Garmin Zumo 396 Media playback

Ronald Weaver · 22 May 2022, 21:35

Has anybody here put a micro SD card into the back of their Zumo and played music from it ? I tried today but the playback quality was crap ! Anybody had better results ? The manual just kind of skips over the whole thing, I get the impression that Garmin would prefer you to use the Smartphone Link somehow.

Hans van de Ven MR.MRA · 22 May 2022, 23:03

@ronald-weaver

I think that you can ask this question best on the Zumo forum

sudolea · 23 May 2022, 07:42

I don't think that Zümo players can handle music streams with very high a bitrate. I wouldn't play the best quality MP3's, as these have caused problems to mine in the past (I'm now speaking of an older Zümo660). Even nowadays, I keep on using smaller bitrates in my newer Zümo595 as my "best practice".

Also note that the SD card can just as well be the cause of your current issue...

Lex.Kloet.RX · 23 May 2022, 12:05

I have 16GB of 60/70/80 very fine music on it and now I am in my Beatles period and I enjoyed my trip with Paul, John, George and Ringo in my ears

Ronald Weaver · 23 May 2022, 21:36

@sudolea The SD card plays fine in other devices but I take what you say about lower bitrates. I've since loaded some lower bitrate mp3 stuff directly onto the Zumo and that seems to play OK. Can't get the volume control to work though, I have to use the bluetooth speaker volume control.

sudolea · 24 May 2022, 11:50

@ronald-weaver I am confused at times, too. But to control the volume of the mp3's being played, there's only 2 settings. One is on the GPS, the other one on the headset...

The setting on the GPS is the "Media volume". That's a percentage of the main/maximum volume. If that one is, e.g., at 10 percent, you may have a problem hearing media loud enough in your headset. Mine is at 70% and I rarely modify it as I prefer songs being played a little less loud than the navigation instructions (which are set at 100%).

The setting on the headset itself is the one I myself use most. You can modify the volume (of all sounds coming from the GPS) louder and quiter there.

Note that I'm talking of the Zümo595, but I don't think it's any different on the 396...

Ronald Weaver · 24 May 2022, 21:49

@sudolea Thanks for that, that clears that up !