 "It works .... with some cars" | 2010-03-05 |
| - Reviewed By Richard G. Amirault from Malden, MA United States |
After reading many of the reviews I decided to purchase this transmitter. I planned to use it in a particular car. No matter what I did, even to adding an 8 ft headphone extension cable for a bigger/longer antenna, it did not work IN THAT CAR.
I tried it in a different car .. and IT WORKED FINE.
WHY?
Car #1 had the FM antenna on the ROOF. In addition the FM radio could NOT be manually tuned to a particular station. It could ONLY be "scanned" This (and all similar) transmitters, by law, are very low powered (to avoid interference with 'real' radio stations) Even with the added 'antenna' on the transmitter the signal was not strong enough to penetrate the metal roof to get to the receiving antenna. And the signal was also not strong enough for the radio (in scan mode) to stop on the transmitter freq.
Car #2 had the FM antenna on the front fender. Also the FM radio could be manually tuned to *any* freq. Penetrating the windshield is a *lot* easier for the weak signal to get to the receiving antenna.
Understand the above when making the decision to purchase this, or any, transmitter unit for your vehicle. |
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 "Annoying product that I no longer use and would not buy again" | 2010-02-14 |
| - Reviewed By L. Anderson from California United States |
Although this is one of the most commonly sold FM Transmitters in places like Best Buy etc. I would not buy again, primarily because it is not easy to use and marginally functional under normal driving conditions and locations.
First of all, although it memorizes up to 4 FM frequencies, it is almost impossible to change options while driving. And it will shut off automatically just as you get everything set up. The LCD is not easy to see in many common lighting conditions, it requires batteries (or your cigarette lighter which hopefully you don't need for your MP3 player), and worst of all, did I mention that it annoyingly turns on and off automatically, usually before you get your MP3 player cued up and playing the right podcast.
I subsequently purchased a similar but in my opinion superior product, the Monster Radio Play MBL-FM XMTR300 (got mine at the Shack but Amazon has too). The Monster brand has stronger signal, cleaner sound, highly visible LED's, and is as easy to reach over and change stations as it is to change stations on your radio because very large easy to feel buttons. The TuneCast II on the other hand requires nearly your full attention to get going, along with tuning your car radio etc. I never seemed to have 3 AAA batteries handy either, so a cigarette lighter "Y" was necessary when using my after-market GPS or phone charger at the same time as the MP3 player.
I also purchased an off-brand Cigarette-lighter mounted FM Transmitter that plugs directly into my Sansa Fuze. The form factor is pure genius. The off-brand's electronics are superior to the Belkin of this review, but not quite up to the convenience of the Monster RadioPlay (for example, I get a little alternator noise in my car which isn't present in the Monster, and also the off-brand does not remember to come back on when you start the car again, so you get a blast of loud hiss or worse if you left the radio on). I also have some issues with the direct digital Sansa connection that requires disconnecting the Fuze and reconnecting it each time I shut off the power. |
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| "Good design, ok tuner..." | 2010-01-14 |
| - Reviewed By J. Godfrey |
I would recommend this FM Tuner. The design is very solid with the tuner being on long cables from the car's power socket allowing you to put it on the dash next to the car's antenna.
The tuner does as good of a job as any tuner that I've run across but is still limited by the limitations placed on them by the Government (transmission power caps, frequency range limits, etc). So if you are driving through a busy city then you will struggle to find any clear frequency.
As soon as you can find a clear station (with nothing +- 1 either) the signal is as clear as a radio station and does better than either an iRiver or Griffin tuner that I have also tried.
I would recommend it. But I would recommend either a Cassette Tape adapter or a new stereo with an aux/audio jack first. |
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| "not what i was hoping for" | 2009-12-20 |
| - Reviewed By G. SINCLAIR from Tacoma, WA |
| poor, distorted sound quality. i bought this based on the belkin name and should have checked the reviews first!! sorry belkin!! this one just doesn't cut it!! |
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 "Belkin tune cast fm transmitter" | 2009-09-29 |
| - Reviewed By Hadassah from Hopkinsville, Kentucky |
| I had ordered a Belkin Tunecast II Fm Transmitter for Mp3 players but received just a Belkin Tunecast Fm Transmitter and it does not even look like the picture. I am very disappointed. It looks quit used also. |
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 "Junk" | 2009-09-27 |
| - Reviewed By Delia I. Radbata |
Don't buy it! I had it for two years. I bought it straight from belkin website and paid the full price for it. What a rip off! It was very embarrassing trying to have a good reception in my friend's car. We tried on the floor, on the seat, on the head rest, on the back seat. Then, I used an audio cable extension. Together with the power cable, I was surrounded by cables just to play some music on the radio. No luck. Got static regardless where I put it and what frequency I used. He laughed so hard...
In my car, I had to remove the antenna to weaken the reception of my car radio. The FM spectrum became free and I was finally able to use the Belkin FM transmitter. The drawback was that I couldn't listen to other FM stations anymore because I had no external antenna.
The only positive thing about this device is the ability to power ON when it detects audio from the mp3 player and power OFF if it detects silence.
On the negative side:
- very weak signal
- eats batteries quickly
- short audio cable (you need extension)
- audio cable had loose connection and interfered with the FM transmission each time I touched the device
- ugly shape (you won't find a place to put it, it doesn't lay, it doesn't hang, it doesn't stick, very very uncomfortable)
- expensive
Try looking for "Car FM transmitter" on Amazon and see that there are cheaper and better devices than this useless piece of cr@p. |
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