What's the difference between ...

The difference between a standard alert and a TourGuide alert is that a standard proximity alert is an alert for a POI "on" the road you are travelling on (or within 50-75 ft. of the road) where a TourGuide alert is a radial distance from your position.

Oh.

Thanks, Ken, I missed that fine distinction.

Will you get a Covered Bridge alert if the bridge is a mile away on a street parallel to your route but not part of your route? I believe you will not but you should test this out.

As I understand it, TourGuides give you an alert based on a as-the-raven-flies radius (1-mi in this case) and will alert whether or not your route passes by the TourGuide POI location. Also, it will alert whether or not a route is set.

Non TourGuides should alert (one mile before reaching the POI location along the designated route in this case) only if the POI is along your active route. In fact, if the POI location (like a school, for instance) is significantly set back from the street, you may not get an alert even if you drive right by it but stay on the street.

A common use of TourGuides is with the schools POI file here at POI Factory so that you can get an alert of upcoming school crossing zones even with a school's POI location set back from the street--it's not perfect but it's the best way the get some advance audio notice of a school crossing.

Let us know what happens with non TourGuide POI alerts if they're not part of your active route.

Since TourGuide alerts are not necessarily on the route you are traveling as MrKenFL stated, when you do get a TourGuide alert an additional SPEAKER icon also displays on the screen. Tapping this icon will take you immediately to the PREVIEW page for that POI. From there you can select GO, MORE, etc. This will allow you to easily navigate to the POI without having to tap through numerous screens.

I will. It may a week or so before I'm in an area where I can try it.

[quote=bear007][quote=plunder]What's the difference between a TourGuide alert and a non-TourGuide alert? I've got a couple of my custom POI files defined as TourGuide files. When I load all of my custom POI's in manual mode I set the TourGuide alert for, say, "Wineries" at one mile, everything works as I imagine they should - I get alerted when I get within a mile of a winery.
Other files, for example, "Covered Bridges," I don't define as TourGuide files but still set an alert for at one mile, and they also work - I get alerted when I get within a mile of a covered bridge.
My question is: What's the difference between the two ways of defining files, TourGuide and non-TourGuide? The results seem the same? FWIW, I have a Nuvi 1450.[/quote]

**Since TourGuide alerts are not necessarily on the route you are traveling as MrKenFL stated, when you do get a TourGuide alert an additional SPEAKER icon also displays on the screen. Tapping this icon will take you immediately to the PREVIEW page for that POI. From there you can select GO, MORE, etc. This will allow you to easily navigate to the POI without having to tap through numerous screens.**
[/quote]
I am set for TourGuide for Dunkin Donuts (as a test) on my 1350 because I am playing with the TourGuide. I get the alert, but no additional **speaker icon**.

I'm not that familiar with the 1350 but I think there is still something that changes on the screen that you can tap that will take you to the POI Preview screen. That is the point of the TourGuide. I have played with a 1300 a little but don't remember all of the screens.

Also, have you checked "Tools/Settings/Proximity Points/TourGuide" to make sure it is set to play. This is where it is on my unit.

I did a search of the various manuals I have downloaded. Interestingly, the terms "tourguide" and "speaker icon" do not appear in the manuals for Nuvi units greater than xxx. In the manual for the 1100/1200/1300/1400 series, there is no mention of TourGuides.

So, this begs the question, do "TourGuides" still work on these units (numbered 1000 and up) to the extent that one can get a "radius" alert - even if the "speaker icon" does not appear?

TourGuides works on my 1490. Functions as a radius alert.

Do you get any other indication? like an extra icon you can tap.

TourGuide works on my 255 and 3760 to provide radius alerts.

Check out Gary Hayman's site, "Garmin Nuvi GPS Tricks, Tips, Hints" for information on the use of "Tourguide" and lots of other helpful info.

http://home.comcast.net/~ghayman3/garmin.gps/pagepoi.04.htm#...

The icon you can tap shows up on my 255 but not by 3760. It shows up when you have a .wav alert for a custom POI and allows you to preview the alert for the POI. It is the same screen on which the "GO" and "More" buttons appear.

I don't believe the appearance of the "speaker button" is related to whether or not a POI is a TourGuide or non-Tourguide POI, just whether or not there is a .wav alert.

There is nothing to tap when an alert occurs while driving (real or simulated) near the POI.

I was able to play with the TourGuide alert that I have set up for Dunkin Donuts. To keep this as clear as possible I am using a 1350 and have a .csv, .bmp, and .wav file for it . I presently have it set for 1/4 mile.
When the alert came up I tapped the screen (it did not matter where) This brought up a full screen map (4.3 size). If I tapped again on the screen (anywhere), then I would get the GO and Save choice. Tapping Go now would cause it to calculate a route to Dunkin Donuts. This worked if I was just driving or following a calculated route.

Thanks for the info.

I may wind up getting a newer Nuvi with lifetime maps and I like the TourGuide "radius" feature for Cracker Barrel

@pwohlrab - did you ever see the POI's GO/PREVIEW screen?

Check out the bottom of the page at the link below from Garmin's site. It says a GPS has to be MP3 capable for TourGuide to work. I have TourGuides that are using wav files but I only have the zumo 660 and nuvi 765T which are both MP3 capable. I have loaded a TourGuide on a friends 1300 and it works though I didn't look for any way to get to the POI's GO/PREVIEW screen.

http://www8.garmin.com/products/poiloader/creating_custom_po...

*Except for our Basic Handhelds and older Rino® two way radio GPS units, all of our current Outdoor and Automotive products are compatible with custom POIs. Tour Guide POIs are only compatible with our MP3 capable nüvi® and zumo® units. Please check your particular Garmin model’s spec sheet for custom POI compatibility.

I do not want us to confuse TourGuides (as described by Garmin) and the ability to use POILoader to set a "radius " alert.

My feeling is that true TourGuides are like guided tours:

consider what Garmin says:
"TourGuide is a feature available on compatible Garmin devices. TourGuide files include Custom POIs with descriptive .mp3 audio files. When you approach a TourGuide point, the .mp3 file plays and provides you with information about that point, much like a guided tour. TourGuide files must be saved as .gpx files.

To create TourGuide points, follow the steps for creating Creating Custom POIs in MapSource and use the File/URL field to attach the appropriate .mp3 files to the points. The .mp3s must contain the word "TourGuide" in the file name to activate the TourGuide feature. For example, "TourGuide.mp3", "TourGuide USA.mp3", or "TourGuide 12.mp3" are all valid TourGuide file names."

Note the comment about playing the associated .mp3 files. This is different from the "alert" one gets by using TourGuide in the name of a POI file.

The MP3 or WAV (thanks to SOX) will play a)automatically, b)When Prompted or c)Not play, depending on your settings. When you are at the POI PREVIEW page and can play the recording it is the same recording that plays for the alert. At least that is how it works on my zumo 660 and nuvi 765T.

I don't think MP3 or WAV matters. I also don't know what happens on units that don't have the MP3 capabilty that is supposedly needed for TourGuide alerts.

If you have a custom poi set to tourguide alert you are going to see the icon for the POI on the screen as you get into the set proximity of the POI location. This is a way to get the icons on the screen without having to zoom to a ridiculously close view. It is likely that you can so the same thing by setting the Custom Poi to a redlight camera alert - you should also get the icon on the route ahead of you rather than in a radius hat tourguide gives you.

@jgermann: The file set up as TourGuide does work on the 1350. I am using it as a radius alert only. I have no interest to use it as a true TourGuide. Thanks for making that distinction for everyone.

@bear007: I found no additional GO/PREVIEW screen.

@Robert1775: The poi file set as a Red Light camera alert only works on the road you are on. It is direction of travel and the poi needs to be within 50 - 100 ft (no exact number found yet) of the road. It works ok but was not good enough. That is why I tried the radius alert with TourGuide. I can now get the alerts for poi's that are off the road I am on.

So it appears the non-MP3 capable units still get the radius alert as the MP3 capable units do.

The only difference I see is what the user can do after the alert. The MP3 capable units display a TourGuide SPEAKER icon of some sort on the map screen that allows the user to go immediately to the PREVIEW/GO screen for the POI to access any information associated to the POI ... where on the non-MP3 capable units the user must press "MENU / Where To? / Extras / / Custom POIs / use arrows to search for and tap your POI category / tap the actual alert POI" to reach the same PREVIEW screen, the same as you would have to for a regular alert. Note that on MP3 capable units the user must also tap through all of these steps for a regular alert.

Additionally, (I am guessing here) the non-MP3 capable units probably don't have an icon on the POI's PREVIEW screen to play the recording either.

Both Regular and Tourguide alerts allow the icon to be seen at the higher the resolutions.

Does this sound right?

I did some more playing today.

Disclaimer: I am using the TourGuide as a radius alert using wav file, csv, and bmp and not a way to give me voice info (recording) about the poi (as a regular TourGuide).

I didn't even know the following about a directional standard alert. (You learn something new every day).

When the alert appears (directional/standard or TourGuide) you tap the screen twice. The 1st tap gives you another map. The 2nd tap will bring up (lower left corner) a **GO and SAVE**. Also appearing on the screen is the name of the poi and **press for more**. The **more** will bring up the other info contained in the file about the poi.
Also when I get the alert, I get the sound alert (presently "Dunkin Donuts Ahead").

A good reason you are seeing the differences when using WAV files is that officially Garmin DOES NOT SUPPORT Wav files. The only sound files Garmin officially supports are MP3, but not on any current production units. The key difference would be the presence of the hardware and software to play MP3 files.

If the 2XX units display the speaker icon, I would guess the difference is they have either MP3 software or hardware, but not both. The key piece to my guess on this is the presence of the speaker jack on the unit.

Officially, Garmin has never supported any sound file formats other than MP3 and Audible books. WAV files are played because of a piece of third party software over which Garmin has no control, but allows to hook into their operating system through documented procedures.

I take it your doing the 2 taps on the 1350. Maybe Garmin has provided a quick way to get to the POI Preview screen durning an alert on the newer units. I tried it on my zumo 660 and it did not work.

Using Garmin's POI loader, which I have always assumed gives a standard alert, I get an alert for the first rest area in Wisconsin on I-39/90 when I am on hwy 75 in South Beloit, IL which runs at a 90º angle to I-39/90. I have the alert set for two miles.

Thanks for the info-

Using poiloader in manual mode and setting alert you will get the along route warning.Unless you put TourGuide in the file name then you will be setting a radius alert using Poiloader in manual mode.

I compared my 295w with the 1490t using TourGuide for Wal-mart & Mcdonalds on our trip to Tennessee this week. The 295 was loaded with my own wav files plus the Mcdonalds mp3 file from this site. The mp3 file was ignored.
When the TourGuide alert appeared, both units sounded off… Another separate icon appeared on 295. When pressed, I had five choices. 1. A GREEN ARROW repeated the audio alert. 2. MORE brought up another page with address & phone info. 3. SHOW MAP. 4. GO
5. THREE BARS icon. When pressed, two options appeared. SAVE and SEND. SEND opened up the email page.
.. A pleasant surprise when using TourGuide is that the Mcdonalds sound does not repeat every time when stopping and starting in traffic, or in the drive thru lane.