Is there any way to enable/install the voice recognition function to search music/make calls etc on a non US version AVIC-F900BT

Hi Iceman.

Although I'm afraid I can't help and/or answer your question, I'd just like to express my disappointment of this product

I'm from Belgium and bought my F700BT just a couple of days ago.

I too was very suprised to learn that appently VR support has been thorn out of the EU software

The F700BT replaced my Nokia CK-7W bluetooth carkit.

On the old Nokia carkit I could just press the control button for several secs and it would allow me to voice-dial any of my contacts, I used this feature all the time.

Now with the F700BT, the best I can do is go to contacts and browse to the contact I'm looking for.

While I think this is SERIOUS shortcoming of the product, I also think this is outright dangerous:

With the nokia carkit I could dial someone's number in a matter of seconds, without even taking my eyes of the road (the button was right next to my steering wheel).

With the F700BT it takes several minutes before I can track down the person I'm looking for in the contacts menu. During this time I also have to take my eyes of the road.

All that left beside, I simply find it OUTRAGEOUS that US customers get A LOT more bang for their buck, since the unit costs lest in the US and they get to have VR.

The only plausible explanation for this I can come up with, is that Pioneer left this functionality out for EU because they were afraid that they would get comments for not supporting local languages. While being a software developer, I can imagine it to be hard to fit a lot of language support in the limited memory which is available.

On the other hand, I have 2 remaining questions for which I cannot think of a legitimate reason why Pioneer did this:

1. Whilst cutting out most VR support, Pioneer should have left in at least voice dialing, there is no actual voice recognition support required on the device to do this, just add a "Voice Dial" button to the phone menu, and have it open the mic channel and trigger the voice dial function on the phone.

2. I think I am right in saying that in Europe, at least 70-80% of the people who can afford to spend +- 1000 EUR on this device, Do have a high enough degree of education to just use the VR in English, since it only requires very basic sentences (e.g. "Play artist Rolling Stones").

I seriously hope that some bright mind on this forum (I will forever worship this person, LOL) will find a way to enable VR, or at least voice dialing support on my EU F700BT unit. Since I'm currently seriously considering to put my old Nokia CK-7W unit back into my car and just disable the whole bluetooth feature on the F700BT.

As a software developer, it always hurts my heart to see such a fine piece of hardware being lost over crappy software...

FYI:

I found this post:

http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic. ... c&start=45

But it seems to have hit a dead end as well

Cheers m8,

And may our European prayers be heard by gods of mount Pioneer, for they may provide us with a blessed patch.

Hi Iceman.

 

Although I'm afraid I can't help and/or answer your question, I'd just like to express my disappointment of this product

 

I'm from Belgium and bought my F700BT just a couple of days ago.

I too was very suprised to learn that appently VR support has been thorn out of the EU software

 

The F700BT replaced my Nokia CK-7W bluetooth carkit.

On the old Nokia carkit I could just press the control button for several secs and it would allow me to voice-dial any of my contacts, I used this feature all the time.

 

Now with the F700BT, the best I can do is go to contacts and browse to the contact I'm looking for.

While I think this is SERIOUS shortcoming of the product, I also think this is outright dangerous:

With the nokia carkit I could dial someone's number in a matter of seconds, without even taking my eyes of the road (the button was right next to my steering wheel).

With the F700BT it takes several minutes before I can track down the person I'm looking for in the contacts menu. During this time I also have to take my eyes of the road.

 

All that left beside, I simply find it OUTRAGEOUS that US customers get A LOT more bang for their buck, since the unit costs lest in the US and they get to have VR.

 

The only plausible explanation for this I can come up with, is that Pioneer left this functionality out for EU because they were afraid that they would get comments for not supporting local languages. While being a software developer, I can imagine it to be hard to fit a lot of language support in the limited memory which is available.

On the other hand, I have 2 remaining questions for which I cannot think of a legitimate reason why Pioneer did this:

1. Whilst cutting out most VR support, Pioneer should have left in at least voice dialing, there is no actual voice recognition support required on the device to do this, just add a "Voice Dial" button to the phone menu, and have it open the mic channel and trigger the voice dial function on the phone.

 

2. I think I am right in saying that in Europe, at least 70-80% of the people who can afford to spend +- 1000 EUR on this device, Do have a high enough degree of education to just use the VR in English, since it only requires very basic sentences (e.g. "Play artist Rolling Stones").

 

I seriously hope that some bright mind on this forum (I will forever worship this person, LOL) will find a way to enable VR, or at least voice dialing support on my EU F700BT unit. Since I'm currently seriously considering to put my old Nokia CK-7W unit back into my car and just disable the whole bluetooth feature on the F700BT.

 

As a software developer, it always hurts my heart to see such a fine piece of hardware being lost over crappy software...

 

FYI:

I found this post:

http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic. ... c&start=45

But it seems to have hit a dead end as well

 

Cheers m8,

And may our European prayers be heard by gods of mount Pioneer, for they may provide us with a blessed patch.

definitely should return the product if you're not satisfied with it

 

definitely should return the product if you're not satisfied with it

Well that's easier said than done here in Europe

It works as advertised (in the specs for EU model it says nowhere that there're any VR capabilities), it's just that I had expected this work...

I know that refunding is a lot easier in the US.

Here in Europe the unit needs to be broke or not working as advertised before they'll give you anything back.

And even if they do the best you can hope for is that they'll give you a voucher which you can only use at their shop.

Also I drive a Ford F150, and I thought this car a double DIN stereo space, apparently this wasn't the case so I had to do a whole lot of modifications to the dash board and stereo space in order to fit the F700Bt. So there's no going back to the stock radio for sure...

I'm also not sure that I want a refund, since I'm quite happy with the unit in general, the VR missing is in fact the only disappointment so far.

I guess I'll just hope that someone will make a hack for this to work...

It works as advertised (in the specs for EU model it says nowhere that there're any VR capabilities), it's just that I had expected this work...

........

I'm also not sure that I want a refund, since I'm quite happy with the unit in general, the VR missing is in fact the only disappointment so far.

What would have had you think that the VR worked when none of the EU documents say it would? that would have gotten me interested right away as to "how come they don't mention this awesome feature?"

It's a great unit, and the VR, while nice, is not something I use daily, so if there was a way to give you mine, I would

What would have had you think that the VR worked when none of the EU documents say it would? that would have gotten me interested right away as to "how come they don't mention this awesome feature?"

Well off course the only one to really blame, is me, I admit that.

Stupid me for not checking the specs thoroughly...

On the other hand, I didn't even know before buying, that the US versions had VR, but what I did EXPECT (seeing the price range of this unit), is that it could do trigger a plain simple voice dial on my phone...

If you buy any carkit today, lets say a Nokia or a Parrot one, most of those carkits will have voice dialing support (provided that your phone supports it).

Even those bloody bluetooth headsets have support for it.

But a 1000 EURO stereo/navi/carkit device doesn't???

I hope most of you will agree when I say that this missing feature, is not to be expected for these kind of devices.

What would you say when you buy a 5 grand TV, and after installing it into your living room you would find out it didn't have support for a basic thing such as a remote control??

What would have had you think that the VR worked when none of the EU documents say it would? that would have gotten me interested right away as to "how come they don't mention this awesome feature?"

 

Well off course the only one to really blame, is me, I admit that.

Stupid me for not checking the specs thoroughly...

 

On the other hand, I didn't even know before buying, that the US versions had VR, but what I did EXPECT (seeing the price range of this unit), is that it could do trigger a plain simple voice dial on my phone...

If you buy any carkit today, lets say a Nokia or a Parrot one, most of those carkits will have voice dialing support (provided that your phone supports it).

Even those bloody bluetooth headsets have support for it.

But a 1000 EURO stereo/navi/carkit device doesn't???

 

I hope most of you will agree when I say that this missing feature, is not to be expected for these kind of devices.

 

What would you say when you buy a 5 grand TV, and after installing it into your living room you would find out it didn't have support for a basic thing such as a remote control??

I wouldn't pay five grand for a TV but if it didn't support a remote and somehow I didn't know that till after I bought it, I would return it even if I had to smash the screen and put it back in the box

I understand your gripe; if only you'd found this board sooner we could have warned you about the EU version not having VR.

Yeah guys but the device has the files already in the firmware. It is just the system files need tweaking to start the software as in US Models. If I could get a copy of US model system fikes I could check the differences.

yes it woud be great if someone coud look at it maybe hack in really boring .