With my 2 lowrance LCX units freshly stolen I face a new dilema… Do I go with the new Lowrance HDS series or do I go with Humminbird and pay a little extra for the side imaging??? Opinions needed as well as good and bad exper. 
I made the switch to H-Bird and love them. This is definately the question of the week. Take a look at the posts from yesterday from Perch44. A lot of good comments and points to consider!
From your post it sounds as if you would buy an HDS without SI?…which makes a good point. With Lowrance the SI is modular so it can be purchased later if that suits your budget better.
I have always been a Lowrance man and I just ordered a HDS unit yesterday. With that being said I looked hard at the Humminbirds and I think they are an excellent unit. The ability of adding the structure scan at a later date with Lowrance is what sold me due to budget constraints. If budget wasn’t an issue I am not sure i I would have bought the Lowrance over the humminbird. I am not sure you can go wrong with either.
I am going to do everthing at one time so I dont have to have downtime with rigging. So it will either be Lowrance HDS-10 and HDS-8 with side imaging or Humminbird 1197c SI and 858c.
If your looking at 1197, from my personal use, you will love it. Like having a HD Plasma screen in the boat….wonder if they will start including a dvd player with them … 
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If your looking at 1197, from my personal use, you will love it. Like having a HD Plasma screen in the boat….wonder if they will start including a dvd player with them …
Randy, it’s only a matter of time before the Sirus puck from HB will supply music and TV to the units. 
Ruger – Then James better get his IDO videos “on demand” with Sirus so you can watch and learn 
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Ruger – Then James better get his IDO videos “on demand” with Sirus so you can watch and learn
Perhaps an advanced feature could be the HB GPS map showing where James is on the river while on his videos so you can fish the same spot and speed while watching the video. 
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Ruger – Then James better get his IDO videos “on demand” with Sirus so you can watch and learn
Perhaps an advanced feature could be the HB GPS map showing where James is on the river while on his videos so you can fish the same spot and speed while watching the video.
LOL – Mine already does that—Plus I get all his past and future spots with specialized instructions
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With my 2 lowrance LCX units freshly stolen I face a new dilema… Do I go with the new Lowrance HDS series or do I go with Humminbird and pay a little extra for the side imaging??? Opinions needed as well as good and bad exper.
I’m kinda confused: how would you spend more money by getting the Humminbird with side imaging vs. the lowrance with side imaging? For both bird units its gunna be retail of around 3800 and if you wanted side imaging on the front instead of just the 858c you could get the 898si all for around $4300. For the lowrance 10 and 8 with structure scan module you’d be looking @ around 5000. Maybe my math is wrong but it seems you’d be saving a bunch of money by going with the hummingbird.
I’ve always been a lowrance guy but with the issues(bugs) that people are running into with the HDS/structure scan, and on top of it the customer service issues that lowrance is going through. My boat is getting an 1197si this spring. It just seems like lowrance’s quality used to be excellent but not any more.
Good luck on your choice and definately do ALOT of research and searching on many different forums before you decide. Thats alot of cash to fork out and have to deal with warranty, or any problems for that matter. good luck.. 
With the bad luck I have had with my Lowrance units, one unit replaced twice, another replaced once, that one cost me several hundred dollars cause it was just out of warranty. I am not out weekly with my boat, the units were still new, barely a couple hundred hours operating time on them. That, and the Linda Colt fiasco (remember that anyone?) and the general consensus that Lowrance’s customer service sux except for Linda. (who we gonna call now?)
Now, I had a 1197SI installed at the same time I installed my 113 and 37, I had the mentioned issues with the two Lowrance units since installing them, Issues with the Humminbird during the same period?
None! And a couple Humminbird CS guys that lurk on some message boards and will answer questions, and a better customer service reputation (again, I have not needed to contact HB for anything, simply going off others comments)
When my current Lowrance units fail again and I get a deaf ear turned towards me by Lowrance, my replacement units will be Humminbird.
Sorry to hear about your equipment getting stolen!! I am paranoid about that! I take everything off the boat as soon as it is out of the water and pack em in those Cabela’s electronic’s bags you can buy and they stay in the truck hidden as best as possible if I am stopped for gas or something, otherwise they go into the cabin/hotel room with me at night. Nothing is fool proof I know. Hope your able to find the buggers that did it!!! 
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