Customer Reviews

Zune Car Pack FM transmitter (Black)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(73)

 

 

Wasn't really planning on buying one of these, but found one at a decent price and thought I'd give it a try.

First thing, this is a quality, well made product. Unlike a lot of car power adapters, this provides a clean, shielded source of power that doesn't put off a lot of interference. The FM transmitter, like most FM transmitters, isn't overpowering, but does an ok job when you aren't in an area crowded with FM signals.

Any FM transmitter is going to get buried in the middle of a city. These things work best in lesser populated areas where there are empty frequencies. Belkin's website has a tool for their FM transmitters, that can give you an estimate of the best FM frequencies to try in any given Zip code.

This transmitter has a great display and worked well in my local area and in several of the surrounding areas.

A couple things I really liked about this. First, while the power adapter is engaged, the Zune will display the LCD so you can see cover art and song information while keeping the Zune charged. Secondly the FM transmitter has a great digital display that is clearly visible during the day and night.

Only thing I didn't like is that the FM Transmitter just inserts into the player without actually locking. It stays put ok, but not if you have your Zune in a case. (At least not in the Silicone case I was using).

Folks, if you live in a city, your not going to be happy with any FM transmitter. Also, different FM transmitters work differently in various cars. I've tested several, there is no rhyme or reason. Try one out, if it doesn't work ok, return it and try a different one. If you live in a big city, get an adapter to run directly into your stereo. No FM transmitter is going to work. FCC doesn't allow them to have enough signal to drown out the local stations crowding your local airwaves.

I received the Zune as a promotional gift and I have been very happy with it, however this FM transmitter that I purchased for it is terrible.

It's primary function is to deliver radio signal via FM to your car stero on an unused frequency, it does have an auto seek to find an available frequency which is nice but it never delivers enough signal for my stereo to pick up decent sound.

I am not expecting CD quality audio here, but it should deliver FM Broadcast quality audio at the least. In this case it isn't even close to AM broadcast quailty which is just silly. I tried putting the device in every part of my car with no real difference. I also tried every single frequency on the dial.

I know this isn't a problem with my car stereo because my personal satellite radio (Pioneer Inno) has a built in FM transmitter that works perfectly well.

Good Luck! Hope this helps you make your decision.

Yikes. This came in a "warehouse pack" so it was almost free. It's worthless even if it's free. I tested it in my Honda Accord and the sound was terrible. It might have been better if the Accord had one of the old-fashioned metal rod antennas, but mine is imbedded in the window. However . . .

I tested it indoors using an AC adapter and a high quality Tivoli table radio and although the sound was better, it was still only fair. (Of course the point is not to get it to play indoors, but in your car.) One other thing to note: Although some Ipod FM adapters draw their power from the Ipod, the Zune FM adapter must be plugged into the bottom, into which you must then plug the power socket adapter. The adapter has one of those tightly coiled short cords, so you'd better have a steady nearby location to rest your Zune or its young life will end when it goes flying during a quick stop.

The auto-station seek feature is totally worthless. It finds frequencies that have signals and tries to play over them. You're better off using manual seek. But you're better off not buying this at all. The Zune is a quality product. This overpriced piece of junk diminishes the entire Zune line.

As you can see, most people have found this as worthless as I have. There is one thing going for it. It matches the Zune players design. That's it, the rest is as bad as you could possible imagine. I've tried this device in an Acura Integra, Honda Civic, and a Saturn SL2(I think that is the model). The Saturn was better due to the cars antennae located in the front right region of the car, but was still bad enough to warrant a return.

Here's the short version for this review immediately below, but read further below if you'd like to see how ridiculous of a solution I came up with just get this product usable, yet still not as good my wife's DLO TransPod (for the ipod, but has a audio in headphone jack) which CNET reviews as the best FM transmitter.

CAR CHARGER:
- cord to short (coiled which can stretch to a longer length, but doesn't want to stay that way
- charger doesn't stay firmly seated in cigarette lighter hole, can work it's way out if you try to maintain the cord in a somewhat stretched length


FM TRANSMITTER:
- doesn't work. plain and simple. I can't believe this thing was actually mass produced. Yes it's that bad.
- auto seek finds the strongest station instead of the weakest station for your FM transmitting needs! Talk about a defect! It's does the opposite of what it is supposed to do!
- charger connects stronger to FM transmitter, but FM transmitter doesn't lock at all to Zune. There is some slight friction to hold it in, but not much.



CAR CHARGER
The car charger wiring is a little short (though it is a spiral-type you can stretch it to be longer, but it quickly wants to return to it's short length) In my car the charger doesn't quite stay secure either as it slowly works it's way out of the lighter hole due to the length I try and maintain of the charging cord. It has yet to actually come out all the way, but I always am able to push it back inwards (a bit) during my commute. This may just be an issue with my vehicle and where I am trying to place my Zune player, so this may not be an issue for you.

FM TRANSMITTER
Thought the above issue(s) may only affect a small percentage of you, the more important issue is the lack of reception/functionality of the tuner part of this bundle. I don't even see how this thing was approved for mass production. It is that bad! I wish I still had mine so I could post a video on You Tube because it is quite amazing how bad it is. I live east of San Francisco about 50 miles so it's not like anyone can say that I live in an area plagued with interference. I could not find a single clear station that actually would work with this device. To make sure this was not totally broke, I decided to walk my Zune (with the FM transmitter attached) towards my antenna to see when I actually would start to hear music. I was about 2 feet away when it started to come in, and I did not get a clear signal until I was 2 inches (YES 2 inches!!!) from the antenna before it was actually a clear broadcast. Mind you that I was indeed on a station that had zero interference/radio broadcast on my test station. I'd also like to note that after 2 inches is not a smooth introduction of interference, but like a light switch would instantly turn on a light, there would instantly be a great amount of interference that is enough to justify a return of this product. Yes it was that bad. As an example. 4 inches away would result in about 40-50% interference noise/hiss. Just to make sure this wasn't the case for this particular station, I tried a couple others with SAME results.

At this point I should have just decided to package this item up for a return, but I decided to see what I could come up with to make this thing work for me. I have a commuter car that has seen better days, so I decided to see if I could do to improve reception. With the Zune still playing, I decided to plug it back into the car charger. I immediately noticed a reduction in the interference! So it seems the Zune car chargers acts as an antennae or there might be a small difference in power feed to the device that might have improved the FM transmission. Though there was a noticeable change, it is nothing to consider usable. :( I also noticed if you stretch the charging cord and move your Zune around the car, you can change the reception. Seeing how the coiled cord wants to stay in it's shortest length, it's near impossible to maintain your Zune in a position to maintain this slight increase in reception.

Getting back to the story, my plan was have a second antennae which would run to the passenger seat (to give me that great reception I experienced when I placed my Zune right next to the cars antenna). I decided to pull out my Pioneer stereo to access the antennae connection. Once I had access to the antenna wire, I pulled it out.(while Pioneer was still powered) and PRESTO!!! Near perfect reception with my Zune! Oh yea! Well...sort of... I can now listen to my Zune, but I no longer have an antennae for my radio!! What I did was take some extra speaker wire and connected it with the original antennae connector when placing it back into the Pioneer. I ran this homemade antennae wire up to the passenger seat with enough to wrap around the Zune. This actually gives me a decent signal, but nothing to cheer about. Not to mention that it
is simply ridiculous to have to resort to this to make it usable!

I commuted with this solution for a week and still found reception to be sub par compared to the DLO transpod. (which I tried on the same commute prior to purchasing the Zune car pack) Needless to say, I returned the item. This item deserves 0 stars.

Bought it for $15 more than this at a supposedly cheaper discount store. I guess I was duped. It's junk. Have had for 6 months and nothing on it works. Replaced with a "monster" car charger which works great...WHEN my Zune works. That's a whole other story. Anyway..don't waste your money.

Got this with my Zune for Christmas and I was so horribly disappointed! The FM transmitter just flat out doesn't work, and when it does it sounds like an old recording made from your 1980's tape recorder that you held up to the radio to record a song. For you young'uns, imagine constant static louder than your song. I have a 2004 VW Touareg and I have finally found the ONE place in my car where I get decent enough reception to listen but someone has to hold it there while I drive. The car charger seems to interfere with my reception because when I yanked it out in a fit of anger my reception was much better. DON'T buy this. Wait until better technology comes along or you can afford a car to go with your Zune! ;)

The FM transmitter has about a 1 foot range (give or take a few inches) and static is the norm. To get a clear signal, you actually have to hold up the Zune in the air while you're driving, and even then your car might not pick it up. The charger also has a coiled cord, which means you have to fight against the cord's tension while you're holding up your Zune in order to try and get a clear signal while driving (see my point?). Another problem with the coiled cord: if you place the Zune anywhere in the car, the cord acts a slingshot to drag the Zune towards the charger, so forget placing your Zune on the passenger seat, or even the dashboard.

On a positive note, the charger actually charges and the FM tuner has a very clear display. If that's worth the 80 bucks, then buy it!

After reading several bad reviews about this transmitter, I decided to give it a shot anyways. What a bad idea. I searched through every channel to try to find decent reception. The best channel was far less than tolerable as far as I am concerned. I have over $1500 worth of sound in my car that I am not about to put to waste! If you value sound quality even a little bit, DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!
I do have a suggestion, however. If you have an aftermarket CD player, this is your savior! Peripheral Electronics sells a cable that connects directly to the back of your CD player through the auxiliary jack.The other end connects to your headphone jack. IT SOUNDS GREAT!!! It is called Connex2car. NOTE: THESE ARE BRAND SPECIFIC TO THE CD PLAYER! Another great thing is that it works for ANY MP3 player! The only negative about this product is that it does not charger your player, which can easily be fixed by buying just the car charger for your player without the transmitter. HAPPY LISTENING!

I went to Walmart, bought this product, I didnt realize that the box was opened already... I tried it, tuned it... nothing but static. The next day, I had them get me a new unopened box, worked a bit better, I could actually hear music. However, the transmitter had to be really close to the antenna of the car and I still got static!

Tried and tried different stations... my generic transmitter with 5 presets works better than this piece of crap.(kinda sad to say because it looks cool.) I wish it worked.

do not buy this product or any other fm transmitter for your zune or ipod.
sound quality is terrible.
cord isn't long enough for most cars.
why microsoft would put it's name on such a product is a mystery to me.