Customer Reviews

Garmin GDB 50 MSN Direct Receiver

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I purchased the GDB50 for my Nuvi 760 and it worked great for three weeks. It suddenly stopped working. I called MSN Direct and they referred me to Garmin. Garmin referred me back to MSN Direct. I still don't know if the issue is hardware or software, and nobody at either end seems to be able to assist me. I'm sorry I purchased this unit and the one year subscription.

I had this receiver for almost a month now with my NUVI 760. It somewhat helps me through traffic jams but not very useful many times. Here are my complaints:

1. The FM signal coverage is usualy poor in areas that are not heavily populated. I live in a less populated area. I have to do long commute to work everyday. By the time I get strong enough signal for the traffic update, I can not change my route already. So make sure both your work place and home are covered with GOOD signal strength otherwise you will get nothing either coming out of work or home.
2. The live traffic is usually 20-30 minutes delayed. Unless the traffic jam is a real bad one that will last for more than an hour, otherwise you may get a warning of traffic jam that is not there any more or you may run into traffic jam without any warning.

To be fair with MSN direct, that TMC traffic report is also delayed usually. While MSN direct also have weather report, movie time, and nearby gas prices, TMC traffic only has traffic report, not to mention that TMC traffic cost $60 per year and MSN direct only cost $50 per year to maintain.

So it is useful to some extent, but definitely need more improvement, although I dont know if that is possible!

Received the chord a couple days ago and I like it a lot. It takes a half hour or so to register the services online. So if you want to pick one up and hop on the road you may have to wait a little while.(On a nuvi 750)
Pros:
-Weather is Accurate
-Movies times and places are accurate
-Very accurate traffic
-Very good signal strength (Suburbs of Cincinnati)
-News is updated often and there is a lot of it (I believe from MSN's homepage)
-From my understanding, it will work without power for a day or two as long as it has been charged
-about 95% of gas prices were updated the day of by about 1pm. At 8AM about 1/4 of them were updated. Very accurate tool

Cons:
-Sometimes takes a little time loading things like events and movies
-Somewhat expensive for 8 features
-Chord is a little bulkier than regular power chord
-Traffic only for Highways and not regular roads

If you travel a fair amount especially on the highway this is a great thing to have. Traffic, Stocks, Weather, and Gas prices are worth it, however the events and movies aren't developed enough. If you are using it for solely those two, I would not suggest it. Great product, I would recommend it to a friend.

The traffic receiver works as described, but the slow blow fuses started to blow (and finding proper replacement was rather annoying, as Radio Shack fuses would blow one after the other. Also, the cord began to fray after months of use due to rolling it over the cradle when hiding the GPS gear from prying eyes. Eventually, the receiver died after only 6 months of using. Had to call Garmin and obtain and RMA/ send it back for a replacement, which was not too much of a hassle. Otherwise, when it worked was picking up MSN Direct signal signal fairly consistently in NYC Metro area - even while hidden inside the console of my car. Do not recommend rolling the wire as it becomes frayed, and don't know where to get the fuses when the orignial blows. Can't give more than 3 stars because of durability issues though.

I've read many reviews on this cable and the TTN cable that came with my Nuvi 755T. I have coverage for both in my area and have had good luck with both. Both are sometimes slow in telling me about traffic problems.

I used this cable in S FL and as soon as I planned my route, it will detected traffic on the route and show me the delay time. What I like best about this cable are all the extra features that it provide, especially the gas prices. TTN has nothing but traffic, is free for life on the 755T (with small ads).

I've used the stock reports, movie times, and the gas price alerts. Each time the gas prices were accurate. It will show me if they are current or 1 or 2 days old, green color for the better price, red for higher ones. This is very helpful everywhere you go. MSN has a lifetime deal for $130 so if you plan on keeping it for more than 3 years then the lifeime is good plan. If Garmin keeps the same connector for future units I expect you could move it to a new unit which would make it an even better investment. Having owned Magellan 760 which didn't have this service I'm very happy with the new Garmin 755T and MSN receiver. FYI - You get 1 year of service when you buy the unit included in the price!

I've been using this traffic receiver for a few weeks now with my Nuvi 750 in the Detroit area suburbs and I have been very satisfied so far. It automatically routes me away from traffic problems and I believe have saved me on my commute time. The only complaint I have is that it takes a few seconds more (about 30-60) after the satellites lock up before I get my traffic info displayed on my Nuvi.

We got MSN Direct with our Garmin 750 and are very glad we did. The weekend we got our Garmin, the area we were in experienced gas shortages due to Hurricane Ike. When we needed gas at a reasonable price, we just used MSN to find a station close to us that could supply. The price wasn't 100% accurate, but when you consider the market was selling out of gas we did all right.

Movie times are accurate. It's great to shop for a movie before you hit the parking lot.

Weather was accurate as well. I think that feature will be very useful in the more volatile spring and winter weather.

Stocks, we don't use as much, but who knows? Again, in a volatile market having timely information is good.

Very much worth the price and one of the best accessories you can get for your Garmin.

Rebecca Kyle, September 2008

I received this adapter with my new Nuvi 780. I leave it plugged in and hooked up to my GPS unless I want to put it out of view and then I put it in my arm rest box. So I don't plug it in and then unplug it very often. This way, my GPS is always charged. One day, while it was plugged in, my GPS indicated it was low on battery. I thought, this couldn't be right as it was plugged in. I checked the adapter and all the metal parts (electrical contacts) were missing. They had somehow fallen out when I unplugged it and transferred it to the arm rest box. I had not noticed. Poorly made for a high price. Check out the generic adapters.

I picked this up after my 3-month trial subscription to the standard FM traffic receiver went out. The price was great and the features you get are unbeatable. You get weather with weather alerts, news, stock quotes, movie times, gas station locations AND their prices and, in my opinion, much better traffic info than the standard one you get with the Nuvi.

Setup was pretty painless. I hooked it up and called to activate it and once they sent the activation signal it it took about 30 minutes to actually activate ( I was on the other side of town and the receivers signal strength was low, better the signal the quicker it activates ) Now once it activated and I had good signal strength back in my area of town it took about another 30 minutes for information to actually start coming in for the features to work, that was the only time it took that long to get information.

The receiver has a built in battery that charges up when you have it plugged into your car, so even if you unplug it and put it away it will still be able to receive data from MSN Direct so next time you hook your GPS up you should have updated information automatically. Another advantage of that is you can send web favorites (from Bing maps) wirelessly from your PC to your receiver. For example my wife could be on the other side of town at work and she needs the location to somewhere she needs to be, I could look it up on Bing maps and have it send the information wirelessly to the GPS and next time she connects it will pop up in the "web favorites" very, very convenient. The manual says it can take up to 15 minutes for your wireless info to download to the GPS.

Weather feature is pretty cool, it will alert you on the map if there's a severe weather advisory and you can also see the current and 3 day forecast. Gas station locations and prices are big help, especially these days. Locations and prices are listed and it tells you how old the price information is. The new traffic is pretty nice as well, now the map shows you the speeds all over the map regardless if it's slow or not. It also alerts you to traffic incidents when you're just driving normally and not on a route, that was pretty nice.

Overall this was a really great purchase and I'll probably buy the lifetime subscription as well.

I have had this on my Garmin for months and I even tried to get lost. It just will not let me get lost........I just wish that all motorists were aware of what this device does. Everytime I read about people getting lost in the mountains and actually losing lives just because they don't know where they are.
Don't be one of those. I wish I could buy everyone a garmin with all of the extras which are just pennies a day. These are really life saving devices and if you are in a bit city, make it small with a Garmin.

Thanks Garmin,
R0on Sherrod
Las Vegas, NV