0ur opinion:

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We?ve mapped every hill and valley. Download data from the MapSource T0P0 U.S. 2008 DVD directly to your compatible Garmin GPS. Now you can enjoy topographic mapping detail no matter where your adventures take you.

T0P0 U.S. 2008 features digital topographic maps for the U.S., including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. lt is available in two different formats making it easy and convenient to load data to your compatible Garmin device: MapSource DVD and preprogrammed micro SD data cards.

Product Description:
Garmin's United States T0P0 MapSource CD-R0M is similar to U.S. Geological Survey 1:100,000-scale topographic paper maps. lt includes trip and waypoint management functions that allow you to transfer waypoints, routes, and tracks between your PC and nearly all Garmin GPS units (excluding the GPS 100 family and panel-mount aviation units). With MapSource, you can view highways, roads, hiking trails, snowmobile trails, backwoods trails, elevation contours, point and summit elevations, some bathymetric contours, geographic names, churches, and schools. Shoreline detail is included for lakes, reservoirs, small bodies of water, waterways, rivers, and streams. lcons represent boat ramps, dams, marinas, campgrounds, public facilities, mile markers, first aid stations, picnic sites, swimming areas, ski areas, wrecks, fuel locations, and dangerous and restricted areas.

ln addition, nautical navigational aids for the 50 states are provided, including radio beacons, RAC0Ns, and fog signals; river, harbor, and other lights; and day beacons and lighted and unlighted buoys. Shipwrecks, submerged rocks, obstructions, and other hazards to nautical navigation are also displayed.

Note on compatibility: The trip and waypoint management functions of this product work with nearly all Garmin GPS units, excluding the GPS 100 family and panel-mount aviation units. Specifically, the map-download features of this product work with the eTrex Legend, eTrex Vista, eMap, GPS V, StreetPilot, StreetPilot ColorMap, StreetPilot lll, and GPSMAP 76, 162, 168, 176, and 295. Some units may require a Garmin data card to upload map data.

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Buyer's feedback: - * Great for my GPS ...
I bought this software mainly for use onscreen on my new 60CSX GPS, and so far it's been great for that. I've also sampled some of the trip planning features on my laptop, and that's worked out well, too. My only compliant is that the back roads aren't labeled on my GPS screen, so it makes it hard when I'm driving and want to know quickly what road I'm looking at, but the routes are pretty accurate, so I can usually identify by that. Also, some of the data is out of date for those remote roads. I've found a couple so far that are listed as roads, but have been converted to hiking trails, or reverted to elk trails, many years ago. Coupled with a more detailed (and sometimes more recent, though not always) Forest Service map, it's just fine. Well worth it for adding detail to your onscreen GPS maps.

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Buyer's feedback: - Works like is is supposed to
I love this product. First copy this disk to your hard disk, and then install from there. Then you don't have to used the CD each time you load the MapSource application. Also be sure to download the latest version of MapSource from Garmin after you install the CD version.

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Buyer's feedback: - * Not there yet ...
I've just spent the last two days trying to get this program and my new 60 Csx working and must agree with some of the negative comments here. The installation manual and user support are the minimum necessary if your computer, your GPS, and the software all work in harmony. Any glitches, and you will probably have glitches, you will find yourself in agreement with the negative posters here. You would think that with a this keystone product Garmin would write a manual that deals with it specifically; instead what you get is a vague description of how things should work for all Garmin products. With nothing specific to this map set it is impossible to troubleshoot.

Some posters here have been happy with the level of detail and have suggested that those who are dissatisfied are either unaware of how to use the product or unrealistic about what a 1:100000 map can provide. Perhaps the maps are better for regions I haven't looked at, but on the highest level of detail for Wisconsin I found the map inferior to what I could have drawn from memory. There are also many errors in an area that hasn't changed much over the last thirty years. My suggestion: if you like me are hoping for a major GPS upgrade from a first generation unit wait for the software to catch up. If you are just starting out buy an inexpensive unit and bring good paper maps along. Here's hoping apple gets into GPS.

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Buyer's feedback: - Great map set
Basically, what you would expect in a 1:24K topo set. The thing to be aware of is that these are topo maps, not trail maps, although they do seem to have a lot of the major trails on them. I'm using them to plan a trip to four national parks this fall.

One notable feature of this set is that it can be installed 100% onto the computer hard drive without jumping through any hoops. So, once you have installed the maps, you can put the CDs away for safekeeping.

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Buyer's feedback: - * Rough Around the Edges ...
MapSource USA Topo has all the features needed to be a fine product. The maps I thought were of decent quality, and included some nicities I didn't necessarily expect, like more detailed roadways than the base map my Garmin GPS came with. It's abilities to send data to and from the GPS, along with what could be done with that data, were sufficient and useful. All in all, a very useful product.

However, despite it's advantages, I encountered numerous problems during the installation and while trying to use it. For starters, the user manual is almost useless when it comes to installation. It was written in a somewhat vague and imcomplete way in an attempt to cover the installation steps for multiple different MapSource products. During initial install, it wanted to check for the GPS, but it could not find it, prompting me to select a serial COM port, despite that I was using a USB connection. However, once installed, it saw the GPS without any problems. It also did not appear to have any custom installation options. Only "Typical Installation" was available as an option during the install. The maps are stored on 3 separate disks that were not copied to the hard drive as I would have liked. When I switch between east or west US, I am forced to switch disks. I assume there is a way to fully install the maps to the hard drive, but I have yet to figure it out. I would have expected it to be part of a "Custom Installation" option that it didn't seem to have.

Installed, If I attempt to use the Unlock Maps feature, it results in an error saying that it couldn't start the UnlockWizard and suggesting a reinstall of the application. And the grand daddy of errors that you should never see in a product, selecting "Check for Updates" from the Help menu results in a fatal error.

Finally, the product seperation and versioning is confusing. It is difficult to tell what parts of the software are from USA Topo versus what parts are from other installed MapSource pieces, as they all get blurred into one. This also makes the versions confusing, as looking at the version in the Help menu shows a different version than what is seen on the software packaging.

All of these problems make me very wary of what would otherwise be a fine product. If they can refine it to where it is more user friendly and error free, I would recommend it. But until then, I would only cautiously recommend it to the computer savvy who are used to dealing with random errors and working around them.