kenpachi

For sake of clarity, the link above is for the old r2.03 firmware update from 2010, not the new quasi-x930 firmware update with maps...

Could, but tempted by the larger screen in the z130...

I currently own an x920bt and am considering upgrading to an x930bt or z130bt (leaning toward z130). Anyone know with certainty whether these three share common wiring harnesses? If the upgrade were simple plug and play leaving the existing x920 wiring connections intact, I would be much more likely to pull the trigger.

Thanks to any that can help!

They are all correct. A2DP <> Pandora <> PandoraLink.

Like cpkdude, you can stream music sources over A2DP, assuming you have a device that can do so. However, as vblue42 points out, you cannot use PandoraLink with anything but an iPhone. pearltt appears to be streaming through an iPhone, which could support either generic A2DP streaming or PandoraLink.

Your BlackBerry will NOT work with PandoraLink.

Does that help?

I very recently upgraded from a modded f90 to an x920. I haven't had the x920 long enough to know all quirks that you discover over time, but I can offer some feedback.

- Boot and response time are WAY better on the x920. If you hated the slow boot time and the slow response for the next few minutes after boot, then you'll be very happy with the x920. If you've ever tried to calc a route or make a BT call right after bootup, you know what I'm talking about.

- No relief for the intermittent iPod album art issue. If you bought all of your music on iTunes, this probably isn't an issue. If you attached your own album art to CDs that you ripped, the x920 is still picky about the art.

- Still no MP3 album art on SD or USB.

- You can still tell that the programmers don't use their FM radios much as the radio interface remains feeble. It's no worse than the f90, but not much better either.

- The x920 has a bunch of new features that I'm sure you're aware of.

- As you mentioned, no mod love for the x920. If you love to mod, you'll have to live with the f90 or try to find an x910.

- Nav looks nice, but the new interface takes some getting used to. It likes to route you through surface streets with lights vs. highways, but I'm thinking you can modify that behavior by changing the avg speed values it uses for calculations. That experiment is one of my weekend projects.

- Eco function = LOL. I can't believe anyone needs an electronic nanny to help them eek another half MPG out of a car. If you're not smart enough to drive economically on your own, you're not smart enough to use a nav system.

Overall, I like the x920 better. I hope to figure out a way to tweak the nav route selection, but even if I can't I'll still take the x920 over my modded f90. Overall, the x920 is a better system (IMO).

I own an f90 and am considering upgrading to an x920 or z120. The f90 has a few annoyances and I'm wondering how many the x920 might address...

1. Intermittent album art from iPod. I have full album art on the iPod, but only about a third of it ever shows up on the f90. This is a widely reported issue with the f90. Fixed on the x920?

2. The last f90 update severely crippled the street names on the 3D maps. The default zoom on the smart zoom feature shows no street names. You must zoom way too far in to see any. Both 2D maps are fine, only the 3D map lost the street name detail. Does the x920 provide street name detail in 3D at the default zoom? Can you zoom out reasonably and still see street names?

3. Startup lag. I'm not just talking time to first music, but time until the unit is fully responsive. Even after the delay to get screen and music on the f90, the next several minutes languish in a state with delayed button presses, slow screen loading, horridly slow route searching and the bluetooth is all but useless. Is the x920 similarly slow to respond for a few minutes after boot, or is that fully resolved?

4. Reboot reset. Key to acc, f90 starts to boot. Start the car a few seconds later (before the f90 completes its first boot) and the f90 reboots. I understand why it reboots - no big deal. However, that reboot clears some settings on the f90. For example, the nav time resets to midnight, SD music settings are lost, etc. How does the x920 handle the dual boot?

5. No album art for SD. Sounds like the x920 hasn't added album art either. Correct?

Feedback appreciated.

A good amp cap placed in-line with the ignition-on feed might solve that problem.

Perhaps some of the map files have slightly incorrect lat/long information. That would explain why the nav software doesn't think you've reached the intersection and could also explain why the issue seems to be sporadic among members.

Of course, you'll never know unless you can find another x920 owner to drive that route...

If you don't use a canbus adapter, at least find a good canbus harness connector. The harness is cheap insurance considering the damage you could accidentally inflict on the factory harness if you don't know which wires to connect to.

I have used the connects2 canbus adapter with an f90 in my 2008 GTI for well over a year now. Was worth every penny and works as expected, though I do have the MFSW and wanted to retain the controls. Without the MFSW, I would probably just buy a harness and call it a day.

If you want a few more opinions, definitely check out golfmkv.com, where there are plenty of other MKV owners who have swapped out their factory stereo.

Don't know about the apostrophe key (have never looked, but will next time I search), but you could start your search under restaurants instead of running a general search. That way, you'll only get restaurants with McDonald in the name. That should help filter the search noise a bit.

Good luck with the apostrophe key.

AFAIK, you can currently only get the r3.0 firmware update when you purchase a map upgrade. http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/ ... 100FM.Shop

If I'm wrong, I'm sure a dozen ppl will chime in shortly to correct me. Either way, hope this helps.

I've seen no album art in 3.0 using SD or USB. I believe album art remains an ipod only feature.

I'm hoping someone will chime in and prove me wrong, as I really would like to have album art on MP3s.

Also is it just me or is the 3D useless now? I used to be able to set the 3D to be almost eye level and now the best I can do is almost the same as the 2D map.

 

I was also wondering what other new cool 3.x series hack were avail?

 

I HAVE to get ride of those annoying volume beeps. W(hy)TF would a company allow this with no option to turn it off???

Not one person at Pioneer thought that MAY get annoying!!!!!!!!!!!

3D is pretty much useless now. In order to get street names, you must zoom in so far that the 3D view is pretty much useless. I guess that all of their attention was on providing the 2D direction-up feature.

You can turn off the volume beeps in 3.0, but you must turn off all button sounds to do it. Look around your nav settings and you'll find it.

Similar issues here after upgrading to r3. I'm still experimenting, but it seems linked to the physical SD media or number of files.

I was using an 8G (~1550 MP3s) in r2 with no issues, but the whole SD interface began to have issues immediately after upgrading r3.

SD Issues with r3:

- Touch screen intermittently goes completely non-responsive.

- Shows tag info from previous song, rather than current song.

- MP3s intermittently hang for seconds to minutes. Does not seem tied to MP3 file itself, as it does not hang again at same spot if I rewind the track.

- Sometimes hangs for long periods between tracks on random. Touchscreen not responsive when this happens.

I was able to resolve for the moment by downsizing my SD card to 2G. I'm going to continue experimenting to see if it is the 8G SD size, format, or the number of MP3 files causing the problem. I hope to get back to at least an 8G SD soon. A 2G SD bites.

I submitted a support ticket to Pioneer last week. Haven't heard squat from them.

Hope this info help you resolve your problem. Let me know if you find the silver bullet for this issue. It is very annoying.

Same issue here. You must manually zoom in really close to see street names, and must disable smart zoom or it will not stay.

Installed r3 on an f90bt. So far, I have noticed a few issues that I don't like.

1. Spastic volume control. First, it ignores the steering wheel volume inputs that worked fine under r2. If that were it, I wouldn't mind so much. If I ever make the mistake of trying to use on of the buttons (vol+, vol-, or mute), from that point on the stereo randomly increases and decreases volume constantly until the unit is powered down. The stereo volume knob still works fine, but the volume won't stay where it is adjusted. I can temporarily adjust the volume back to where I want it, but the stereo continues to randomly increase and decrease the volume afterwards - sometimes to painfully loud levels. Lovely.

2. SD MP3 issues. Lots of SD issues. Sometimes it only shows MP3 details from the previous song, not the song actually playing. The display stays one song behind until I hit the menu button. Then I can see it flash the current song info right as it leaves the MP3 screen. Second, it occasionally hangs at the end of a song. It won't advance, won't rewind, won't anything. Nothing but silence and no response. Changing the audio source (or turning it off) will break it loose. Finally, the entire touch screen seems to go non-responsive on the SD screen at times. None of the touch buttons respond. The songs will continue to play and advance, but the user has no means to change the song that is playing. The screen sometimes become responsive after the song changes, but other times it stays disabled for a long time. My record so far is 33 minutes with no song control. Then, suddenly it works again.

3. Nav to SD. The SD button in the bottom right randomly decides to not respond to key presses. The only way I've found to restore it is to leave and re-enter the nav screen.

4. No street names in 3d. At the normal 3d aspect view, there are no street names. I can get them to show up if I manually zoom in really close, but only then. If I leave smart zoom on, it always zooms out to the point that street names disappear. I've seen a few other complaints about this, but thought I would mention it anyway.

LOL, r2 doesn't seem so bad anymore...

My volume control started going nuts right after installing r3 firmware.

Whenever I use the steering wheel audio controls, the volume control becomes spastic. It ignores the actual steering wheel button inputs and then randomly increases and decreases on its own. I can use the stereo volume knob to pull it back to where I want it, but it won't stay. It just randomly fluctuates until the stereo is power cycled. It is one of two really bad issues I have since the r3 'upgrade'.

Oh well, par for the course for the F series, I guess.

I don't buy the 'this is just an F90 issue that you have to live with' argument. I have an F90 but no hiss as you describe. My F90 does feed a factory amp, but I don't drive a Honda. Assuming the hiss is ASE, as others suggest, reducing the source SLA should help. However, I doubt it cures your problem.

If you're absolutely sure this is ASE and not a ground loop, the best solution is to either bypass the amp completely or use RCA outs to feed an aftermarket amp.

So the million dollar question is how much of the reported speed increase is due to the 3.0 FW vs the new HW. It will be interesting to see whether the FW can make a noticeable improvement by itself. My guess is that faster HW will be required for any significant improvement.

Sounds like it could be a codec issue. Try ripping the MP3s with different SW or using a different bitrate.

I have an F90BT. The wife has a DNX-5120. We each prefer ours over the other.

The F90 takes a little longer to start playing SD or USB media.

The 5120 takes much longer to start playing MP3 on a DVD.

The F90 takes a little longer to connect via bluetooth.

The 5120 bluetooth (BT200, new 1.70 firmware) locks up every 5-7 days. We've replaced it three times, and are now being told it is probably a FW issue. Either way, it is incredibly annoying. The only way to reset it is to open the dash and disconnect it from the 5120 for ~10sec.

The 5120 shows album art on SD or USB media. Very nice.

The F90 supports bluetooth without an extra bluetooth module.

The 5120 shows RDS without an extra HD tuner.

The F90 nav looks MUCH better than the blocky Garmin nav in the 5120. It makes the 5120 look like an old Atari game console.

You can buy new maps for the 5120.

The F90 has voice control.

The 5120 doesn't have an audible cooling fan.

The F90 nav is hackable (for better or worse).

There is more, but you get the point. They're both good systems. Spend a little time playing with both in a big box store and see which flavor you prefer.

This isn't really surprising. Considering their MSRP, the fact that 700BTs can be had for less than $350 and 90BTs for ~$550 should tell you why Pioneer is dropping the current model as fast as it can. Pioneer needs a product that can provide a better return.

If your factory antenna is powered (amplified), then the factory stereo likely provided the power via the antenna wire. The F-series does not provide power to the antenna wire.

If your vehicle does have an amplified antenna, you will need to purchase a powered antenna adapter. You install it between the F-series and the factory antenna plug, and power it either using an ignition-on source (acc wire) or a switched power source from the F-series (antenna/amp trigger). If you decide to power it from the antenna/amp trigger wire (most do), I recommend verifying that the power consumed by the adapter won't overload the antenna/amp trigger.

Wow. How many threads does it take to discuss the DST issue?

Many manufacturers use active/amplified antennas. You should check Crutchfield or a forum specific to your vehicle to verify whether that is the case with yours.