rapayn1

Dvdsanta? Huh? What?

Paulpop72, You are not getting it. You are or WOULD be adding the live album to your AVIC library. Again, you are playing the retail CD as an AIFF file that you are going to use Toast to convert into a single track MP3 without any breaks. Once you have that concert as one long continuous MP3 file, you will then convert that MP3 file into what amounts to a commercial AIFF file that the AVIC will treat just like your original retail Dark Side of the Moon CD. You insert that disc and it starts recording it to your library. You then will search for the album Dark Side of the Moon and wh

Why not just record the live album as a single track? I use Toast to do just that. I manually remove the 2-second gap that you are referring to and then the concert plays non-stop. You take your AIFF file CD and convert it to a 1-track MP3, then convert that back to an AIFF file that has no track breaks. In a car setting, the lossiness issue from converting back and forth is probably not going to be noticeable.

I would agree, but perhaps this is a harder problem to tackle than we are all aware of for ATSC reception in a mobile vehicle. Again, the general understanding I get is that with the digital transition, your signal is either on or off. There is not much if any middle ground like we had with the old analog systems where we could get ghosts images, snow, etc. In essence still see and hear the picture even if not optimally. So, for that reason alone, this may be why Pioneer is not going to produce a digital ATSC TV unit.

Installermarc, Thanks for the reply. I thought the TracVision A7 remote was an RF remote so, just pushing the buttons anywhere inside of the vehicle would allow me to change the channels. Is that not true? Is it in fact a IR remote requiring some sort of line of sight? Is the TracVision reception as good as XM and/or Sirius satellite radio? I can't get XM inside of my garage, and I can't get it inside of a thick grove of trees along a road here and there, but for the most part, I can get the signal anywhere, including when driving through the heart of the city's skyscrapers. I know th

I have an AVIC-Z1 and it has been bypassed since September 2006. Works great. With February 2009 looming quickly on the horizon, where here in the US, analog TV broadcasts will cease and everything will be digital, I've been looking for alternatives for my Pioneer GEX P5700TV unit. I have enjoyed this item immensely over the last almost 2 years. However, it will just be an expensive memory in 7 more months. I want to seriously start looking into a TracVision A7 DirecTV satellite unit for my SUV. My question is this. Will I be able to view that signal from the TracVision A7 through my Pioneer A

Lu Scola, I live near Baltimore (Columbia, Maryland) and I get all of the locals just fine with my AVIC-Z1 TV tuner from Pioneer. I'm talking 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 20, 24, 32, 45, 50, 54, 67. I no longer get channel 2, and channel 4 and 5 are pretty lousy when driving, but I can't complain with the others. It was a worthwhile investment. If they don't come out with a DTV tuner for mobile soon, then I will probably bite the bullet and get the TracVision A7 for my SUV. Maybe I will hold out to see what this Sirius and XM merger brings me with TV options. I hope I don't have to buy a whole n

I'm pretty sure he is referring to the fact that your digital TV signal is either on or off and that there is no in between. Analog allows for drift and ghosting and all sorts of stuff where you can still hear the program and see the video in various levels of acceptability. Digital is ones and zeroes. It's either on or off. I fear in the near future that those of us wanting to watch TV in our vehicles will have to pony up the money for a TracVision A7 system or get the really stupid Sirius 3-channel offering of children's programming.

Inferno999, You are a cool guy. Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply in great detail. I'm so glad that this did not devolve into a flame-war. I'm definitely smarter than I was 14 hours ago. And I have you to thank for it. I agree that re-encoding is something that one would normally want to avoid, but perhaps in the environment of an automobile, with possibly so-so sound insulation, and driving at highway speeds, or going over potholes in the city, and around construction sites, that MP3s, even re-encoded, are probably okay for listening to your tunes. At home, on a hi

Cool. Thanks for the explanation. I still don't know why one with an AVIC unit would want a DATA mode MP3 disc then though. MP3s are a lossy compression scheme. If it holds 800 or 900 MP3s, but can't be played without a helper application, then how would it be more desirable than a DVD-Music format disc that contains MP3s compressed to 192kbps (higher than a lot of people use), and that can be played on an AVIC unit or a set-top DVD player, or a computer DVD drive? Sounds like semantics, although technically speaking, I do understand the difference as you have graciously explained it to me th

Okay, curiosity got the best of me, since no one reading this thread seems to believe this is possible to do, and I went and looked for one of the smallest MP3 files that I have. Keep in mind that this is not a good representation of the size MP3 files that I have, but should give me the best possible results (larger file sizes should mean fewer MP3s can fit on the DVD-R) I went digging and found what may be one of the smaller MP3s that I have in my collection. I grabbed Yael Naim's "7 Baboker": Size 3.4MB Format: MPEG-1, Layer 3 Time: 3:33 Channels: Joint Stereo Bit Rate: 132kbps

I'm sure. I'm using DVD-R discs and not CD-R discs. If I have time tonight, I will see how many mp3s I can get on a 4.7GB disc. I said hundreds before, because: #1 - That is all I wanted to listen to on the trip to Canada #2 - I had music videos as well as Live Earth concert clips on the DVD-R #3 - I had jpeg pictures on the DVD-R As always, the amount of songs depends on how long the songs are and how they were encoded. An 80GB iPod might claim that it can hold 20,000 songs, but in reality, the actual number may be more than 20,000 or less than 20,000. The 20,000 is a ballpark

Inferno999, Again, if you are talking about the Z2 (which he was and you appear to be as well), then I will have to take your word for it. However, I have an AVIC-Z1 and don't know how can you say it does not support it if MP3s on a DVD play. Again, I'll give you the Z2 part, but this is not the same as burning an Audio CD using iTunes. Using Toast 8, the options are: Audio CD Music DVD MP3 Disc Enhanced Audio CD Mixed Mode CD A Music DVD can be played in a set-top DVD player or in a Macintosh or a Windows computer with a DVD player. A Music DVD should not be confus

Don't know about the Z2, but if you can get a Z1 they play Music DVDs with MP3s. I use Roxio (maybe it is called Sonic now) Toast Titanium to make the discs. I just select the submenu under Audio for Music DVD, and then I add 200 or so MP3s. You can also mix the mode and have MPEG 2 videos and just MP3 audio files as well. This way you can even see album cover art work and more text information.

But since it is an RF remote, I can mount the receiver pretty much anywhere in the SUV and still have the ability to change the channels right? Then I can run the video and audio outs from the TracVision receiver into the A/V input, AUX, EXT 1 or EXT 2 on the AVIC-Z1?

So, for approximately $2,500 (US), can I integrate this TracVision system (monthly fee of $49.95) into my AVIC-1 and change the channels using the touchscreen on the AVIC-Z1? I have that monitor and two more in the headrests.

If XM and Sirius satellite radio work well on our cars, trucks and SUVs, and now supposedly TracVision satellite (DirecTV) works. Then why is it looking like it is going to be so hard for a manufacturer to come out with a ATSC digital tuner for use here in the United States to be used in our vehicles? I would prefer that free OTA method than to pay DirecTV or TracVision a monthly satellite bill. My cable bill is enough as it is. I'm in the house more than I am in my vehicle. So, the 8 to 12 local free channels is more than enough for me to enjoy while waiting to pick someone up from the train

I wrote to Pioneer the other day asking about when they were going to have a replacement ATSC digital TV tuner for the AVIC-Z1 AVIC-Z2 line and they told me that the AVIC-Z1 was old or an older unit (duh!!) and that they no longer make TV tuners for navigation systems. Doesn't sound too promising for those of us looking to get crystal clear and sharp digital TV images inside of our vehicles. I too have the Pioneer TV tuner for my AVIC-Z1. It works great. I get in my area channels, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 20, 24, 32, 45, 50, 54, 67. Nothing better than watching the evening news in your vehicle w

Is there a place one can go to see an all inclusive comprehensive listing of what the various icons stand for? I can make out/understand the easy icons like a hospital, school, gas station, ATM, fire station, police station, etc. However, there are times when I am driving and look at the navigation map, and have NO idea what that icon/picture is on the screen. Others must be feeling the same way. When there is a brand name on the screen that is the easiest. When all you have is a small cartoon graphical icon, it gets a little more difficult. Thanks in advance for anyone who attempts to help me

Thanks. I wasn't sure since the early Z1 had a different bypass than the later ones. So, since I believe mine was an early Z1 (pre-June 2006 manufacture date) then DUCATIBOY flasher was a wise purchase that has served me well. Since that Z1 of mine did not require the 2-pin bypass, I didn't know how loaded the update DVD with new maps would affect that version of Z1, since it never had the 2-pin trick to begin with. The best outcome would be getting all new maps and the same flasher circuit continues to work just fine.

For me, changing the speed expected to be traveled/driven on the highways, helped the time get closer to the GoogleMaps, MapQuest and Yahoo Maps selections, but the routes given were still different from those online. Pioneer's choice is still always the longest (time and distance wise), but it is better if you tweak other aspects of the trip route. It can be smart, but it needs a LOT of help to get there. In this case ignorance is bliss. If I had never checked (they always say curiosity killed the cat) online with Google, Yahoo and Mapquest, I simply would not know any better and I would have

I can't speak to/for the D3, but I posted a similar concern about my AVIC-Z1 here: http://avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7774

Thanks Ducatiboy. So, if confirmed that this is indeed true, do I need to take my vehicle back to my installer and have him remove the flasher unit you sold me last year and have him look at the ground the wire diagram that can be found posted here with a fuzzy/blurry picture of which one to do it to, and have my problems go away again? Again, everything is fine now. I am simply wanting to get new(er) maps and any other features that the $250 update will give me. If that $250 update/upgrade would really end up being a downgrade for me, then perhaps I should bypass getting the update disk. BAD

No, I'm talking about the unit many of us bought from DucatiBoy that I think was called a flasher. Before he came up with it, people used to have to time flashing their headlights. His unit did that for you automatically. The Z1s made after a certain time (I think post June 2006) needed the ground a pin in the back trick to be bypassed.

So, with all of this talk about yellow dotted Z2 boxes being bypassable, does this mean that if you already have a bypassed AVIC Z1, that you can safely buy the newly updated maps and still have all the functionality you have now with Ducatiboy's bypass that has been working like a charm for me since August of 2006? I don't even know if I need the new maps, but I would like to have all the new updated features of a Z2 while still enjoying my Z1. If new maps come as an added bonus on top of it, then great. Am I correct in assuming this or do I need to just stay with the old maps on my Z1?