running external DVD drive for the Map DVD to stay in?

[04ctd]

does anyone else feel like the D3 is a POS?

 

I can't even Navi around town (just to play with it and learn it) without the dang Map DVD in.

 

it's really annoying.

 

can i buy another external drive for the Map

 

a guy had a D1 (Z1?) for sale cheaper than i paid for the D3, but he had to put his movies in a DVD/CD changer under the seat.

[HiFiSi]

No, the D3 isn't a POS. The nav routing system, howerer, is.

And no, the nav disk only works in the main drive. You can get an external changer or an ipod (which works the best IMO, and the interface is amazing) to use for an audio/video source and leave the nav disk in all the time.

[04ctd]

dangit.

 

i just paid big money for the wife a Sony MP3, and now i need an Ipod for this?

[knight20]

You can use any mp3 player with the D3. The ipod is the only player with an interface that the D3 supports. You can use a male to male wire to plug into the aux port on the front of the D3.

[whtcrxghst]

Or a headphone-to-RCA cable and run it into the back of the D3 if you don't want something sticking out of your deck

[04ctd]

You can use any mp3 player with the D3. The ipod is the only player with an interface that the D3 supports. You can use a male to male wire to plug into the aux port on the front of the D3.

 

knight, i thought the front panel jack was strictly an output?

 

if we can put ~1500 MP3 Songs on a Data style DVD, there's no reason to ever hook up a MP3 player, unless you want to effectively use the Navi features of the deck

[HiFiSi]

The front panel jack is an audio/video input.

 

Plus it's a lot easier finding the media you want through the mp3 player's interface.

Using a DVD full of mp3's hold a lot, but it only will display them in the order they were burned on to the disk.

Also, a lot of mp3 player can hold a lot more files than even a DL DVD can hold.

And with an MP3 player hooked up, you can leave the nav disk in the slot all the time, which is nice.

[hottwhyrd]

extra dvd players suck balls. unless of course u toss the money down for a pioneer dvd changer that can be controlled by the d3.

 

did you not know what u were getting when u bought it?

[04ctd]

did you not know what u were getting when u bought it?

 

 

i studied the pioneer website for a few weeks, and read about them on several websites, and what i understood was "in memory Navi mode, it downloads the local area, or the memorized route, and you take the Nav disc out"

 

you get that on a "mouse over" of "memory nav" here:

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v ... Component#

 

No, the D3 isn't a POS. The nav routing system, however, is

 

i guess the real question is, "would you recommend a D3 to a friend?"

 

and i really am not impressed with the D3 enough to soundly say YES without a doubt.

 

i figured the D3 was a few Generations old and the revisions of the GUI, menus, routing software, and firmware would be sufficiently mature.

 

we build stuff like this at my work, that is not ready to be used yet, but we HAVE to meet a deadline, so we put out something that really doesn't work as well as it could

 

we are working on Rev 2 of our product to release soon, but we haven't got the bugs out of Rev 1 yet.

 

i really miss the RDS from the base cheapest sorriest radio Dodge had available, that came stock in my truck, and is a digital paperweight in my attic now.

[HiFiSi]

would you recommend a D3 to a friend?"

 

Absolutely, but I would recommend an ipod to hook up to it as well. I couldn't be happier with mine. But I also rarely use the nav function, so that's not much of an issue for me.

[whtcrxghst]

I love mine (and my ipod), especially compared to what you would pay for some other brand with comparable features. And I use my nav daily and rarely have the routing problems others have stated. Guess they did a good job in my area

 

would you recommend a D3 to a friend?"

 

Absolutely, but I would recommend an ipod to hook up to it as well. I couldn't be happier with mine. But I also rarely use the nav function, so that's not much of an issue for me.

[LiquidTension]

where did you buy your D3? because that is exactly why i laugh at people that blindly buy things off the internet....if you're curious about a product or do not know exactly how it works go to the store and look at it, don't read it

 

for $1000 (or $800 however much you paid), the D3 is a very damn good system. The ipod interface is amazing, the xm interface is great, dvd player = awesome...gps routing = eh. Well, i did not buy it for the gps or else I would have gotten a gps system.

 

If you want one with dual drives, check out the Z2....cept that you're paying more than twice as much. Or jump to an alpine w205 and the complimentary navigation unit...and still paying over $1500.

 

if you bought the D3 strictly the navigation features, then you obviously did not do your research well enough

[04ctd]

 

for $1000 (or $800 however much you paid),

 

if you bought the D3 strictly the navigation features, then you obviously did not do your research well enough

 

$625 or so. if you say the GOOD navi units are in another complete (double what i paid) price range, than maybe i just shut up & live with it.

 

 

The front panel jack is an audio/video input.

 

Also, a lot of mp3 player can hold a lot more files than even a DL DVD can hold.

And with an MP3 player hooked up, you can leave the nav disk in the slot all the time, which is nice.

 

HiFi, as usual, you are correct. i just bought a ZUNE 80gb for a Christmas present, and it took EVERY MP3 I have on my computer (which filled up over 2 DVD's)

 

 

the problem with my wife's SONY MP3 is it one of the little "chrome" ones,

and you can't see the front panel except in specific lighting conditions.

 

and you can't hardly see the tiny writing unless you focus on it.

 

we just hit RANDOM on it and let it go, we bought it to use on the motorcycles, like when i rode cross country, and you can't change FM stations easily.

[lightsout]

I was a little frustrated when I first got the D3 because I always had to switch from the Navi disk to Cd's/DVD's whenever I wanted to use the Nav and still listen to music. But since I connected an IPod I pretty much always keep the Navi disk in now. The odd time I will take it out when playing a Video DVD or a CD that someone brings in my car, but other than that I just play music from my IPod. If you want to play allot of video you could always get the Pioneer DVD changer, but it is very expensive. And if that is the case, you should have got the Z2.

[Kricket]

pretty much every single review out there on the d3 makes mention that the nav-dvd has to be INSIDE the unit for the navigation to fully function - in fact, this was probably the second thing i learned about the unit just from "casual" research (the first was that it has the best ipod interface out of any unit)

 

personally, if i didnt have an ipod - i probably wouldnt have purchased the unit - would just seem silly - but if you do have an ipod, then this unit simply cannot be beat (the interface is just hands-down awesome)

 

i never even remove the nav dvd - i keep all of my music, movies, and music videos on the ipod, listen to the radio, have the xm hookup, and the navigation fully functional

 

i dont think its a pos by any means - of course, if i had just found out that the nav-disk had to be inserted to do things like re-route, find poi's and add stops after i actually purchased it - i might be angry - but moreso at myself for not properly researching the unit (again, EVERY major review makes mention of this fact)...