Garmin HRM issues & solution

So anyone who's experienced bad HRM data from their Garmin Forerunner and HRM strap, I've got some good news.

I purchased the Polar strap which is plug-compatible with the garmin HRM transmitter, as detailed by DC Rainmaker here: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/08/solution-to-heart-rate-dropoutsspikes.html

Using Firstbeat Athlete (which uses the R-R / HRV data from an HRV-enabled Forerunner), the error percentage has dropped from 30-40%+ to consistently under 10%, and under 5% most of the time. Both the Garmin watch itself, and Firstbeat Athlete are now within 2% of each other for calorie burn.