New Garmin 73cv now – Livescope later

With the huge investment involved with getting a Livescope and the weight of the unit I’m thinking of just upgrading to the Garmin 73cv unit now with the ability to add Livescope later with the hopes of the cost and maybe even the weight of the unit coming down over time.

I’m wondering if anyone else has or is considering doing the same the thing. Would there be any drawbacks to this?

Potentially doing the same thing with a 73sv. Hoping that with Bird coming out with their new stuff soon pricing will drop across the board. At least thats the hope

I am doing the same thing except I went with the 9 inch for the console of the boat. I want to wait and see if cost comes down or something changes for the better in the next year or so. The game plan is to have it on the boat for summer and then on the ice even though the 9 inch is gonna feel huge on the ice.

Thought about this as well but there was some chatter about a livescope update coming this spring/summer so I decided to wait and see.

JasonP wrote:

Thought about this as well but there was some chatter about a livescope update coming this spring/summer so I decided to wait and see.

DO you think if a new unit was bought in 2021 that it wouldn’t be compatible? That would be an interesting business decision. It would limit those from upgrading but would also encourage buying all new packages. HMMMM

If it were me I would not buy display units now hoping new accessories are compatible with existing or legacy display and processing technology. My guess is a new toy will require a new display to be compatible as the signal processing / hardware capability (memory, cpu, datalink etc) constraints will limit accessory development.

You might want to do some google searching to see what the latest chatter is. There were rumors of hardware upgrades which could be the display or the black box or the ‘ducer. There was a rumor of trying to eliminate the black box completely (integrate into display).

The rumors were driven mostly by the occurrence of rebates I think – not actual leaks. It could just be software and then you should be fine as long as you get the UHD version.

But Garmin has been stealing a ton of market share since they released real time imaging in 2015. Now ‘bird is gonna release their version but they’re already 5 yr behind. You know Garmin is just going to continue with the beating – releasing what would essentially be their fourth iteration this year. So that was my rationale for waiting a bit longer. But honestly, the tech is so dynamic right now it could be impossible to keep up for years to come. I think its more of a personal choice to wait or go for it.

The weight savings between a 7″ and 9″ head unit is minimal…you also need to think about the case used as the smaller Large size case the Echomap 73 icekit typically comes with will not work with Livescope longterm (the zippers will eventually bust) The Livescope ice bundle comes with the XL case that has the Blackbox supports and mounting points and will fit the 9″ screen just fine. You’ll want to invest in at least an 18AH Lithium battery for Livescope, this will also result in the best weight savings, some guys who need the 20+ hour runtime go with a 30ah battery but it weighs alot more..

Any new Livescope released will come with a premium price for a few years, likely longer. The current used 1st gen Livescope setups will drop in price though…

I thought alot about waiting for Livescope 2.0, but I was able to piece together a premium 9″ Livescope setup for cheap as I didn’t want to pay the high price point the new 2.0 system will come with and Gen1 Livescope is good enough for me…

Agreed I just couldn’t pass up the deal. I mean $599 for a 9 inch display. I was not really needing an upgrade with having a gen 3 HDS, but really wanted a 9 inch and better side imaging.

I have this – took the 73 off the boat and added the GT10 transducer. It’s a really good unit. With a 10AH brute battery it lasts forever and it’s pretty light.

I have Livescope on the boat so might try taking the ducer off but the thought of dragging around the whole setup seems like alot. I like to hole hop and move around so I haven’t done it yet. At some point I’ll upgrade the boat and then maybe swap everything to ice.

Count me as another who simply couldn’t pass up the 93SV at $599. If I decide I gotta have Livescope in the future and the newest version isn’t compatible with my unit, that same situation will push the Gen1 livescope kit to the used market — where I’ll be waiting to happily take advantage of the discount on that horribly outdated, obsolete technology

I bought a 93SV UHD this year hoping to maybe add livescope in a year or two, but honestly the fire sale that happened most likely means they will be obsolete in the near future. The same thing happened to me when I bought the Pre Chirp 73sv on clearance a few years ago (no panoptics or livescope compatibility). As stated above I’m sure they are steering the technology towards total integration (no black box).

It’s like the Gen 1 Lowrance structure scan. Yep they still work, but nobody wants the extra hardware you need to run it.

For those who don’t know, the current Garmin black box is HUGE and HEAVY, to integrate the LVS32 transducer (not the weaker LVS12) into the head unit without needing the blackbox will require serious cpu horsepower and would cost serious $$ and not likely integrated into the head unit for many years if ever for newer versions of Livescope that would require more processing power. Even the brand new LiveVu from Lowrance still requires a black box to process all of the data. I know Humminbird’s MegaLiveView DOESN’T require a separate box, but it does require at least the more expensive Gen3 Mega+ head unit and we haven’t seen what their “livescope” system actually looks like yet (is it comparable or not? without a blackbox, doubtful)

The next gen of Livescope will likely require a new more powerful black box and perhaps more powerful head units (so not the current Echomap UHD series) but maybe the new black box does everything and the UHD Echomaps can still display it.. I doubt it… I also think they will charge more than the current Livescope components since they now know folks will pay upto that $$ level…

It is interesting to watch the whole thing play out. There has to be an R&D VP at the Humminbird Division of Johnson Outdoors who really dreads going in to work because he takes a daily beating from execs on why they are 5 years behind and bleeding market share.

Five years is a lot of ground to make up in a single release. Good luck.

All in all if these Livescope setups or whatever rival version of them from Humminbird, Lowrance, or whatever company continue to cost in the $2500 range then I’m out now and down the road to.

One hope is that if all these new version continue to come the used market may look pretty nice not so far down the road.

due to patents, Humminbird and Lowrance are playing catchup from behind, Garmin 1st figured out the tech and is taking advantage of their exclusivity window…

I’m really interested to see Humminbird’s technology without requiring a black box, if they can get the CPU/Processing power just out of the head unit to make it look like Livescope 1.0, that will be a gamechanger…but if it’s all smoke and mirror marketing and it just looks like the LVS-12’s narrow view band folks will be disappointed…

Garmin already has Live Scope that doesn’t require the black box available in their Ultra units.

Unfortunately they don’t anything smaller than a 10″ screen

B-man I think you are correct but I think that might only be the LVS-12 not the LVS-32. So with the Ultra w/o the black box you only get 30deg viewing angle. With the black box you get 135deg. Someone else will correct me if I’m wrong.

JasonP wrote:

B-man I think you are correct but I think that might only be the LVS-12 not the LVS-32. So with the Ultra w/o the black box you only get 30deg viewing angle. With the black box you get 135deg. Someone else will correct me if I’m wrong.

This is correct, only the LVS12 works on the Ultra line without the box, its very limited in viewing angle, thats why it doesnt need the black box.