Ill be getting a D3 next week. I want to install it right the first time. Might as well run the amp wires, mp3 player connection, xbox 360?)vide My mp3 player a dinosaur (creative labs noman zen xtra 60 gb that I've had for 3 years now) and it's time to upgrade. I will not go with a FM transmitter. I want a one-cord/connection solution that will play my mp3s and video on the AVIC as well as charging it. I hate ipods and want to go with an 80 gb zune. The ipod is so tempting with the accessories, but I've read the Ipod interface is retarded on the Avic and videos cause a problem. I've done a bunch of searches and know there are ways around those problems, b ut its annoying to have to do those added steps. It seems like the easiest way with the Zune is using that $250 car kit from iME - (http://www.imedock.com/zune.htm) Thats the same price as the friggen zune so f that.

I'm thinking I might be able to get a home AV kit to work.

a. If I get the 80 gb unit, do i have to get the AV v2 kit for 80$

b. I can see from the picture on Amazon that you connect a usb cable to the wall ac adapter to get power.

c. Instead of plugging the USB cable into the ac adapter, could I use something like this: http://sewelldirect.com/Zip-Linq-USB-Po ... ighter.asp -- a basic cigarette lighter to usb adapter ~$10. I'm going for cleanliness and want to hide all the wires so I'd only have the dock visible. I'd add a cigarette lighter behind the dash and run the power to that; run the component wires to RCA's in the back of the deck and call it a day. This will hopefully eliminate a power inverter and making it super easy to hook up and disconnect the Zune.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of doing it like this, but I haven't seen any posts mentioning this. I'm a noob, can someone tell me if this idea has already been shot down? Thanks alot.

Picked up the AV kit for my Zune, working on the same idea

I'll post pics when I'm done.

Unfortunately the ipod is the only one you can use the D3 interface to control.

With a other mp3 player you'll have to control it normally.

Scarab - good to hear that. Let me know how it turns out.

HiFiSi: I know that, but from all the posts I've seen here and reviews on cnet, the ipod interface is horrible. Super slow to scroll through your songs. Can't just select a video and play it without going through extra steps.

I'm anti-ipod to begin with. The only thing that made me consider it is the 160 gb size and the ability to work directly with this unit. It sounds like I'm better off controlling everything on the zune itself.

I'm quite happy with the ipod interface after suffering through horrible interfaces in the past. Definitely beats controlling a zune from the zune and rigging up a charger/dock

I know that, but from all the posts I've seen here and reviews on cnet, the ipod interface is horrible. Super slow to scroll through your songs. Can't just select a video and play it without going through extra steps.

mine is quick to scroll between albums, but with about 400 albums on there it takes me ages to get to the middle of the album as I have to press the down button about 50 times and wait inbetween.

am I missing something? is there a faster way to scroll through the albums?

It may look like the shuttle wheel of the ipod, but its not like I can operate it in the same way!

I generally listen to my mp3s on random mode, but I still have 40-50 gigs of music. I don't even want to think how long it will take to scroll through that. The dock is going on my dash where I'll barely have to reach for it. Adamantium hit the nail on the head -- it looks like a scroll wheel but its far from it. I'd rather use the controls on the zune - a device where they spent countless hours R&Ding the best human interface. Once you connect a iPod to the cable, it can only be controlled from the head unit, right?

I take a good amount of road trips and will be using videos quite often. I'm confused how to actually get video to play from the latest gen ipod. Something like click on the video menu on the screen and select the one you want to play. You have to go to the ipod and select tv out for it to work. (This is whats confusing because I thought the control don't work on the ipod when it's plugged in.) I've heard alot of times it goes to the first video in your collection. I'd rather control it on the zune and have it work excatly how I wanted it to.

I could go with that IME dock and get controls on the screen, but I'm not paying $250 - the same price as the damn player - to do it. The ipod has too many flaws to begin with in my eyes, I don't need any more excuses not to go with it.

mine is quick to scroll between albums, but with about 400 albums on there it takes me ages to get to the middle of the album as I have to press the down button about 50 times and wait inbetween.

 

am I missing something? is there a faster way to scroll through the albums?!

Actually, from playing around with my unit, I found out that you don't actually have to wait for text to pop up before pressing the scroll button again. If you press it ten times in 5 seconds, the D3 will go to the tenth page of songs.

Yeah, I've used it enough that I don't even have to look to see what page has what artist/album on it, I've remembered how many pages down my fav. artists are. If I want to find a certain artist I just open the artist list, hit down the required amount of times and wait (about a second or two) and select the artist. It's just like any radio, really. After using it for a while, you start to learn/discover what shortcuts you can take to do what you want to do, and memorize the button locations so you get to things faster without thinking much about it.

Scarab - good to hear that. Let me know how it turns out.

 

HiFiSi: I know that, but from all the posts I've seen here and reviews on cnet, the ipod interface is horrible. Super slow to scroll through your songs. Can't just select a video and play it without going through extra steps.

 

I'm anti-ipod to begin with. The only thing that made me consider it is the 160 gb size and the ability to work directly with this unit. It sounds like I'm better off controlling everything on the zune itself.

Ok your info couldn't be more wrong. It is true that to use an iPod with D3 as it was designed you need to purchase a previous gen 5 iPod. Its not an iPod issue. Its just that the current gen iPods were designeed after the support was implemented in the D3 so it stands to reason the the new iPod might have issues. As far as the interface for the iPod on the D3, it is the best control interface for any player I've ever seen. There are no real lags or issues with he control. It certainly beats controling everything from a zune regardless if you have to start playback of the first video from the iPod or not. And sience you already willing to control everything from the zune the iPod eliminates most of that right off the bat. To me, the iPod makes much more since to me.

Ipods work great up to 5.5 gen. 6th gen require you to unplug and replug them to watch VIDEOs

if yu want use a Zune player with Avic D-3

these guy use zune dock and remote control

The ipod interface works okay, but with just a few changes it could be terrific.

At least with my 8 gig nano, the interface forgets the ipod menu button after a while. Means you can't just go back, you have to use one of the album/artist/playlist buttons, and they take you back to the top.

Also--- why not enable the scroll bar, so that you could grab and drag instead of having to punch, punch, punch. Be a lot quicker.

Still, the ipod interface is a vast improvement over single line displays or a cd changer.