The unit itself is pretty nice, lots of features but many of the needed features are not available while driving. The main feature of the navigation (route destination) can only be set when the vehicle is parked. I have only had the unit for 3 days and so far, I preffer my AVIC-N2. It may just take some time with the unit to warm up to it.
I have my unit for about a week now. LOVE IT! I have been quickly filling up the 10 gig hardrive with my CD's. I find something new everyday. Highs: 30 Gig Hardrive (No need for DVD with Maps) The ability to keep adding to the system (IPOD, CD/DVD Changer, SAT radio, TV Tuner, etc) Lows: To use a lot of features the vehicle can't be in motion. No security features. Price. But I would buy it all over again. If you are a gadget head, and have to have it all, this is the unit for you.
Great Unit! The AVIC-Z1 does not come with a TV tuner built-in the add-on TV tuner is the GEX-P5700TV. Other than that pretty complete system.
Great unit. Put it in my new Pont. G6 and it looks great. Navigation is really good, sound quality is good as well. Im loading most of my cds in (100 or so) and the sound quality of the musical library is pretty good as well. The dvd picture is clear, and there is a way to bypass the video so your passanger can watch from the front seat as you drive.
Music sounds amazing and there are plenty of controls for any audiophile (including High Pass Filter, Loudness, custom and preset equalizers, etc). The navigation system is excellent. Many different types of maps are available (splitscreen, street-level view, overhead view, etc). Vocalized directions are useful, but if they are too frequent and begin to annoy, they can be turned off. I also have the XM adapter and the real-time traffic data is invaluable when driving on Los Angeles freeways. The Bluetooth adapter is good, but anyone I call hears their own voice echoing. Turning down the phone voice volume helps, but it doesn’t entirely go away. My biggest gripe is the Ipod controls. While it is cool to navigate your Ipod through the touchscreen, searching by artist, song or album is PAINFULLY FRUSTRATING!!! You can only see 5 list items (artists, songs, albums, etc) at a time and when you press the down arrow, the next 5 list items take a few seconds to load. If I only had 30 artists on my ipod, this wouldn’t be a problem. But I have 1000+ artists and 8000+ songs on my 60GB Ipod. I takes 12 MINUTES (!) for me to scroll from the top of my artist list to the end! If I had the patience to scroll from the top of my song list to the bottom, I imagine it would take over an hour!!! This is unacceptable!!! It takes SECONDS to scroll through these lists when using the Ipod clickwheel on the Ipod itself (which you cant use when the Ipod is plugged into the AVIC-Z1 – nor can you use any Ipod controls when it is plugged in). The only solution is to connect your Ipod through the auxillary input with a mini-jack cable and control Ipod functionality trough the ipod itself. Then, of course, your Ipod is not being charged, and you have to control the Ipod through the Ipod itself. After spending $3000 on the unit, the XM adapter, Bluetooth adapter, Ipod adapter and installation, I am conflicted about my opinion. I was really looking forward to the Ipod function and was extremely disappointed. However the navigation, sound quality, voice-command and wow factor balance out my frustrations (kind of). FIX IT PIONEER!!! I have already sent an email to Pioneer asking them to upgrade their software to fix this HUGE defect. We’ll see what happens.
I purchased this a few months ago and i would reccomned this system to any one i added the rearview camer and the xm als i love the hard drive feature i am ripping all my songs on there also the navi is the best i have used it is dead on accurate
