Customer Reviews

Belkin TuneBase FM Transmitter with ClearScan for iPod

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(43)
3 star:		(32)
2 star:		(36)
1 star:		(54)

 

 

I got this last night (Monday November 4th, 2007 @ 2:00AM)

1st.
I took it out of the box, found the right adapter that best fit my iPod
(Cassic 160GB)and installed it. Well there are two parts. One is the Cradle, which holds it on the sides and the Pad, which goes in the back of the unite that keeps it from moving forward. With both of these in place I have a good tight fit for my iPod.

2nd.
The "ClearScan" feature does not work all that well. Every time I used it the unite kept finding a station that was occupied or sort of had a station using it. So I did it manually. I found a nice clear station 104.3

3rd.
I and noticed that there are two buttons a 1 and 2 button that lets you preset stations that you've found to be clean and clear and store these in memory for later use. I would like to use them, but every time I pressed the 1 button, it went to 107.3 which has a station in it already. The 2 button also has the same station as its preset. I can not get it to reprogram and thus, this feature is useless.

4th.
The unit does a good job at charging your iPod.

5th.
There is a feature called "Pro" and it boost up the sound and I think the transmission signal of the unit. There is "normal" that gives you a good but not great signal. I tried Pro 1 and its not much better than Normal.
I've found that Pro2 and Pro work best. With Pro it sounded as good as if I had been at home listing to my iPod through my stereo.

(note: on the unit their is a button that says "Pro" and on the display it reads as Normal, Pro1, Pro2 and Pro with a .o0(Thought Bubble)0o. out beside it.)

6th.
I like the arm that the unite rests on, stiff but very flexible. The cigarette lighter plug makes for a good anchor and good placement in my car.

So in closing, it's good but not great. I like it, but its got a few buggs that I'm going to have to call the company over.
(more on that later.)

I just got off the Phone with Belkin, (Tech Support in the U.S. 1-800-223-5546 ext. 2263)
The lady I talked with was VERY helpful.
(1)The way you set the presets is to, Find a good empty station.
(2)Pick between button 1 or 2, then press down on the 1 or 2 button until you hear a plink sound(about 5 seconds).
(3)You will see that station has "Preset1 or Preset2" over the station numbers on the display.

I looked all through manual and it never did say anything about how to reset the 1 or 2 button to another station. This is something they really needed to put in.

After having this 14 days (Tuesday November 18th 2007 9:16 p.m.) Here are a few observations.
1.
When I place my iPod into the cradle and line it up with the data/power port; the unit will turn off the sound on my iPod and let a preset volume level come into your deck, thus you'll be able to control the sound level from your deck with no tweaking needed.
2.
When driving I found the unit to pick up on interference from my car's motor. Here's the good news, it's not so bad that you can't enjoy your favorite Podcast or music.
3.
When you're not moving there's no sound problem.
But if the station you've picked out is too close to another station then you will really know it.
Case-in-point 101.1 is used but 101.3 aren't.
So you pick 101.3, but here come 101.5 bleeding over into your 101.3. I've found that if you can, pick a frequency that has at least two clear stations out either side of it.
Like so, 103.1 clear & (your station)103.3 & on the other side 103.5 also clear.
I don't know if this will work for you, but for me it works well enough.

p.s.
I've found that this transmitter has an odd way of acting as a signal booster for weak stations. So, a station that you could not pick up at all magically comes in just enough and makes that empty spot in the dial not so empty. It's great for Dallas stations that I can almost get. But it's that much harder to find a empty frequency. (March 19, 2008)

I recently purchased this unit as a set with a wall charger at Costco for $[...]. I have used three other units from Belkin TuneCast, Kensington 33169 Digital FM Radio and Transmitter for iPods, and XtremeMac AirPlay. The Airplay was for the original remote connector and worked good on my iPod Photo until my daughter broke it on a road trip. I bought the Kensington at a special price and it was not as powerful and therefore did not work as well. The Belkin TuneCast was a joke, but was universal since it used a 1/8" male connector.

The Belkin Tunebase is in a whole new category by itself. It is not because of the built in dock for charging or the extension arm to see the display or the 1/8" jack to use the Aux port on new stereos or the ClearScan FM selection process, but the Pro 2 power level for the FM transmitter. The Tunebase has three different power levels and this is what allows the unit to over power even co-located stations or distance weak ones that other transmitters can't. The ClearScan is the second best feature because it does do a good job of finding empty stations. The Belkin Tunebase is not perfect, especially in big cities like LA, but it does work well and is easy to use. Just hold down the button below the display and it will display in a second a new frequency that you tune your car stereo to. It does have two station memory for your favorite stations that work.

The only reason I did not give it a full five stars is because the memory and power level buttons are on the sides are not labeled from the front and I accidently push the wrong button sometimes and the price is a little high. I am real pleased with the unit and would recommend it to others if you use a unit like this a lot to justify the price. Since my package at Costco came with a wall charger and sync cable as well as a mini USB charge cord, I thought the $69 was a reasonable price. If the price is over $[...] for just the transmitter, that might be too high for even a quality product like this.

While ClearScan did not the absolute best channels for me to use, the product worked just fine. I was able to quickly find 3 or 4 channels that work very well and get no static through them. The audio quality is very good with rare static sounds cming through. Using the Pro1 and Pro2 sound settings really are the most helpful features...they can make the audio quality even better and more helpful than the QuickScan.

The Tunebase works well. I purchased it because it was one of the few FM transmitters that definitely worked with the 3rd generation iPod Nano. The FM tuning works pretty well - it definitely works better than the transmitter I got at Radio Shack for our portable DVD player. Finding an FM band in Chicagoland hasn't been a problem.

It's a bit pricey but I was willing to pay for a transmitter that covers the entirety 87.9 to 107.9 instead of just the ends of the spectrum. My only complaint is that two of the buttons are large and on the sides of the unit so I've accidentally sent it searching for a new station when adjusting it. I instantly remembered the complaints on the Kindle. But other than that, I would recommend it.

The device itself is fine. The screen is kind of hard to see but the sound is nice.

But, the reviewers who said this works with the 3Gs are only 1/2 right. It does play our music, but it leaves your iPhone completely exposed to power irregularities that can/will DESTROY your phone.

My iPhone 3Gs flashed when I set it on the Tubebase after using it successfully for a few days, then the screen went black and got very hot. I had to get the iPhone replaced, it was fried.

It does not support the 3Gs. Do not buy it if you have one.

Have had a unit for 7 months and then it started to intermittently stop working but numbers would still show in window. I had to unplug I pod, pull the whole unit from cigarette lighter and reinstall everything. Called customer service in india and couldn't understand them -- requested to be transferred to a state side operator but they wouldn't do it even though Belkin US says they can -- but it's a blot on the Indian guys record. Techies had me go through all kinds of resetting etc, but really couldnt understand that the problem was intermittent. When unit played after a reset they said 'see it works" duh uh

I tried to return the unit using their advanced return system, but the web site would only allow me to return the unit and wait for a new unit versus them sending me a unit and then I could send the old unit back. Customer service finally admitted they had no replacement units in stock so I should send mine back and maybe they would have replacement unit by the time they recieved mine (and maybe not). duh uh

Tech support forwarded my call to their customer service department, but an automatic announcement said that they were performing periodic maintenance (2PM Friday) and that I should call back another time. I called sales and they said that the department was having a meeting and that's how they handle the problem. To their credit, I left my number and they had a nice lady call me back within the hour. She was sympathetic but couldn't really help.

Technically

- The clear channel finder really doesn't work except for rare occasions.

- Unless your radio antenna is up near the unit -- not on the back of the car -- there will be occasions where even weak signals on the channel will corrupt the quality and maybe totally blot out the ipod signal. If your antenna is on the front fender (?) you're in good shape otherwise things could get difficult if you cant find a clear channel. In the boonies of NC where I live it's not a problem, but in major metro areas you may have trouble.

Lot's of smoke and mirrors at Belkin -- nothing is as it seems. They sell lots of products based on the fact their sales far outweigh the number of voiceless customers who are upset by their support and service. But eventually we can hope that what goes round comes round -- welcome to 21st century marketing.

Let the buyer beware.

All that being said, I can't seem to find a better unit. Perhaps I should get a new car with a direct connection for my iPod.

I live in L.A./Orange County CA area with LOTS of FM radio signals. My Belkin Tunebase w/Clearscan worked great for 2 days, then had problems with radio signals breaking into the channel I'd picked. Also, static, sudden loss of signal, etc. Clearscan feature worked so-so -- found better stations manually. Read other reviews here and you'll get the downside of this product, which I found to be mostly true. BUT I also found (as did another reviewer) that when I touched the stalk connecting the plug-in base to the iPod holder, that my audio improved markedly. Not comfortable to drive around with one hand on the wheel and the other on the Tunebase, so I tried something else. I had an electrostatic discharge (ESD) wire with an alligator clip connected to a wristband. Purchased it at Frys Electronics years ago. Used this once to ground myself while opening up a computer. Figured this ESD line might connect me to the Tunebase while driving. FOUND OUT that the ESD line, when clipped to the Tunebase stalk, acted as an additional antenna that boosted performance. (That's my theory.) Didn't even need to put the wristband on. Much less static. Better quality audio. Stronger signal lock. Made the product usable. Try it and gimme feedback.

FM Transmitters seem to be a "hit or miss" affair. It really depends on which one you buy, where you live, and what brand of car stereo you have. I have an older middle/high end Clarion CD player. I bought the "Tunebase" and tried several times across four days to get it to work with no success. I'm not one to ignore the instruction manual, but found other's who reviewed it were correct. There are indeed procedures left out of the manual. On the useless yet positive side, its attractive and looks well made. I think if you live in a less radio congested area, you'll be fairly happy with this unit.

My first attempt was Monster's "iCarPlay Plus" FM Transmitter. It worked, but not very well. I had to double my stereo's regular listening volume, but of course this also raises the noise floor. This has the drawback of having to remember to turn down the volume every time you disconnect your iPod or get BLASTED.

Your best course of action (if you want the best possible sound quality) is to replace your car stereo with one that's already iPod compatible. I know, I don't want to either because I spent quite a bit on the one I have, but oh well. Don't bother if your stereo is a tape player. Those cassette tape adaptors with the wire coming out of it work great. They transmit good audio to the play head with no RFI (radio frequency interference).

First off I just got this for Christmas as was excited to get rid of the CD's from my car.

The sleeves that came with the model I got did not fit my new iPOD nano, so I modified the closest one to fit. Before I modified the sleeve every time I hit a bump it would put my iPOD into shuffle mode.

We went on a road trip from the North West suburbs of Chicago to Springfield IL and it worked pretty good. I had to do the Clearscan about five times on the trip down, and it found clear stations most of the time. I noticed the signal was weak depending on the number of adjacent channels, so I adjusted to channels that had open side bands.

Now I went back to work in the West Chicago suburbs and noticed that there aren't any open channels with open side bands. Every other channel is taken, so the transmitter would be overpowered by the near by radio stations. I tried the Clearscan at least 15 times without much luck. This thing really doesn't work well at all. I attribute it to the location of the unit and the lack of an external antenna. Obviously my car radio antenna is mounted on the top rear of my car, so it will pick up better than this thing without an antenna.

I couldn't think of anything else to do but to take it apart and figure out the circuitry, but once I got it apart I thought it would be easier to just add an antenna. I soldered in a small piece of copper wire onto the board where it says LF, not the ANT-RX and that seemed to help dramatically. I would not recommend taking your unit apart unless you don't mind the possibility of breaking it.

Before purchasing this product for use with my I-Pod Nanochromatic, I researched for hours to make sure the product would be compatible as well as economical. According to the Apple website, this product can be used with the 4th Generation I-Pod Nano. Although it can be used, there is no adaptor seat for the I-Pod Nanochromatic, and does not feel as secure as I'd hoped. That aside, the sound quality is fine as long as you keep the signal. You can try to program a couple of stations, but that is no guarantee that this frequency will be strong a half a mile down the road. I've had to switch stations a lot, and all this station changing is even more distracting than driving while using a cell phone (at least you can try to keep your eyes on the road while doing that). If you're willing to give it a try, I would definitely recommend purchasing it on Amazon.com. I saved over $30.00 by purchasing it on Amazon.com. Considering I've had mixed results with the Belkin Tunebase FM Transmitter, I'm glad I didn't pay retail.