TourGuide compatibility

Garmin has never acknowledged that all their On The Road GPS devices that accept custom POIs and custom icons can also play wav audio files and as a result, they make the statement that TourGuides are only compatible with mp3-capable devices since a TourGuide requires a custom audio alert. TourGuides will not work without an associated audio file.

But as we know, the POILoader program will allow wav audio files to be compiled for use with generic custom POIs and with TourGuides and all On The Road GPS devices will work with a wav audio alert after installed to the GPS with POILoader. PC users need to add sox.exe to their PC to be able to use wav audio while Mac owners can use wav files with no extra effort.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25730

PC users, be sure to install only the old version 14.0.1 (not to be confused with 14.1.0) of sox.exe and be sure to install the file in the folder containing the POILoader.exe program

Regarding your question, mp3-compatible GPS devices ended years ago, maybe with the last being the nuvi 7x5 or 8x5 series which could mean no mp3-compatible GPS has been released for as much as nine years. I don't know where there's a list of compatible models but there's a fair chance someone here will offer more detail. If you do look and see that a model mentions being able to play Audible books, there's a good chance that they can play mp3 files. No recent Garmin GPS device is mp3 compatible.

TourGuides are amazingly useful when a person is looking to set up a custom POI with alerts using a radius distance for the alert to sound rather than the typical along the road distance alert:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/42425

and are especially useful to obtain alerts for POI files where each POI location may be more than 98 feet from the center of the traveled roadway meaning that the desired custom audio alert will not sound.

Ha, I knew we'd have it somewhere. Our jgermann has complied a list of older devices that can play mp3 audio:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30519

Note about sound files: Early on, poi-factory's sound files are mostly .mp3. The following unit are able to play .mp3s
Nuvi 295, 3xx series, 6xx series, 7xx series, 8xx series, and the 900. Streetpilot c550, c580, 2820, 7200 and 7500. Zumo 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 660, 665.

I have several files loaded as TourGuides on my 3597. I have the audio stored as WAV with the correct SOX in my Garmin folder containing poiloader.