I bought a Nuvi 650 from Costco for $299.99. They are on sale until the end of November or something. Anyway, while it's on it's way to me, I'd like to prepare for the installation of it and I have some questions. I used to install car stereos, alarms, cruise controls etc so I'm no stranger to that end of it. I've never had a GPS and I don't really need one because I have one in my head. I want it for the traffic info, the points of interest and the ability to re-route around traffic in unfamiliar territory. What I would REALLY like is the following...

1: The Mini logo and car that appear on-screen.

2: A sultry female British voice (I know they are out there!)

3: Where to download the above and any map updates. Garmin's website says that there are no updates available.

4: Any info you may want to offer a newbie to GPS.

5: I'd also like to know is, since the 650 is also an MP3 player, does my music would go on an SD card? I assume that I can still control the volume and such from the steering wheel controls, right?

6: Any other neat or must-have "Gee-whiz" stuff to go along with it?

Thanks in advance for any help!


Jeff

 

Ok so, The files are on NAM somewhere for the mini on the screen.... and also when you boot your unit up it can display the mini logo.....

Here is the link to download the car files and the splash screen file: http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/F...cty=US&lang=en

The british voice should already be on your unit her voice name is emily... which oddly enough is my minis name too lol

You will have to pay for updated maps from garmin as they come available

The music does go onto the SD card....

for traffic info you need to purchase a separate antenna from garmin and hardwire it into the car.

PM me...I can talk you through some of this...

 

Make sure you have the latest 2008 maps on your device in case your unit has been sitting in the warehouse for a while. Garmin will send you a free update after you register. I just got my free update after I bought my Nuvi 660 in May.

Also, I recommend mounting and hardwiring your unit as others have done. Here's my install.

 

Thanks Newdl and lacing74. What is the best way to format the music on the SD card? Name folders by artist? Any max size per folder? Thanks again!

Jeff

 

FYI, you can store music on the NUVI itself as well as the SD card. Having the MINI screens and cars is quite fun, they work well. As far as controlling the NUVI, the only thing the steering wheel remote buttons will do is volume. Picking tracks or playlists (for the MP3 player) has to be done on the NUVI screen. Take a look at my gallery for picks of a NUVI with the proclip installed.

 

Shameless plug I know, but if you're an iTunes user (there seems to be lots of them hanging out on these forums ), then I wrote a pretty cool little program that allows you to sync all of the music you have stored in your iTunes playlists with any portable audio device that can be accessed as a Mass Storage Device (i.e. that can be seen as a drive letter in Windows).

It works great with the nuvi... It organizes all of your songs in the proper folder structure/order on the SD card so that the nuvi can see/use them, it will transfer all of the iTunes downloaded album artwork over to the SD card so that it displays properly on the nuvi, it will create M3U playlists that can used on the nuvi, it will convert all of your unprotected AAC/M4A audio files to MP3 format on-the-fly so that they play properly on the nuvi, etc., etc.

If that sounds like something that might be useful to you, then you can check it out here:

SyncMyPortable

Mods: I'm obviously not a vendor so if you don't feel my post is appropriate then please feel free to delete it. I just felt that the program might be something that could be very useful to all of the nuvi users in these forums that happen to use iTunes.

 

Awesome program OfficeMaven. Unfortunately, I am a mac only guy. Itunes definitely is annoying with its file organization.

 

Thanks!

Unfortunately, I'm not a Mac guy and so there isn't a version of the program that works on the Mac. Sorry about that.

 

Office,
That looks AWESOME!! Nice job on that program, almost makes me want to go get an Itunes thingy.

 

Hello everyone, I'm back! I received my Nuvi 650 a few days ago and I got the Mini splash screen and a laser blue/white MCS icon in place. Thanks Newdl! They work flawlessly! Now, of course, I have even more questions... I installed a Kingston 1gb SD card in the 650 for music so I'll address that first. I'm new to mp3's and NAV systems so please be gentle!

1: What is the best format to put the music on the card? Folders by artist/group name? Something else?

2: Does a larger file size necessarily = better sound quality mp3? I've noticed that some are ripped at a higher bitrate than others. Higher bitrate = better sound quality?

3: Where is a good place (pay or not) other than USENET to DL music? I don't mind paying for quality music. I'm also a newb to torrents...

4: What sort of cable do I need to plug the Nuvi into the Aux port in my MCS? The Aux port looks like a 1/8" stereo plug from what I can see of it and so does the plug on my 650. True? False?

Now, regarding customization of my Nuvi 650 and NAV systems in general...

1: I've found a multitude of websites that offer celebrity/custom voices for TomTom NAVs, where are the Garmin sites hiding? I've googled myself blue in the face to no avail. :(

2: Geocaching, is it as fun as it would seem?

I would really appreciate any help you more experienced users can offer.

 

For other custom voices, download Garmin's Webupdater program. If it didn't come with the Nuvi; I don't remember if mine came with it or not. Not only does this program check the firmware in the Nuvi for updates, it also will give you a list of other addons like more voices.

I think you're right, 1/8" stereo patch cord (male to male ends) should get it into the Mini's sound system. You could also use the Nuvi 660s FM transmitter but I think you'll get a better sound out of the cable connection.

I've done Geocaching a couple times and it can get addicting for some. http://www.geocaching.com/ is a good site to start looking for caches in your area.

I use to buy music from Musicmatch until Yahoo bought them. Lately I've just been using Itunes. I buy 1 a month on a certain credit card. I charge nothing else on that card. Every month the credit card company decides .99 is too small a balance to mail out the bill and process a .99 check in return. So they give me a low balance credit of .99 to zero out my balance, making the 1 song a month free. I just updated Real Player to version 11 and it has a music store as well. I don't use torrents and don't like the idea of them. Not really sure about the mp3 file size with regard to quality. I think the higher rates produce better sound but I haven't verified.

When storing music on the Nuvi, it doesn't really matter if you use directories or not. It pulls the artist info, song title, etc out of the file's tag. I just dump all mine into one folder I setup on the Nuvi.