I have been struggling with whether to buy a Pioneer F series unit or one of the Kenwood DNX units. I really like the feature set of the Pioneer, voice command, MSN, etc. But after reading some of your posts, the Pioneer seems to have a lot of problems only some of which are fixed by the update. If some of you wouldn't mind giving a newbee a hand?

How do you upgrade maps. Nothing on Pioneer or Teleatlas site

Is there supposed to be a second update? Does anyone know what it will fix?

I have a Blackberry Pearl...does anyone have any bluetooth experience with the Pioneer and this phone?

How long does it take to boot really...how long till you get radio vs. when do you get Nav

The things that are really important to me are voice command, Ipod connectivity and bluetooth, any thoughts on how these work?

Thanks in advance...oh by the way...what the hell are the green boxes that are driving so many of you crazy?

Thanks, dontat

How do you upgrade maps. Nothing on Pioneer or Teleatlas site

Well for one, it doesn't use teleatlas, it uses iGo. But anyway, there's no map upgrades available right now because the unit is brand new. Maybe in a year or so an update will be put out.

Is there supposed to be a second update? Does anyone know what it will fix?

Yes there is, but I don't know if anyone has heard anything about when it will come out or what will be included.

I have a Blackberry Pearl...does anyone have any bluetooth experience with the Pioneer and this phone?

Go to the top of the screen and hit the search button. Type in BLACKBERRY PEARL, select SEARCH FOR ALL TERMS, and select PIONEER AVIC-F series from the category pull-down menu. Then hit the search button and see what comes up.

How long does it take to boot really...how long till you get radio vs. when do you get Nav

Boot up is generally around a minute long. You won't have nav functionality until that is done. But the radio and CD/DVD should come on only after a few seconds. Ipod takes about 20 seconds to start up.

The things that are really important to me are voice command, Ipod connectivity and bluetooth, any thoughts on how these work?

They work pretty well in my opinion. Ipod functionality is pretty much flawless, and has an excellent interface. Bluetooth and voice command both work well, but may have a few minor issues.

Thanks in advance...oh by the way...green boxes that are driving so many of you crazy?

If you go to the map view without having a route plotted, the boxes on the left and top of the screen that normally display the route info (street name and turn indicator/arrow I think) are still on the display, except they are empty. When no route is entered, those shouldn't be on the screen at all, but they are.

Just to add to the green boxes question. They are transparent so you can see through them. It is a little annoying though if you like driving with map screen up.

The maps are TeleAtlas maps, version 102007. The only way at this time to get an update is if Pioneer releases one.

The bootup time enables the music sound first (5-10seconds), then backup camera (10-15 seconds), then map screen (30-45 seconds), then bluetooth (45-50 seconds), and finally full navigation and av functions. This is with the VR catalog turned off.

I added a few songs and small videos last night to my ipod and turned the vr catalog back on, it updated the catalog in about 10 seconds.

Thank you all for your help. Your input is really helpful.

Dontat

You sure about the maps being from teleatlas? I was pretty sure they came from iGo... unless iGo just writes the programming for the nav and gets their maps from teleatlas maybe?

From what I understand that is right. The maps come from teleatlas and the route algorithm from iGo.

Makes sense, I guess!

TeleAtlas and NavTeq provide all of the cartography data for navigation vendors in the US. Different software companies and purchase varying levels of data, but it all comes from one of those two sources.

How long does it take to boot really...how long till you get radio vs. when do you get Nav

 

Boot up is generally around a minute long. You won't have nav functionality until that is done. But the radio and CD/DVD should come on only after a few seconds. Ipod takes about 20 seconds to start up.

 

Is this everyone's experience? I just installed mine this weekend and it takes much longer than you describe. I have the latest firmware (came pre-loaded). It seems that it sits on the splash screen telling me to wait for about 4 minutes when I timed it. When I turn off the car with a radio as source I have radio sound and volume control after 45 seconds past ignition, the screen changes to the source screen (but not functional) after about 2 minutes, I have functional control after 4 minutes. Is this now a unique experience to my unit (and thus needs to be returned) or is this par for the course for other users?