Yeah I don't really understand why it seems like they lock things they aren't happy with. Reminds me of the whole cancel culture / censorship bullshit. But hey, it's their forum, they can do whatever they want with it.
I suppose the next option is to just start a big thread on The Hull Truth and end up getting a whole hell of a lot more fighting and infighting as a result. And then it's completely out of their hands as opposed to just having some good back and forth discussion on here.
So I have a TZT3 system.
The factory unlocked charts are the NOAA charts. Where I am, in the Tampa Bay area, they're pretty fine. They don't have the detail level of say, the Navionics Sonar Chart, but compared to the Navionics regular chart, they're almost identical.
And this is the key here. The Navionics regular chart is what is available for unlock on the TZT3 system. NOT the sonar chart. If we had access to the Sonar Chart I think we would be a lot better off, but we don't. So if you were to compare the NOAA chart in the machine to what's available here:
https://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=en#b ... rgDr%60axN
You will see they're very similar for my area, as long as ayou have Navionics selected with the icon on the bottom left, and NOT SONARCHART.
Now, there are additional charts that you can unlock still, mainly at this point, CMAP. One of them is a CMAP navigation chart, another one is a CMAP bathymetry chart.
I purchased the CMAP bathymetry chart to see what it was like for my area. I can switch between the NOAA chart and the bathymetry chart by choosing either " auto " or " fishing" on the bottom swipe up menu. It was $100 and I don't really know if it was worth it or not. It seems like a lot of it was interpolated and wasn't actual data. I'm very happy with the NOAA chart, but the cmap bathy chart is like a slightly more outdated navionics sonar chart.
Also, when you have the bathy / fishing chart enabled, you don't see any channel markers or buoys on the screen, which is a little annoying.
I swear, I should start a TZT3 Youtube channel showing all the trials and tribulations of using this thing.
It's far from perfect, but I still am very happy with it.
What I would do if i were looking for some areas
1) figure out the area you want to navigate through , fish, investigate
2) copy down the lat lon of those areas
3) contact furuno usa via email and ask to please provide screen shots of all available charting options AND THEIR ASSOCIATED RETAIL PRICES for the above mentioned lat lon
4) see if it's something you are happy with