Mega live from hummingbird is… Live!

https://www.humminbird.com/learn/imaging/mega-live

I look forward to having mega live to put to work yet this summer.

Me too. I have it on order. Hope they ship soon.

I’m a fan of the combo of Garmin Livescope and Hbird 360 Imaging. Will be nice to have all in one brand for those of you ordering now. I don’t think there will be a major difference in the Livescope version of Lowrance or Hbird and any will work well with 360.

People ask me often which one I like better – 360 or Livescope. The standard answer is “both.” They both excel at different times, and frequently together. I plan to do a more thorough review/write up later this year with what I learn.

Early feedback is that 360 Imaging is pretty much worthless the first month or so of the season. Its great for locating bottom/structure/weedlines… which the fish aren’t on or they don’t exist yet that first month. As the year goes on and fish are oriented to the bottom, offshore structure, rock piles, etc 360 is the bomb. Point your Livescope at the structure you see on 360 and find out if they’re home and cast.

Livescope in the early season is far superior IMO… fish are either moving from deeps, to flats to shallow – and many times in suspended schools (crappies, white bass, etc) and they stick out like a sore thumb on scope, but not nearly as much on 360.

Lots of other learnings so far, but will save for end of year and summarize.

Just in time for Father’s Day!!

You would think Humminbird would release a video of the BEST POSSIBLE example of what their tech is capable of displaying, that video looks like 1st gen Panoptix with a blacked out background….

I give humminbird engineers full props for eliminating the extra black box, but I can now see the limitations of doing so…

Software updates will likely improve it a bit, but it’s a new competitor’s 1st gen release, so that was to be expected, competition will benefit all brands which is a great thing!

Well now, more bling for the new the boat!

Just looking at the video examples, it looks like they are jigging a large size body bait amongst a school of active trout (darting in & around the lure) the bait is about the same size as most of the fish… again they want the best possible video for promotion so i’d be curious what a small jig would look like on screen or if it could even be picked up???

Can’t wait to see real world reports…

Its a bummer that they’ve been selling ice helixes in the 5 and 7 size and they are releasing mega live, which is presumably of great interest to ice anglers, in only 8’s and up. Are they releasing an ICE 8?

Also – why do I feel like I’m looking at a UFO video?

1st generation Tech wait a couple years.

bigcrappie wrote:

1st generation Tech wait a couple years.

100% correct IMHO.This technology will advance so fast this will be ancient history before it’s paid for. A little past my budget though.

very cool… good to see other manufactures with this technology. Would only consider this technology for ice fishing as I’m less mobile…and lazy.

I do laugh though when I see someone that needs 5 units to catch some fish. LOL

3rdtryguy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>bigcrappie wrote:</div>
1st generation Tech wait a couple years.

100% correct IMHO.This technology will advance so fast this will be ancient history before it’s paid for. A little past my budget though.

I think eventually all 3 brands will have equal technology. However, does make one wonder if the 1st gen HBird version will be more on par with Garmin’s Panoptix, which has been surpassed now IMO with Livescope.

at least now we know how they got around requiring a separate image stitching processing box…

bigcrappie wrote:

1st generation Tech wait a couple years.

Its not 1st gen tech.

Humminbird just released the equivalent of “pong” for fishermen and are gonna charge you $1400.

Meanwhile Garmin is selling PlayStation5 for $1500 and that includes all the hardware to do it correctly (graphics accelerator black box).

hopefully the Humminbird release pushes the Garmin execs to give the green light to their engineers to start doing some work vs sitting on their exclusivity the past few years…

Humminbird is on the right track in eliminating the black box, but that then requires powerful enough cpu’s in the head units to crunch the 3 ducer data sets, so it’s likely a give & take (cheaper Livescope 2.0 but it then requires a much more powerful & expensive head unit to actually use it)

The other issue is weight to get everything running, I love my Livescope setup, but I’ve put together the lightest portable setup possible and it still weighs 20.5 lbs…eliminating the black box would cut almost 5 lbs off that…

that was a big womp womp. guess i’ll be sticking with garmin for the time being. love mega side imaging though.

I don’t know if James’ link had the projected date. An email I received from Hummingbird today did.

MEGA LIVE IMAGING WILL BE AVAILABLE IN SEPTEMBER OF 2021

I’m really curious now if Garmin comes out with Livescope 2.0 at iCast next month

i would almost say they don’t need to. outside of crossplatforming and the DAUNTING task of hiding a small black box, i’m not sure the benefit.

usually a brand thats a couple years behind a technology of their competitors and then finally releases a comparable product, has better features than their competitors, by judging off of Humminbirds Promo, Garmin doesn’t have to worry quite yet…

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Well now, more bling for the new the boat!

Pretty soon we’ll just drive up to fish and they’ll jump in the boat like those carp

hnd wrote:

i would almost say they don’t need to. outside of crossplatforming and the DAUNTING task of hiding a small black box, i’m not sure the benefit.

I would say Garmin has an opportunity to really put Bird behind the 8-ball if they come out with an improved Livescope at iCast. It would get a majority of the guys on the fence to likely go with Garmin before September and also get a majority of current 1.0 owners to upgrade which then drops a huge amount of units on the used market at a more affordable price which then gets more brand familiarity which turns into future brand loyalty…

or Garmin could sit on their hands for another year…

I still feel like i’m scratching the surface with 1.0 so i’m good for now…

You can get a 9” inch touch @ $1000 from Garmin with a 56 transducer.

Bird SI is hands down better, but I think Garmin has everything else equal (2D/DI) or better (livescope).

Not sure helix 9 non touch screen for $1500 that you can’t even get even compares to garmin anymore.

Not sure what 2.0 would do that would be worth dumping 1.0. Most don’t even know how to run 1.0 livescope via all the settings.

This bird version of livescope looks like it doesn’t even compare. Not impressed at all.

eyeguy507 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Eelpoutguy wrote:</div>
Well now, more bling for the new the boat!

Pretty soon we’ll just drive up to fish and they’ll jump in the boat like those carp

Right. The pathetic rat race continues…

I’d like to know the pros opinions, James and every one else getting the early release. I run a garmin 93, 1500 more I can have live scope and it’s pretty sweet. But I haven’t paid for it yet.

Now hummingbird you have to have live, so double the price of just my graph and ducer, add 360 another 1500ish, now add this other live that is another 1500.
To me that’s crazy. But I would love to see the pros honest views before hearing paid promotions.
The videos really hurt to watch. And you would now need 5 k and 2 extra ice sleds to drag around.
I had a helix and sold it for my garmin. I can admit that I’m no si expert, nor am I some new tech guy. But I can twll you my garmin is so much simpler then my helix, it has beautiful si,di, and sonar. Mapping is almost always great and it was half the cost. Hummingbird seems to be consistent on changing and chasing. Its hard to spend more on that

Bearcat89 wrote:

I’d like to know the pros opinions, James and every one else getting the early release.

Since I have no firsthand experience using MegaLive I don’t have anything to share at this time. Once I get it out on the water and put it to use I will definitely share how it works and what I’ve learned.

James Holst wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
I’d like to know the pros opinions, James and every one else getting the early release.

Since I have no firsthand experience using MegaLive I don’t have anything to share at this time. Once I get it out on the water and put it to use I will definitely share how it works and what I’ve learned.

Have you had experience with live scope? At least to be able to say 1 vs 1. I completely understand you are sponsored through h bird and probably can’t really say 1 vs the other. But being a guy in your spot would be so great to hear a honest non paid opinion

Bearcat89 wrote:

Have you had experience with live scope? At least to be able to say 1 vs 1.

Yes, I have experience with Livescope. Once I get my hands on a Mega Live unit I’ll share what it can do and how it performs in specific scenarios. Hopefully that gives those interested in the technology some of the info they need to decide for themselves which technology will find its way on their boat.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’m really curious now if Garmin comes out with Livescope 2.0 at iCast next month

I’ve heard 3D is coming. Not sure on a time line, but they filed a patent back in Nov. If I remember correctly.

By looking at the transducer on this promo video it looks like old school panoptics. Not the same transducer technology that garmin or lowrance has out.

There is also no “sun rays” where the image is stitched together. Need the sun rays to see the details.

I know it’s worthless but here’s my 2 cents on this technology open water.

Livescope has a 20 degree angle in forward view. So you can basically see 1/3 the distance on your screen. So at 30 feet you can theoretically see 10 feet or 5 feet on either side of the direction your livescope transducer is pointed.

This is in perfect, calm conditions with no movement and a leveled transducer. Looking at at large object with good returns. And flat bottom with no rocks or weeds. Who likes fishing walleye in calm water with a flat bottom?

I don’t think livescope works like a regular 2D sonar with a cone angle that follows the 20 degree angle and your view is always 1/3 the depth. Shaped like a cone.

I think forward view is tear dropped shaped and it’s max coverage is about 10 or so feet wide up to the 30 feet range then the cone angle narrows again.

Your not seeing your jig at 30 feet plus feet in the wind, unless you have your grandkids pointing the pole for you on every cast. Long distance you have to very precise to see anything.

All the detail is up to @ 20-25ft max then you lose it. Anyone who says they can find walleye at 35ft plus is FOS. All you see past that is a straight up and down line. Could be a pike, smallmouth, carp, a stick, tight school of perch, rock, hockey stick, etc.

Active walleyes that are catchable don’t just sit still. They constantly move and are in and out of your screen in 10-15 seconds max. So chasing around a pod with livescope and staying 25-30 ft away in the wind is like herding cats. Que the Benny hill music. You waste so much time staring at a screen cruising around with your trolling motor with your jig out of the water while your son in law is catching fish in the back of the boat. Ask me how I know this.

Add wind, rocks, weeds, shallow water etc and you can really see the limitations of livescope. It’s not the magic everyone thinks it is. It can be the biggest time waster in your arsenal.

5% of my walleye catch open water I can see on livescope. The rest were all old school casting an area that had hot fish in there that I may or may not have confirmed with livescope.

Once you recognize what super active pods look like and how fast they move it teaches you to stop immediately in your tracks and get your lure in the water. And quit messing around trying to point the transducer around to “see” something and just fish.

If your on the fence open water with this technology I get it. If your game is cruising Mille lacs on calm days and throwing slip bobbers out and making cool videos then this will be the ticket.

If your fishing wind and rock and weeds like to cast then I’m not sure livescope really adds much other then an educational tool and confirmation that active fish are around.

All the posts about fish just jumping in your boat with this technology have never fished with it and certainly not in rough conditions.

If mega live is just panoptic like without touchscreen head units there are better options if you wanna spend money.