Why mio

...and for those of us who are not software engineers, what would we do?

I'm curious about all PND's (I have a Nuvi 660), and when you posted this about the C320 Digiwalker, I went to the Mio site to see if I could locate the files you mention.

There dosent seem to be any TTS or POI files under the C320 in the Download and Support section.

Can you please post where you can get these files?

TIA

Mike

Very nice !

I like all the fancy features and hacks that you have for the Mio. I'd like to have the navigation engine and POIs of the Garmin with the hacks and additional features of a Magellan, TomTom or maybe Mio.

However since this is basically a navigation device how good is the navigation engine compared to Garmin or Magellan?

Seems like everyone is comparing their devices to Garmin. Is Garmin the gold standard or what?

You're correct, the files aren't listed on the Mio site. I'd be happy to provide the links, however, they're to another GPS forum, not POI Factory. Does anyone know if posting links to another forum is allowed?

BTW in case you're wondering, the forum I'm referring to happens to have a strict policy against giving instructions to install illegal software, so all this legal in their view.

Jim

Just tried to get a representative price for one here in the UK...

http://www.clove.co.uk/viewProduct.aspx?Manufacturer=MioDigi...

Operating System
Microsoft Windows CE .Net 5.0

um ... talking my language

Speaker
Built-in loud speaker (1 Watt)

and I might actually able to hear it doing it

Unfortunately, the price is a long way adrift of the $150 you found it for...

£198.58 - or about $388

And it could be more soon the way the Greenbacks keep falling. If the British Pound price stays the same, that is.

Or the price could drop if Mio wants to maintain the price in U.S. dollars.

My Canadian friends and I had a few good, painful jokes about the exchange rate last fall. They weren't too happy about "excessively" strong Loonie, either.

Hmm. I tried two of them before Christmas (they were on sale for 190 CAD). The first one was DOA and the second one died after two days: it wouldn't load up the maps (or even try). It is very hackable from what I read, and from experience, this also can be dangerous for the health of the device: mess up one OS file and you may end up with a paperweight...

This is interesting. . . and worth some research.

Just looked at 720? mio on cons. reports. Didn`t do to bad. I like to start there for a general idea. Garmins scored better, except nuvi 200 for whatever reason. Mio user reviews were of course mixed from like it, to junk. Might merit some more research. Garmin may have tn pick up the step to compete with up-and-comers, as they improve quality. They also mentioned a comp. called Becker thats intering the US thats been in auto elec. for 60 yrs. and gps for German cars for a decade, with free traffic for life. Interesting.

you have now idea how that hurts us in every which way

Visit http://www.blog.amorousnerdium.com/archives/116 for some information on special sale pricing and adding TTS to the C320. The US retail price for the C320 is $300. I'll post more details on the mods later so stay tuned.

Adding TTS and upgraded maps to the C320 essentially turns it into a Mio C520 sans bluetooth.

Jim

The Garmin Nüvi 3xx is barely audible without external amplification (max o/p is 80dBspl (from about 225mW, I think)). Not in the same league as Garmin's StreetPilot C5xx which manages 94dBspl (from about 1.2W). I assumed that the Nüvi's problem was just down to its small size - ie a necessary compromise.

The MIO looks about the same size as the Nüvi, yet there's that claimed 1W audio o/p.

How would you rate the audio volume?

Anyone interested in reading about "Becker" or the upcoming Nuvi 5000 (big trucks/ or who ever), and some other interesting stories- Mr. Winnipeg posted a link in another forum I started called "big trks/rvs" It goes to a few cons. reports articles on gps. I don`t believe a membership is required to read these articles. Though I highly recomend them for a membership and the amount of quality info you get in varing areas (remembering that I`m meaning in other areas of considering purchases-their gps info. can`t feasabily go as in depth as is done here) and the low price it costs.

Phil, There's no problem with audio volume/clarity on the C320. I keep the voice volume at about half because at full volume, it's way too loud. It also has dynamic volume regulated by speed. The default setting starts to give a volume boost at 40 mph with maximum boost at 80, however the speed profile is tunable as well as the max boost.

Surprisingly, one of its predecessors, the 310x (which my son has) has even better audio and was rated as having one of the best in the industry. I believe it's because the speaker is of a slightly smaller size in the C320 to accommodate its slimmer profile.

Jim

Worth checking them out

Krieger.

Here's all the information you need to make the Mio C320 modifications that I list in the very first post to this thread:

• "Adding TTS to Mio C320?", http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=101284. This convoluted 16-page thread is confusing to figure out. Pretty much all the information you need is on page 1 and in my post on page 16. Also see my post at http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=104547.

• "Improving Mio TTS Speech", http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=104834. I authored this topic, so it's pretty clear This also fixes stuttering and words running into each other.
• Updating Maps, "C320 vs C520 POI - 6 million?", http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=102835. Pretty clear. Just read and follow the instructions.
• "Tips and Tricks for the C520 (Export Track Log)", http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=87762&.... Just tried it - took me 5 min. to implement. It works!

Jim

I've found my V7 NAV730 to be very similar to the Mio. Within the first day of getting it, I was able to unlock Windows CE on the unit using instructions found at www.gpspassion.com in the All-in-one navigation systems forum. I got mine out the door for $150, and have GPS, Multimedia, plus WordViewer, ExcelViewer, PowerPointViewer, Acrobat, and a number of games designed for Windows CE. All you have to do is be able to copy some files, and edit a few and you're good to go! It has all of the ability to customize maps, POI, and more like the Mio mentioned....

Here's a review for the Mio C520: http://gpspassion.com/fr/articles.asp?id=222

Note that my "Improving Mio TTS Speech" mods (see http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=104834) practically eliminate one of the CONS: "Choppy voice prompts: ...the voice prompts tend to stutter and jump into each other."

Jim

DrWho_100,

I've seen you in gpspassion. Hopefully, you remember my name in that forum.

If anyone would like to know more detail about C520, I would love to share my experience with you.

With Mio, it is not hard to deactivate the MioLauncher. What is the benefit from doing that?

- You have the abilities to use more features in WindowsCE.
- If you have TomTom 6.0 PDA license, you are able to install it over your Mio.

That are the main benefits I can think (for now).

Hi pat_ty,

I see you get around too!

I don't know if you've tried any of the speech fixes that I've posted over at gsppassion. The combination really improves the speech, making it smoother, improving pronunciation and making it easier to understand. These changes only work for Jill(US) and Emily(UK) TTS voices, not the "modified" Samatha(US) If you happen to have the original (unmodified) Samantha voice (v_tts_nu_eng_us_f2.zip) in your /VOICE directory, I'd be interested if you're willing to share a copy.

I'm thinking of rolling up all of my TTS fixes into voice zip files so that anyone can just replace their current files. Let me know if you're interested and I'll post them somewhere.

DrWho_100,
I've tried with disable="_SUI", "_GER", "_AUT" and enable_at_startup=1. I really love "enable_at_startup=1" this one. I only use Samantha voice TTS and I do have the original copy of it. I wouldn't mind to share it to you. Just drop me an email through gpspassion.