mrTickle said:
In central London my 2820 takes up to a minute to refresh its screen if I go off route. When it refreshes it leaves a completely blank screen - i can't see a map display- no roads displayed - very frustrating.
I think that this is a problem arising from having a large speed camera (Custom POI) database installed on the GPSR. I have also noticed similar problems with screen refresh time being too long, most especially when I am in the UK. The problem is less of an issue in Switzerland, where we have speed cameras, but only one-tenth as many as in the UK. The problem goes away entirely if there is no speed camera database loaded, or, if you are in an area where there are no speed cameras (visible on screen, or not visible on screen) on the map that is being drawn. The Garmin software engineers are aware of this and are working on it. They had no idea that there were so many speed cameras in the UK - this problem caught them by surprise. Expect a fix quite soon (my guess - within a few weeks), the problem has already been solved on other new models of GPSR (e.g. the 496).
Anyway - you can check this out yourself if you want: Before you next update your speed camera database, erase the existing one, and make a trip to Central London without anything in the Custom POI database. My guess is that you will find screen redraw performance is fully satisfactory under those conditions.
There is also an outside chance that you might encounter slow route recalculations around Central London if you have the 'avoid toll roads' function active. This is because the GPSR considers the inner part of London City a 'toll road' (because of the congestion charge), and needs to do a heck of a lot more work to figure out a route around it. But - this would only apply if you have a route active. The speed camera problem applies under all circumstances.
mrTickle said:
I believe Garmin pre-loaded maps to stop folks buying American units at half the price and then loading alternative mapping ( ie City Navigator Atlantic ) software into them. That can be the only reason why Garmin don't sell their NT version of City Navigator.
No, I don't think it is as complex an issue as that. You can buy CN Europe NT as a stand-alone product, but it is only available on SD cards. This reflects a change over to using pre-loaded SD cards for cartography, rather than CD or DVD media. Most of the new GPSRs being released now (e.g. the Zoomie, the dedicated motorcycle navigator) accept SD. It's a heck of a lot easier for the end users - you can loan the chip to your friends, there are no serial number unlock hassles, the chip works in any GPSR you stuff it in, etc., etc.
The price difference between Americas GPSRs and Europe GPSRs is mostly comprised of additional royalties that have to be paid to the multiple sources of the maps used in the Europe GPSRs. If you have a close look at who owns the copyrights on that map data, you will find out that it is, for the most part, governments. In North America, the data is either public domain, or the copyright is owned by Navteq, not by the Canadian or American government.
mrTickle said:
...they then hold you to ransom with their unlocking software and present nothing but hassle when reloading your software to your unit. The way Garmin treat their customers is similar to how record companies and film studios treat people who download files from the internet.
That is exactly what Garmin is trying to get away from by introducing maps on SD media. When you buy a SD chip with a map on it, it is yours, and you can do whatever you want with it. If you own 3 different GPSRs, you can put it in whatever one you want. If you want to loan the chip to a friend, you can do that too. In other words, the paradigm is changing back to 'cartography as a paper map'. The correct analogy for a map product on a SD chip would be a vinyl 33 RPM long play record. No locks, no restrictions, no loading, no hassles. Do with it what you want, loan it, trade it, swap it, sell it. No unlocks, no registration, no nothing.
mrTickle said:
...If they weren't being so tight about region locking, none of this would of been a problem for you.
Please, keep in mind that the policies about map locking are NAVTEQ's, not Garmin's. Garmin makes hardware (GPSRs), they don't make maps. Getting upset at Garmin over Navteq's security policies is a bit like getting upset at IBM, Dell, or Compaq over Microsoft's software security policies.
I can't really blame Navteq for locking their maps - let's be realistic about it, if they were not locked, piracy would be rampant. However, Garmin, as the vendor of the hardware that uses Navteq maps, is at least trying to do their best to eliminate the inconvenience caused by cartography locking by switching over to the SD format, which will eliminate the most common problems users have with cartography, and allow users a heck of a lot more freedom to use their cartography the way they want to.
Michael
. Sorry about the rant but it shouldn't be this hard to reload your unit with the mapset you paid good money for and bought with your hard earned cash. If they weren't being so tight about region locking, none of this would of been a problem for you.
