I think with the pioneer only the necessary streets are labeled. IS THIS CORRECT?

The D3 seems to label most main streets (depending on your zoom level) but excludes lesser secondary streets. You may be thinking of the 3D view, which is essentially useless on the D3.

-Davide

A lot of people have written reviews on the Kenwood DNX7100 and have given many pros and cons. I'm surprised that no one has ever mentioned anything about the speed the unit lists mp3s files off of a DVD or CD media. I personally own this unit and love everything about the unit, except for one thing, which I think is a dumb design. Going through a list of songs on a CD/DVD media is very painful and slow especially when you have more than 50 songs in a folder. Keep in mind that I only filled up 1/5 the capacity of the DVD media. When you press "FOLD" to tell the unit to display a list of folders and songs, the unit would display the first 5 songs (songs 1-5) on the screen (which is perfectly fine), and if you want to see the next 5 songs (songs 6-10) you would have to press the scroll down (downward triangular shape) button, BUT here's the catch. Instead of displaying the next 5 songs instantly all at once (like all other units I've tested), it displays ONE by ONE and the lag time between each is about 0.2 to 1 sec. In other words, it would display song 6..lag..song 7...lag...8...9...10 etc. Imagine you have to go through a list of 100 songs or more, it could be frustrating. What frustrated me the most is that a big name like Kenwood would design a bad feature like this, a very frequently used feature to those who listens to mp3s off of a burned media. I know there're ways around of not having to use this feature, like breaking down the list of songs into folders, use ipods, or usb drive (list of songs is much faster, btw), but I still want to be able to quickly navigate through a list of songs on a burned media since this is what I use a lot, and I'm sure other people too. I had to make sure this is not a faulty unit therefore I called up Kenwood and crutchfield and they confirmed that this is the nature of the unit. I still didn't believe that because I still gave Kenwood the benefit of a doubt. So, I went to an electronic store called Audiotronics to test out the DNX7100 display unit they had there and only to find out that it did the same thing. I put the same mp3 disc into other displayed units (such as Alpine, Pioneer, even Jensen) at Audiotronics and I was able to navigate through the list of songs quicly and easily, and I was wondering to myself..why not Kenwood? I still love this unit as a whole, especially the navigation and usb read, therefore I'm going to keep it and will play most mp3s off of an ipod or a usb drive instead. I know I might be a little too picky and some people might find this to be normal, but to me being able to navigate through a list of songs on a media quickly is important, especially when u fill up the DVD+/-R with 4gb worth of mp3s.

I am also debating between the two. There are a few more things to consider:

 

Kenwood:

 

 

 

I have not confirmed this, but i heard the navigation gives detailed street listings and names of streets in the area your traveling (even if not part of your route) as your driving. so a familiar street could show up as your navigating. I think with the pioneer only the necessary streets are labeled. IS THIS CORRECT?

THIS IS CORRECT!

I had a DDX8017. I was extremely disappointed with that unit. The face rattled, the buttons rattled, no wallpapers, crappy menus. The iPod control was absolutely HORRIBLE!!!! I just was not as pleased with that unit as I was with the Alpine W200 I had. Unless Kenwood seriously revamped their iPod compatability I would never even think about owning another of their units. I understand that the DNX7100 has the plain no frills menus too with no option for different wallpapers. Just some wierd textrues.

I heard that you can add your oen wallpapers to it.

I heard that you can add your oen wallpapers to it.

That's correct, you download your own wallpapers to the unit

I had a DDX8017. I was extremely disappointed with that unit. The face rattled, the buttons rattled, no wallpapers, crappy menus. The iPod control was absolutely HORRIBLE!!!! I just was not as pleased with that unit as I was with the Alpine W200 I had. Unless Kenwood seriously revamped their iPod compatability I would never even think about owning another of their units. I understand that the DNX7100 has the plain no frills menus too with no option for different wallpapers. Just some wierd textrues.

I had the DDX-7015, which has the same iPod interface as your 8017, and it sucked. The DNX-7100 has a very different iPod interface than yours. The new version of yours, the DDX-8019, has the same new updated iPod interface as the DNX-7100. You can see pictures of the new iPod interface on this site under the Kenwood 7100 thread in the "Other Navigation Systems" section.

I haven't tried it yet, but according to the manual, you can add user wallpapers via USB.

I had a DDX8017. I was extremely disappointed with that unit. The face rattled, the buttons rattled, no wallpapers, crappy menus. The iPod control was absolutely HORRIBLE!!!! I just was not as pleased with that unit as I was with the Alpine W200 I had. Unless Kenwood seriously revamped their iPod compatability I would never even think about owning another of their units. I understand that the DNX7100 has the plain no frills menus too with no option for different wallpapers. Just some wierd textrues.

 

I had the DDX-7015, which has the same iPod interface as your 8017, and it sucked. The DNX-7100 has a very different iPod interface than yours. The new version of yours, the DDX-8019, has the same new updated iPod interface as the DNX-7100. You can see pictures of the new iPod interface on this site under the Kenwood 7100 thread in the "Other Navigation Systems" section.

 

I haven't tried it yet, but according to the manual, you can add user wallpapers via USB.

Well Ill say its about time. But im still not buying another one.

I had an Kenwood and tried it out, At first I was amazed by the features and complexity of the system, I was also amazed by the Garmin, coz everyone around sais that Garmin is way to go. I had begore a N2, I get used to that, even if the map was not up to date, I wonder if Canadian maps are updated every 5 years or so, but the way how the avic displays and navigates you thru is state of the art, and from my experience garmin is not even close. The UI of pioneer in the NAV is excellent gives you all information you need to know, also 2 turns ahead. Comparing to Garmin interface that is fat cartoonish like, and in real world is uselles coz If you need to check while your driwing on the Highway for directions, takes more your attention as the pioneers UI to know where to go. In my oppinion If pioneer would learn from others companies and improove their system, its a flawless system at all.

Maybe thats my point of view, but I did not like garmin after my experience with pioneer. So I ended up with pioneer again

Im actually thinkin about gettin one of them new Apline navi's. I know the price is up there but at the end of the day they dont have issues like the AVIC'S have. And every year updated disk are out on time. Pioneer needs to step it up.

Have you read any of the stuff on here about the F-series? Might already be "stepping it up"

Im actually thinkin about gettin one of them new Apline navi's. I know the price is up there but at the end of the day they dont have issues like the AVIC'S have. And every year updated disk are out on time. Pioneer needs to step it up.

I seriously considered switching to a Kenwood once I found out they use Garmin.

But when I heard about the F-series coming out this summer, I decided to hold off.

The Kenwood's features are nice, but they're not a dramatic improvement over the D-3's. And there are of course the cons as well.

If the F-series has much stronger navigation capabilities, I'm going for that. Otherwise I think I'll wait for Kenwood's next generation. With Pioneer, Alpine all releasing next gen nav systems, I don't think there's any reason to buy a system which may be phased out within 6 months, especially when it does not offer a significant performance difference.