red light camera alerts + mp3 alers + while playing song = skipping to the next song

This is a known bug with the current 660 firmware.

I don't think this is normal. I'm certainly hoping it isn't since I'm waiting for my 760 to arrive in the mail. I'd guess I would have already stumbled across a thread about this if it was a common occurrence.

Hang in there and one of the great (knowledgeable) folks here will surely have some input for you.

[Edit]
D'Oh! See what I mean? MM responded while I was typing. I'm saddened to hear it's a known bug. Hopefully there will be a firmware update soon. Also hopefully, the bug doesn't affect the 760! (Selfish, I know but hey....)

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/10640 is the original thread.

Spider_Elliot reported that the bug affects the 750. As pointed out, downgrading the firmware prior to 4.2 for the 660 seems to solve the problem. Or, you can give up custom alert sounds as I have.

thanks for all the inforamtion and the link to the original thread. Is there any significan differences between 4.2 and 4.3? I am tempted to downgrade until a new update is available.

never happened to me

4.2 supposedly introduced the problem. You need to go back prior to 4.2.

So, you have a Nuvi 6xx running either 4.2 or 4.3 firmware?

Happens to me all the time. I've just been putting up with it. I didn't really want to go through the hassle of downgrading the firmware. I seem to remember other topics here saying that you lose some custom settings when you downgrade (or something like that).

I have the NUVI 350 with the most recent update and I have also noted this skipping.

If it is a known problem, will it be fixed?

The best thing to do is e-mail or call Garmin Tech Support. Nobody here knows when it will be rectified. They have known of this problem for a while.

I've noticed a similar glitch when using the fm mode, it doesn't give me the mp3 alert.

I have a nuvi 360 the first thing I did was load a bunch of poi's with bmp's and mp3's. I had the same problem. So logically I figured that since I was playing a mp3's and when the mp3 location played, I assumed that it replaced the one that was playing. So when it was thru making the announcement the player went to the next song. So, since the music is more important than the poi mp3's I remove all poi mp3's and I one happy biker again. So I don't consider it a bug. It's just like pushing the skip button and going to the next song. I may be wrong and according to my wife I'm always wrong but that's my 2 cents worth.

I did the same thing - removed all the POI audio alert mp3s yesterday when I reloaded my POIs. I'd rather listed to my music and just let the 660 "ding" when it needs to.

I didn't delete the files from my PC's POI folder, I just put an X at the beginning of each mp3's filename, so there would be an intentional naming mismatch and POI Loader would ignore it.

This way, if Garmin ever fixes the problem, all I have to do is put the filenames back to what they were and reload the POIs.

This bug doesn't seem to affect my 760. I've been listening to books that are in the form of multiple mp3 files and it would have been really bad to suddenly skip to the next chapter!

Just to be clear -- you were listening to a book AND you use custom audio alerts? That is the only time we have a problem. And yes, it is a pain. Trying to find your place again while driving is not fun.

Well on my Nuvi 680, the red light camera alerts beep one day and dissapear or stop completely the next day, wondering what does that??

If you are talking about the built-in audio alerts, that would be a totally different problem. Do you get the red box all the time, and only get the beeps part of the time?

I just started using a custom MP3 alert sound for my Redlight Alerts because the default "ding" sound was way too loud relative to nav and MP3 music.

As long as I'm not listening to the MP3 player, it works fine, but when using the MP3 player I have the bug of it advancing to the next track instead of playing the custom alert sound.

This is with a nuvi660 on Software Version 4.70

There is a real easy fix, I have been doing it for long time now. Make all your alerts .wav files and get the sox.exe file that works with the poi loader.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/16728

Awesome! Thank you!

This problem has been around for about a year and a half, now. I don't expect Garmin to fix it. They have released several firmware updates in that time which fix other problems, but no fix for this one.

As already posted, use wav audio alert files as a workaround. I've been running my 660 that way for a long time.

This problem was fixed in Nuvi 700 series but returned with 7x5 series agian. I have same problem on my 765. I complained to Garmin, they asked me to send them my MP3 alert files and POI files but after that never heared anything back.

As a workaround, I converted my alert sound files to wav format.

I'm just glad the work-around works!

I'm actually doing a double work-around with this. The only reason I loaded a custom alert sound to begin with was as a work-around for the overly loud default alert ding and lack of any way to control the volume of the alert sounds on the nuvi. Since I can lower the level of the custom alert (by recording it at a reduced volume) that solves one problem but I hadn't anticipating it creating another. Luckily, the WAV files fix the second problem.

I actually don't mind having my alert sounds as WAV files. They are small files so it really doesn't matter to me.

They really should provide a way to control the volume level of alert sounds directly on the nuvi. Seems like a silly omission from the software. My work-around is clunky because if you don't get the volume quite right, you have to go back and re-record. Trial and error.

But whatever. At least it's working!

I'm working with the same issue. I've edited the "Rest area ahead" audio alert file twice to reduce the volume and it is still louder than the TTS voice and my mp3 songs. I had previously normalized all of my mp3 music files so at least they are consistant, but this one audio alert file is hard to get set to the right level.

Looking at the wave form with Creative WaveStudio, the peaks are significantly lower than my music files, but to my ear, still too loud. I'll keep tweaking it.

Just go by what your ear is telling you. Sometimes you just have to ignore the computer and "use the force".

I realize this is getting OT, but what are you using to normalize your MP3 music files? That's the next thing on my "ToDo" list.

The same program, Creative WaveStudio. There is a "Normalize" tool on the Task menu. The program was part of a suite of programs that came with my Sound Blaster audio card.

Has anyone tried to use SOX.exe and the WAV files for the audio alerts. Then just play the MP3's for music.

Not sure if that will help, just tossing it out as a possible solution to this problem.

That's exactly what I did last year with my 660. Works great, no more skipping.

Hi Joe2008,

I have a Garmin 670 & 880 and converted all my alerts to .wav files, which solved the “skipping” problem.

The problem I’m now experiencing on my 880, is when the unit is announcing directions, they play “over” the .mp3 currently playing (the .mp3 isn’t pausing while the directions announce.

On my 670, the .mp3 “pauses” while the directions are announced on the unit.

I don’t expect any fixes, since both of my units have been discontinued...

Regards,

Tailspin

Nüvi 670 & 880
Mac Pro & OS 10.5.7

I didn't realize the 880 had that problem.

That's got to be hard to understand with the TTS voice playing over the top of the mp3 music.

Yup. Me 2.

Does the software let you "batch" normalize a set of files in a folder, or do you have to do them one at a time?

The WaveStudio program I use does not, however, if you Google batch normalize audio files you will get a lot of hits for programs that do.

MP3Gain will allow you to set the volume (gain) on all MP3 files in a folder to the same level. I've got about 6 hours of classical on my MP3 and I never have to touch the volume. (Oh, throw about 3 Beatles albums in there as well.)

a_user - thanks for the tip about MP3Gain. I downloaded it last weekend and ran all my mp3's through it. It did a much better job of normalizing all the songs and like you said, I don't have to adjust the radio volume up and down.

I know this program was talked about before in other threads, but my brain must have been in la-la land.

Thanks for telling us about MP3Gain. Great program.

I listen to a lot of podcasts in the car and decided that due to the nature of those, I needed to do more than just normalize those - I dynamically compressed them. After that, MP3Gain isn't really needed. (But I still use MP3Gain for my music files.)

I posted a new thread on how I dynamically compress my podcasts for anyone interested:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/23495