Hds8

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Originally Posted by CrappieCrazed

I don't prefer one over the other to be honest but I have to disagree with the statement above especially when your talking side imaging. My uncle and I trade off trip for trip. He has the hds8 on his boat and I have the hb997 on mine. I find the his down imaging to be a little better than my bird but when It comes to the side imaging there is no ifs ands or buts about it my bird is far more superior to his hds.

Ill give you a very good example. This spring we had loads and loads of shad in our creeks off the ohio river and man you could actually count the shad on the screen of the 997 and each individual fish had a shadow directly underneath them. With his hds unit no matter what settings we had on his unit you just got almost the same as if you had propwash on both sides of the boat. It was just an absolute no brainer so we started taking a lot more trips on my boat for finding structure when scanning the creeks. Tree tops just showed up as clutter where with mine it was like you painted a tree top on my screen. Don't get me wrong, with the hds we knew the structure was there but the detail just wasnt quite as good as the 997. As for the 2d now I like the lowrance a LOT more than my bird.

Hey maybe his transducer isnt quite set right or something but Ive got to see the same structure on both graphs and im just not as impressed with the hds as with the bird. Not to mention I got a screen just as large as his, only have to deal with one transducer, and payed a hell of a lot less.

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The beauty of the picture screen is operator dependent.

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Originally Posted by Cane Pole

The Lowrance down look is super. As you said, you don't really have to have the 2d screen. I gave the downscan the old "jig test" today. There was no tweaking the sensitivity to detect the jig. I saw the jig immediately (default setting).
I mainly concentrated on the downscan today. It is awesome.

Also on the downscan, the cone angle (if it exists as an angle) seems to be relatively large. Lets call it the area of detection. I could detect the jig a couple of feet away from the transducer in only 5 feet of water. The image of the jig was crystal clear. If I held the jig still, the image was a straight line. If I moved the jig, the image followed the jig. Very interesting and educational. I was led to believe that the "cone angle" was very narrow. Well, someone from Lowrance is full of olive pits about cones..

I didn't fool with the side imaging and I didn't turn the GPS on at all. I have my Garmin.;)

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Am I correct in saying that the Lowrance actually has crystals dedicated to the downscan images...whereas the HB downscan images are "created" (computer generated renditions) of the SI information...??

If this is true...then it would possibly explain why the L downscan images seem better than the HB downscan images...

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Originally Posted by rnvinc

Am I correct in saying that the Lowrance actually has crystals dedicated to the downscan images...whereas the HB downscan images are "created" (computer generated renditions) of the SI information...??

If this is true...then it would possibly explain why the L downscan images seem better than the HB downscan images...

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Sure seems to be, but Lowrance will not tell me. Guess they are afraid someone will copy them....haha

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Originally Posted by Cane Pole

Sure seems to be, but Lowrance will not tell me. Guess they are afraid someone will copy them....haha

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I'm sincerely hoping that HB will come out with an updated Xducer that has dedicated crystals for the downscan images...I would definately invest in that item...

The "less than optimal downscan images" and the "donut" is the only things I don't like about my 1197...

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Originally Posted by rnvinc

I'm sincerely hoping that HB will come out with an updated Xducer that has dedicated crystals for the downscan images...I would definately invest in that item...

The "less than optimal downscan images" and the "donut" is the only things I don't like about my 1197...

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If they fix these issues, I will get a new HB for my Jon boat. That Lowrance LSS1 box and multiple transducers is a PIA for mounting. Makes Lowrance units not very transportable.

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Originally Posted by Cane Pole

If they fix these issues, I will get a new HB for my Jon boat. That Lowrance LSS1 box and multiple transducers is a PIA for mounting. Makes Lowrance units not very transportable.

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I still don't understand why HB can't address this "donut" issue.....

My digital speed readout registers down to 0.1mph and that info is derived from the GPS signal..so in reality the GPS knows I'm moving ....not sitting stationary....or the digital readout would show 0.0mph below the "donut" speed of 0.5mph...

Other brands register direction below 0.5mph don't they...??

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Originally Posted by rnvinc

I still don't understand why HB can't address this "donut" issue.....

My digital speed readout registers down to 0.1mph and that info is derived from the GPS signal..so in reality the GPS knows I'm moving ....not sitting stationary....or the digital readout would show 0.0mph below the "donut" speed of 0.5mph...

Other brands register direction below 0.5mph don't they...??

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My Garmin does.

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Originally Posted by Cane Pole

My Garmin does.

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So it's not an unreasonable technological hurdle to address the "donut"....

I think what they're trying to do with the doughnut is to indicate that the unit isn't certain whether it's actually moving or just seeing position drift error. They should just leave the boat icon up at all times and let the operator be the judge as to whether the boat is actually moving or not.

And what would really be cool is if they could incorporate an electronic compass which could provide the boat heading info to the nav system at such low speeds. Everytime the boat was operating at higher speeds the gps bearing data could be used to automatically calibrate the compass so it would always be accurate. Also the size of the boat icon needs to be reduced, it's much too large.