I just picked up an avic-z3 to install in my 2005 toyota avalon (it's gonna be sick ) and I was reading the manual and was very disheartened that it says that I may only load music through cds. It also says that I cannot use CD-Rs with mp3s on it. so.....a couple questions:

Can I use CD-Rs or DVD-Rs with .wav files?

Can I load music by connecting the avic z3 to my computer (and where would I get a wire that would connect it)?

Is there any other source besides CDs that I may load music to the z3 hard drive from?

Thanks ahead of time for any info on this. It really pisses me off that Pioneer won't let me just connect to my computer hard drive for the music. It will take so long to load music by using individual CDs. Pioneer seems so far behind and so greedy when it comes to music and accessories.

It does play mp3 cdrs. It does not play mp3 dvds

It does play mp3 cdrs. It does not play mp3 dvds

And the only way you can load music onto the harddrive is by letting the Zx rip audio CDs....

No way to download anything.

ok-thanks guys. I'll be sure to load some pics when I get it installed. I'm currently waiting for a few accessories. I'm going to install a few extra screens in the vehicle with an A/V switcher and a PS2.

So....let me get this straight: the only way to load music onto the Zx is to use CDs with .wav files, right?

Or the real CDs. You can use CDRWs too if you don't want to waste a lot of disks

.wav? No, no files.

You can only use AUDIO cd's -- cd's burned in audio mode that play in a normal cd-player.

I'm pretty sure .wav files are what is on store bought cds and what plays on audio cd players.

you could fill the whole hard drive with a couple dvds filled with mp3 albums-too bad you cannot use it.

Is there a certain amount of hard drive space you should leave empty so that finding music or nav data doesn't slow down? Has anybody here experienced slowdown with a full or near full hard drive?

I'm pretty sure .wav files are what is on store bought cds and what plays on audio cd players.

Nope. All audio CD's use a special format called CDA. These are not wav files.

CD Audio (.cda) tracks are audio files that can be stored on CD media. The .cda files are representations of CD audio tracks and do not contain the actual pulse code modulation (PCM) information. Cda files can be played only from a CD-ROM. To test a .cda file, either try to play a different .cda file from your CD-ROM or try to play a .cda file from a different CD-ROM. Copied from the CD-ROM to the hard disc it cannot be played. This is format used for encoding music on all commercial compact discs. If you buy a CD from a store, the music on that CD is stored in CDA format.[/quote

 

Is there a certain amount of hard drive space you should leave empty so that finding music or nav data doesn't slow down? Has anybody here experienced slowdown with a full or near full hard drive?

The music partition is completely separated and should have no effect on the other partitions. As for how long it takes to load the music database with a full library, I don't know... the most I've ever put on was 30 CD's before wiping it during the Z2 upgrade.