Got off the phone with Pio on this one last week and they told me:(get this)

"The Ipod Menu button on the D3 has absolutely no functionality!!!

I told them that it does work for a sort time and they said that was a surprise to them.

So it looks like this problem wont be fixed any time soon. I also tried to report the Ipod White Noise issue to them and they trashed me on the phone.

Horrible service

I also E-mailed Pioneer support regarding this problem. This was their response:

I'd say there is a problem with the unit because I was able to get the system I was using to work properly. At any rate, the model number you have listed is currently factory repair only. We have listed

below Pioneer's address.

Carefully package the product, prepay, insure, and address it to Pioneer Electronics. Be sure to include a copy of your purchase receipt if your unit is within warranty and a description of the problem

you are experiencing.

I also told them that numerous users were also experiencing the same problem but they still insisted that the unit they were testing works perfect and something is just wrong with mine. I call BS. I'm not about to uninstall and ship the unit back to them until they give me a legit reason on why the MENU button does not work all the time.

I was hoping we could do a little trouble shooting of our own. Has anyone tried hooking up an earlier generation Ipod 3G or 4G? I also have a 5G 30GB Ipod. But most likely it should come down to the firmware of the Ipod. So it might not make a difference. Also would the Bypass have anything to do with the MENU bug? I was hoping somebody has a non bypassed unit hooked up to their Ipod so they could tell us how the MENU button functioned on their unit. If not, when I have some free time on my hands I'll reverse the wires on my harness and see what happens.

I have the 30gb ipod photo and the Menu button basically takes me back one step. For instance, once I select my song from the album it starts playing. When I touch menu it takes me back to the list of songs I am playing from. Is that considered working properly?

By the way this is on a bypassed D3.

mine works fine as well, accept for when I've freshly cranked and haven't searched for music. Duing that situation (when I just cranked up and playing the last song I was playing before I shut down), it does dittly squat.

This (functionality) sounds about right to me...

i cant believe they said it has no function. look at the promo on their site! it clearly shows them saying it does. this better work for me or i will be pissed.

i cant believe they said it has no function. look at the promo on their site! it clearly shows them saying it does. this better work for me or i will be pissed.

It does have function but only for a short time. The Pio reps as a half ass response to my claim stated that it shouldn't work at all and that it wasn't intended to work so it was a surprise to them that I got it to work at all. Basically, its a bug and they dont know what else to tell people so they deny all responsibility and say that they are not seeing the problem. This is the same line of bullshit that they told everyone about the echo issue with the CD-BTB100 and the Z1/2 bluetooth option. They however released the BTB200 which replaced the 100 as well as the update cd that they never would admitt was the actual fix for the Z1. Now, lets get to what I think the problem is. I believe it is a software issue with the D3 in which after about 10 minutes or so the ipod goes into a type of "sleep" if you will while its playing and the D3 is not able to "wake" it in the form of the MENU button because it has no coding for it. This would be an oversight of the software programing with the D3. This would be similar to when the ipods backlight turns off after a while. The reason I am going with this is because you get almost the same problem when using the "ipod white noise" (another one they wont admit to) workaround. If you turn the charging feature in the D3 off and switch sources, once you go back to the ipod source it will not play at all. It will show the interface and all the text info from when you left off but it will not play. The reason is because while you wernt playing the ipod source the ipod shut itself off and the only way to wake it is to turn the charging feature back on for a second. That of course sends the voltage to the battery to charge it and wakes the ipod. So the menu button issue seems to me a similar issue and all Pio has to do is check this possibility out and issue a firmware fix if this is the case. I wouldn't hold my breath.

I have the 30gb ipod photo and the Menu button basically takes me back one step. For instance, once I select my song from the album it starts playing. When I touch menu it takes me back to the list of songs I am playing from. Is that considered working properly?

 

By the way this is on a bypassed D3.

Also to Kryptonite, Have you guys actually spent enough time with the ipod source to see if you will get the same problem. I am interested to know if the different ipod models may have an impact on this issue. If you could, select your ipod source and use the MENU feature, then wait about 10 minutes or so and then attempt to use MENU again. PLease let us know what the outcome is. Also just so theres know confusion, when we say MENU were referring to the virtual MENU at the top of the virtual ipod click wheel on the D3 screen, not the hardware MENU button at the left of the unit.

I have the 30gb ipod photo and the Menu button basically takes me back one step.

Once you hit the MENU button it gives you access to the back button which will let you continue to go back to the beginning of your search.

Alright folks, after typing so much on this I decided to do more in depth testing and I think I got it figured out. Its rather complicated but I will post my findings tomorrow.

cmon post it already. I wanna see what you came up with.

Im at work right now, later tonight I will post the solution.

Alright, here we go. First of all there are a few things that will render the MENU function inoperable for sure. They are: switching from music to video on the ipod and back again will give you no MENU function, unplugging the ipod and plugging it back in will give you no MENU function, and turning your car off and on again will give you no MENU function. However, starting a new search using one of the five search tabs at the top of the ipod interface on the D3 will regain you the MENU function.

Alright heres what I found. The dead MENU has less to do with the MENU button then the ESC button it gives you when you touch it as well as how far back you go in the search. Basically if you hit the MENU button and go all the way back to the beginning of the search then hit the ESC button you will loose the MENU function until you start a new search with one of the five search tabs at the top.

Lets use the ARTIST tab as an example. If you select ARTIST then select the album you want then the song it will play of course. You can then hit MENU and you will get two buttons at the bottom, BACK and ESC. You can freely go back and select another song or go back one more step and select another album and still have access to the MENU function for other searches. You can also hit MENU and hit ESC at any point and still have the MENU function. Now, if you hit MENU and go all the way back to the original search category, in this case ARTIST and hit the ESC button you will loose the MENU function until you start a new search with one of the five search tabs at the top.

So to recap, as long as you dont go all the back to the original search category after hitting the MENU button and then hit the ESC button you will be able to use MENU continuously without it failing to work.

Now these are the results that I got on my system after playing around with it extensively last night and several hours today. What we all need to do for the people that have reported the MENU issue on this site is to do exactly what I did and see if you get a different result, these are the steps:

1. On the ipod source hit ARTIST

2. Select an album of your choice

3. Select a song of your choice

4. Hit MENU, you will see the list of songs, go back one step, you will see the list of albums.

5. Hit ESC

6. Hit MENU again, this time it will only display the list of albums, hit BACK till it displays the list of artist, hit ESC.

7. Hit MENU again and it will not work.

This is apparently how it works for all search tabs, as long as you dont go all the way back and hit ESC you should be able to maintain the MENU function.

If anyone gets a different result post what you got and how you did it and also the ipod model you are using. However I think this is the solution to the problem. Let us all know what you find. This only takes about two minutes to verify.

Cool dude! Nice research. We need threads like this to be able to solve/hack/ etc. the other problems of the D3.

Good work VBLUE on your findings, everything on my end appears to be working as you stated. Thanks for the update

So if a song is playing, and you turn the car off, when you start it back up the song will continue to play, but the menu function will be lost? Still seems like this function needs fixing to me.

The song will pick up where it left off but the MENU button is toast until a new search is done.

what a stupid glitch. Doesn't pioneer have road testers that actually test the product? I figured out the MENU button annoyance on my first day of install. It is sooooo stupid.

I am in complete agreement with Carbon12. This is nothing more or less than a software bug on Pio's part. Plain and simple.

Hopefully there will be a firmware update to address this, but unless enough people can get through to the mfg, I doubt it will happen. I can say, though, that they've come a looooooong way on the iPod interface.

Getting better, that's for sure.