[IanBroadhurst]

Hi all

Looking to get a new PDA/Smartphone for entertainment and sat-nav.
Looking at various things but can't decide what I really want.

What would be very nice would be to have TOMTOM or similar running in the car, while Media Player is running in the background playing my MP3s - directions being spoken over the top of the music.

Other considerations for me is a Wifi connection so that when I am away from home I can SKYPE the wife and bluetooth as I wont like the cable from the gps receiver drapping around the car. Also nice video playback would be a cracking plus for those long flights I seem to be taking now.

But for most of the time, it will be music and sat nav.

I have been looking at the HX4700 (nice screen, fast processor), the TOsh e800 (bit old though), the Asus Mypal A730W and the Acer n311.
Bit just recently I have been looking at the O2 Mini-S at other smartphone-y type devices.

Just dont know if anything will do the satnav and music at the same time, then on top of that I dont know which device I would want long term.

Any help greatly accepted.

Ian

[IanBroadhurst]

Hi all

Looking to get a new PDA/Smartphone for entertainment and sat-nav.
Looking at various things but can't decide what I really want.

What would be very nice would be to have TOMTOM or similar running in the car, while Media Player is running in the background playing my MP3s - directions being spoken over the top of the music.

Other considerations for me is a Wifi connection so that when I am away from home I can SKYPE the wife and bluetooth as I wont like the cable from the gps receiver drapping around the car. Also nice video playback would be a cracking plus for those long flights I seem to be taking now.

But for most of the time, it will be music and sat nav.

I have been looking at the HX4700 (nice screen, fast processor), the TOsh e800 (bit old though), the Asus Mypal A730W and the Acer n311.
Bit just recently I have been looking at the O2 Mini-S at other smartphone-y type devices.

Just dont know if anything will do the satnav and music at the same time, then on top of that I dont know which device I would want long term.

Any help greatly accepted.

Ian

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I can't imagine why any of the devices on your short list won't be able to do what you want. Personally, since navigation is a priority, I'd go for the iPaq - a 4" screen is a nice advantage there. Both the Asus and to a lesser extent the Acer, are a bit light on battery life. The e800 would be a great cheap option, but you'd really have to worry about service and support - I doubt there's really any left.

[Edgar_]

I use my HX4700 with INav & the GlobalSat BT338 GPS - love it. Works fantastic and the screen is fantastic. I also use DVDtoPocketPC to watch movies on the unit while flying - again great.

I have not used BetaPlayer or WMP while the unit is doign nav - I can say that most Nav programs are pretty memory intense, both processor and card space - so that limits your ability to store music.

One thing I have noticed is the SD card isn't quite as reliable as the CF - so load up on large CF cards and use the SD for temp storage such as the music - not maps

[PhilH]

I used TomTom on my old hx4700 and it was fine -- although that version didn't do VGA properly, so it was pixel-doubled. I don't know how it runs in VGA. Bet it looks good, though.

I currently use it on my SPV M500/HTC Magician/iMate JAM, and it's fine. Occasionally I press a button and it'll stop and have a think but, in general, it's been very reliable and the performance is acceptable.

[IanBroadhurst]

Originally Posted by Edgar_

I use my HX4700 with INav & the GlobalSat BT338 GPS - love it. Works fantastic and the screen is fantastic. I also use DVDtoPocketPC to watch movies on the unit while flying - again great.

I have not used BetaPlayer or WMP while the unit is doign nav - I can say that most Nav programs are pretty memory intense, both processor and card space - so that limits your ability to store music.

One thing I have noticed is the SD card isn't quite as reliable as the CF - so load up on large CF cards and use the SD for temp storage such as the music - not maps

Edgar_

Any chance you could try this out for me on your next journey? Get some mp3s and get the sat nav running and see if it flies or not.

Ian

[Edgar_]

Sure, give me an hour and I'll do it

[Edgar_]

I started up a MP3 in WMP. While it was playing I fired up Inav and already had PocketInformant running.

It acquired immediately, as always. It found the random destination by address (I have the whole US in it) very quickly with no degradation in sound.

One thing though, the music never stopped and the INAV just did a "voice-over" the music. It didn't mute WMP and speak. This could be a problem hearing the map directions if you are a loud music player.

How are you listening to the music? Over the car speakers or headphones? If so, you'll probably be fine.

[IanBroadhurst]

Thats great Edgar_ thanks for that.

Music will be over the car speakers via a tape adapter or iTrip equivalent. Thinking that you may be able to change the audio level in WMP without affecting the overall volume (just like in desktop windows).

I think I may be going shopping soon.

Nice one !

Ian

[IanBroadhurst]

SO, before I had a chance to go shopping, our IT guy in the office bought the exact setup I was after. He has yet to mention to his wife that he has plundered the savings, so while he builds the courage to take it home, he gave it me to play with.

Its a HX4700 with WPPC2003 and TOMTOM 5 Nav on it. It also came with the official TomTom Bluetooth reciever (looks nice, but more later).

So I loaded WMP with some tunes from the CF card and closed it done (carried on playing but hey, not bothered by that its what I wanted to happen).
Started TomTom up and the volume changed slightly but not too bad, then gave the route from my house to the office via the childminders.

Everything was going great (tunes playing and Tina saying usful stuff like "turn around" and "recalculating route" as I went the way I always go)until the GPS receiver just stopped.

No trees, no big tall buildings just open country-side as far as my eyes can see. Then for the next 40 mintutes I had a total of 5 occasions when the GPS came back - bit annoying, especially as I was really getting somewhere with my wife who swore blind last night that we didnt need a satnav (she started thinking it was very usful as we saw traffic jams ahead and just turned off the road and Tina told us how to get round them!).

Now, is this TomTom, the receiver, the weather, the fact that its Thursday or what? If I can just work out why the receiver kept failing so badly, this really might be the solution I was after.

Any guesses?

Ian

[Edgar_]

Ian

I drove up to Napa yesterday and loaded it up with music - this is about a 40 minute drive for me. Everything was fine - just as we said - voice over the music.

If I had to guess I would blame the GPS - however, you can check it by running something like GPSINFO which returns a simple sat overhead and status of receiver. This would at least let you know if the receiver is losing contact - you could also lswitch to the BT manager and make sure the connection isn't lost from 4700<->receiver.

Where are you located? Tomtom is very popular across the pond because it has such great coverage for both western and eastern europe - it's not the most popular in NA. (well, it is for the TomTom Go portable device, but not necessarily the software alone)

My setup:
INAV Iguidance NA 2.13
GlobalSat BT338 GPS
HX4700 WM2003SE

Jump over to http://www.gpspassion.com and post a query over there. Those guys live and breathe GPS. I ended going with the BT338 after their rave reviews (17+ hrs on battery alone is awesome, add in waas and SirfIII and the fastest acquire around and its a winner)



-Edgar