Humminbird Mega 2 VS Garmin LVS34

[Mahomee]

I'm just going off the actual comparison video that you posted above, not the specs alone:

Watching the fish in the middle appear at 4:26 (shows on ML2 first).
Watching both dock pilings still display on ML2 at 4:40 while LVS only shows one. (Could be occlusion, but ML2 also shows one remaining piling when they've already disappeared on LVS34).
Watching another fish in the middle appear on ML2 first at 4:41, and then disappear later than LVS at 4:46.
Watching pilings appear & disappear at 4:48 and 4:51.

It's not the world and I don't mean to nitpick or manufacture support for ML2, but IMO it's there regardless of what the actual specs say. Two thoughts:
* I was considering that maybe both transducers are not aimed in precisely the same direction (so that objects would appear first on one screen, but then also disappear first on that one). But I don't think that's the case.
* It could be different contrast settings, of course, but to my eye, the ML2 picture is only a running bit hotter than LVS: those two visible pilings vs one visible piling at 4:48 don't feel contrast-dependent.

Happy to have people argue the other way, though! And conversely, if we want to argue that LVS has better target separation there are several examples: e.g. the middle fish near the bottom at 4:41 (ML2 looks blurrier, and thus the detachment from the bottom isn't as clear as on LVS34).

Those def are not set the same the left one is much hotter.

So hot that at 5:21 the fish under the front of the bait school blends in and becomes part of that blob.

They also definitely are aimed a little off which is clear when he rotates, it would be hard to get both the same.

The bottom line is if your always comparing xxx to Garmin then its clear Garmin is the BEST.

It is no different than the thousands of posts of people trying to find a rod as good as a Nrx, the benchmark is the NRX for a reason.

Why so many people have not just bought a Garmin and moved on, in the past 6 years is beyond me. But then I have a boat full of NRX for all my bottom baits and jerk baits, the supposed to be as good as rods have all been pawned off or sit in the back room.

[Hydro870]

The FFS is so close between them you have to look at other things. HB has better side imaging, HB has better mapping, HB has no black box, and when in perspective view Garmin has annoying stitching lines for the beams that destroy the image. I own two Garmin LVS 34s and I do not own HB Mega Live, just being honest about it.

[Mahomee]

The FFS is so close between them you have to look at other things. HB has better side imaging, HB has better mapping, HB has no black box, and when in perspective view Garmin has annoying stitching lines for the beams that destroy the image. I own two Garmin LVS 34s and I do not own HB Mega Live, just being honest about it.

True, that looks good enough for sure to use if you already have humminbird units.

I use h bird for everything you listed and have two Garmins for live.