I'm debating the merits of using the CD-IB100II or the basic A/V cable.
Well I just have the IB100 (the first one, so I have the smaller connector). And I don't have a video ipod (mine is much older, the oldest one with a dock connector). This is what I gather from what has been posted here already.
1) Which do you prefer and why?
I would use the IB100, it gives you controls on the screen and lets me have one point of control for the Z1, ipod, sat, volume, etc. Otherwise I would need to be messing with the Ipod screen while driving. While the ipod itself is faster of a response then the IB100, I find it hard to select something while not paying way too much attention to the ipod itself, and I take too much attention off the road. I tried this in a previous car which didn't have a Z1 and only used sound out from the ipod to the radio and I found it very distracting and dangerous to use an ipod in a moving vehicle.
2) If I hook up via the A/V cable, do I see the menu interface of the iPod on the screen?
No, I believe that you would just see video if you selected a movie to play. You would not see the ipod interface on the RCA outs.
3) Can you hook up both the A/V cable AND the CD-IB100II to get video + on-screen controls?
Probably, but when you hook up the pioneer adapter it takes over the ipod and won't let you control it anymore from the ipod. Just the Z1 screen. I have heard of a way to get both to work at the same time, but it was kludgie and I don't remember how.
NOTE: I have yet to purchase an iPod Video or CD-IB100II. I am planning to the buy the iPod within the next week.
I like it. If you have 4000 different songs from 3000 different artists and out of nowhere you decide to play song number 2045. Yes, the IB100 will suck. It would take hours to browse to that. What I do even with 4138 songs from 736 artists, I set up about a dozen play lists with some favorites and Audiobooks is close to the top of the genre list so it's easy to get to most of the stuff I would listen to on a regular basis. If you find something you want to listen to that's not in a playlist, next time you go home, take it out of the vehicle and add it to a playlist. It's not that big of a deal.