Z140BH Voice Control

[VBLUE42]

Kenwood uses Garmin right? They make the best navigation so that's not a surprise. However the AV on the Kenwoods isn't as good as Pioneer.

 

Agreed.

 

I take it if you think the Z140 Nav is bad then 95% of OEM navigation must be atrocious to you.

 

Agreed.

[necro23]

I live in Phoenix Arizona and do not find their nav software lacking. It seems to have all the most current buildings in AZ. and has been darn accurate. Aside from not having voice commands in the nav it is a great product IMHO.

I have compared it to my handheld garmin nav unit and it isnt any better.

 

Once I had the unit in place for a bit I just had to learn all the in and outs of the software. Alot of people i see complaining are those that had older units and are comparing them to the 140. I only had a stock RNS-E Audi Symphony system in my car prior to and this unit is light years better.

 

As for voice control in other areas, people need to remember that when you get into the car you have to allow the HU to build the VR command list once connected to your phone. THEN, it will work fine.I had issues for awhile where I thought the voice control wasnt working for either phone calls nor browsing through music.

 

Once it goes through and finished the VR command list, for me 3 minutes or so, then all commands work. Save for nav that is. If I could have nav commands this would take this unit form an 8.5 to a 9 in my grade of 1-10 with 10 being the best. If you don't wait it will have a hard time finding your music or making a call.

 

I had a slight issue with the IPOD cable from pioneer but once I figured that issue out, it works flawlessly.

[Altima]

So this thing creates a VR catalog of your music. Does it do this EVERYtime it goes on? Even if you leave the same device plugged into it (Ipod)

I have almost 6000 songs, I dont think i want to wait for that to catalog everytime. I know i can turn the option off, just wondering if it is a one time affair.

[RonS]

So this thing creates a VR catalog of your music. Does it do this EVERYtime it goes on? Even if you leave the same device plugged into it (Ipod)

I have almost 6000 songs, I dont think i want to wait for that to catalog everytime. I know i can turn the option off, just wondering if it is a one time affair.

I'm running the Z130 software, but I doubt it is any different on the Z140. When you 1st plug-in your iPod, or after syncing it with iTunes, it takes several minutes to build the VR catalog. After that, it only takes maybe 10-15 seconds (on mine my iTouch 64GB w/ about 4000 songs).

 

The ipod player is only partially functional while the rebuild is happening. Whatever tune/album/playlist you were on when you shut-off will resume after you boot-up. And Next/Previous track buttons will work. But no search/browse options (even non-VR) will work until the catalog is built/verified.

 

BTW, it doesn't start building (or rebuilding) the VR catalog until you respond to the "warning" by hitting "OK". If you were already in iPod mode when you shut down, it will resume in iPod mode on power-up/reboot. However, the nagging "warning" isn't visible until you interactively do something - like pressing "Mode". So, that will delay the catalog rebuild if you just startup and drive off. That is a big design flaw IMO. It should automatically rebuild/verify on start-up or whenever an ipod is detected after a reboot.

 

Again, this is w/Z130. I don't know whether they fixed this on the Z140.