With the XL being released, will the elephant in the room get addressed?

[allrelative]

Charts on the TZTs are a decade behind their competitors. If not for stellar hardware, the best user interface and amazing support, we really would not be talking. Now there is a new XL version with what sounds like better charts, is there any hope of all of Furuno addressing the mapping? There are good charts out there—so the issue appears to be on the Furuno side. We are willing to pay for the charts too, so not understanding.

Any updates to share with the current customers?

 

[Johnny Electron]

TZT2BB firmware update to use TZ Maps?

With the recent announcement of the new units https://furunousaforum.com/threads/furunos-all-new-tztouchxl-seriesdelivers-off-the-charts-performancewith-exclusive-industry-first-features.20546/ will there be a firmware update for the TZT2BB to allow TZ Map usage?

furunousaforum.com

I strongly disagree about MM3 charts being behind by 10 years. Much is area dependent and the purchased maps being compared and others have weak spots as well. There is a brand that I wouldn't have their radar on anyone's boat I cared about. That said we don't axe grind here and I won't feed that. Each company has strong and weak areas. Furuno has worked hard in what customers are asking for when building the next system. I think they have done a great job of filling some of the perceived areas of weakness as they offer XL. The Sirius weather, charts, AI routing, etc it will be hard to find something to be unhappy about. XL being allowed to mix with TZT3 (and TZT2BB) will allow a boat that wants the new mapping to replace one display and use that for mapping while using the others for everything else. While Furuno has been good at bringing features backwards when feasible there are times that it isn't possible. (like when TZT3 offered PBG but TZT2 not) Moving from year model on cars, PCs or anything else, there is always going to be a faster and cooler mouse trap. XL is a very strong option and so is TZT3. TZT3 isn't going anyplace soon and neither is existing MM3 mapping. While it might not always be the answers some hope for, we do our best to get the correct answers. We don't pre-announce so if there are new options for existing product coming, everyone finds out when officially announced.

 

[allrelative]

Jonny, your support on this forum and the Furuno support techs that answer the phone are amazing. We appreciate and learn so much from this site, so thank you. Again, that is one of the big sellers of the brand for me. Yes, the radar, AP and Sat Compass are IMHO the best in the business.

However, it is known by many and perceived by many more that if a fisherman is looking for good bathy charts from a MFD, the TZT3 is not your MFD. The charts exist for all other manufacturers, Furuno just does not allow us to have them, and there in lies the rub to us Furuno fans. Just allow us to load 3rd party charts again, please.

For example, two rather famous fishing grounds in the northeast, Stellwagen and Jefferies have little options for bathy charts on the TZT3- crazy if you ask me. Yes, all other MFDs , iOS and android have multiple options.

Sure, I could have added the Noble tech for charts, + radar + sounder, + hardware for 2K, but why, we purchased the Furuno MFD.
I guess we could add DFF3D plus ducer for 4K to make my own charts, but again why and who has the time to make my own charts.

I added a 2nd TZT3 last year, yet sounds like hardware is woefully underpowered for future development. The XL is released with better charts, much faster with AI routing, kinda leaves us with buyer remorse.

 

[calla969]

I have to agree. I have a TZT3 and I love it, but I keep a stupid Simrad Go on the boat so I can run the Navionics Platinum charts which give me great bathy info. I've purchased the CMAP charts for my TZT3 and they are entirely unimpressive. I guess I could spend $700 on CMOR (but not the most current version), but they don't have much coverage in my area at all. Would definitely not be worth it. I can run Navionics on my cell phone and get much better detail than I can out of my paid charts on the TZT3. I just can't see any argument against the need for Furuno/MM3, whoever to improve the offerings on such a nice unit. It's the only thing I'm disappointed with. I thought/hoped it would have been improved by now when I bought it, but no love.

 

[Keta]

Regardless I think there are bunch of us tzt3's owners that are disappointed right now.

Personally I could care less about the routing et cetera. I just want the mapping. Actually the mapping that I see on my TZ iboat app would be great. You can see a lot of it is from multibeam data. You'd think if you can view easily and quickly good mapping on an iPad the same data could be pushed over to the tzt3.
Hindsight right now tells me it would have been much better to have gone with TimeZero versus the tzt3's.

 

[SailorDoc]

I JUST purchased TZT39F... I would have definitely considered the XL for the better charts!!! (I did ask here specifically about such charts before purchasing.) So also a little chuffed....

I want to say good things about Furuno... but this sours things a little (unless the better charts become available for TZT39F).

(I don't care about and don't trust autorouting....)

 

[Alysium]

Now, this is an interesting thread…

 

[Lady&TheScamp]

I'm in a similar situation with @calla969. Already have Simrad Go with CMOR maps and did a TZT3 installation last year. I'm still figuring things out with the TZT3 and I was looking forward to future software updates for this product. I knew something was going on when it had been nearly a year since the last software update...but I was hoping it would be a V4 software for TZT3 with great new features. Either way, I just hope TZT3 (and TZT2) continue to receive updates going forward and we are not ignored or pushed to upgrade to the new TZTXL for new feature updates.

 

[Kraken]

Version 3.56 for the TZT3 was released in January.

 

[Lady&TheScamp]

And the release prior to that was 3.5 in October 2022...so over a year between software updates.

Not trying to derail this thread, but I guess what I'm trying to figure out is if Furuno sees TZT3F and TZT4L as two tiers of a product that will continue to evolve together. Like how Simrad has the NSS, NSX, Go, etc. product lines for their MFDs. Or is Furuno sunsetting TZT3F for the new TZT4L line? Maybe they are not ready to announce this yet, but this seems to be the big question for existing TZT3F owners.

 

[Sparky Wire]

Historically those that know Furuno, know that software updates are not a constant weekly thing that some companies do. This type of churning gets its share of complaints as well. It is typical that Furuno carries two NavNet lines. Just as TZT1 and TZT2 sold together for roughly 4 years before TZT3, or TZT2 sold with TZT3, now you are likely to see about 2-4 more years of TZT3 selling with XL. (my assumption) Software changes to the fully developed (and proven) product (TZT3) will still be happening but will slow as they move on to fully developing XL and the future systems. This has been a pretty consistent cycle. Unlike others that have life cycles much shorter and don't plan for repair parts after they stop a product line, Furuno offers the longest longevity along with a repair cycle option. The XL can run a radar DRS scanner built from 2008 that sold with the NN3D. Few to none of the competing companies newest product lines will support sensors that far back. The TZT3 is long from sunsetting. They sky isn't falling. If one waits to buy until technology stops advancing, it will be a long wait.

 

[Johnny Electron]

Enough divergence from the question and answer help we do here on this forum. We need to get back to focusing on those that need help or questions about products. While the answers are not always going to be what one wishes to hear, we work hard to deliver information and assistance. There are many other forums on the web for speculation and armchair quarterbacking. Since 2011 this forum has worked hard to keep a clean noise free focus and it has been very successful. XL is a larger jump in tech and hardware specs and it is understandable that there is some disappointment in having the prior models. It happens about every four years but this time is a little more impactful with XL being such a jump. While I let this thread run a bit, it is time to close it down, and get the focus back to helping each other with existing products. Thanks to everyone for understanding.