Hi YouTube my name's Jeff and today I'm going to be doing a review on the
Pioneer SPH DA120 that I fitted in my Land Cruiser about 9 months ago now
and I've been using it daily.
I've decided to do a review on it and this is going to be completely
independent review and what I mean by that is I don't work for a big glossy
magazine I had to pay for my unit like you'll have to pay for yours. Nothing's
been given to me so is based on honest findings and NOT of what someone would like me to say
Not that anyone would do that of course.
You can be sure that my review is as honest as it can be, so let's get on with it.
To begin with let's talk about the unit as a whole.
Am I pleased I bought the Pioneer? Yes I am certainly glad that I've got it.
Would I recommend it to anyone else? Yes. Do I think it's the best in the world? No...
I don't believe it's the best unit out there, and if it is there
then there must be some really crap units out there ; )
It's OK. It serves its purpose but doesn't serve its purpose very well as you'll see as we go through it.
It has some frustrating features. Sometimes it will completely ignore you.
You drive down the road, talk to it, and it won't answer.
It will be but it will ignore your requests.
It will not respond to you. It's nothing to do with signal strength
nothing to do with the USB connection. It just doesn't work.
The only cure in those circumstances is to turn the engine off and restart the unit.
And this does happen a surprising amount in any one month
it must happen three four times
And I'm not using the Pioneer intensely. It's quite rare actually when I go out
that I use the hands free unit so if I'm noticing this 3 or 4
it must be happening quite regularly.
Perhaps it's the Apple software. Perhaps it's the Pioneer unit.
I don't know bit it's something to bear in mind it's not perfect.
Let's look in a bit more detail
First this is the reversing camera. Now one of the reasons I actually
wanted these particular unit is because I wanted a reversing camera.
I already had a camera fitted to my
vehicle and I wanted to make use of it with a nice screen.
This unit has a plugin facility for a camera and it will
should plug and play. Brilliant. And it does work.
The problem is when you first start the engine it takes about 30 seconds for the camera to come on.
It really does. So every morning I get in my car, start the engine
I go to reverse off my driveway and I can#t see a damn thing!
The screens completely blank and stays that way for thirty forty seconds and
invariably I'm driving down the street
long before the screen comes on and whether this is an Apple thing or
the Pioneer unit, I don't know but it's very very slow. Once the units on and warmed up
it's fine and immediately responsive. Put it in reverse
screen flicks on the camera and everything is brilliant. But its initial delay
annoys me so much. I know 30 seconds
doesn't sound much, but you'd be amazed how long that seems when on your
driveway waiting to pull into traffic. So for that reason I'm gonna give you the
unit a score of six out of 10
subject on gonna be talking about the hands-free aspect of this unique which
is of course one of the main reasons why we have been wanting to make calls want
to receive calls it went to st. takes a lot of you said its deal with calls for
receiving calls I have given these 10 out of 10 account for when you drive in
a longer call drop seen flashes on the screen and you just tap the screen and
you're receiving a call and get away for a microphone talking through the
microphone which is connected or somewhere in your vehicle sensibly close
to your meds and complete control of the vehicle is no problem
wonderful set up no problem at all their 2010 for the hands-free in receiving
calls when it comes to the hands free for making calls that's a little bit
different I found it a little bit of give me a tentative 10 for that because
it doesn't always respond a lot of the storm's
press the button and nothing will happen a lot of Sun Jul talk to it and nothing
will happen a lot of the times you say he called for it and it'll say okay
calling thread and nothing will happen it doesn't happen all the time but it
happens a significant depended on enough to annoy me so give me 10 making calls
on the subject of hands-free let's talk bit eckstein sending SMS messages
messages of school dist seven out of 10 I don't think it's very good at all when
it comes to sending messages to me it doesn't take a lot I have to go through
several times to get the message correct it seems to put things in the sentence
seems to have a hard time locating the people directly no simple names but it
struggles and for that reason economic order 7:10 but it's very very basic and
along the message just get confused sorry can't give any more than that
receiving texts for receiving the SMS messages again
gonna give you $10 10th receiving them it's absolutely fine and to reply to
them
ok that's all that's something you do hands free completely or you can just
tap the screen and so replied but again don't be at all surprised if you
messaged back he's a big gobbled because he just doesn't understand you perhaps
it's just me but to get a decent message across
talk about it as a Sat Nav GPS unit a good easy navigation is getting from
place to place well I've had to school in very harshly I'm afraid he'd have
given it to 10 that was only following it's better than not having a second
level GPS units but it's better than not having one and if you program in where
you want to go before you leave its pretty good will get you to give you a
good general direction however she get a little bit of roadworks if something's
happening on the way that you need to have you lost completely lost if you
take a wrong turn
you've had it you will not find its way back to your route and one journey not
that long ago I did I took a wrong turn me and it took 20 minutes to decide to
get back to the original route I could turn around falls on my system and it
took 20 minutes before it decided to catch up with me and tell me the wrong
way back to us by then already figured out the secret myself ever really fix it
I don't think so
another occasion there we wrote books of the head and onto always going to be
waiting a couple of errands turn the car around and headed in the opposite
direction and waited for it to work out an alternative route now that tom toms
in the past
and they've always been brilliant given twenty seconds and they've calculated an
alternative route for you this never did and to be honest the areas that are then
went into pretty pooled connection on my phone died very very poor signal and it
just didn't wanna know and in the end of a plane over through more glove box
holder teltanter immunity and I mean an old 45 years old in work first time
within 30 seconds it worked out where I need to go so as a GPS unit it's just no
good at all it's better than not having more as a site but not much
no replacement at all for the good old tom toms the units ready to snatch up
and on surprised that they talk about audio is going to be very difficult one
for maturity on the standard factory setup in my vehicle that bother really
bad having fun speakers and fancy am somewhat have you all I can say he's as
good as if not better than the original CD player that was in the vehicle is
this particular unit doesn't have a CD players all have lost that facility in
treating it will connect to my phone and it will play mp3 files and he does a
very good job of that and have any problems so we can hands-free
most of the time getting to play the songs that actually wants to play pretty
good one gripe about it actually does have a random setting and so you can
play the random selection of music from your device from your iPhone and under
put it that way I haven't got that many songs online at the moment forget about
a hundred and fifty every time I go into my car I asked you to play a random
selection of songs it seems to play the same ones over and over again and I'll
be skipping skipping skipping through the tracks and it still playing the same
ones they played previously said 150 tracks it seems to select the same ones
etched on that it might be random but it's the same random each time if that
makes any sense as a site for me pretty good wishes to the people with much
better quality systems accounts and other than that in doing business of the
random would have to give knowing at 10 that's about it really as far as i'm
concern on this internet connection to make a big deal about driving along and
asking for a McDonalds or into the local coffee shop or something like that song
should go to the internet connection will do it on the go
depend on what you're looking for and of course get a lot of problems with the
foods that you use searching for coffee it completely understands your problems
all the moment you stop searching for a world that doesn't quite grasp a slight
pronunciation problem
foreign would you like a chance really a lot of the time the name of companies
names streets the name of services have the faintest idea what you're talking
about it and you'll still end up having to pull over and told things as a hands
free
not brilliant and all dependent on internet connection might entertain our
community anymore than the recognition it still not perfect it really isn't I
don't think my addictions quite that bad
doesn't seem to want to know me so point to anybody at their distinctive lebanese
point you need the whole point beyond the Apple places them all down to your
reception so if your phone is picking up poor reception isn't picking up good
reception or should I really haven't got a good connection then forget it the
whole unit won't work at all unless you've got a good connection could
signal community is your phone working forget the hands free plane you mp3 just
will not work so that's pretty much easier
think of anything else only if you've got any questions that I haven't come in
here feel free to send them to Millwall give you more honest opinion my honest
review I don't mind the fact that I don't think he really worth the money
and for something that's canteen the Apple standard if you like I am
surprised it's not better
anything that says police normally excellent maybe this is more of a slur
on pioneered Apple I don't know what I would have expected better and so if you
think you gettin Apple know you know getting poisoned and letting them use
this anymore and when you need a society easy for you will have a look and see
what you think of my review its independence on get
I've got nothing to gain and lose the things I've said after spoke honestly so
please feel free to send along your comment you might have one of these
units and you don't experience the same problems asthma problems that might be
things like haven't covered here please let me know no one quite happy to cover
any topics in the meantime thanks for listening