rcedit Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 I had a Z110 installed in my Sorento about a week ago. I would post pics but the install was pretty standard. Overall I'm very stoked. Boot time, command responsiveness, and easy ui were the biggest factors for me when deciding which headunit to get and the Z110 performs incredibly in that regard. Still, pieces this complicated, with so many features are bound to have some boneheaded design flaws, and the Z110 is no different. NAV The Good: I previously had a Tom Tom and this Nav software is better. Finds the signal very quick. You can easily 'cancel route' which took no less than 7 keystrokes on the Tom Tom. Has your next 2 moves on screen which can be helpful. The Bad: Bonehead flaw #1 - For some reason the "day/night" display options are actually only "day/automatic" which means that the night display is only attainable with your headlights on. I get the gimmick, and think 'automatic' should be a setting option, but for the life of me I can't understand why 'night' display isn't an option. Maybe I'm just angry because my installer failed to attach that wire. Anyway, the point is, the Z110 screen is very bright and to use day mode at night is next to impossible as it illuminates the whole cab of my ride to the point of being distracting. Remember in Pulp Fiction when Jules opens the briefcase and his whole face glows gold? That's me. All you "Bypassers" may want to keep this in mind when watching your favorite movies at night.... while driving. It's really easy to tell. I haven't yet figured out how the NAV determines which street names to show. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Kind of annoying when you don't have a specific destination set but are looking for a certain street. Some peeps have complained about the voice talking too much or being annoying. I keep mine on mute so its a non-issue for me SIRIUS The Good: Not much. It does have a quick 'traffic' button that you can program which is decent. That is, if you live in one of the 6 cities that Sirius broadcasts traffic for. I suppose you could program any station to that button though. The Bad: The software engineers spit the bit on this one. There is no way to list the stations. Most sat radios have a page view that lets you scroll thru many stations at once and then select which one from the page to tune to. Not here. You have to go one by one. There is a weak attempt to streamline tuning by offering a 'category' view but once in a category you still have to tune station by station. This is super lame and very frustrating. They try to combat this cumbersome ui by giving you 3 bands of 6 presets. That's fine, and if you go into the preset menu there is a beautiful screen with all the presets listed...... except they aren't listed! You would think, with such screen real estate, that once you set a station, that station would be listed on the display. Well, it's not. So until I memorize my 18 stations, tuning the sat radio is a major pain. It would be so easy to make this sweet. Even my wife, who pays absolutely no attention to this kind of stuff, complained about how difficult it was to navigate. HD RADIO No complaints at all. HD stations sound great and regular AM/FM reception is very acceptable. I feel like I'm in the minority on this. BLUETOOTH PHONE Killer. Sounds great. Contacts load fast. Cool dial pad. Love the auto muting settings where you can set how low the radio mutes when you're on a call. Google411 is cool. BLUETOOTH AUDIO Perhaps my favorite feature. I have a Blackberry and stream music to the head unit via BT. I thought this would be kind of a gimmicky feature until I heard it. Sound quality is amazing. IPOD Totally sweet. Loads fast. On screen commands are instantaneous. Videos look great. Screen is very bright. (Again, bypassers beware) Installation tips: As mentioned above, make sure you or your installer is hip to the auto day/night feature of your NAV display and installs accordingly. Also, unless I'm mistaken, your iPod and USB drive connect to the same cable. That is, you can't have both connected at once. My installer didn't make that connection accessible so I can only plug in my iPod. Not the biggest deal for me. Anything I would ever want I have on my iPod. But if access to that connection is important to you then you might want to mention it beforehand. If you have steering controls with a 'seek' button I would recommend attempting to change that to 'preset seek'. I have 'seek' programmed and it's useless, particularly if you have SAT radio or live in a city with many (lame) stations. I'm praying that button can be changed when I bring it in this week. That's all I can think of at the moment. I may add to this as things present themselves or as I find work arounds to the minor annoyances I have. I'm having MSN Direct installed this week and hopefully my installer can correct my other installation issues then. Hope this is helpful to someone. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
aleicgrant Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 thanks for the review its appreciated. I do want to focus on one thing which continues to be disputed as a capability HD RADIO No complaints at all. HD stations sound great and regular AM/FM reception is very acceptable. I feel like I'm in the minority on this. You have the HD radio option and are also able to tune in AM/FM as well? I cannot seem to be able to do this and the HD stations I have range from really good or a lot of static. I however, cannot tune in regular am/fm stations. am I missing something, set up wrong or what. A few others chimed in and said that once you add the HD tuner you lose the AM/FM. Can you elaborate? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rcedit Posted August 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 HD Radio receives both analog and digital signals which renders the FM/AM option unnecessary. That's why those options on your screen become dim. If a particular station is broadcasting HD then you will see a 'D' next to the signal meter (middle left side of screen next to the sat dish icon.) If not, you will see an 'A'. That's how you can tell what kind of broadcast you're hearing. Typically, when I tune to an HD station it will receive it analog for the first 4-8 seconds and then will kick in digital. Sounds to me like your antenna might not be connected. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
aleicgrant Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 I have it going through the MSN Direct I get the feeling the Metra antenna adapter is either not set up correctly or defective. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rcedit Posted August 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 Why are you using a Metra antenna adapter? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
aleicgrant Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 I have a 2009 Audi TTS and using a harness call connects2 which allows me to keep steering wheel controls etc. I need the metra to work with the antenna in the Audi I am using the EU-55 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rcedit Posted August 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 I use a PAC-SWI-PS and don't have a power antenna so I may not be much help. Your suspicion sounds right to me though. I hope when I get MSN Direct installed it doesn't effect my HD reception. Good luck. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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