HD Radio

[DOC31]

Is there add on for HD radio that will work with the D3

[HiFiSi]

The specs on the D3 list HD radio as "External Control Only" which means you'll have to buy a tuner that has it's own controls. It won't be controllable through the D3's interface. The HD radio unit tha Pioneer sells is only for HD radio ready head units, which means it doesn't have it's own controls. So you'll have to look into other brands for an HD radio tuner.

 

Here's the specs. It's about halfway down the page.

 

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/2-DIN/AVIC-D3?tab=B

 

You'll probably be looking at something along these lines:

 

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=186650&i=700KTHDPRO&tp=134&avf=Y

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=186650&i=60744000&tp=134&avf=Y

[DOC31]

That kinda what I thought about that one. I was hoping it was another option.

I just got off the phone w/ pioneer CS about that unit and he said it would work just fine through the AV input. So I ask how would I changed channels and such he said it would display a UI.

Sounds unlikely.

[HiFiSi]

Well that pioneer rep has no idea what he's talking about. The pioneer HD radio tuner doesn't even have AV outputs. Just an IP-bus output... which WILL connect to the D3, but it's not listed as a compatible unit, so it more than likely either doesn't have the interface for the hd radio tuner built in to it, or it will work in a very limited capacity. It would be a shame to spend $120 and find out that it's not compatible.

 

EDIT: At the bottom of the hd radio tuner's description page, it says this:

 

Compatible with the following Pioneer headunits:

 

* FH-P800BT, FH-P8000BT, DEH-P700BT, DEH-P7000BT, DEH-P600UB, DEH-P6000UB

 

"External Control" capable with other Pioneer IP-Bus headunits, a/v receivers and navigation systems, with some limitations of display and control. Please review Owner's Manual(s) for more details.

[DMax Driver]

It would be nice to know what the limited control & display capabilities are. I have a AVIC-Z2 and I would love to have the HD Radio capability. It would seem to me that you would at the very least need to know what station you are set to and be able to change stations.

 

The "External Control" section of my Z2 user manual is not very descriptive. I wish Pioneer would post the owner's manual for the GEX-P10HD on their website.

 

I bought the top of the line Z2 partly because I thought that it would be adaptable to accomodate future accessories either directly or through a firmware update. Now the first new thing (HD Radio) to come out and it is potentially not compatable!? WTF?

[DOC31]

I'm really thinking about get the GEX-P10HD if for nothing else the increased sound quality. So I've been pushing to get more info from Pioneer CS.

I was told I would only lose some of the RDS features of the unit.

He said it would function as throught the Radio tuner as you normally would however I wouldn't get the call letter of the radio station and I would be limited to around 8 characters for song info.

I'll let everyone know IF I order it.

[whtcrxghst]

Our rep says it will cut off the text on titles, and it may not be easy to access the presets

[DMax Driver]

It would seem to me that Pioneer could release a new firmware update that would "fix" these limitations. I would think that everything could be fixed with a software change.

[DMax Driver]

I talked today to Pioneer Customer Service. They told me that it would only display 8 characters (confirms earlier message) and that you wouldn't be able to use the presets. This is all they know at this time. Apparently they haven't received a GEX-P10HD unit yet to try out.

 

I should have told them to order one from Ebay (I've seen a couple for sale there).

[TransistorJunction]

I installed the GEX-P10HD radio on my D3 about 2 weeks ago. It works fine. "External Control" is Pioneer speak meaning that the IP-Bus interface utilizes one of the EXT connections from the head unit since there is currently no dedicated button for the HD radio.

 

The control screen looks and functions very much like the normal radio Preset screen except that there are four function buttons (F1-F4) but no "Detail" button. The six preset buttons are programmed the same way, but they do not show the frequency or anything else other than the button number (1-6).

 

The station ID is shown in the upper left and is limited to 8 characters per the RDS/RBDS standard. The F1 button is used to cycle through the 4 possible text streams: 1) Station ID, 2) Artist, 3) Song Title, 4) Genre (although I have yet to see a station that provides this last value so it defaults to "NO TEXT").

 

If the artist or title is longer than 8 characters the first 8 will appear then after a brief pause the next 8 will scroll to the left replacing the previous 8, pause, and repeat until the entire string has scolled accross. Then after a brief clear pause the string with start over and continuously repeat for the duration of the song. Of course all of this is dependant on what the station broadcasts and not all stations provide this data in which case "NO TEXT" will be displayed instead.

 

The good news is that all the functions of the HD unit can be controlled from this simple screen. The bad news is that it is a generic EXT screen and none of the button text can be altered. So you need to memorize what each of the buttons does (including the 6 preset buttons). These are also too wide, too narrow (from top to bottom) and too close together (there is no separation between them) so as a result it can be a challenge to touch the desired button while driving.

 

The function buttons are all too small and close together as well. The biggest complaint that I have is that onlt one of the four data values will disply without you manually cycling them with the F1 button. To make matters worse you typically only need to see either the artist or title once you've selected a station but to go from title to artist you need to push the F1 button 3 times. And whatever you do be careful not to push the adjacent F2 button or you will wipe out most if not all your presets.

 

Bottom line: everything works, technically. But true-to-form Pioneer has fallen short on the user interface. It's really a shame as this should be the easiest part of the equation once all of the hardware and functionality is in place. For example, simply making the six preset buttons half as wide and twich as high (i.e. 2 columns of 3 square buttons rather than 1 column of 6 narrow bands) would provide a much better target for your finger to hit. The four function buttons could also be easily made larger as there is plenty of empty space around them.

 

And it would be really nice if the the four RDS/RBDS values could be strung together before they repeat. And while the standard limits the value to 8 characters at a time, there is ample room on the D3 display to show the complete strings if they were built up in memory as the data streams in. But don't get me started!

[HiFiSi]

Pioneer didn't really fall short with the interface, as the unit wasn't designed to be compatible with the D3, it just happens to be, somewhat. I'm sure if that tuner was connected to one of Pioneer's HDradio-ready head units, it would work flawlessly, and the interface would be great. You can't ask for everything to work perfectly and without problems if you're pairing together two components that weren't designed to work together.

[crd]

Pioneer released a HD tuner for our radios, PLUG N PLAY.

 

It's new I guess Pioneer GEX-P10HD

 

$99 @ crutchfield

 

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/ ... 10H&tp=134

[HiFiSi]

Do you realize that is the exact unit we have been discussing for this entire topic? It's not 100% compatible with the D3. Read the post 3 up from this one.

[FourDoor]

Well hopefully a firware update can fix this on the D3. From TransistorJunction's post, it sounds like a simple interface update with just labeled and resized buttons is all that is needed to make HD Radio 100% usable on the D3. Here's to wishful thinking...

 

TransistorJunction, can you take a couple pictures of the interface? Also since you extended the antenna radio out, I am assuming the D3 gets the regular radio signal now through the HD unit and is passed back through the ipbus? Any standard radio station signal loss after installing the HD unit?

[TransistorJunction]

sorry for the delay, it took me a while to take and edit a photo. As you can see, the EXT-1 (or EXT-2) default interface control panel is very basic but resembles the standard radio control panel. However it does not have the Detail view.

 

As far as I can tell after using it for about 3 weeks now is that all of the HD radio's functions are enabled and available, but it would definitely be preferable to have a control panel designed specifically for it. I'm hoping this will be in the the next firmware release.

 

The antenna connects to the HD module which is only about 3 inches by 5 inches (I'll provide more accurate dimensions later). You can either transfer the antenna from the head unit (which will effectively render the standard radio useless) or you can purchase a Y adapter which should be available just about anywhere that sells car radios.

 

In the photo below not the first 8 characters of Boston's "Don't Look Back" to the right of the clock. If I had waited a few couple of seconds and taken another photo it would have scrolled to "ok Back" and then alternated between these every few seconds for the duration of the song.

 

If I had pressed F1, then "NO TEXT" would have been displayed since this would have called for the the "Genre" to be shown, but I have not seen any stations yet where this is done.essing F1 again would show "WFXF-HD1" which is the station ID, and the next press of F1 would show the artist "Boston". The next press of F1 would take me back to the title "Don't Lo" and so on. Again, a maximum of 8 characters from any string will be displayed.

 

I suspect that splitting the antenna signal may diminish it slightly to each radio so I don't recommend it as the HD Radio is more sensitive to the quality of the signal. This is because it is digital so it "all or nothing" and once the signal falls below a certain threshold the sound will drop out. With a weak analog signal you will still have sound but it may have more static, etc.

 

But the HD radio will automatically switch to the analog signal (not the head unit's analog radio) if the HD signal get's weak enough to cause a drop out (provided you are listening to the main channel. If you are listening to an HD only sub-channel then there is no analog signal to revert to so it will drop out in that case.

 

So, I really see no reason to maintain the antenna connection to the standard radio unless you really like the Detail screen, but since it doesn't have RDS/RBDS in the US I see no value. The HD radio will display the text values if the station provides them even for the analog channels.