got this headunit for cheap and wana know if anybody got a clue on how much it will b to get it installed in my 2005 scion tc?? thanks appreciate it...

 

do it yourself cause it's really simple if you get a wire harness. crutchfield has them for like $10. otherwise you could spend up to ten times the amount to have someone do it for you.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_1207017...s.html?tp=2977

 

do u have this unit urself? got n e pros or cons about it?

 

i just put in the AVIC-X710BT and my friend has the AVIC-X900BT and i bet they're very similar to the one you've picked up. the pros are you can use your cellphone in the car if it's got bluetooth, you can hook up your ipod or flash drive, cds and dvds with mp3s or other audio files work too. i also bought a reverse camera which is supposed to work with it too but i haven't hooked that up yet. the cons i found so far are you are cut off from a lot of the features including video while the car is in motion. there are ways to get around it but i haven't been able to get them working. also, you would think that when playing an album off your ipod you should be able to see a track listing of that album but it only shows you the current song with options to go to the next and previous song. you only see the full track listing for an album the first time when you go to play it and that's lame. also, my stock subwoofer didn't magically work when i installed this unit so i'm going to have to hack up the wiring to get it to turn on. finally, this kinda sucks the most, but you have to alter the mounting brackets if you want the stock door to close and cover the HU. as it sits, it's too far forward so cds don't go in easily and the volume **** sticks out enough to prevent the door from closing. it's a great unit except there are a bunch of little things that suck about the situation it puts you in. after it's said and done and i get everything working right it'll be awesome.

 

What I did on my stereo brackets was to re-drill the mounting holes a little further back than the stock location. After that my radio door was able to close covering up my in-dash dvd because the new holes move the unit further back. I hope this helps.

 

I was going to try doing that but there are these indents (outdents?) in the harness that line up with holes in the HU. I figured I would have to hammer them in/drill them out/sand them down to have the harness sit flush against the HU. Did you experience this too? Any tips on what the best course of action is? Also, how far back did you end up drilling the holes. I figure I don't need them back further than a half inch at most.

 

Also, any trouble with inserted/ejecting CDs or DVDs? I didn't try yet but it looks like the door sort of covers the slot a bit...

 

Well I did this about 2 years ago and I can't remember how far back I re-drilled but Would say it was about the same space you need(1/2in.). As for the dents on the bracket what I did was drill them out and If I remember right those are the holes that I used to mount the HU. Also with your question about the cd ejection I had no problem with it hitting my radio cover, but then againg my head unit was a Dual. My HU has the fold down face that ejects cd's out of the top but I don't know how well what I did might work out for you. On my profile you can see a pic of my HU if it helps. Good Luck.

 

On the bracket there should be 4 indentations about a 1/2" behind the bolt holes for the factory HU. Drill these out and these are the holes that you use. With this HU it is hard to decide which holes to use. There are 2 ways that line up. One is perfect the other has it tilted too far back and the cd hits the door.

 

I just installed mine and have been messing with it for a bit. Installation is fairly easy just get the adapter harness and then tap into a few different locations in the Scions wiring for navigation.

Heres a poor quality photo of the final position. I did a few modifications to get the unit this far forward. You want this unit as far forward as possible because the volume / multi control **** is already small and harder to access the farther back the unit sits.


I am going to write up a short review on the unit today.

 

I just installed this unit in my 07 TC. It replaced my Clarion MAX675VD, which performed great but did not have built in BT or Navigation. Adding those features would have cost me almost as much as the X910BT so I just went ahead with the swap.

Installation is fairly straight forward but if you want this unit to sit correctly you will have to modify your brackets. I drilled out the raised dimples in the brackets and then elongated the mounting holes. This way you dont have to be exact on re-drilling the bracket. It allows you to adjust the radio back and forth and even rotated back and forth for lining up. I cut the brackets off the plastic trim pieces that normally mount along the side of the unit and fill in the gaps on each side. I then mounted the trim pieces to the waterfall itself. If you slide them into place and then forward they actually hit and stop in place. This ended up being the perfect position for me.

To line up I mounted the brackets to the unit but left the screws just loose enough so that I could reposition the unit after the brackets were screwed into place in the opening. I put the waterfall into place and checked alignment with the trim pieces and for door operation. I readjusted the unit until it lined up with the trim pieces. Turns out this is about as far out as you can go and still have the door close. You want this unit this far out because the **** is already small. Setting the unit back more just makes it more difficult to access. Here is the end result.. sorry for poor quality image.


I mounted my GPS in the dash, just to the right of the HU. There is a perfect flat area for this. You can also mount it above the vent inside the dash.

I will add a video later to show some installation points because I do not have a still camera that will produce images clear enough.

As for the HU itself..

Navigation is awesome. I have no problems with it at all. Its easy to use and add points of interest into your current route.

Voice recognition for music works well with either my iphone 3gs or ipod 80gb connected via USB. For example while driving I press the **** and say.. Play Artist Evanescence.. and it does. Now the pronunciation repeated back to you can be amusing at times depending on the group but thats no big deal.

Voice recognition for dialing has not worked well. I have yet to get it to recognize a name. I say Call, Brenda or any name and it has yet to recognize this. However I can say.. call 714-555-6542 and it nails number recognition. This is fine if you remember the number of each contact you have. Not sure what Im missing here but this is a big MINUS in my opinion.

Sound quality is good but I have yet to get the bass performance from this unit as I got with my Clarion. Even after matching the EQ settings from Clarion the bass just is not as good. Unless the is some secret setting that I find later, i will not be happy with the current bass performance.

Glossy black... not good when your dealing with a touch unit. As careful as you might be, you will end up touching the gloss black finish and it shows. Only way around this is complete control from the steering wheel. Just being glossy makes this unit look out of place in the TC.

The Clarion looked right at home probably due to the lack of ***** and the silver trim on each side that fall in line with the lines of the waterfall. The Clarion also has a 7" screen but he Pioneer has a clearer, sharper image.


I always wanted a Pioneer unit so I could match the HU light colors with lights in my TC. Well this unit has that option but there are only 2 small buttons that change, the menu and map buttons. There is a blue ring around the volume **** but the material is actually colored blue so no changing that.

I am happy with the unit overall with the exception of the bass. If anyone has install questions feel free to ask. If you local (Bakersfield) and need help installing shoot me a message. I will help out.. no charge. I can tell you now that having had systems installed at audio shops, you are better off incorporating help from an individual or take your time and do it yourself. The only exception would be a shop you know has an excellent record.

Bottom Line.... The X910BT definitely looks "out of place". Its finish and design lend to that. If that is not an issue to you then you will probably be very happy with it.

 

Thanks for the writeup. I'm about to install a Pioneer F-90bt with the leaked 3.0 firmware version, that makes it similar to these units.

Any clarification on drilling the brackets/mounting pieces/cutting the brackets, etc, would be beneficial for me as it sounds a bit confusing Thanks!

It sounds like you cut off the two filler pieces from the brackets and just placed them in the open spaces themselves after tightening the screws for everything?

 

Looking at installing the pioneer avic f-90bt soon in my 06 tC.

Can we just use the stock brackets to install these or do we need this?

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_1209582...t.html?tp=3121

 

That part is a trim piece. It does nothing to hold the HU. It just fills in the gaps on each side of the HU. Unless the 06 has different brackets than the 07 you will be able to use them but your going to need to modify them. Give me about an hour and I will have a youtube vid up.

 

how is the ipod interface? is it fast enough?

i have the avic z1 wen if first came out and damn man the ipod interface is super slow... i hope they made it a lot quicker. I know my friends alpine HU is super fast, as if you were just controlling the ipod itself. im really looking into this x910bt cuz my dad wants it for his honda fit lol.

 

The Ipod interface when dealing with music is plenty fast. As fast as my clarion was. The video playback of ipod videos needs some work, even videos directly from the itunes store. They load slow and do not display the video information. The headers for the information that should be displayed remain on the screen the whole time. If it read the video information correctly it would display it for a short period then go away.

My biggest complaint on the ipod interface is the VR (Voice Recognition). Each time it has to build a library for voice recognition operation. This can take a minute or more and during that time your limited to just scrolling through the current playlist. You cannot select album, artist, etc.. You can turn that feature off so it does not update though but Im not sure how well the VR works in that case, if at all.

 

Here is the video I did to try and show how I did the brackets. The comment I make in the video about my age was in reference to the fact that when I was younger we didnt have steering wheel controls so Im use to operating the radio by hand anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alPrq-slJeo

 

i just got the x710bt and love it i doing the mod to get the video working today if i ever get outta bed i only doing it because you cant work the navi options while driving

 

thanks. i'll check out the vid when i get home bc it's blocked here... thinking about biting on the f90bt. 600$ w/ bing CB, then another 100$ for the SWI steering wheel control unit and DD chassis kit for my tC

 

holy crap, thanks for the vid that really helped. did you drill the hole deepest so you can move the HU back and forth etc? you specifically said the front, but couldn't tell if you did the back one too.