martingz

Just my review of the Infotainment system (because I know Ford monitors these forums):

http://martinzinaich.blogspot.com/20...otainment.html

jz78817

according to the brochure (looking at it now) you only get HD Radio with the 12 speaker system. the website must be wrong.

that's a limitation of RDS on analog FM radio.

tagged media and Sirius will show the song info on the left side of the screen.

martingz

The web site is wrong, they have since removed it from the 200A package online. Just very frustrating that it was listed for my order, not part of the base premium package, and they wouldn't even validated it when I was communicating with Ford proper. This all happened in December 2015 - they updated sometime in the last few weeks.

Actually RDS can send up to 64 characters in the RT field (Radio Text) - RDS1. RDS2 is coming which I believe is 128 byte long. However, this current system (RDS1) is not displaying 64 characters. While this also has to take into account what the station is sending, I'm positive the song display is longer in other cars. It feels like it is configured for the LED display and not the Screen display - which is probably the case, same AM/FM radio hardware / firmware probably...

martingz

jz78817 - thank you for raising the RDS issue, it made me go back and validate. If I wait for the chunks of radio text to rotate through next to the Freq. display then at some point the full text will appear below in both the full screen and home screen. Either my radio got an update or I didn't do a good enough job testing the first time. I'd like to think it was the former but assume it is the latter. Off I go to update the article.

jz78817

RDS display behavior is hit or miss depending on the individual receiver. I've a couple of aftermarket 2DIN head units that will never populate the artist and title fields; it'll only cycle through the RDS text in an ~8 character field next to the broadcast station name. Irritating; but then again most aftermarket head units have terrible user interfaces anyway. it might be just familiarity, but I'd gladly take Sync (even MyFord Touch) over most of what I find from the aftermarket.

Mr. D

I'm not as informed as the others here on the Sync systems, but I had a Ford with Sync 2 & it was a mess regarding cell phone calls. Sync 3 is much better to live with by far. I'm putting off buying a Ford Edge for the wife until Sync 3 is available in the 2016 models even though there are lots of 2015's on the lots. Of course I can always get a better deal on a customer order anyhow.

martingz

I had the original Sync, and it worked really well for me. I never understood all the negative, but apparently Sync 2 was not well liked. There are things I miss in sync 3 that I had in Sync - Voice Controlled Fan Speed / Max (now only Temp is available), ability to store Pic's on the dash, Graphic Sound Eq., and as I noted in the article - Climate Control on the home screen. In Sync you could choose some of your home screen items, not so in Sync 3. But the responsiveness is really good in Sync 3 and with the WiFi update - I feel it will continue to improve. I can't wait for Apple CarPlay - that will really give me what I'm looking for...