer service and found them to be very non-responsive. The representative insisted that it is a "safety" feature. In summary, I would not recommend this unit to anyone. It is not much different from Yahoo Map.

This is my first built in GPS unit. I have used Delorme and Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 on a laptop for years. I took the plunge and purchased the AVIC-N2 for my new 2006 Pathfinder.

First let me say that having a built in GPS is so much better than getting the laptop out. However there are a few things that I was REALLY surprised that the AVIC-N2 does not do.

First off, I was surprised that I had to keep the MAP DVD in the unit to get detailed updates. While the unit does have the ability to read your route into memory, if you change the route or want to search, you have to re-insert the MAP DVD. With the cost of hard drives, I'm not sure why the DVD is not read into the unit and stored.

Next the selection of the route or the addition of waypoints by touching the screen is not as easy as it looks, and there are errors in the data that I would love to see Pioneer open a way to allow users to update the maps and post that information back to the website for future releases (ie roads that you can actually turn on and yet require you to go in the opposite direction for a half a mile only to make a U turn).

Outside of the GPS I was REALLY disappointed that the Radio function does not scroll the station name, artist and song title that most new radio's do. I see that in the XM function that you can repeatedly press the PGM button to get this information on XM but would love to see it scroll automatically and that same function available in FM. I also don't understand why in the N2 that XM radio stations are not LISTED and that when you save one to your preferences that the button does not change to the channel number and remains P1, P2 P3... where as the AM/FM radio buttons change to display the station name.

Last as far as playing a DVD in the unit while driving. While I do not like NOT having this ability, I do understand it's distraction and yet would like to see in the future that all FUNCTIONS be enabled as you can have a passenger perform these functions while driving.

Is it worth the cost, well not when you consider that a laptop program only costs 100.00 but at the same time it sure is nice having this built into the vehicle.

This unit could have been fantastic if not for one issue. Almost all the navigation fuctions cannot be used while the vehicle is moving over 10 miles an hour. What good is having all this power and information at your fingertips and not be able to use it when you need it. If you are going down the highway and you want the unit to find a restaurant or an address you have to pull over and stop to enter it into the unit. This is just plan wrong and there are many other units on the market that will let you imput information without stoping the car. I can understand not allowing DVD's to be viewed while driving but restricting the ability to imput address into the unit while in motion is just plain stupid. I highly recommend you do not buy this unit as you will be very disappointed.

For all those that complain about not being able to watch dvds or put in an address while driving, you can with a trick. Type "solder avic n2" in google and you'll figure it out. Keep in mind they did this because it is illegal in the U.S. to watch dvds while driving.

Pioneer does not update this map that often, so if you are a realtor and need house addresses updated a lot STAY AWAY! When you registor the product pioneer will send you the updated software free.

Yes, you do need the DVD software in the unit to route to a destination. If you want to listen to music other than the radio it is best to either get XM, Sirius or hook up an MP3 player (if you have an ipod you can control it through the touch screen). If you do not like this part about it, either buy the Pioneer Avic D1 or the type with a hard drive (cost a lot more, ~$4000+ for the Avic Z1 coming out summer '06).

Pioneer will release the Avic N3 early summer '06 the only difference is the GUI for XM and IPOD functions and placement of the physical buttons. If you can live with that difference you can save at least $300 bucks by buying the N2.

Well, after reading all the reviews I could find, I decided to take the leap and pay the extra $ for this leading edge unit. Nothing is perfect, but this unit comes very very close to fulfilling all of its promise.

After having saved a good amount of $ on my new SUV, I decided to have the best all-in-one entertainment and navigation solution I could find.

I purchased the Pioneer AVIC-N2 based on quite a review of existing products. My needs: Satelite Radio, reliable navigation, integration with backup camera, DVD entertainment, and support for IPod.

I think several of the other reviews are so negative simply because people had not done their homework, and had expectations which were unatainable.

In any case, this unit delivers everything I needed, though I could wish for better IPod integration (not same experience as Apple's interface). DVD entertainment can be enjoyed by everyone behind the driver (and copilot). Given that it's illegal in most states to have a DVD visible to the driver, it's simply foolish to expect first row viewing. I can listen to XM, or IPod, and utilize a very well integrated traffic / navigation solution. I believe one of the other viewers complained about incessant messages being displayed on the Navigation screen. That's because they didn't have the unit setup correctly, with the traffic option. Assuming that you are going to use the navigation to its best capabilty, you have to make use of the traffic subscription ($4 addition to the standard XM subscription). This is well worth the money, let me tell you. The backup camera displays when in reverse, or in a slightly smaller screen in 'full-time' mode.

Overall, I'm very happy, and am not disappointed one bit with my choice. If you need an all-in-one solution, then consider the Pioneer AVIC-N2 as a top contender. This unit delivers everything Pioneer says it can.

The AVIC-N2 is an excellent radio and GPS tracking system, but the price that they charge for the XM interface you would at least expect to get the functionality of a standalone $49 XM radio. There is no channel guide, no channel description, no channel groupings. If you do not already know he channel numbers the unit is unusable. They have since come out with the N3 which fixes the issue but they have no plans to help the thoudands of people that paid lots of money for the N2.

I love this unit. Its awesome in every way possible. the navigation is super the quality of the dvd player is good and is sounds good for cd play. I still have to figure out the sounds curves but it a real good unit. i need to find a second unit for my Tahoe