10 Thoughts on the Z1... any feedback would be awesome!

Posted May 10, 2006 · 06:00 UTC#1

Hi....

I drive quite a bit for a living, and have had some extensive road time playing with my new Z1. I thought I'd throw some thoughts out to you all, and see what kind of feedback it generates. Many brains are better than one usually!!

I love the unit.... but a little more thought from Pioneer would go a LONG way!

1) Already had my first Z1 stolen from my rig. Guess what? The unit does not forget where you live when it loses battery power. Nor is there a password security system in the firmware. Advice to you all... do NOT put your home addy or the addy of any of your loved ones in the Z1. Use the nearby 7-11 or Subway. It will be good enough, and save you a LOT of worry.

2) Does Pioneer ever do any firmware upgrades to download? This is my first Pioneer manufactured car deck, and while rather awesome, a few things sure could be made better.

3) Is there a way to remove a phone that was registered in the bluetooth unit? I find ways to add...but not delete.

4) Mute button?

5) Wouldnt it be nice if you could touch the bluetooth button on the main screen to X out the phone. I dont always want my phone to marry the Z1, but there really is no way to easily do a disconnect. Or is there?

6) Is there a lower case option for the QWERTY keyboard in the library??

7) Why everytime I put a CD in the unit, it tries to play a DVD? Is there a default setting somewhere to make it try CD first? Takes minutes to get a CD in the unit and start playing while it comes to the realization it does not have a DVD inserted.

8) Yet another bluetooth annoyance... Seems that when call waiting kicks in, my active call is always dropped.

9) Wouldnt it be nice if there was a briteness control for the screen??

10) Any word on a double-din cover plate for the Z1? For security reasons.

Enjoy your Z1's!!!!!!!
Scott

Posted May 10, 2006 · 21:06 UTC#2

There is a brightness control for the screen, hit the V button...

Posted May 10, 2006 · 22:50 UTC#3

It does???

If I press and hold the V button, the screen shuts off.
If I just press the V button, nothing happens.

Am I missing something??
Thanks for responding!

Scott

Posted May 11, 2006 · 00:02 UTC#4

Damn, I think its the V button, I will have to check tomorrow...Ill let you know.

Posted May 11, 2006 · 04:45 UTC#5

Never mind... found it!

Thanks very much!
Thats one thing off my list!

Scott

Posted May 11, 2006 · 15:01 UTC#6

if you do not want your bluettoth phone to marry up on start up, turn the bluetooth off on your phone. On my treo this is very easy, then just turn on next time. I run into this when my wife and I leave for work at the same time, her Commander catches my phone next to it in the garage and then won't use her phone.

Posted May 12, 2006 · 04:53 UTC#7

caliscooter said:
Hi....

I drive quite a bit for a living, and have had some extensive road time playing with my new Z1. I thought I'd throw some thoughts out to you all, and see what kind of feedback it generates. Many brains are better than one usually!!

I love the unit.... but a little more thought from Pioneer would go a LONG way!

1) Already had my first Z1 stolen from my rig. Guess what? The unit does not forget where you live when it loses battery power. Nor is there a password security system in the firmware. Advice to you all... do NOT put your home addy or the addy of any of your loved ones in the Z1. Use the nearby 7-11 or Subway. It will be good enough, and save you a LOT of worry.

2) Does Pioneer ever do any firmware upgrades to download? This is my first Pioneer manufactured car deck, and while rather awesome, a few things sure could be made better.

3) Is there a way to remove a phone that was registered in the bluetooth unit? I find ways to add...but not delete.

4) Mute button?

5) Wouldnt it be nice if you could touch the bluetooth button on the main screen to X out the phone. I dont always want my phone to marry the Z1, but there really is no way to easily do a disconnect. Or is there?

6) Is there a lower case option for the QWERTY keyboard in the library??

7) Why everytime I put a CD in the unit, it tries to play a DVD? Is there a default setting somewhere to make it try CD first? Takes minutes to get a CD in the unit and start playing while it comes to the realization it does not have a DVD inserted.

8) Yet another bluetooth annoyance... Seems that when call waiting kicks in, my active call is always dropped.

9) Wouldnt it be nice if there was a briteness control for the screen??

10) Any word on a double-din cover plate for the Z1? For security reasons.

Enjoy your Z1's!!!!!!!
Scott

1 - Bummer you got one robbed already. Phone book went with it too, in addition to home addy.

2 - I'm sure they do (or will), but likely be awhile before we see one - and that one will likely disable to flash-bypass.

3 - Probably have to do a full data reset on the unit - documented in the manual. This will erase all personal settings, music on the hard disc, etc.

4 - That one really threw me also. Would be nice to just mute the sucker. OTOH, if you're in AV screens, you can always pause what's playing.

5 - Answered earlier - I also just turn off the BT on the phone. Even if it had the feature, they would likely bury it 5 button pushes down.

6 - Yeah, another well thought out shortcoming.

7 - And then it wants to CDDB it. Would be nice if you could disable CDDB also - that's what is likely causing the pause - it's searching the database for the disc. PITA for me, as most of the CDs I listen to are live recordings that I've made from shows I've mixed or recorded.

8 - I switch call waiting from the phone itself. The BT has many shortcomings which are not present in standalone implementations of in-car BT adapters. They kinda rushed this to market me-thinks.

9 - Pray tell, what was the answer to this. Not that I mind the brightness.

10 - They want it, they'll take it. As long as it took me to install my whole system, it would take a good thief under 15 mins to rip all of it out. New Clifford alarm (shipping any day now) - perimeter, interior, shock, tilt, glass break and a 1 mile range on the 2-way beeper remote. I ordered (and paid for) mine in January - should be getting one of the first ones shipped. While the keyless remote for the ignition means all but the most sophisticated thiefs aren't going to drive away with my car (though a tow truck could grab it quickly), I wanna know if someone is showing too much interest in my car anyway.

Rick

Posted May 12, 2006 · 06:39 UTC#8

Fortunately I hadnt had the bluetooth installed on the first Z1 as it hadnt been shipped yet. Its definately a pain that you cannot instruct the unit not to store incoming calls. Least they could do is protect private data with some sort of password system.

I work for a division of a Japanese technology manufacturer, and we face issues such as this every day. The folks on the other side of the pool have a different culture of how technology is supposed to work..or maybe said a different way... a different view of what is intuitive. Neither the US or the Japanese view is right or wrong, but they are indeed different. What we in the States might consider an obvious feature to include in a product could be a complete shock to engineers in Japan. Once we raise enough of a fuss to include something, its usually in a firmware release down the road.

As far as the briteness settings, I was able to adjust the briteness by pressing the V button while the car was not moving. When in motion, the feature does not work. If you press and hold the V button, the display turns off if you are in motion or not.

Regards.... and thanks for the feedback!
~Sh

Posted May 12, 2006 · 11:12 UTC#9

caliscooter said:
Fortunately I hadnt had the bluetooth installed on the first Z1 as it hadnt been shipped yet. Its definately a pain that you cannot instruct the unit not to store incoming calls. Least they could do is protect private data with some sort of password system.

I work for a division of a Japanese technology manufacturer, and we face issues such as this every day. The folks on the other side of the pool have a different culture of how technology is supposed to work..or maybe said a different way... a different view of what is intuitive. Neither the US or the Japanese view is right or wrong, but they are indeed different. What we in the States might consider an obvious feature to include in a product could be a complete shock to engineers in Japan. Once we raise enough of a fuss to include something, its usually in a firmware release down the road.

As far as the briteness settings, I was able to adjust the briteness by pressing the V button while the car was not moving. When in motion, the feature does not work. If you press and hold the V button, the display turns off if you are in motion or not.

Regards.... and thanks for the feedback!
~Sh

I wonder how much of this function-ality is coded into the ROM (requiring a flash-type update), and how much is loaded from the harddisk bootstrap. Probably very little in ROM, as only AM/FM work on the unit in the case of hard disc failure. Probably another reason why they protect out-of-unit hard disc access so well - the whole OS for the Z1 is on the disc.

Another interesting rub (to the hard disc protection thing) is that actually cracking into the thing would technically be a violation of more than one part of the DMCA.

Rick

Posted May 12, 2006 · 16:34 UTC#10

Hey, thats something I never thought of! I should send the RIAA to go after the 3 guys who broke in and stole my 1st Z1!!

:wink:

~Sh

Posted May 14, 2006 · 16:39 UTC#11

caliscooter said:
Hi....

I drive quite a bit for a living, and have had some extensive road time playing with my new Z1. I thought I'd throw some thoughts out to you all, and see what kind of feedback it generates. Many brains are better than one usually!!

I love the unit.... but a little more thought from Pioneer would go a LONG way!

1) Already had my first Z1 stolen from my rig. Guess what? The unit does not forget where you live when it loses battery power. Nor is there a password security system in the firmware. Advice to you all... do NOT put your home addy or the addy of any of your loved ones in the Z1. Use the nearby 7-11 or Subway. It will be good enough, and save you a LOT of worry.
Yea a password would be nice

2) Does Pioneer ever do any firmware upgrades to download? This is my first Pioneer manufactured car deck, and while rather awesome, a few things sure could be made better.
don't know

3) Is there a way to remove a phone that was registered in the bluetooth unit? I find ways to add...but not delete.
Yea that would be nice
4) Mute button?
I thought the same thing. I thought it was a dumb thing to over look
5) Wouldnt it be nice if you could touch the bluetooth button on the main screen to X out the phone. I dont always want my phone to marry the Z1, but there really is no way to easily do a disconnect. Or is there?
true, duh again
6) Is there a lower case option for the QWERTY keyboard in the library??
no
7) Why everytime I put a CD in the unit, it tries to play a DVD? Is there a default setting somewhere to make it try CD first? Takes minutes to get a CD in the unit and start playing while it comes to the realization it does not have a DVD inserted.
not sure mine goes to cd?
8) Yet another bluetooth annoyance... Seems that when call waiting kicks in, my active call is always dropped.
hope ther is a setting to fix this
9) Wouldnt it be nice if there was a briteness control for the screen??
there is"allready pointed out"
10) Any word on a double-din cover plate for the Z1? For security reasons.
Yea I want one too.

Enjoy your Z1's!!!!!!!
Scott

Posted May 14, 2006 · 20:16 UTC#12

Muting the Z1 can only be done by a remote. I recently bought the Cd-r5 remote. Mute button works. Remote doesnt control nav functions but great for DVD functions as well as Radio, Surius, Tv tuner functions. I think it worth the 20 bucks.