S8 PM

This radio can do SO much and has so many options…I’ve tried 4 different versions of car launchers that all seem to work without a hitch…just some have better designed features/looks. The S8 head supported them all.I will say that I was a little disappointed that with all the features of this ATOTO head has, it is missing HD radio from its capabilities. HD radio seems to be a pretty basic feature now. However, it still is an outstanding head!The coolest feature (and the primary reason I chose this head over others...) is the "Birdseye" view aspect of the back up camera. I’m hoping this will be as great a feature as advertised. I have ordered the ATOTO HD backup camera that makes this feature work. I assumed wrongly that this was a purely software driven feature, but it turns out you have to use ATOTO's camera to make this feature work. A different brand HD camera will not work with this feature. Hoping for the best here, it is not a loss though since I am going to take the rear camera and place it upfront now for a front camera view.I use an Apple phone, so CarPlay was really important option for me to choose what head to use. I also wanted the new wireless CarPlay feature. ATOTO S8 Premium feature "CarLink" works just like factory CarPlay features. I am having a little trouble getting the CarPlay wireless to work seamlessly. As I said before, there’s so many options, I’m not sure I’ve got the settings for the seamless start correct. I’m not terribly bothered by that though since there are so many other features that I also use. CarLink/CarPlay works very well though, especially when I’m traveling.Installing it was a little difficult, but that was expected sense I was told by Crutchfield that they do not sell a unit that will go in my 2007 Nissan Maxima. Well guess what boys, I got this ATOTO S8 Radio installed just fine in this car. Mind you I did not have the cabling that allowed easy transfer, but with a my electronics background and the help of YouTube users, I made this head work nicely. Maybe someone out there will make a retrofit dash kit that works for 2007 Nissan Maxima someday. Just don’t know how much demand there is for that?I did have to bypass the Bose amplifier system in the car. The radio worked great with it installed, but the audio was just too loud and hard to control with the Bose factory amp installed. I was able to bypass the Bose amp and the radio performs even better! Great audio! Sounds really nice! I would say even better than before!! I’ve got to run another cable to hook up the subwoofer, but I will do that when I change out the backup camera. I don’t necessarily need the subwoofer, because it currently has great audio without sub….I’m just curious to see how well it will do with subs!All in all, I think ATOTO's S8 premium is a great radio! In fact, my wife has a 2019 Toyota RAV4 that I believe ATOTO makes a radio that fits this car unique factory setup. That’s what I plan on doing a few months down the road. I don’t think anyone can go wrong with this product.UPDATE: Installed cameraAfter installing the new ATOTO HD 720 camera (AC-HD03LR) and going through the calibration process to make sure the camera is setup with the correct view aspect, I gotta say it works much like a factory multi-camera view. The camera combined software to extrapolate an overhead (Birdseye) view is short of amazing! It works GREAT! And it give this older car features it never thought of having...I think this will help me keep from backing into the side of a car when backing in AND allows me to evenly park in my spot [I hate crooked parked cars taking up more than one space]. Again, ATOTO S8 with Birdseye view HD camera option is an excellent buy!The only complaint is that the calibration tarp needs to have some weights sewn in the edging on the corners and key spots along front and back of tarp to prevent sheet from rolling/blowing away on windy days. On a mildly windy day, it is darn near IMPOSSIBLE to calibrate before the sheet parachutes away in the wind...just a suggestion for installation improvement :>)

I was little leary going with this brand as i had never heard of them before, but after reading a mixed bag of reviews of similiar pioneer and alpine units, i decided to take a chance on this. I got this for a 2006 gmc 2500hd slt duramax (with the factory bose system)I also purchased the recomended install kit and steering wheel controls adapter kit.The head unit arrived first, so i set it up on the bench and ran through the various features and was amazed at how well this unit was made and some thought went into the ergonomics of the user interface. Support contacted me via email while i was testing it and asked me how iliked it.I told them that i had not installed it yet, but so far on the bench it was excellent, with one minor thing i did not like. The default music app list's music with the typical id3 tag, or by artist, genre etc. I prefer a folder list view, as i have my library organised this way. I found a workaround for this by simply dowloading vlc (it is android based, however, vlc has its own annoyances, but i can live with them for now, mainly it will not auto seek to the next folder, just stops playing when it reaches the last song). They responded right away and said they would notify their development team of this and possibly change the default app !!!! Good luck trying to get that kind of response from alpine, jvc, pioneer etc....This unit also has so much more than alpine or pioneer, micro sd card slot(so you dont have to use a usb drive plugged into a cable for stored music) wifi capability, can sync to any wifi network, or hot spot and use for direct nav, dowload apps, update files on sd card etc...)A gps ant for location / direct nav. They even have a model that has cell connection capability, but i didnt get this option as i didnt want to have to add it to my cellular plan.The install kit arriveed later and i installed the unit in the truck. Was very easy, and as it turns out, i didnt really need the install kit to install it, but did wind up using just the trim ring from the kit to cover a small gap around the face of the unit. I was concerned about the SWC module, as another user with the same truck had issues getting his to work. Everything worked perfect, you just have to go into the SWC app on the unit and do a learn procedure so it knows what button does what.The soud quality of this unit is as good as any other high end head unit i have used in the past, with lots of configurability (although i believe the bose system has its own factory amp,so this unit is only providing pre level outputs through the SWC module).Overall i would highly recomend this head unit.