Zumo 550 SD Card

[Tom]

What is the recommendation GB for an SD card for the Zumo 550 and appx how many songs will it hold? I read somewhere that no matter how much GB on your SD card the Zumo will only read 500 songs...I doubt I ever put that many on but want to know. Tom

[BuddyRich]

I think that changed to 999. It will be slow to boot if you put them all in the root directory, so create a few folders. I use an 8gb but may go back to a 4 for performance. A 2gb is fast. Number of songs depend on bit rate. 128 is Cd quality any higher is not going to show up on the Zumo plus it takes a lot more room per song.

[hig4s]

What is the recommendation GB for an SD card for the Zumo 550 and appx how many songs will it hold? I read somewhere that no matter how much GB on your SD card the Zumo will only read 500 songs...I doubt I ever put that many on but want to know. Tom

 

 

I put a 4 gig in mine.. the Zumo is limited to reading the first 1000 songs with the latestest firmware. 500 on the old firmware. It also will only read MP3s no other music format.

 

If you have a PC with Windows XP and use MediaPlayer 11 all you do when you rip a CD is select MP3 as the target file type and save it to your PC.. You will want to select bit rate of 196 or higher... higher the better quality but uses more space on the SD card.

 

Then you plug your Zumo into the USB port on the PC,, select sync on MP 11, it will give you a choice of syncing to the Zumo memory or the Zumo SD memory card.. Obviously you select the SD card.. It will then sync the two and put all the music you have ripped on the PC on the SD card. MP 11 will automatically put them in seperate folders by album. It will also automatically update the ID3 info so the Zumo knows the music style, artist and album name for searching.

 

If you already have music on your PC you will want to convert it to MP3 before you do this. Or if you have more than 1000 songs on your PC you will want to select only the ones you want to transfer. I have about 600 songs on my 4 gig SD and it leaves my about 1.2 gig.

 

Any extra room on the SD card can be used to hold extra maps7 routes, waypoints, and regions after you run out of room in the Zumo's main memory.. these extras in SD cannot be used until they are loaded to the main memory so something in main memory you are using would have to be deleted.. I have not done it yet so not positive on how it works, but I plan on putting all the maps, routes and waypoints I may need on the SD card including the one I normally have in main memory to use so if I have to delete it to load another, I still have the originals on the SD card to reload.

 

I have also been told to make a copy of everything in the Zumo main memory and save it to my PC, then I can play with deleting extra vehicles and voices and anything else I don't really need to make more room in main memory for maps.

Edited August 16, 2008 by hig4s

[Tom]

Thanks for the replies,I ordered a New one with the 2009 mapping and know NOTHING about MP3 so When I get it and cant figure it out it looks like I may have to get Buddyrich to have a Meet and get acquainted with your New Zumo Get together! Thanks for the Info. Tom

[SaltyDawg]

A 2 Gig should be more than enough, you can get about 400 songs on it. Much more and you would get lost trying to find the songs. LOL

 

I rode 9 hours to Asheville and never heard the same song twice.

 

You can also put pictures on it. I use it to look at pics I take with my camera which takes SD cards too.

[az1103]

Thanks for the replies,I ordered a New one with the 2009 mapping and know NOTHING about MP3 so When I get it and cant figure it out it looks like I may have to get Buddyrich to have a Meet and get acquainted with your New Zumo Get together! Thanks for the Info. Tom

 

Make sure you check the versions of map and software that they send you.... Some are still being shipped with 2008 maps. If so, call Garmin they will give you a free upgrade.

[gibvel]

I posed that very question to the guys a Garmin and the guy said recommended is 2GB. But he added that if anything higher is used it will slow the unit down. Didn't say you couldn't use higher, just said it would slow it down.

Edited August 16, 2008 by gibvel

[SaltyDawg]

Make sure you check the versions of map and software that they send you.... Some are still being shipped with 2008 maps. If so, call Garmin they will give you a free upgrade.

 

When you register the unit you can then check and see if you are eligible for map upgrades. That is if it's not shipped with 2009.

[Seaking]

I think that changed to 999. It will be slow to boot if you put them all in the root directory, so create a few folders. I use an 8gb but may go back to a 4 for performance. A 2gb is fast. Number of songs depend on bit rate. 128 is Cd quality any higher is not going to show up on the Zumo plus it takes a lot more room per song.

 

But with a fast 8G card you can also load your photos for 'show & tell' while entertaining.. I have the 450 ZUMO and keep a lot of my portfolio on my Zumo (and iPod Nano).. always helps when meeting cute girls along the way who want their photos done up nicely =)

 

YOU should see my splash screen hehehe..

 

Cheers