trick

1. Quote from JVCMobile.com :

Text-to-Speech (English/Spanish/French/German/Italian/Dutch/Portuguese/Dannish/Swedish/Russian)

Coverage: United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands

2. I know. It wasn't the volume that was the problem. It was the TTS' failure to convert the traffic warning into intelligable english.

3. See my example posted above - both units were set to "fastest" rather than "shortest". In fact, even this logic is followed imprecisely. I have another example where the unit calculated a shorter route, where the trip would have been faster (but further) if a highway was used.

4. My issue was the tedious audio warning - this is my home setting. I dont mind hearing the warning once, but every time..? And again if it has to recalculate? My request was for some intellegence to record the route, like other systems do.

For info, I park in a secure underground car park, where there is no GPS signal. Which is why I went for a unit with a gyro + speed sensor. Otherwise I have to park outside in a no waiting zone until I get a GPS lock. Or drive without Nav for a while and hope I'm going the right way.

5. That procedure works fine if you dont know the name of the place you are looking for. If you want to search by name, you need to enter "city". The US version seems to differ as it restricts the search by State, I guess this is defaulted to the state that you are in? Other systems allow partial or full word matches and give results sorted by distance regardless of city.

Do you work for JVC by any chance...?

"Traffic" - it comes with lifetime subscription to the TMS traffic service in the UK and comes with a seperate ariel lead (which plugs into the USB port).

Sounds like the opposite situation to me! Not good.

It's a Nuvi 360T. Getting off topic for a moment - I had a 660 previously which *did* route better than the 360. But the 660 had a hardware fault and was replaced after 6 weeks.

Actually, I'm saying that the JVC calculates longer routes. Here's a route that I had to travel frequently over the last couple of months as I was working in the area...

Nuvi 360T route = 10.1 miles :

JVC Route = 11.3 miles :

Real-life is about 30 mins extra on journey for this route, as it has high congestion for most of the day from Claygate > Tolworth, a long 20mph zone, and lots of stops for lights, crossings etc.

Funnily enough, Google agrees with JVC about the best route. All I can say from experience is that the Nuvi route is the best.

1 - The navteq/teleatlas maps are just two different databases. I would assume that the system interprets the data within the database in the same way when navigating, maybe with tweaks for Left Hand Drive vs RHD. No idea why JVC decided to use 2 different suppliers, as Navteq are just as good (if not better) as TeleAtlas over here.

IMO, the problem with TTS is (a) that the software cannot deal with complicated junctions and ( is not smart enough to handle roads which are not completely straight. Obviously the map database will play a part too, but it's not like these two map providers are small companies...

Also, there are times when the TTS is unintellegable. I had a traffic alert which I couldn't understand and could find no way to get the unit to replay the audio alert. In the end I had to pull over & go through the menus to get to the traffic alerts screen and then read it. Not good.

2+3. Maybe, but then what is the calibration option for (page 52 of the US manual)? Does it just use the gyro I wonder? Also, page 122 mentions the speed signal. Would be very bizarre for them to leave these features out of the US version, especially as they are there to help when the GPS signal is weak or missing (i.e. in cities, tunnels, carparks, etc).

In my opinion, the navigation on this unit is very poor, especially when compared to dedicated units like the Nuvi or TomTom.

For example. I've tested it on familiar routes alongside the Nuvi and the JVC has a tendancy to choose longer routes. I think this is because the criteria it uses to calculate a route is more simplistic.

I set "home" as being where I actually park my car. This is not on a road, so everytime I choose to go "Home" I get a warning that it's not on the map. I would expect some intellegence to add the route to "home" to the map when I drive it the first time, and to use that route for future route calculations. No such luck...

Looking up a POI is a PITA as you have to specify CITY for everything (except a Zip code or phone number search). Why it can't just use your current location as a starting point is beyond me. And who searches for places based on phone number anyway? Great for stalkers maybe...

I'm also concerned about getting support and map updates for the unit. So far JVC's support in the UK consisted of a guy telling me that "we never get support calls for car audio, and I cannot find the manual for this unit on our system. Suggest you write a LETTER to JVC Customer Service at the following address...".

An email via their website took a week to be answered and then the answer was .. check our website for software updates.

If navigation is your priority I would personally pass over this unit and find something else. However, no harm in seeing if you can find one installed locally and arranging a demo.

OK, been using this unit more and getting more and more disappointed with the navigation.

The Sat Nav is complete rubbish. I've had to resort back to my old Nuvi for guidance. Finding a POI without a postcode is stupidly restrictive.

I've emailed a list of bugs to JVC :

1. The speed pulse is showing speeds that are 125% of the actual speed

2. When a GPS signal is lost, the unit gets very confused and shows the car driving off the road into fields or other roads that were nearby when the signal was lost. It keeps trying to recalculate and gives (very) incorrect guidance until it locks back onto the GPS signal. This issue may be related to 1 above - I have recalibrated twice so far but this keeps happening.

3. On occasion, the spoken guidance will tell me to "keep left" at junctions where the (correct) route is shown onscreen to keep right.

4. The software keeps showing "Saint Sampson" in search results and as local road names - there is no such place near me!

5. I would like to add new POI categories and POI's through the SD Card update feature.

6. The voice almost always speaks the road number rather than the road name. Most minor roads are not signposted with the number so the direction to "turn left onto the A307" is meaningless when both the signposts and the map onscreen both say "Portsmouth Road".

So far no response...

Installed my NX7000 (UK version) into my Audi TT-S last week, full write-up with pictures is here on the TT-Talk forum (apologies if linking is a problem).

Had a Kenwood DNX-5220BT in there previously but IMO this is a better unit.

I think that the AV quality and funtionality of the JVC is top notch, but that the SatNav is a disappointment and really only good for occasional use. (But then how often do you really use your SatNav anyway?)

EDIT : Forgot to mention. You can connect a reversing cam and external AV to the unit for back seat viewing (comes with a remote too!). The parking brake can be grounded as a full bypass. If enabled, the system will auto-switch to the reversing cam when you put the car in reverse. Not sure if there is any other way to activate it as I dont have a cam installed (took me a while to realise why I had a blank screen when reversing!).

PS. Any help on accessing the POI database so that I can add my own categories and POIs greatfully recieved! All I have been able to discover so far is that the database sits on a WinCE 5/ Windows Automotive platform and *might* use a file called ADDR.ZDR ...!