December 7, 2009 17:34
So, I've been reading and reading about TZ user experiences, trying to decide if I'm going to dish out $1150 freedom-chips for a piece of fancy software. I already have a MacENC license, but I'm not sure it's very well suited to a smaller (1024x768) touchscreen. It's also a bit slow, but this might be due to the older-style Navionics charts from Chartworld. I still wish there was a way to use the mouse-wheel for zooming. The mouse-wheel is effectively useless in MacENC. Very slowly panning with the wheel doesn't seem like a very logical default behaviour. Perhaps I've just overlooked a way to reassign it? (apologies for rambling off-topic...)
Since this will be our main navigation platform aside from paper charts, I'm still leaning towards going with Maxsea TZ. I'm waiting on a few answers from Maxsea support regarding the local charts, weather, and if there's any upgrade path to the "explorer" edition. There's also some conflicting information out there regarding the AIS module. Some Furuno docs say it's included in both TZ editions, but the online store is selling it separately. The regional software and pricing differences are pretty frustrating. I also don't understand why US pricing is 1/4 the price of other regions.
Maxsea sales hasn't been very quick with info so far, and the response to my first inquiry was very brief. There's doesn't seem to be any way to email the sales team from their homepage, everything goes to tech-support (which then need to relay to sales). Weird. A lot of their website also reads like a half-assed translation from French.
Here's some pros/cons I've come up with so far
Pros:
- Likely the fastest charting program currently available
- Satellite and 3D data available without needing an internet connection
- A modern feature-set and code base
- The wind/tides/current (grib-based) downloading is seamless and fast. Supports internet downloading from Maxsea, or an email request for Sailmail, etc.
- Efficient, touch-screen friendly UI (plenty of large finger targets with the "dock" style interface elements.
Cons:
- Price (outside of the US). $1150AUD for the "Navigator" edition
- Windows-based, although I don't fault Maxsea for this. They're catering to a way larger market, and almost all of the other nav/boat-related software is Windows based (from Airmail to Ugrib, the n2k instruments packages, etc). Luckily Macs run Windows 7 flawlessly. Apple even provides all of the drivers in one easy package!
- Windows 7 not currently supported, but this is being added in a few days with the 1.8 update. Also, I'm quite confident it would run in 7 right now with "Vista compatibility" ticked.
The yacht we've purchased has a Raymarine C80 plotter and big selection of Navionics gold cards. There's also a decent Garmin plotter, and Raymarine radar. I'd probably this stuff to help pay for TZ and the new outside touchscreen. I much prefer the idea of maintaining regular computer hardware than a dedicated and very proprietary C80. I could easily replace parts in the Mac Mini, replace the whole unit, or use a different computer entirely. If I'm going to have any gadgets, then I want to be as self-sufficient as possible with it. I don't like "contact Raymarine" to be my only option when something goes wrong.
Since this will be our main navigation platform aside from paper charts, I'm still leaning towards going with Maxsea TZ. I'm waiting on a few answers from Maxsea support regarding the local charts, weather, and if there's any upgrade path to the "explorer" edition. There's also some conflicting information out there regarding the AIS module. Some Furuno docs say it's included in both TZ editions, but the online store is selling it separately. The regional software and pricing differences are pretty frustrating. I also don't understand why US pricing is 1/4 the price of other regions.
Maxsea sales hasn't been very quick with info so far, and the response to my first inquiry was very brief. There's doesn't seem to be any way to email the sales team from their homepage, everything goes to tech-support (which then need to relay to sales). Weird. A lot of their website also reads like a half-assed translation from French.
Here's some pros/cons I've come up with so far
Pros:
- Likely the fastest charting program currently available
- Satellite and 3D data available without needing an internet connection
- A modern feature-set and code base
- The wind/tides/current (grib-based) downloading is seamless and fast. Supports internet downloading from Maxsea, or an email request for Sailmail, etc.
- Efficient, touch-screen friendly UI (plenty of large finger targets with the "dock" style interface elements.
Cons:
- Price (outside of the US). $1150AUD for the "Navigator" edition
- Windows-based, although I don't fault Maxsea for this. They're catering to a way larger market, and almost all of the other nav/boat-related software is Windows based (from Airmail to Ugrib, the n2k instruments packages, etc). Luckily Macs run Windows 7 flawlessly. Apple even provides all of the drivers in one easy package!
- Windows 7 not currently supported, but this is being added in a few days with the 1.8 update. Also, I'm quite confident it would run in 7 right now with "Vista compatibility" ticked.
The yacht we've purchased has a Raymarine C80 plotter and big selection of Navionics gold cards. There's also a decent Garmin plotter, and Raymarine radar. I'd probably this stuff to help pay for TZ and the new outside touchscreen. I much prefer the idea of maintaining regular computer hardware than a dedicated and very proprietary C80. I could easily replace parts in the Mac Mini, replace the whole unit, or use a different computer entirely. If I'm going to have any gadgets, then I want to be as self-sufficient as possible with it. I don't like "contact Raymarine" to be my only option when something goes wrong.