What would happen if you mounted Side scan on the front of your boat and used only one side? Could it show you what is in front of you or to the side where ever pointed? What cone angle would it be and what would the picture look like if stationary. I guess I am wondering how it would compare to Livescope.?

You could point the transducer any direction you want and see what is to the sides of the transducer.
I do not see the fish moving around on my side scan. I can see some fish and infer others from shadows but do not see movement.
When I pull up along side a brushpile with fish on it while my sidescan is on, the image is nothing like the videos I have seen of Livescope.
The image does not have the live viewing feel to it.

Does not work. Side-scan is a sonar that needs a steady pace movement to work. It takes sound reflection "photos" like slices of bread in a loaf as the boat moves forward. If you turn a trolling motor, you swing a fast arc (even if you think you are moving it slowly) and what you will likely get is an unintelligible smear of reflections on the screen. Some use it, but they need to keep a steady course and keep moving. Many others have tried it and abandoned the idea. It is nothing like any company's live viewing technology.

Good thought, but as the two above stated it just does not work that way. Livescope is a real time image and as the two above me stated side scan is simply a reflection of what the sonar recieved at that moment. Draws a picture on the screen. I would think technically if you were to do that, would would see fish movement if you had it fine tuned, but it would be one long brush pile with lines moving around in strange directions as you would for the most part be stationary. When moving you get a good map of what the brush pile looks like, but that is it. If you were stationary you would simply get a return on that one section and you would not see the other side of the brush pile. Hard to explain in text. Good thought though.

Example: You move forward slowly. To your left is an obvious prominent brushpile. As you move forward on the lake, the sidescan creates a "slice" view over and over. These are pasted together on the screen to form the moving image you see. You'll see the rise of the brushpile, its peak, and finally the descent of the other side of the brushpile. You'll see that "hump" with clear detail on the screen.

But, if you go back and stop the boat entirely when you are again to the side of the brushpile - using Talon anchors for instance - you will begin to see what look like a long cliff. The longer you stay there, the longer that same "slice" of sonar would be painted on the screen over and over. This is of no value to our minds to "see" what's down there. We get a repeated 2D slice of data repeated, not a representation of the 3D world we live in.

I suspect that livescope uses a "sweeping transmitter" to scan what's in the vicinity of the transducer. Think of it like a "laser scan" you've seen in videos. This scan beam moves back and forth gathering data slices to put together electronically for a 3D view. This scan and collection of slices still works when the boat is stationary because the transmit beam is not the moving part, effectively. Sidescan doesn't do anything like this.

I feel lost fishing without 2D and SI on my TM and why only use one side.....I use both.....
Simply slow your screen speed down to one or two and the movement of your boat will be enough to show you the structure.....I keep my SI range set to 40 to 50'..... It does not show the fish moving but who needs that anyway.......

Using both SI and DI at slow speed setting will show you a slice of structure and fish associated with the structure -- not a "live picture". For a live picture you need an imaging sonar like Live Scope. You can get some decent view of the both and fish from SI & DI, then mark the way point and and use DI to find the highest concentration of fish.

Here's a picture from last winter with a decent view of the bottom and structure off to the side using a Humminbird Helix 9 Mega+.



Note -- in the SI image you can see a school of white bass off the right side of the boat as well as their shadows cast; also you can see the shadow cast by the submerged trees. In the DI image there are crappie and bait hanging near the structure and white bass over a school of bait.

using those two together is a good way to view the structure and separate fish from dock junk and trees.

I would think you could tilt a DI ducer a bit forward (maybe 10-15 degrees) with somewhat decent images. Nothing like livescope, but you could prob make out trees coming up. But I’ve never tried it.

side scan is archived as history, livescope is live imaging. you wont see realtime images as you would in livescope.

Thank you for your thoughts.

My very simplified guess. Just good for getting a convo going.

Side imaging- works best when the return signal gives you new data by moving the boat. Better the timing, better stitching, better the image.
Not enough data for live imaging.

Lvs12- probably somehow uses one Angled transducer to give return signals at a slightly different freq and time. The data is processed and stitched to give a image. Still not enough data and not enough processor speed for a good live image.

Lvs32- 3 angled transducers gives 3x the data, gls10 black box processes the data and stitches it together. Fair live image.

The next big improvement more angled transducers, better black box or just a better black box.

We fish with split screen, down scan and 2d sonar . We normally move @ .4 to .5 mph and are fishing for pelagic species. With a dual setup or tandem jigs three feet apart , we can see fish arches move up to said jigs and either bite or move within the visible water column. Point being, real time , just not as well defined as the Garmin version.
I will prolly purchase one, however, without solid hands on experience , not net.
Casey Armstrong , a guide on PK has one. Should peruse the idea.

Gborg: If you get one let us know if it helps. I am on the verge of trying livescan but will likely fish with a guide who has it before making the decision. It would be nice to have something that might help me figure out what is really under the boat. I take educated guesses now if it's dock equipment, shad or fish. Right now I just have sonar, down scan and sidescan. Downscan is the most valuable to me, as I tell more about what I am looking at.

what about this for livescope https://www.thelivescanner.com/