Pioneer AVH-P4100DVD 7-Inch In-Dash Double-DIN DVD Multimedia AV Receiver with Widescreen Display

5 comments

1. 

   J. Hutchings on October 1, 2009 at 4:26 pm

   This unit looks good at first but when installed I started to see the corners they cut on making the unit. No RDS on very big 7″ screen that just tells you the radio station number your listening too, it was my fault that I didn’t check on the RDS just my 2005 kenwood had it in my other car and that factory radio in the 06 mustang had it, and I thought this radio would be a upgrade. The other big killer is the radio just does military time format so at 4pm you clock reads 16:00 very very dumb on there part.

   Replay on military time from pioneer

   Thank you for contacting Pioneer Electronics, Inc.
   
   Sorry, the clock on this unit can not be changed.

   Thank You,

   Pioneer Support Group

   Jerry

2. 

   Nick on October 1, 2009 at 5:30 pm

   I purchased this head unit along with a Sirius SCVDOC1 and the Pioneer CD-SB10 so that I could dock my Sirius Stiletto.

   Overall the unit works well and lives up to what I expected. It was a great price especially when compared with places like Crutchfield or Best Buy.

   Installation was straight forward. I enjoy the video quality from DVDs, and the ability to change the angle of the screen. The sound is great even on factory speakers.

   I was really excited about having a head unit that could control my Sirius Radio. I assumed with this large touch screen that I would be able to see info much easier than on the Stiletto itself. I was disappointed to see that you can not actually see the names or even the channel number in the Preset Stations List like in FM. So basically you have to memorize what Sirius channels are on what Preset Station…Lame!

   Further more, you can only read two lines of text at a time while listening to a Sirius channel. It would basically be: ‘CH 100′ and ‘HOWARD STE’. It was a bit of a let down especially since my Stiletto will display all the info available on its screen. (CH Name, CH Number, Artist, Song)

   Lastly, my Stiletto gives me the capability of scrolling through all of the channels, or presets or categories while displaying what song or show is playing on those channels. I have not been able to find anything like that using the Pioneer.

   Bottom Line this head unit is a great way to upgrade from a factory radio and does have Sirius capability. However, if you like knowing what content is on your favorite Sirius channels, then stick with the universal mounting dock. This unit will not make using Sirius any easier.
   

3. 

   Fishn4life on October 1, 2009 at 7:39 pm

   My Clarion flip screen dash DVD gave out on me after 5 years of moderate use. It came with the car I bought used and served its purpose as an “average” DVD stereo.
   
   I ended up going with the Pioneer 4100 and after install all I can say is WOW!!!
   
   The picture is incredible, the sound is night and day from my Clarion, and I now have a connection for my ipod. I’ll admit I’m not caught up to speed with the “latest and greatest” so after messing around with my ipod connection (cable sold separately – a must bye) I realized I could play my movies from my ipod directly to the screen, and the picture looks great.
   
   I have not used the AVH-4000 so I can’t compare it, but I will say that the 4100 picture, sound, and Ipod capabilities are an A+ !

   Installed in a Chevy Silverado.

4. 

   A. Brewer on October 1, 2009 at 7:55 pm

   I have had this product for about a month now and I love it. I like how it has the option to be in a tilted position and how it slides down to put the CD/DVDs in because it gives you the bigger screen unlike some other models. Touch screen is VERY responsive. Haven’t used the iPod features on it yet so no opinion there. Another great thing is you can load your own pictures on it for a ‘custom’ background. Also like how the buttons can change color, there is I believe 6 diffrernt colors, you can set it to one of the colors, have it constantly scan through them or create your own custom color with multiple different shades of each of the 6. Picture clarity on DVDs is also great. Price is great for everything you get and you still have the option to buy accessories like bluetooth adaptors for calls. Overall I really like this product, and I get alot of compliments on it. I would purchase again for another one of my vehicles and would recommend to others.

5. 

   W. Alexander on October 1, 2009 at 10:51 pm

   I’ve read through many of the insightful reviews here (not all of them, so some of this may be repeat), and I’d like to add something that I haven’t seen commented on yet.

   Let me try and break this down into a few small areas of my deliberately limited focus for this review: Overall, Sound, and Control.

   OVERALL
   
   I think the unit is pretty good. I thought it was great at first, and love the DVD and video and all that (which is what I’ve wanted for SO long!), but as I’ve worked more with it, I’m noticing some very annoying issues (I’ll explain below.) The installation was easy (easier than I thought), and the parking break thing didn’t pose much of a problem to tweak. The unit looks nice, the screen is well designed, and the touch screen is very responsive (I love that!). One BRILLIANT addition to this unit is the display button on the left of the front of the unit. To turn the ENTIRE screen off and just make it black is just brilliant to me. I’ve had units where even the dimmer at night doesn’t do enough to not distract me with the display while driving, or doesn’t give me enough of an option to turn the brightness down to where I want it at times (if I’m parked somewhere just talking to a friend). To push a button and have the screen toggle off and on (keep in mind we’re not talking about a 4 step menu option) is just great. One of the nice things about this unit. I love that. I too have a gap between my deck and the double-din area in my car (as one commenter noted), and can’t seem to get the flat piece of plastic, that’s supposed to go around the unit, to fit right. But overall I’m very happy with the look and functionality (in this sense) of the unit and am glad I got it.

   SOUND
   
   The sound is good, as I’ve always experienced with my Pioneer decks. Deep base, good mids and highs, and full output range (3 pre-outs, including a sub). What I don’t really get is the EQ. Why? I have a 10 or 11 band on my old Pioneer deck and would LOVE to have that on this unit. I’ve been able to get this (really a 3-band) EQ to the sound I want, so I’m good for now. But I do wish this unit had a volume knob instead of buttons for volume up and down, but I’ve grown accustom to them now. Overall, I’m quite satisfied with the sound.

   CONTROL
   
   Here is the crux of my complaint with this unit. Everything else (even the things I disagree with above) I can live with (even some of the complaints of others), but these below are almost deal-breakers for me (and if I’d have known about these things beforehand, I might not have bought this unit, but I couldn’t find a display of it at any store anywhere!)

   *First* is the listing of the artists and albums from my thumb drive. I have a 32 Gig drive (and I know it takes about a minute and a half to load, which sucks, and if you switch between sources you have to wait AGAIN, but I can live with that). The main problem I have is that the music seems to show up, NOT in alphabetical order, but in the order in which you PUT THE MUSIC ONTO THE DRIVE!!! Which is insane to me. Why does it index by create date (or whatever it does)??? Does any else’s do this? It should have the artists, albums, folders, etc, sorted alphabetically (or at least give us the option of being able to choose our own sort criteria.) There doesn’t seem to be any adjustment that I can make to address this. This is a serious issue for me and totally doesn’t make sense. I can’t stand the fact that it does this.

   *SECOND* is the fact that I can’t control ANYTHING with the remote (CD-R55), save some DVD options, or track forward and back, volume up and down, and pause. The remote operation for this unit is foolish. Without touching the screen I should be able to go forward and back on the screen with the remote between different folders, scroll up and down through artists, pick one, and click to play! Why do I have to do everything from the touch screen?? I should be able to select what I want from the remote. It just seems like they paired these two things up, but the remote doesn’t do half of what it should. This too is a SERIOUS issue that I have. To me, it’s far more distracting to try and scroll through and find the right folder and artist and album I want than any movie I have on. Not to mention that when you scroll down about 50 artists, select that artist, and then realize that you want someone else, when you go back, you don’t go back to where you left off when you scrolled down to the 50th artist, but you’re brought all the way back to the top to scroll through ALL of them again. Go back to where I was please!

   *Third* (similar to the second) is that the remote doesn’t control any of the audio functions either. On my old Pioneer, I could hit “Audio” and my audio menu would come up, enabling me to turn on/off, up/down my sub, change the Loudness, change any aspect of the EQ, or just change the preset to any one I wanted. I could change the fade, balance, etc. as well. You can do NOTHING of the sort with this one. Extremely frustrating for me, because I’m always tweaking the audio for different kinds of music. This is insane that it doesn’t work like it should.

   These are serious issues that, like I said, had I known, I might’ve looked into something else.

   What can pioneer do to make this model better (in addition to the other things people have rightly pointed out)? Get a fully functional remote design to work with the unit, allowing both folders (artists, albums, songs, etc.) and audio to be accessible with the remote, get a 10 or 12 band EQ with each frequency independent from one another (accessible from the remote, obviously), and have the folders and artists from the USB be sorted alphabetically, rather than by create date (or, at least, if it’s create date, put the most recently created ones AT THE TOP (instead of the bottom as it does now), since you’ll likely be looking to listen to those new songs you just added.)

   These to me are serious flaws that someone should’ve addressed before releasing this thing. I hope that a new model will have these issues addressed.