Customer Reviews

Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter for MP3 Players (White)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(59)

 

 

This thing has a range of about a foot, with really poor quality sound. It may be as good or better than other transmitters that are available, but it's still pretty lousy. Not really as good as standard FM, probably halfway between AM and FM, and interrupted by the occasional static. I modified it as described in the websites that describe how to do such things, but the sound is so crappy, that it's hardly worth the price. The modified range is about 50 feet.

I realize that it solves a problem of allowing an MP3 player to work in your car, and there aren't any good alternatives, but but this isn't going to make anyone really happy. It's just a barely passable solution. It does what it's supposed to, and if you modify it, it has much better range, but it's really not a great result.

UPDATE: I really wanted a product like this, so I bought the "whole house transmitter" right on Amazon and it works. Near FM quality sound, decent range (about 40 feet). It only broadcasts on one of 6 channels, but at least the quality is acceptable if you can find an open one, and it punches through weak stations so the channel doesn't really have to be completely clear. It's 3X the price, but that seems to be what it takes to get decent quality sound.

I live in a fairly large metropolitan area and many of the lower FM frequencies that would be available in smaller towns are filled here. That being said, it's difficult to find a frequency to tune into with the Tunecast II. The second problem is sound quality...it's not terrible but it's less than cd-quality sound. Third is the Tunecast II's monstrous appetite for AAA batteries. On one car trip (a total of 6 hours of driving) I changed batteries twice. The secondary problem with this battery hog is that it loses its programmed memory when it loses battery power, forcing you to reprogram the frequencies over and over again. Don't waste your money, I'll be returning mine to the store.

i purchased this product from the apple store for $40... the worst forty bucks i've ever spent! my friend and i were driving from houston to dallas, unfortunately my tape deck and cigarette lighter no longer works. i figured an 8 hour drive round trip with only the radio to listen to - would be way too much torture so i dropped the forty bucks.

it took us at least ten minutes to find a station that it would play on without being interrupted... and every couple of hours we had to find a new station for it to play on. if the song playing on the nano- was too "soft" you would just hear static- or the weak signal being transmitted from the radio station. the ENTIRE time we used the transmitter with my nano- we had to keep moving both pieces around- sort of like using bunny ears on a television set.

if i had been alone on this roadtrip- i most definately would have had a car accident trying to mess with the transmitter. it was frustrating enough just watching the passenger trying to mess around with it... not to mention having to move it around all the time to try and keep it from being staticy.

i haven't used the transmitter since that roadtrip- and don't plan on using it again. it's too much of a headache. i would never try and sell it on ebay- i'd feel wayyyy too guilty about selling someone something that could potentially cause them to have a car accident. however i would very much like to have my forty bucks back!!!!

After reading numerous reviews about the poor quality this Belkin wireless FM transmitter provides, I was amazed to find out how well this product works after a few minutes of finding the best configuration for me and my Corolla.

Admittedly, the process was frustrating at first, because I expected instant gratification--just tune the radio and Belkin to any "clear" frequency and get static-free reception. So the day I bought the Belkin, I turned it on and drove 70 miles on the highway, and really thought the Belkin was crap. I was getting terrible reception and constant static listening to my tunes on my iPod despite switching frequencies every few minutes. But before chucking the Belkin for another product, the next day I read some of the positive reviews and then sat in my car with the mind to try to get the Belkin to work for me.

After trying almost every frequency from 88.1 to 107.9, I found that 92.3 FM is the clearest frequency to use. I also pushed down my antenna, so that I would hopefully continue to get clear reception. Now after a week of commuting 45 minutes daily from Silver Spring, MD to Arlington, VA and driving through DC often, I can honestly say that I have never experienced any static using the Belkin tuned into 92.3. I seriously had expected some fuzz, as radio stations from Baltimore to Annapolis to Richmond have infiltrated just about every channel in the DC metro area.

I also drove from DC to Charleston, SC along I-95, and the Belkin worked fabulously. I kept the radio tuned to 92.3 the entire time and never had a problem. The only occasional static I received was from momentarily flipping the turn signal and from the batteries losing life. The standard equipped batteries lasted about 7 or 8 hours, but the Energizer batteries I popped in lasted over 12 hours.

I have experienced a couple downsides to the Belkin, which for me are relatively minor. When I insert new batteries, the Belkin loses the frequency I set in its memory. As I prefer only one frequency, this really isn't such a problem. It would be nice if the Belkin came with a power cord that connects to the cigarette lighter like some of the other wireless FM transmitters available.

As for the sound quality, if I raise the iPod volume to 100%, I hear static, but setting it at 90% and my car stereo at 50% has worked well. Sometimes I have to turn up the volume on my car stereos, but I don't know if that's because some of the tracks I downloaded are of poorer quality.

All in all, this was a terrific buy for me. Basically, I'm technically-challenged, so the fact that I had to spend a few minutes fiddling with the frequencies to get a perfectly static-free reception was more than okay with me. The auto on/off feature comes in handy, because that's one less button to press when I'm plugging in my radio faceplate and iPod. I definitely plan to buy a power cord so that I don't need to insert anymore batteries, but in the meantime, I'm satisfied with 12+ hours of battery life. My suggestion to you: Give it a try. Take a few minutes to figure out what works best for you (frequency, antenna, etc.). Hopefully you'll have the same positive experience as me.

I just purchased one from Fry's Electronics few days ago and it is the HP version of the TuneCast II. (Same spec. and the only difference is the HP packaging) It was on sale for only $14.99 prior the CA tax. I figure it's worth to try since it is so darn cheap! Here is the verdict based on my usage in Bay Area, California.

Well, I do hear lots of static just like people here who gave 1 or 2 stars in Amazon review no matter how I tune it to different frequency or FM channels. BUT... there is one easy way to make the Tunecast works the way it suppose to be and it is very easy.

Then I got back home and google the subject of "modify TuneCast II" and I found out some people has already found a way to improve the transmitter by adding a piece of speaker wire.
Well, instead of buying a new speaker wire which cost maybe another 5~10 bucks, I just decided to try out with my old mobile earplug. I cut out the earplug's connector and carefully remove the plastic shield to reveal the copper wires for approximately 1~2 inches then taped that copper metal wire into the TuneCast circuit board. Please follow the jiggybyte instruction. It is the first search result if you google "modify TuneCast II"

The bottom line: Do not buy this product if you are not willing to mod this tunecast because its original antenna is very weak for transmitting the signals. If you think you can mod it, then this TuneCast is made for you. I like mine very much after the modding.

After borrowing a Belkin transmitter (4 presets) from a friend, I was not thrilled with it. I made a visit to the Apple Store to see all the gadgets that many of you are recommending or not recommending. The newest gadget they have there is the Xtreme Airplay.($34) Brand new. Not even here at Amazon.com yet. For me, I'm thrilled with it. It's the best little gadget to transmit your iPod tunes through your radio. You have a choice from 88.1 to 107.9. It's small and fits right on top of your iPod in the earplug. No cables. Great sound. I'm glad I shopped around. What works for some, may not work for others. In the car, it depends on where your antenna is, but this little unit doesn't seem to care. It's powerful! I'm happy with my Xtreme Airplay. For car/charging, just buy the charging cable.($20) Cheaper than cabling it all together, (wires! ugh!)then only to find it doesn't work and you've spent $70+ in the process. For home stereo, buy a Radio Shack brand (they try to sell you the Monster Cable or another expensive brand at the front of the store) RCA to Mini Stereo plug for $7 on a rack in the back. Instant stereo with all your tunes at your fingertips. I'm in love with my IPod!!!!!

The Belkin TuneCast worked okay for the first couple weeks I had it. After a while I couldn't get it to turn on no matter how many new batteries I tried. Even when it did work, the sound quality was not very good. I bought the Griffin iTrip and found it had much better sound quality and was easier to use than the Belkin TuneCast.

This radio transmitter seems to get a lot of bad reviews, and everyone who has tried this FM transmitter surely has valid points. I can only add my 2 cents and people can decide for themselves wether this is something worth buying & trying.

I have tried a few different brands and setups (all returned) before getting this one from Belkin. Yes, the range is lousy, but not worse than the others. I find it works well indoors where I cannot get a good radio signal, and with this I can use my iPod and play it on a boombox radio. The sound is what you would expect from any radio station, and never as good as an extra line in. Same on the car radio. It was hard to try and find a station without much other radio signal around it and it is definitely hard to use in or around any (big) cities. But there I can listen to the radio programming, so not a big problem. When the radio signals start to fade I plug in the iPod and it is like listening to another radio station, with similar sound quality (not perfect!).

Works very well on long road trips. Signal fades only around cities or towns where there is some radio activity on or near the same band. I am not sure if this is scientifically true but I get the feeling that songs that have been compressed more (128 or 160 kbps) play less well through the transmitter than songs that are 192 kpbs MP3's.

I also got the Belkin Mobile Power Cord (F8V7067-APL) that very niftily charges my iPod throug a dock connector (comes with the Belkin power cord) and at the same time powers the Belkin FM transmitter through a little cable (that comes with this transmitter). Using batteries this FM unit works less well and it really doesn't last very long on some new duracell AAA's. The FM transmitter is better than most in the sense that it has a preset and it remembers this when powering on & off. Other units had to be reset to the appropriate channel each time the car was turned off.

I would recommend this for people that want to use this in buildings with poor radio reception, and for people that want to use their iPod or other MP3 players on the road away from a lot of radio "interference". Just get it to try out and hang on to your receipt and return it if it doesn't work for you. If you do get this product the Belkin Mobile Power Cord is a worthy and handy addition.

In short, not perfect, especially the range, but it works reasonably well away from cities.

I spent a few minutes finding the right setting (91.7 seems to work well in the Minneapolis area) and everything has worked fine since then.

The sound quality is fine (not great - you are playing an MP3 file through a car stereo over a low-power FM transmitter - what do you expect?).

I haven't used it enough to test the battery life (I only use it when going out of town) so I can't comment on that.

Overall I am happy with it.

I had a terrible time getting a station to come in even close to FM quality. There was always a bunch of static and the stereo buzzed between songs because I had to keep the volume too high. The high band of frequencies seemed to work best, but then it led to crackling speakers everytime I turned something electrical on in the car. It also seemed to kill batteries at a surprising rate.

On a positive note, I loved the fact that it would also function for my son's DVD but in the end, it had way too much static so I hunted for another