j12000
22-06-2013, 03:47 PM
When specifying my Golf GT 1.4ACT the most difficult decision was whether to go for the Discovery Pro - in the end I decided against purely on value for money - the price tag seemed completely unjustified - whether that was the right decision I still am not sure.... however, it was extraordinarily difficult to find out any meaningful information about the two units, especially the standard one, so I thought it might be useful to offer a brief review of the standard Discover Navigation system now the car is delivered, to help others in taking their decision.
Media function: prior to delivery of the car, I had ripped all my CD collection to high bit-rate MP3, and transferred all the files to a 64GB SD card (Sandisk from Amazon). Fitted to the top of the glove box is the unit containing a CD player and 2 SD card slots. In slot SD2 there is pre-fitted an SD card containing the navigation data. Slot SD1 is empty. Upon slotting in my SD card with the MP3 files the unit immediately recognised it and started playing the first track. The menu to select an Album is a bit obsure but OK once you are used to it, and the albums are shown in a rather unimaginative list but once selected you can view the album art and name of the playing track, and there are options for track skipping, looping, and random play. Strangely, there is no means of searching through this album list or filtering on genre etc. Ipods, smartphones, USB's can also be connected to the system it seems, but the SD card looks much the most straightforward.
Radio: This is very good indeed. Have tuned in the DAB, FM and AM stations, but have only used DAB which gives crystal clear signal wherever the car has been so far. It will switch automatically to a station's FM signal if the DAB signal is lost. DAB station messages are supported, and station logos displayed (easy to set up).
Navigation: The unit remembers past destinations, and can store destinations either as stored desinations or favourites. There is also a single "home address" destination. None of the documentation says how many destinations can be stored, and where they are stored I don't know (on the SD card maybe?) Whether that means you lose them when you update the navigation maps I don't know as I've not done that yet. Three route options are calculated, eco friendly, fastest, and shortest. The guidance announcements are clear, although the final instruction to turn comes a bit late. Turn instructions can also be displayed in the MFD. The system automatically re-routes to avoid traffic holdups. There is no means of recalculating a different route to the three offered - if you want to take a particular route not given you can introduce waypoints, but the waypoints have to be entered first and the final destination last, also if you don't go past the precise waypoint (eg a town centre) it seems to keep trying to take you back there which is a pain... However, the major omission, something that even the most basic satnav would have, is that there is no means of entering your own Points of Interest. Thus also no means of having speed camera alerts. This is probably the biggest advantage of the Pro unit together with its larger screen. On the plus side however, the built in points of interest are surprisingly comprehensive, and another excellent feature is that, with a connected smartphone, provided you have addresses entered in your contact list, a contact can be selected in the navigation system and the address set as the destination. You can also create ICards and enter them as destinations, but I haven't yet explored that, and it seems the instructions are not that easy to access as they are in German on the VW Germany website. I am also unclear about how to tell whether there is a more up to date map available, as the website where the maps are downloaded does not seem to state the latest version number - I shall have to do some more research trying to crack that one - if anyone has any ideas on this I shall much appreciate it!
The Traffic button lists the traffic hold ups that have been found from data transmitted over the radio - and is the information used to automatically re-route.
Phone: Connecting my HTC Sensation via Bluetooth was straightforward. Once connected, there is a "hands free" phone, with the contact list displayed on screen to select from, and four "fast dial" buttons. Also phone display available in the MFD, and steering wheel buttons to use for making and receiving calls. There are options for the phone overriding other sound sources playing. There is a storage space for the phone where it can be plugged in to stay on charge whilst on (battery draining) bluetooth.
The larger screen of the Pro version would be very nice, but the standard version screen size is proving to be perfectly adequate, and whilst driving you can't be looking at the screen too much anyway!
So to summarise, it is actually a pretty good unit, let down by two major and inexplicable omissions - no search or filtering feature for music, and no means of entering your own Points of Interest which means no speed camera alerts - both features that would have cost nothing at all to incorporate into the software - presumably there are some highly paid VW executives who managed to set the specification and leave these things out - beggars belief really.
GOLF 7 GT 1.4 ACT
Media function: prior to delivery of the car, I had ripped all my CD collection to high bit-rate MP3, and transferred all the files to a 64GB SD card (Sandisk from Amazon). Fitted to the top of the glove box is the unit containing a CD player and 2 SD card slots. In slot SD2 there is pre-fitted an SD card containing the navigation data. Slot SD1 is empty. Upon slotting in my SD card with the MP3 files the unit immediately recognised it and started playing the first track. The menu to select an Album is a bit obsure but OK once you are used to it, and the albums are shown in a rather unimaginative list but once selected you can view the album art and name of the playing track, and there are options for track skipping, looping, and random play. Strangely, there is no means of searching through this album list or filtering on genre etc. Ipods, smartphones, USB's can also be connected to the system it seems, but the SD card looks much the most straightforward.
Radio: This is very good indeed. Have tuned in the DAB, FM and AM stations, but have only used DAB which gives crystal clear signal wherever the car has been so far. It will switch automatically to a station's FM signal if the DAB signal is lost. DAB station messages are supported, and station logos displayed (easy to set up).
Navigation: The unit remembers past destinations, and can store destinations either as stored desinations or favourites. There is also a single "home address" destination. None of the documentation says how many destinations can be stored, and where they are stored I don't know (on the SD card maybe?) Whether that means you lose them when you update the navigation maps I don't know as I've not done that yet. Three route options are calculated, eco friendly, fastest, and shortest. The guidance announcements are clear, although the final instruction to turn comes a bit late. Turn instructions can also be displayed in the MFD. The system automatically re-routes to avoid traffic holdups. There is no means of recalculating a different route to the three offered - if you want to take a particular route not given you can introduce waypoints, but the waypoints have to be entered first and the final destination last, also if you don't go past the precise waypoint (eg a town centre) it seems to keep trying to take you back there which is a pain... However, the major omission, something that even the most basic satnav would have, is that there is no means of entering your own Points of Interest. Thus also no means of having speed camera alerts. This is probably the biggest advantage of the Pro unit together with its larger screen. On the plus side however, the built in points of interest are surprisingly comprehensive, and another excellent feature is that, with a connected smartphone, provided you have addresses entered in your contact list, a contact can be selected in the navigation system and the address set as the destination. You can also create ICards and enter them as destinations, but I haven't yet explored that, and it seems the instructions are not that easy to access as they are in German on the VW Germany website. I am also unclear about how to tell whether there is a more up to date map available, as the website where the maps are downloaded does not seem to state the latest version number - I shall have to do some more research trying to crack that one - if anyone has any ideas on this I shall much appreciate it!
The Traffic button lists the traffic hold ups that have been found from data transmitted over the radio - and is the information used to automatically re-route.
Phone: Connecting my HTC Sensation via Bluetooth was straightforward. Once connected, there is a "hands free" phone, with the contact list displayed on screen to select from, and four "fast dial" buttons. Also phone display available in the MFD, and steering wheel buttons to use for making and receiving calls. There are options for the phone overriding other sound sources playing. There is a storage space for the phone where it can be plugged in to stay on charge whilst on (battery draining) bluetooth.
The larger screen of the Pro version would be very nice, but the standard version screen size is proving to be perfectly adequate, and whilst driving you can't be looking at the screen too much anyway!
So to summarise, it is actually a pretty good unit, let down by two major and inexplicable omissions - no search or filtering feature for music, and no means of entering your own Points of Interest which means no speed camera alerts - both features that would have cost nothing at all to incorporate into the software - presumably there are some highly paid VW executives who managed to set the specification and leave these things out - beggars belief really.
GOLF 7 GT 1.4 ACT