22. Using the FM Transmitter

If the nuvi 880 has an achilles heel it's almost certainly the underpowered FM transmitter.

The nuvi 880 has an internal FM transmitter that lets you use your vehicle stereo system by broadcasting the nuvi's audio to an unused FM radio station. Set the nuvi and your car's stereo to the same FM frequency, and the nuvi's audio is heard through your car's much better, louder speaker system rather than the nuvi 880's speakers.

Note: You cannot listen to the radio, or your car's CD player while using the FM Transmitter feature on the nuvi. Your car's stereo must be set to the radio and tuned to the same FM frequency as the nuvi. If you want to listen to music as you drive, you'll need to load music onto the nuvi and use the GPS to play the music.

Figure 121: Activating the FM Transmitter

To enable the nuvi 880's FM transmitter, tap Volume > Audio Output

Figure 122: Setting the Audio Output

Tap FM Transmitter to switch the audio from the internal speakers to the FM Transmitter.

Figure 123: Legal Notice

Agree to the legal notice (you only have to do this once).

Figure 124: Enable the FM Transmitter

Tap Enable to begin configuring the FM transmitter.

Figure 125: Adjusting the FM Transmitter's Frequency

The nuvi can use frequencies from 88.1 to 107.9, and steps in 0.2 increments (e.g. 88.1, 88.3, 88.5, and so on). You'll want to find an unused FM frequency to ensure good reception.

Figure 126: Mixer Settings

Tapping on Mixer brings up the Mixer Settings page. This page lets you customize the audio levels for voice navigation prompts, music/audiobooks, and hands-free speakerphone.

Having an FM transmitter built-in to the nuvi is a more powerful feature than one might at first assume. Leveraging your vehicle factory stereo, the nuvi 880 can act as a media hub, linking cell phone, navigation, and music into a seamless combined system -- all controlled via the nuvi.

Unfortunately, the nuvi 880's underpowered FM transmitter is inadequate. Even the weakest FM interference causes static, and the nuvi isn't powerful enough to broadcast over other FM frequencies. The result is an endless hunt for unused FM frequencies that must be re-adjusted every 10 miles or so.

I became so fond of using the vehicle's built-in stereo for hands-free calling, mp3 playback, and navigation prompts, that I ended up working around the poor FM transmitter and using a cassette adapter (one that's designed for use with mp3 players/iPods) instead, plugging the cassette adapter into the headphone jack on the 880's docking cradle.

Garmin needs to boost the power on the FM transmitter and allow finer frequency tuning to make the nuvi's internal FM transmitter feature usable; the current iteration is just plain frustrating. Garmin claims the FM Transmitter power is limited due to FCC regulations. However, I've tested GPS units from Alpine and TomTom where the FM Transmitter works very well, so I feel this is an area Garmin could improve.

23. Media Player

Figure 127: Media Player

The nuvi 880's Media Player supports MP3 music files, and M3U and M3U playlist files. You can also create playlists directly on the nuvi using the Media Player.

To access the Media Player, tap Tools > Media Player.

The Media Player itself is relatively straight forward:

• Browse - browse the available MP3s by artist, genre, song title, etc.
• Tapping forward or rewind skips to the next/previous song. Holding either of these buttons down fast forwards or rewinds.
• Pause - pauses the current song
• The repeat and shuffle icons are located above the Source button
• Source - switches between the nuvi's internal storage and the SD card slot

Figure 128: Browsing the Media Files

MP3 files can be browsed by title (All), Album, Artist, or Genre.

You can also create a new playlist by tapping Playlist > Create New Playlist, and selecting the songs you want added to the new playlist.

Figure 129: Choosing a Song or Songs for Playback

Within the browse view, you can tap on a song to select just that song, or tap Play All to play all songs.

Figure 130: Music Playback While Navigating

When listening to music or an audio book while navigating, a shortcut to the Media Player is placed in the corner of the map screen, as shown above in figure 123.

Garmin does a good job not cluttering the map screen, but I would have liked to see basic music controls on the map view, such as pause, fast-forward, and rewind; it would be nice to jump around from song to song without having to exit the map view.

Figure 131: Listening to Audiobooks

When listening to Audible purchased audiobooks, the media player supports bookmarks.