[ifeldman]

I went to Blythe, CA (10 freeway where it hits the Colorado River) over the weekend, which is about 200 miles from my house. The Nav system only showed a couple of roads in Blythe, and no points of interest.

I cant understand why the MDX Nav, which uses a DVD for its database, has less info than my Microsoft Streets and Trips 2002, which is on one CD. It shows all the streets in Blythe, and also has many points of interest.

Because the Nav did not show some of the streets I traveled on (one which is pretty big, and I know that street was there four years ago, and the Nav only shows a small section of the street), the Nav placed the breadcrumbs on the street. The streets which I thought ran N/S or E/W had breadcrumbs that would shift slightly out of line after 3 drops, as if the street was not really truely N/S or E/W. I dont know who was at fault.

Also, for some duration, the breadcrumbs was dropping north when I was going south. I then realized that the Nav was showing no satelites. I cant understand this, as the sky was clear, no rain, no clouds, no mountains, perfect visibility. Eventually it realized its error and found the one street again.

So why did I lose the satelites, and why can Microsoft's CD have more data than the MDXs DVD? And why did the breadcrumbs not get dropped in a straight line when I was driving on a straight line.

At least I found out how the breadcrumb feature works.

 

[AZmutt]

Blythe: The tourist hotspot

went to Blythe, CA over the weekend.... The Nav system only showed a couple of roads in Blythe, and no points of interest.

Well....maybe that's because there really aren't any....






(Sorry...I just couldn't resist!!!!)

 

[TheWorm]

Re: Blythe: The tourist hotspot

Well....maybe that's because there really aren't any....






(Sorry...I just couldn't resist!!!!)

LOL - great one!

 

[oceanMDX]

The answer has to be...

The company that Alpine relies on for mapping data simply hasn't digitized all of the towns and cities yet to put on the DVD. I have a Garmin StreetPilot III, which uses a single CD for its data to map most of the major cities in Canada and the USA. Since your DVD can hold about 8 times the data that a CD-rom can contain, a DVD should be able to hold all the data for every hamlet, town, and city in both Canada and the USA with room to spare. It will in time, but the big centers have the priority for now.

 

[ifeldman]

I told my story to a friend of mine, and he said that these Nav companies have to buy their databases, which cost money, so many times they just go with cheaper places. Obviously Microsoft has much more money to burn with their streets and trips program.

He also told me that Delorme for their streets program used to update their database every year with corrections that were sent to them, so it got to be very good. Then after many releases, they switched database companies and it was like starting over again.

Now why did my Nav not see any satellites for a short period of time when it had a total view of the sky? Is this because Blythe has this big magnetic field beneath it affecting the GPS? The Nav was throwing those dots willie nillie when it couldnt see any satelliltes, showing me driving completely in the opposite direction I was going. It didnt give any warning that the dots are now bogus. It shows the MDX must not track many satellites.

To give an example as to how poorly mapped Blythe was, one of the roads that runs N/S ended at the 10 freeway in the south direction. That road has been there for many years, and doesnt look any different in the south as it does in the north. Its like whoever mapped that one road (the one of 3 shown in the database), got tired and quit without doing the south direction.
Even McDonalds was not shown on the points of interest. (about 100 soccer girls poured into McDonalds when we got there, so they must have thought it was a point of interest.)

This experience was enlightning though, as far as showing how the breadcrumbs work, without me having to actually go off-roading.

Still, I wouldnt hesitate to buy the Nav option. Just dont use it at Blythe.

 

[Warzau]

So which company is it that Alpine gets the DB from. Is it NavTrip?

 

[TheWorm]

Almost all buy the data from Navtech. The customer (automaker, etc) decides HOW MUCH and HOW DETAILED coverage to buy.

 

[octavian]

Hmmm...well I have BMS10AO Ver 2.04 installed (1999). Is there a more current DVD available, I wonder?

 

[MGTD]

I went to Blythe, CA (10 freeway where it hits the Colorado River) over the weekend, which is about 200 miles from my house. The Nav system only showed a couple of roads in Blythe, and no points of interest.

At least I found out how the breadcrumb feature works.

Blythe? Even Stockton, CA is not on the map and it has over a 1/2 million people I think. Anyway you can go up and down hwy 101 in CA and every po dunk town has full coverage and poi. Even Atescadero (sp?).

Chris