My Bluetooth work pretty well. I've got a Palm Treo and originally the unit only recognized my favorites as "phonebook" entries. That's a Bluetooth thing, not Kenwood. After messing around with my phone, I found that I could send my entire address book to the 8120. This means that I have around 350 people loaded into the stereo. Pretty cool.

Only problem I'm having is with the nav. I don't think they actually got my unit updated. It continually locks up. Hopefully I can get this resolved without much effort. (meaning I don't wanna yank it out of the car again!)

I hooked mine up to my stock Bose system with the Metra 70-7551 which has RCA jacks for using the preouts. It sounds great. None of the humming that people talk about.

I'd recommend this unit to anyone. 3 months was worth the wait.
Thanks Naz!

 

I notice the bluetooth mic issue as well. When the mic is within a foot of my face, it sounds fine...otherwise callers are complaining of me sounding distant. Other than that, my iPhone connects via bluetooth 100% of the time. Haven't had any issues with it locking up, or not connecting/disconnecting when it shouldn't.

 

Anybody have any information on the Warrenty for the DNX8120? I noticed that the warrenty card says 1 year, but I was under the impression that the Excellon series comes with a 2 year warrenty?

 

I just registered mine online today and it shows having two years on parts and labor.

 

ahh, yup..you are correct. I just registered mine online and it shows having 2 years left. Thanks.

Got another question for anybody who knows the answer. Every time I hit the NAV button to access navigation, I get that damn screen that comes up (tells me that messing with the navigation interface while driving is dangerous)....and it forces me to hit the "I agree" button before I can get to the navigation interface. Anybody know if/how there is a way to turn that off?

 

Does your 8120 stick out about 1/4 inch out of the dash? Just wondering if I could modify the brackets to have the unit sit back flush into the bay.

Wonder if it would interfere with the screen opening and closing?

 

Yeah. That's what I did. You can drill holes about 1/4" back (or however far you want) in the Nissan bracket. That'll pull the unit back in.

 

Anyone else having a problem with the low bass output from the sub channels? I went through all the audio controls that had something to do with Sub and Bass but the output on my subs are still low. With the pioneer I had in there before I can certainly hear and feel the bass but with the kenwood I can barely tell. I didnt touch the gain on the amp but it's about 3/4 up. Another thing is that I get plenty of bass from the components and rear speakers. They're basically producing all the bass at the moment.

Also, can anyone confirm if the unit can play videos off the usb port? I'm talking about from a flash drive or hard drive and NOT off a ipod video.

 

I have the DDX8017 in my 3000gt with Excelon Amps for Subs and Comps. I love it!!! This new one looks even better! I'm going to get it and put it in the ZR.

 

I wrote a review here on this unit. You can read it here https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....32#post5685232

 

Anyone been able to play video from USB yet? I've tried a bunch of different formats already but the unit seems to only pick up mp3's from what I've seen on USB.

 

zeer0,

The USB port only plays MP3's. It will not recognize video files at all. An iPod; with the correct cable, does play back MP4's. Try writting your video files to a DVD-RW disc in the Xvid format and playing them back instead, use the extension .avi. My Kenwood (7120) plays these just fine. You will have to play around with the settings to get something reasonable. Try 640x480, 30fps and MP3 audio, video resolution of <1200bps. Media Converter works well, as does DVDFab.

TreeFiddyZee,
I have the same problem with my Nav hanging up every 3 or 4 days. It's annoying yes! Kenwood has said they will come out with an upgrade, not sure when though.

I have the Blue tooth stand alone adaptor (KCA-BT200), works very well my HU and interface was a breeze.

cwh060

 

I went back and looked at members post on this unit after getting it installed

Posted by

Sill____________Radio not picking up all the stations

Zeero__________Blackberry issues, waiting on download fix from Kenwood

Deuce300_______Bluetooth microphone barely picks up drivers voice

Treefiddyzee____Navigation licks up, waiting on download fix from kenwood

This is kind of a concern for me as this is the unit I want to get, yet needs download fix from Kenwood for a few things, i thought they had all the bugs taken care of, some of the issues members are having could be the install too for all I know. I hope Im right in thinking this is a great unit, as its the one I really want

 

It is a great unit, mine picks up radio stations fine, works perfectly with my iphone, and haven't had my nav lock up once. I will admit, if the bluetooth mic is farther than a foot or so from your face, it does sound distant on the other end. Thats about all I have noticed.

 

Good to know. I'm getting a replacement unit. I don't think the firmware was upgraded properly. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

I have the unit installed as well in my car. Bought it from Nazar and am very happy with the service.

I think the UI could still use some work to clean up the interface. But provided all the features this thing has, I'd say Kenwood did a good job.
Some issues I have with the AI:
1. Unit bootup takes forever. Like 15-20 seconds.

2. From the source select menu, if you have a DVD/USB/TUNER source playing and then you select bluetooth or nav, the music stops playing and switches over to nav or bluetooth. The only way to switch between DVD/USB/TUNER and NAV without the music stopping is to use the physical NAV button on the bezel. This needs to be changed.

3. Kenwood needs to implement a multispeed rewind/fastfoward for mp3s. The fast foward function is pretty much useless cuz its so slow.

4. Need to implement gapless playback of mp3s. This is useful for ppl who listen to DJ livemixes.




My radio works fine and picks up every station I need. You may need to check your wiring harness to see if anything went wrong there.

The nav works pretty well and mine doesn't lock up on me. I soldered the parking brake wire straight to the ground wire on the wiring harness and the bypass works flawlessly. The Warning screen only comes when I start up the car.

Right now, I'm listening to MP3's burned on a DVD-R ISO. Navigating through the folders is a little slow but they did a good job with it. There is also an easy function feature that allows you to bring up controls for the different sources on the nav screen so you don't have to go back to the main source page.

Updates:
I went to a store and checked the SW version on it and it said 2.3.2 .xxx.xxx. My unit is version 2.4.2. Are there updates available already for this unit?

 

PRE-BUY PRICING IS ALL DONE.

If you would like one of these please call.

 

nice write up. kinda bug me that the music would stop when using the navi (with bluetooth, it makes sense).

 

Music only stops playing if you switch to nav using the source select screen. However, if you use the physical Nav button on the unit, it doesn't do this.

For bluetooth, the music should simply be muted and the front speakers are used for bluetooth should you receive or make a call. When you select bluetooth as a source on the select screen, music stops playing. But theres a separate TEL button that brings you to the bluetooth screen if you do want to make a call while your phone.

 

The reason for this is the Bluetooth icon is for streaming music thru your bluetooth phone, which in itself is another source that is why the other source you are playing stops because you are actually going to another source. If you want to use the phone, that is what the TEL icon is for. Hope this makes sense.