i'm a AVIC D3 owner thats been thinking of upgrading to a Z3 or Z4 if it comes out. do u think this is a good upgrade from the D3?

also i've herd that theres a guy on here that sells the HDD for the unit. what exatly is this? is the firmware and nivagation maps on that drive freeing up the cd/dvd drive? also can i send this guy ANY sized hardrive say 120gb for him to put on whatever navigation firmware so i can replace that with my ipod?

For clarification, I would like to ask you for what reason are you looking to upgrade from your D3? Anything in particular you are looking for ? Features, screen size etc.

mostly b/c the D3 is unstable. for example sometimes the bluetooth will work and sometimes not. it crashes. and i'm just not overly impresed with it.

that and i like the HDD feature. i'd like to transfer my music libray to it so i can use my ipod for other things.

i've heard noting but good about the z series and noting but firmware upgrade after firmware upgrade for the F so it seemes z is the way to go.

So let me see..

You said you like the stability of the Z3 unit over the D3. And you like the HDD so it leaves you with a DVD/CD drive to be used for music and also to rip music onto.

These are some the exact reasons why I have a Z3 over the D3. I like the snappy route calculations since its from the HDD.

However here are some things that you might need to know and hopefully these won't be deal breakers for you.

1) IPOD Interface is not very good. Its slow and many users complain that it takes too long to scroll through the playlist.

2) Bluetooth is good, but not the best. It uses archaic bluetooth technology with no noise cancellation features.

Wanted to be honest in the Z3 feedback. I personally don't have the IPOD connector since I like my music on the HDD anyways. And the bluetooth is ok enough for me to use too. Besides that the Z3 is a best nav for me even over the new F-series avics.

Maybe others will chime in too. Hope this helps.

Couldn't agree anymore with djmixmac, Well said Sir. I personaly like the Z3 but the only issue I have would be the bluetooth being to low and can not really hear the other person on the other line.

In regardes of the IPOD, I heard the same and nor do I care about it cause I like my music on the HDD instead and like siruis radio instead as well.

To answer your question about the HDD drive. When a user buys an z1/z2, He/She can upgrade the HDD to a pre-loaded Z3 drive, by either doing it themself or just buy a pre-loaded drive from here already good to go.

The pre-loaded z3 drive, has the latest z3 firmware and the latest Feb-2008 maps. Also you can save your existing drive as a back up.

Some may say why buy a Z3 drive?

Simple, Its cheaper to buy a z1/z2 then a z3 and just upgrade the drive for less then a $100.

Hope it answered all your questions.

Best

thx for the info good stuff i will just keep the D3 for now but i'm defently upgrading in the future

The blue tooth doesn't always connect for some reason. Could be the z3 or could be the phone. Most of the time it works, but sometimes it will take awhile to connect to my phone and I may have to do it manually. I have about 100 cds stored so far and I only have like 30% space left. So if you have a huge cd collection, this probably isn't for you. I haven't really tested out my ipod much as when I connected mine to it, a couple days later the ipods hard drive failed on me. So, not sure about that one.

The blue tooth doesn't always connect for some reason. Could be the z3 or could be the phone. Most of the time it works, but sometimes it will take awhile to connect to my phone and I may have to do it manually. I have about 100 cds stored so far and I only have like 30% space left. So if you have a huge cd collection, this probably isn't for you. I haven't really tested out my ipod much as when I connected mine to it, a couple days later the ipods hard drive failed on me. So, not sure about that one.

I had the same issue with the bluetooth and it not connecting a few times. After further troubleshooting it ended up being the bluetooth built in to my HTC phone. Yes thats correct all HTC phones SUCKS and has a crapy bluetooth. I picked up a blackberry curve and it connects withen secs everytime i turn on bluetooth via phone.

KillaICM, it looks like you need a bigger harddrive.

Yeah, its probably the phone issue. My LG phone connects immediately after the unit's startup splash screen shows.

If you have multiple phones paired with the Z3 then you would have to manually change the connection every time you get into the car. However, if you use the same phone all the time then it does connect pretty fast, though sound quality and features is nothing to write home about.

I had the same issue with the bluetooth and it not connecting a few times. After further troubleshooting it ended up being the bluetooth built in to my HTC phone. Yes thats correct all HTC phones SUCKS and has a crapy bluetooth. I picked up a blackberry curve and it connects withen secs everytime i turn on bluetooth via phone.

 

KillaICM, it looks like you need a bigger harddrive.

Now I feel better, because I'll be getting a new phone once the Blackberry Storm debuts. I have an HTC and noticed that the bluetooth takes some time to connect and sometimes I have issues where the radio would mute when a call came in but the callers voice would still be coming through the phone as opposed the car speakers.

Other than that I'm satisfied with the call quality.

I had the same issue with the bluetooth and it not connecting a few times. After further troubleshooting it ended up being the bluetooth built in to my HTC phone. Yes thats correct all HTC phones SUCKS and has a crapy bluetooth. I picked up a blackberry curve and it connects withen secs everytime i turn on bluetooth via phone.

 

KillaICM, it looks like you need a bigger harddrive.

 

Now I feel better, because I'll be getting a new phone once the Blackberry Storm debuts. I have an HTC and noticed that the bluetooth takes some time to connect and sometimes I have issues where the radio would mute when a call came in but the callers voice would still be coming through the phone as opposed the car speakers.

 

Other than that I'm satisfied with the call quality.

Yes trust me been there and had troubles with the qualtlily of the bluetooth with my old HTC phone. HTC DOES NOT build there bluetooth very feel at all. I ended up getting a curve and wow what a big difference it is. Connectd within secs and just with a touch of a button all my contacts address book got copyed over to the avic phonebook without having to enter them one by one like the HTC phone.

BB Storm yes sir. Thats tight, heard a lot about it and its ranked to have the best specs and build of any BB out there on the market as of now.

However issue that I am having with my Bb Curve is that, when I am currently on the phone via avic bluetooth i use the right up and down volume to adjust the volume on the phone as its set to below half and i can not seems to adjust the volume neither up or down while on the call.

Anyone have issue with the curve or any other phone as not able to change volume of the bluttooth while on call.

I know this is a hijack thread by know but he already got his answer