I installed my unit the other day myself and instead of moving the mute wire to the spot above, I just grounded out the brake cable.. All seems to be working ok and I can access the navi and play dvds while I drive. Is there a reason to move the mute wire? whats the side effects of my way?

It will work that way for a while, til the unit calibrates. Then you will need to do the real bypass

I guess I dont understand what hte difference is..

If you move the mute wire to an empty slot and ground it.. and your grounding the brake cable wire.. whats the differencein just leaving the mute wire where it is and just ground the brake cable wire?

You are moving the mute wire to THE hole that Pioneer has chosen to let the unit be bypassable. If you don't have a wire in there and have it grounded, it will not be bypassed

if you move the wire you......................

I couldnt resist.

there are things bigger then all of us. Just because you dont understand it doesnt mean its non existant. Theres circuitry thats connected to the 'nothing' pin on the inside of the unit.

another guy who just thinks too much

whats funny is that you are posting a reply that you dont know the answer to.. if you dont know, then dont answer.. your response is just a waste of time and space..

maybe someone that actually knows can possibly answer

There is a circuit inside the unit that locks out certain features and shuts off the video feed to the display while the vehicle is in motion, in order to comply with D.O.T. and law enforcement regulations that do not allow a video screen to be visible to the drivers, unless it is diplaying only maps and/or vehicle info. Some of these AVIC units are installed in locations not visible to an automobile driver, such as - in the back of a motor home, in a boat, etc., so the unit needs to be able to conform to these customers' needs, also. So Pioneer built in a backdoor, 'secret' bypass for the video lockout. The lockout monitors both the VSS input and the GPS locations to determine movement and, therefore, lockout the video. This trick will bypass that safety feature, at your own risk. Because none of us on this forum have used the bypass procedures we share to watch movies while we are driving, only for our passengers' entertainment and to allow our spouses or 'navigators' to use the navigation features so we aren't distracted from our driving duties.

Clear enough? Or is the phrase, "It is what it is.", more helpful?

When you say "It is what it is," could you elaborate on that more? You lost me at the second it

so few people know what 'it' is, i am so lost! hehe

Jimmy, thanks for the explanation. Very clear and discriptive. It still doesnt answer my question though of Why just grounding out the parking brake isnt good enough.. because it works fine for me when I did that..

Thats what I am wondering.. I understand the reasoning why they do it.. just why my solution isnt the right one

Great explanation though

Water is wet, the sky is blue, you need to ground the extra terminal on your AVIC to do a full bypass....otherwise, when the AVIC completes it's initialising stage, it will lock out video and other features.

You ask for information, and, we, as a collective community, offer the information without want of recognition or reward, yet 4 out of 5 of your posts are spent criticizing the information we give you.

Maybe your paranoia is well-founded - we put this entire forum together just to reel you in, give you shady suggestions, and laugh while you take your dash apart, yet again. Ha, ha.

Or maybe you should just trust the judgement of people who have owned these units for a few years, or have been in the business for 20+ years. And shut the f*&k up.

Satisfy your curiosity?

dude.. your attitude really kills it.. I thought the information that you supplied was great and I thanked you and complimented it. but I guess being an engineer, the answer of "thats the way it is" doesnt cut it for me. Im not doubting this is hte right way, but I guess I would like a technical explanation as well..

I think your question was answered in the first reply, but again, there are saftey systems in place that keep you from watching dvd's and programming the nav while the unit is in motion. Once the unit calibrates, and it detects via the positioning sats that you are moving, your simple fix of just grounding the parking brake wire will no longer cut it. I can not say with certainty, but the vss input and/or gyro could possibly trigger this safety system as well. The bypass works because it is a system built into the unit by pioneer to bypass this saftey feature, and allow the D3 to use these restricted functions without checking for vehicle motion. Pioneer put this in for those rare occasions, such as rear seating installs as in an RV or a limo, where a vehicle in motion should still have full functionality. Since the overwhelming majority of people will want to use this for possibly illegal front seat driving, there is no wire on the factory plug connecting to the pin that enables this bypass. If your little trick works, good for you. Maybe you will be the one person who has tried just grounding the parking brake wire that never finds himself needing to do a proper bypass a week or two later. Odds are, you won't be. The problem is, that when you accuse someone of speaking of something about which he knows nothing, you are absolutely wrong. Some people here know exactly what they are talking about, and just because you don't understand them does not mean that they don't understand the D3. The fact is, you want to be right, and have ignored the people who answered your question because you didn't want to believe their answer. Your attitude is the one that needs improvement. Don't ask a question to which you do not wish to hear the answer.

See? Thus, the quote,"It is what it is." - explained. I've been told this by many people, usually to explain a f*&kup on their part ("Bag feels a bit light." "Hey, it is what it is."), and, you just have to accept that. It is also used to explain something that has no explanation, too.("My wife is flying pissed at me, and I don't know why." "It is what it is, bro, let's go to the bar anyway.") So, I was not being a douchebag by stating that "It is what it is.", just trying to state that sometimes, things should sometimes be taken "as they are", just to keep it simple and easy. Water is wet, the sky is blue, women have secrets.....it is what it is.

call pioneer, design a system, put that engineering degree to use. lol kiddin there btw. Seriously though dont stress over it, It is what it is. With an engineering degree surely you already know what the inner workings are or could be.

So a bit of harsh rough talk now, dont ask questions you know the answers to already or that you dont want to hear to begin with.

I can't back get the 5 minutes of my life I spent reading this topic. Oh well, it is what it is

this guy asks too many questions.. just shut up and move the wire, because after about 1000 miles its going to be calibrated...aka done adjusting to your car...so then the grounding of the parking will be useless, therefore shut up and move the wire so you;ll be fine in the future

Seriously, dude. Pull your head out of your ass and move the wire. It only takes 5 minutes. Because when tour D3 finishes it's calibration phase and locks you out you're going to be choking on your own idiocy. Why would everybody on this site be lying? Doesn't make sense does it? You wonder why you have to move the wire. We tell you. You say you need a better explanation. Well shut the hell up. We're not here to prove shit to you, we're here to help each other. If you're not willing to accept or believe that help, well, fuck off.

lol.. this is too funny..

TJC thanks for the explanation