Metroguide 5.0

[+Kenith]

Has anyone purchased this yet? If so, compare it to ver 4.2. Is it worth buying?

[+jollybgood]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kenith:

Has anyone purchased this yet? If so, compare it to ver 4.2. Is it worth buying?

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I've heard it's not routable on the GPSV. That makes it worthless to me if it's true.

 

If that feature is important to you, you might want to verify if this is true or not. Check the software forums. There are some threads on METRO 5 over there.

 

Jolly R. Blackburn

http://kenzerco.com

"Never declare war on a man who buys his ink by the gallon."

[+Geo-Ferrets]

I've chatted with one of their support people about the v4/v5 change recently.

 

The main change is a switch of data vendor from TeleAtlas (formerly Etak) to NavTech, which they say has much more accurate road data. If you go to the MetroGuide page on their site, they have a link to their MapSource Map Viewer, which lets you browse the map data online. I've done some comparison between that and my v4 maps and found that v5 tends to have less road detail in rural areas. On the other hand, the back roads in v4 are often WILDLY inaccurate, so I'm not sure that's much of a loss.

 

Another big change is that "MetroGuide 5 will not auto-route with any unit, not even the auto-routing units. 4.01 could, true...but 5 will not." It will still auto-route on the PC, though. I've no idea what the logic for that change is, but I'm sure it'll be unpopular...

 

So is it worth buying?

I'd say "no" if you will use it with an auto-routing unit. In my case, I've got an eMap, so that's not an issue with me. I'll likely upgrade one of these days to get updated map data, but I'm not in any particular hurry to do so. There doesn't seem to be any especially compelling reason to. And if I happen to break down and buy an iQue first, then no upgrade for me...

 

Dave

[+kevin917z]

i would NOT recommend getting it, i got it in the mail last week and i think it is horrible, there are duplicates as in 2 or 3 of the same exact Points of interest and they have removed all the rivers and streams. in addition to this all the little lakes and marine POI's are also gone, this version has lots of poi's for barber shops, storage facilities, carpet cleaners, beuty shops, and lots of no-name home businesses, daycares, care homes etc.

[+briansnat]

Thanks for the heads up. I was looking at Metroguide in the store yesterday. Not sure what version though, but I'll make sure it isn't 5.0.

 

What are the people at Garmin thinking?

 

"Au pays des aveugles, les borgnes sont rois"

[+Brainerd]

quote:

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What are the people at Garmin thinking?

 

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It's a Beta Version, so it won't be in the stores. Betas are released for testing. If you don't want to be a guinea pig, don't download it.

 

As far as autorouting is concerned, if it is not there, I'm sure that it will be on later versions. Certainly, it will be on the production version.

 

The search functionality on the PC program is vastly improved.

 

There is another thread with many more details at MapSource 5.0 beta released...

 

Happy hunting,

Tom

 

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Henry David Thoreau

[+Geo-Ferrets]

quote:

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Originally posted by Brainerd:

It's a Beta Version, so it won't be in the stores. Betas are released for testing. If you don't want to be a guinea pig, don't download it.

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Really? From the look of Garmin's site, it's available for purchase. I didn't see anywhere you could download a beta.

 

quote:

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Originally posted by Brainerd:

As far as autorouting is concerned, if it is not there, I'm sure that it will be on later versions. Certainly, it will be on the production version.

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See my earlier quote from Garmin on this. They flat-out told me that v5 will not autoroute.

[+kevin917z]

there is a difference between Metroguide v5.0 and mapsource 5.0 beta, the beta is the softare that runs all mapsource programs which includes metrguide 5.0 and other mapsource programs, brainerd is just confused as most people are at first. Metroguide v5.0 is the name of the program. Mapsource v5 or 5.2 is the "operating system" for the program so to speak

[+m2orris]

To be honest with you, if you like MetroGuide v4 do not bother with MetroGuide v5. I have both.

 

It has the same MapSource software (still does not import GPX files), but different maps. The maps have some differences. It does not even look like v5 has been updated with 2002/2003 data, some of the poi are over a year outdated. For example, places of business, such as major chain stores that have moved over a year ago have not been updated.

 

If you have v4 and buy v5, you will drive yourself nuts trying to figure out which maps are better. Since v4 has things that v5 does not, and vice versa. It would have been better if v5 was a superset that included all of v4 data plus the things that v5 added.

[+Brainerd]

quote:

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Originally posted by kevin917z:

brainerd is just confused as most people are at first. Metroguide v5.0 is the name of the program. Mapsource v5 or 5.2 is the "operating system" for the program so to speak

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You're right. I am confused! However, the operating software for Metroguide, Called Mapsource does have a beta version 5.02 on the Garmin site. It's a nice improvement over the 4.x version. My map set is the City Select CD that came with the GPC V. Thanks Kevin for clarifying.

 

Happy hunting,

Tom

 

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Henry David Thoreau

[+Team Shibby]

quote:

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as previously posted by BrianSnat:

Thanks for the heads up. I was looking at Metroguide in the store yesterday. Not sure what version though, but I'll make sure it isn't 5.0

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I recently acquired Metroguide 4.02 (the Blue CD) from my team mates and I must say I am pretty shocked at how old the data is. Some major road work that has been done nearly ten years is still not on the maps. The only thing I have found to be better than City Select I currently use is that is has more lakes, rivers and some streams listed and it also lists some high elevation points around the US, HI and Alaska. The POI's I dont use, but I have noticed some newer stuff there, but hard to consider paying the $85+ for the older TeleAtlas mapset.

 

Now I don't know what you currently are using, but I use the City Select that comes with the V. With the latest updates from mapsource, it is very up-to-date map wise...but then again it does use the newer NavTech data.

 

Brian, if you would like to borrow either from me to try before you buy, I'd be glad to loan them to you. Hate to see you spend the loot and be un-happy with it

 

Kar

[+aka Monkey]

I bought version 5 today, and although I haven't had a lot of time to mess around with it yet, here's what I've seen so far:

 

* Road data is MUCH more accurate. Every little curve in the road shows up.

 

* As someone else pointed out, streams and rivers appear to be gone.

 

* They take up a LOT more space than before. Almost twice as much, I'd say.

 

* I've looked up two addresses, and they were both off. One by quite a bit (it put it on a street that didn't even exist).

 

* It's riddled with POIs which are, for the most part, inaccurate or pointless.

 

My determination would be to save your money. I wish I'd bought the new TOPO 24 instead.

[+aka Monkey]

I wrote to Garmin. Here's what I wrote:

 

"I just purchased Metroguide 5 today, and I must say I'm disappointed. The map size has increased dramatically, which goes with the increased accuracy I guess. But I've also lost streams and rivers, my map is covered with inaccurate and pointless POIs, and the two address searches I did were wrong (one of them by quite a bit, putting the address on a non-existent road).

 

I feel like I paid $99 for a downgrade, not an upgrade. And, of course, since it's software, I can't return it for a refund or exchange (I wish I'd purchased your new Topo 24 instead).

 

This isn't the kind of quality I expect from Garmin!"

 

Here's the response I got. For the most part, it's a form letter, with a little customization at the end:

 

"Thank you for contacting Garmin.

 

When Garmin publishes a MapSource product, we use the latest detail we can

license from our vendors. The general reference detail in MetroGuide USA

Version 5 is licensed from a vendor known as NavTech (we do not digitize

the road and street detail ourselves). Unfortunately, imperfections in the

source detail show up in the final product, along with the positives. Map

updates cannot be downloaded.

 

NavTech is commonly regarded as having the best overall road detail offered

for the United States (they also supply data for use in the high-end luxury

cars). Especially in more major and larger metro areas, the data tends to

be very accurate. For other areas, it is assembled in different ways...and

while usually pretty good, it is more prone to errors. It is "premium" in

the larger metro and more heavily urban areas as NavTech has ground-truthed

much of that road data.

 

They continue to expand and drive roads to new towns and cities, but it is a

process.

 

We will likely republish/update/succeed the product roughly yearly. When

the next update is done, you will be able to gauge the basic detail in it

via the online MapSource Map Viewer. But it can be a very good tool for

seeing if you want to pursue the update, etc. when the time comes.

 

We welcome any specific error reports (a link to our error reporting form

follows). We look into these...and we flag them for passage on to the

vendor. Thanks in advance for any you submit.

http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/errorForm.html

 

As for the streams/rivers/landmarks, that falls into the data vendor change

part of it. NavTech does not have so much of that in their databases,

unfortunately.

 

Have a good day!

 

[nonsense deleted]"