Home > Consumer Reviews > Belkin Tunecast 2 Fm Adapter Black F/ iPod Pda Cd

I bought it to use in my car mainly when the supplied cigar lighter power lead can be used. After reading another review about batteries running down even when switched off I did a quick test (retired electronics engineer). My unit draws about 4 milliamps when OFF. AAA batteries have
a capacity of around 1000 milliampere-hours at this kind of discharge rate so I would expect a set of new batteries to be exhausted in 10 days
even if you don't use it. If you must keep batteries in it -stick a piece of paper between the end of one battery and the unit's terminal when not in use!
Otherwise it works about as well as I expected.

It was with high hopes that I bought this FM transmitter.

The idea, to use it in the car and at home to listen to music from my ipod on the hi fi etc.

It is incredibly easy to use, pop out the lead, (which tucks away neatly on the device) into the headphone socket, select an FM frequency that is not being used, tune the radio to the same frequency and thats it.

It even comes with a car charger!

It worked first time. However, its not a 5 star product because there is always a background hiss.

Its so nearly a great product.

But not quite there yet.

1) It works! Within the confines of a car you can put it in the boot or glovebox whether the aerial is at the front or back or the car.
2) Yes, the sound is a bit compressed (bouncy/punchy/pop music effect so the loud parts aren't too loud nor the quiet too quiet which makes music seem louder). Most Radio stations do this because it helps transmission / most people like the effect - the exception is Radio 3 / Classical Music.
3) Yes, there is slight hiss/crackle if the music is quiet and your car stereo volume is high - solution, make sure your MP3 volume is turned up instead so the TuneCast II gets to broadcast a strong signal.
4) They provide Duracell Plus batteries and, no, they don't last forever, but transmitting on FM is power hungry. A Car/Cigarette adaptor is provided - just make sure you hide it when leaving the car!

The signal stays fairly strong up to ~2 metres then toward 3 metres suddenly drops out - i.e. unlikely to interfere with the car next to you if they happen to be doing the same on exactly the same frequency (but you can use any FM frequency and preset up to 4).

Yes, there'll probably be an improved version out by mid 2007, but I doubt the current (12/2006) alternatives can be significantly better and at sub £20 (I was happy when I paid £30 high street) and accepting it's emulating a mini Radio Station YOU JUST CAN'T COMPLAIN!

Received my TuneCast this morning and it works perfectly and was very simple to set up. It works well with a Sony portable FM set my 2 B&O systems besides my Bose radio alarm It is important to follow the instructions carefully to find a vacant FM channel for your radio or HiFi and most important make sure that the volume on your MP3 is around 60-70% of maximum and control the sound output on your radio. This point is covered in the instructions but it is vital to ensure you get the best sound with no noise or hiss. I have a Creative Zen Vision M and using minimum compression on downloads the sound quality is excellent. Yet to test in the car but is brilliant around the house.

I was so fed up with forgetting to change the cd's in my car and not being able to listen to my music on my mp3 player whilst driving that i looked into having a connection fitted - hundreds!!!!! so when i saw a 6/6 review of this product in the PC Pro mag Jan 2007 (and here it is only Nov 06) i realised that this was a product I just had to try.

The hardest part about using it is getting the connecting wire out of it's holder - being left handed - but being left handed i'm well used to that so i just turned it so the back was facing me and then it was easy. It was a bit fiddly trying to find a frequency that didn't have some aimless radio presenter rambling on but having found one i set the frequency on the transmitter and whey-hay it worked just like that.

Today my son who is the hardest person to please when it comes to sound being a guitarist and producer, plugged his mp3 player in and was pleasantly pleased with the results saying - it's slightly fuzzy - like the radio but no talking and the music you want to hear! We even found it would work just as well with him holding it sat in the back seat so now he can dominate the music choices in the car sat at the back!

It works using my Rio Carbon ( a wonderful player i wish they still made it) and my sons Cowon i-Audio. Buy it you'll be pleased you did.