MyGIG's navigation offers the typical detour feature, points of interest (POI) searches, and the ability to save your home address for one-touch navigation to the house. Voice directive ability is less common on navigation systems, but it is on the rise. Instructing the navigation by voice is quite simple, but the system requests many repetitive confirmations. For example, we activated the voice-command feature, then said, "Navigation." A voice asked us, "What state?" we requested California, and the system repeated, "Do you mean California?" We had to wait for a beep and say, "Yes." Soft keys for California and Colorado also showed up on the screen, allowing us to make the selection by touch if we so chose, which also helps to teach the system to match spoken words to those in its database. After reading the manual, we found it's possible to interrupt the vehicle's voice prompt by pressing the hard key to avoid listening to the entire prompt. To exit the system, all you have to say is "Cancel."
Navigation includes the useful real-time traffic service from Sirius Satellite Radio. By displaying information about traffic flow and providing alternative routes, real-time traffic updates end up saving the driver time, money, and sanity.
Music And Video To Go
Approximately 1,600 songs, each of 4-minute CD quality, can be stored on the hard drive. Once favorites have been stored, there's no more messing around with trying to find CDs or fumbling around trying to change them while you're driving. With more than 100 hours of music, that should keep you entertained for even the longest stints. Unfortunately, the system will not copy to the hard drive while the vehicle is in motion. However, it does allow a person to listen to the radio during the file copy process.
Managing files is easy. Simply download music or photos from a CD or USB memory device, then categorize them. Importing music files, check-mark folders or titles to copy or touch the check-mark-all key, set-up playlists if you choose, and the copy process will show on the screen. Playlists can be created to provide easy access to files, or choose to repeat folder, random-play all songs, or repeat a song. Deleting files or renaming files is just as effortless with a few select keys. You can delete a song or all music files. At 20GB, there shouldn't be any worries about how much space you have left. But if you are reaching the maximum space, you can display the available space on the hard drive.
Through the media key, you can access from the HDD/Disc/AUX/VES/JB, while the Disc input will operate your CDs, MP3, DVD, WMA, and DVD Video, and with the DVD controls that appear onscreen. However, the vehicle must be stopped to view it. An auxiliary input (AUX) allows you to plug in your iPod or other portable music player. You also have the option of connecting a gaming station, such as a PlayStation 3, to the dual-video inputs for entertaining passengers and keeping them busy during a long ride. The Vehicle Entertainment System (VES) controls the rear radio, media, and rear DVD media playing on a separate 7-inch LCD. Jukebox (JB) mode allows as many as 12 playlists to reside on the internal hard drive, which uses around 6GB, to be selected from. To fill the Jukebox, you copy music from your hard drive or disc and simply press OK. MyGIG uses Gracenote-a music recognition technology-to add album, song title, genre and artist information found on most audio CDs to integrate with the jukebox function. MyGIG supports two simultaneous video-output sources and three simultaneous audio-output sources. One goes to the car's speakers and the second to the two rear-seat headphones, if buyers opt for the console-mounted rear-seat LCD display. The Radio key provides access to Sirius satellite radio, AM, FM1, and FM2.