I understand that Garmin tends to release new marine products for the Miami show in February. I'm in the market for a new 7212 or 7215, but am a little scared that right after I buy it, the new "8212" will come out, making me wish I'd waited. Of course, it's inevitable sooner or later, but if we expect a new "8xxx" series in 3 months, I'd rather wait.
Is there enough visibility into Garmin's roadmap to allow us to predict whether the 7xxx series is likely to be superseded this February?
Cheers
Dan Freedman
Sea Spirit Passagemaker 60
Hi Dan,
Actually Garmin does a lot of its major marine introductions at METS, which is next week. But I'm not expecting anything as big as a new MFD series for quite some time. After all, the 6- and 7000 Series are relatively new, and I don't think Garmin has evolved its software to what they can really do, yet. In other words, if you get a 6 or 7000 series now, you will likely get a significant performance/feature enhancement eventually, just like early 4- and 5000 series owners did when 5.0 software came out.
Thanks Ben, that's a great perspective on it. My situation is that I have 3 5212's on my new-to-me boat, and they are great. But I've been told that the 7212's are not just faster, they actually unlock more of the features in that software.
One thing I'm doing is adding cockpit and engine room cameras to the boat. I understand that while the 5212 does display video, its capabilities only allow it to display video in a small window, whereas a 7212 will display in a large window.
Any advice on whether there are ways to unlock the power other than upgrading to 7212? I'm not sure there's much of a used market in 5212's, so the upgrade path will unfortunately be quite expensive for me.
Dan, I think the video limitations in the 4- and 5000 series had to do with the graphic processor and were not fixable with software. Here's what it looks like:
https://www.panbo.com/archives/2008/04/garmin_video_a_kvh_tracvision_m3_deal.html
but note that video fills a quarter window combination screen better, and you can always tap on it to get "full" screen. The 6- and 7000 Series are definitely better in this respect, able to fill the whole screen with video if you want.
The 7212 I'm testing can also do a bit more with xHD radar, but as far a plotting goes it seems fairly similar to the 5212, which I also have installed now.
Oh that's a very useful tidbit. I didn't realize I could get it to full-screen by tapping on it. But I'm sensing from your comment that it's just a still image that would become full screen, not full-motion video.
Not to hijack my own thread, but I thought I'd let you know that EMA's US distributor just told me that the BlueAIS is now available in the US. It's tough to imagine a simpler to install option than their all-in-one system, although NMEA2000 would be better than NMEA0183.
Finally, I'm also looking to choose between SatPhone/SatData and SSB, or (shudder) both, before heading from Ft. Lauderdale to Panama next Spring. I've found Panbo to be very informative, and it is a heavy influence on my purchasing decisions. Thanks very much for any and all insights.
Dan
Nope, it's a full size live video screen, just like you can get a live radar or plotting full size just with a tap on a combination window. You can do the same thing with Raymarine or Simrad multi-window screens by holding down the Win or Page button. It's a useful feature I've been meaning to write about.
"I've found Panbo to be very informative, and it is a heavy influence on my purchasing decisions." Thanks for that; maybe serious "monetization" is just around the corner ;-)
Wow, that's even more bizarre. So, just to be clear: the 5212 has this great video feature, and they kind of cripple it when you go to use it (by having it only be 1/4 screen). But then if you tap on it, it un-cripples itself and becomes full screen, full motion video.
I'd like to have been inside the product manager's head for the set of decisions that led to this behavior! :)
Still, if it works full screen after a tap, I'm happy. Unfortunately, there are several thousand miles between me and the boat at the moment, so I'll need to wait a bit before trying it out.
Sorry, Dan, I'm confusing you. Tapping on a quarter screen video window just gets the same full screen video as you'd get any other way. The video is live but has wide borders around it, wasting lots of pixels. In the quarter screen mode the percentage of wasted border is less (depending on the aspect ratio set). By contrast the 6- and 7000 has better video scaling and will fill a full screen or a window (unless the aspect ratio of the video is different than that of the screen of window). Hope I'm clear this time ;-)
Ok, I've got it now. I thought it might be too good to be true. Truly, I think I'm just trying to put off the inevitable (upgrade to 7xxx series) for a while. Ok, we've done this subject to death, time to move on. Thanks for your insights.
If I do upgrade to the 72xx series, I'll have two 52xx series for sale. For used marine electronics, do people just use eBay, or is there a more focused forum?
I guess eBay might work, but it's odd how it's become more of retail store than a place to sell second hand gear. It's occurred to me that a classified ad section might be a good idea for Panbo, and I even purchased a license for some suitable software last week:
http://www.ikiclassifieds.com/
It will take a while to get it installed, configured, and integrated into this site, but hopefully before the new year.