.ht versus .dat data files

Is there any difference in the quality of the maps created in Autochart Pro when we use the .ht or the .dat files? Thanks for your help.

Norm
Lexington, TN

Possibly a little difference, but I haven't seen much. What I have noticed, is that it depends how fast you're going to see the difference between a track file (.ht) and a sonar recording file (.dat). Track files plot a data point every 1 second. Sonar recordings must be more frequent than that because I do see a difference in the number of data points plotted when boating to and from fishing spots.
I don't think it's enough to make much of a difference though, unless all of your surveying is at higher boat speeds.
Either one, you have to remember to save before shutting off the depthfinder. I've found that if I forget to save the humminbird track before I shut off the unit, that it turns all of the depth data to 0.0ft. (VERY BAD!!)
I've also found that if I forget to stop a sonar recording before turning off the unit, it doesn't save the sonar recording properly and it is lost.

All of that being said, I usually use track files (.ht) for my maps, simply because they are smaller sized files compared to sonar recordings.
Only time I use sonar recordings, are if I think I might want to use the bottom hardness feature, or the side imaging mosaic. You can't use either of those features if all you use is track files.

Thank you for the information.

Norm