My wife and I are going to be taking a lot of driving trips soon, including a cross country one, so I'm looking to purchase a GPS, but I don't want to spend a forture. Ideally I'd like to keep it under $400. I don't see any units in that price range that have text-to-speech though. For GPS owners with text-to-speech, do you feel that is a must have? If you don't have a unit with text-to-speech do you find it somewhat difficult to follow the directions without looking at the screen for street names, or is "Turn left in 200 feet" good enough?
GPS owners, do you feel text-to-speech is a must have?
- Thread starter trmiv
- Start date
i have the Garmin Nuvi 360, i really like the text to speech, but i dont think it would be a neccessity
mine does not have text-to-speech (Garmin Legend C handheld), and after using mine and sitting in cars with people who have talking ones, I would never buy a GPS that talks. soooooo annoying, and pretty much pointless.
Well it has to say something, I don't want to have to stare at the screen to know when to turn. I'm just trying to decide if having a unit that will say the street names is worth the extra cost.
I have it in mine, but I turn it off. It's more annoying than anything else.
Speech to text on the other hand..
Speech to text on the other hand..
I dont know about the portable gps navigation systems but I did have a indash navi system. Even though my system couldn't pronounce all street names I never missed a street, exit or on ramp with it. It will tell you what to do via voice about 7-8 seconds before hand and beep once again to tell you to perform the action.
I have that feature on my Alpine NVE-872A. I wouldn't say it's a must have; while it is useful, speech is erratic and sometimes too wordy. I must say that this feature is more important for smaller units, like Nuvi 360 due to smaller screen.
Do you think "turn right at Orange St" is more useful than "turn right ahead?"
Do you think "turn right at Orange St" is more useful than "turn right ahead?"
I guess it depends on the area. Some areas I drive just the "turn right in 200 feet" is fine, but other areas might be tougher to deal with.
I have my eye on the Garmin C330 right now, which doesn't have text to speech. Their C340 is $100 more than the C330 and has text-to-speech, but I've heard it kind of butchers the names. Seems to get a good unit with text-to-speech that speaks somewhat clearly you have to spend $600+.
Yea see, I would never use the Axim for another things. I had a PDA in the past and it was an overpriced alarm clock.
Was that an i series Garmin you got from Costco? I almost ordered the i3 last week but my wife decided the screen was too small. That's a cool little unit though, and a steal for the price.
I use almost that exact same setup. iGuidance and a different GPS, but the same PPC and the same dashboard (style) mount. Works quite well.
If I had a system with voice, I would turn it off. I can easily glance at the screen and know a turn is coming up. I dont need a voice telling me the intersection is 200 feet in front of me.
It's nice to have a heads up for long highway trips but not necessary.
I have a Dell Axim X30 and I added TomTom with a bluetooth receiver. I think the whole deal cost me less than $200, but then again I already owned the Axim.
Sometimes the voice prompts get irritating, but I do have a volume button...
One thing I also got that helped greatly is a powered mount with a speaker to amplify the voices. It has cables to connect the PDA and a charger cord for my bluetooth receiver.
I have a Dell Axim X30 and I added TomTom with a bluetooth receiver. I think the whole deal cost me less than $200, but then again I already owned the Axim.
Sometimes the voice prompts get irritating, but I do have a volume button...
One thing I also got that helped greatly is a powered mount with a speaker to amplify the voices. It has cables to connect the PDA and a charger cord for my bluetooth receiver.
Zenmervolt
Elite member
- Oct 22, 2000
- 24,512
- 21
- 81
My Lowrance iWay doesn't have it and I've never wished for it. In fact, I have all sounds turned off on mine. I just use it like an always-handy map that I don't have to un-fold.
ZV
ZV
What size SD card do you have? I was debating between the C330 or the C320. I do need to have the entire US loaded, which would be the advantage of the C330. Any idea how big of a card you need to have the entire US loaded into the C320?
Text to speech is a must have in a Car GPS system. I have a IPAQ PDA with a bluetooth GPS.
It is really usefull to have voice telling you to get ready to turn in 1000 feet , now turn now, --when available make a u-turn.
It is also much safer than having to look back in forth between your unit and the road.
Very handy in the city with lots of turns.
My 2 cents
It is really usefull to have voice telling you to get ready to turn in 1000 feet , now turn now, --when available make a u-turn.
It is also much safer than having to look back in forth between your unit and the road.
Very handy in the city with lots of turns.
My 2 cents
All the decent units can speak, what I'm asking is, is it worth it to have a unit that actually says the street names. I'm looking at two units, the C330, and C340. The C330 will say "Turn left in 500 feet." But the C340 would say "Turn left in 500 feet at Mill Road."
I hate the talking wench in my GPS.
Honestly I always mute her, and just use the marked map and the announcements telling me when to turn and whatnot.
Honestly I always mute her, and just use the marked map and the announcements telling me when to turn and whatnot.
On maximum setting (text-to-speech) on my unit, she sounds like Dr. Sbaitso (Soundblaster program back in DOS days, ok maybe not that bad).
On medium setting (left, right), her voice is soothing :lips:
I used verizon wireless navigator, the phone based GPS software for verizon phones. It actually has text to speech and works pretty well. When we used that we felt the saying of the street names was a requirement. But I think that might be because I had to hold the cell phone, or stick it in my cup holder, so it was inconvient to glance at. With a dedicated GPS unit, I might not need that. I do like the option to add real time traffic to the C340 though.
RossMAN
Grand Nagus
- Feb 24, 2000
- 78,794
- 266
- 116
CostCo.com has the Garmin StreetPilot c320 for $269 shipped.
Our c320 has a touch screen and speaks "in 500 feet turn left" we use the English female and she doesn't sound that annoying. Nothing compared to an Aussie though
We can fit OR/WA on the 128MB card it came with. I wonder if we can fit the entire USA on a 2GB card.
Buy.com has Kingston 2GB SD for $17.95 AR and Google checkout with free shipping.
Our c320 has a touch screen and speaks "in 500 feet turn left" we use the English female and she doesn't sound that annoying. Nothing compared to an Aussie though
We can fit OR/WA on the 128MB card it came with. I wonder if we can fit the entire USA on a 2GB card.
Buy.com has Kingston 2GB SD for $17.95 AR and Google checkout with free shipping.
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