I called pioneer to look into the purchase of a z series and I was told they are discontinued and the lady kind of insinuated there is a new model that will be release in the next 2 months. She told me to keep an eye out in the press room on their site.
Any insiders have any info?
I have no "insider" knowledge but it could be these.
http://pioneer.jp/press/release192.html
It makes sense since it would take pioneer 1 year to make an american model.
it looks as if its the same unit as the z series... question for anyone that can answer, if it is the same unit and all they are doing is changing the software/firmware in the hdd cant we just upgrade our original Z series?
Ya I remember see that last year and thinking that should be here in about a year. I am getting kinda excited now. 
Good question ttTony but that is getting a little ahead of things. It is not even an American product yet. But one thing I have seen several people comment on about the Z's processor is too slow to do that video encoding (DVIX/MP4). So if a unit like that gets sold here it will likely have some different HW.
Maybe something like this will be shown on the "Pioneer Road Show 2009" this June. That is about the correct time frame that the lady hinted at.