TUNE DIGITALLY

Review by Sarah:

The transmission is terrible, you can barely hear the music over the static. The scanning function doesn't even pick the best of the static stations, when you are lucky it is only .1 or .2 off from a decent station, but about half the time there is no transmission at all. Also the dial, which initially looks fancy and fun, is very awkward to manipulate while driving. So essentially this is a very expensive ipod charger for when you are on the go.

Review by cool mom:

I've had a monster fm transmitter for over a year. I loved it. I broke it by setting a heavy object on it. I thought I would try this newer version. What a mistake. I couldn't get it to play without static, even setting it to the station my other one had been on. I tried their auto scan feature, it kept choose a station that was playing country music. I could not get a clear station. I'll go back to the older version which I know works Monster iCarPlay Wireless FM Transmitter with Auto-Scan for iPod and it is quite a bit less expensive.

Review by Andrei Bolkonski:

As someone else already noted, there are better methods of listening to your MP3 player in your car, such as through the tape transmitter. For those of us who don't have it, though, this is a sufficiently apt substitute.

First, whoever said that there are 8 presets must be thinking of some other device. You only have 3 presets here, but you define them yourself from the whole FM range, an you can always deviate from them. Hence, this thing has an advantage over, say, the iTrip because you can easily surf between three stations if the one you're listening to now starts getting static.

Second, I find it powerful enough in most situations. I live in Boston, and drive around it often enough. Downtown, most stations will give you a small amount of interference, and that is probably the best you will get. Drive around the suburbs, though, and you can easily find around 3 stations that will play almost as well as your CD player in terms of quality.

The secret to this is to set your iPod volume somewhere around the middle to upper two-thirds of its capacity. If you set it to the maximum, all bass lines will be completely distorted. Set it to the middle, though, and you'll have rather crisp audio, although you will have to compensate for the lost volume by turning up the car radio. Hardly anything to complain about, though.

My two complaints with this device are these:

First, the marked price is far too high. You can find a much cheaper device on eBay, or even in the Amazon marketplace. I paid around for it, plus delivery.

Second, some types of music sound distorted even at medium volumes on a lot of the stations. I have in mind the Waltz of the Snowflakes from the Nutcracker when I write this. Beside it, just about every song I played sounded clean, although sometimes a given station would encounter pockets of interference.

Given that a more powerful transmitter would probably end up messing up the radio reception of neighboring cars, I'm prone to think that this is an inherent problem to all FM transmitters. I think this is one of the better ones, though, because of its preset options, its ability to scan the whole FM range, the fact that it doesn't drain your iPod's battery, and the fact that you can manipulate your iPod volume on it for better performance. The iTrip can't do three of these. You will, of course, have to sit down in your car and look for usable stations manually, .2 by .2, but ultimately, and if you have no other option available, I think you will find this device to do a good job. Just do yourself a favor, and find a cheaper source.

Review by G. Edwards:

I have owned this iPod FM transmitter for about 11 months and have used it while driving thousands of miles through many FM radio markets. In urban areas this unit is not useable, because, despite the availability of the three FM presets, you can't find open FM frequencies in urban areas, and if you do, the unit's FM modulator is not strong enough to overcome adjacent channel interference from city FM radio powerhouses, and typical poor car stereo FM tuner performance (selectivity).

If you live in the country this unit's FM performance is just fine, unless of course you regularly travel to a nearby urban area.

Also, my unit "overdeviates"--the iPpod audio is distorted on loud passages when hooked up to my Dodge Durango with the factory stereo installed. When the FM transmitter is hooked to my Subaru's top-of-the-line McIntosh stereo, the audio is good.

I believe this product is overpriced, and should be sold with a caveat: Not useable in and around major cities.

Review by T. Townsend:

This is the BEST product of it's kind. Unfortunately, that's not saying much. Unless you have a tape deck in your care or you're willing to drop about 4 bills, an FM transmitter is the only universal tool for hooking up your mp3 player to your car stereo.

We live in DC, and considering that the radio waves are pretty crowded here, the transmitter works very well. There is some fuzziness between songs, but we have found a few stations that offer mostly good quality sound. It is essential if you live in a metro area to purchase a transmitter that allows you to use any station.

However, in order to change stations you must first save it as a preset station and then move to that station. You can't just push an up or down button and stop on a station you want to use, you must first save it. This can be annoying and almost impossible if you are driving.

Despite all this, I would recommend this product specifically for anyone looking for an FM transmitter. Trust me, this is my third one!

Review by Gedimin A. Bulat:

I enthusiastically endorse this product (shame it's not in stock right now as I type this). I purchased the iRiver AFT 100 and the Belkin TuneCast II after buying this product, and was able to do a direct comparison. I live in the San Diego area which is flooded with FM radio stations where it's difficult to find an empty, available radio station. My best bet with each player was 88.1, which I used to test all three products. The TuneCast was first up: It made a horrible sound as I plugged it in, scratchy and staticky which then faded into the music. Overall, it sounded like a semi-weak radio station. The iRiver was a little less weak, but still very scratchy with an inredible background hiss that persisted even as I tried every volume and position combination. The only product that created a very crisp and clear sound was this Monster Cable Transmitter. It's even powerful enough to overide live/powerful stations (though with some static) and at best sounded very similar to my CD player. I am so extremely satisfied with this product and so completely bummed out about the iRiver which from the bulk of its reviews sounded like a champ. It's not, it's a chump. The Belkin product has mixed reviews, but I have a friend in San Fransisco that says it works as well my Monster product there. All in all, thumbs up for the Monster Cable Transmitter for its shining reign over the other two "top rated" products.

Review by A. Linden:

I don't usually leave reviews for products, however I figured I should do so for this product as I found the reviews out there kind of misleading, and I figured that other people shouldn't spend and then be disappointed as I was (especially since monster usually delivers first class products).

Okay, I thought I should note that the product did break down after several days of use, however that is not the reason I gave it one star (as this happens sometimes with the best of companies and products, just a thing called life...).

My issue was the quality of the sound which was beyond bad and staticy, at certain times other radio stations constantly overlapped with my ipod while driving (very short distances). I tried every channel available, with very little improvement.

Another important issue for me was the fact that it feeds of your battery charge, monsters review claimed that it uses minimal power charge off the ipod, however the truth of the matter is that it shortens your ipod charge time to over half! I usually get over 8 hours of non stop music on one charge. And with this transmitter I got just a little over 2.5 hours (big difference). My friend ordered it the same time I did, and as his did not break down after a few days, the charging option via USB did not work (and neither did mine by the way, however I just let it slide by), everything else was identical. Hope this review helps you in deciding which product is right for you, as I mentioned earlier I wish I would have known all this prior to purchasing it.

Best of luck to all of you.

Review by Jesse:

Works great, but its just like all of the other fm transmitters available. it

has good sound but somtimes has a little bit of static. its nice to be able to

bring my ipod and play it through any radio around house or any car im in.

The screen is a mirror also which is nice but it can be dangerous if the sun

hits it wrong while driving. This fm transmitter is tiny which is great

because i can put it into my pocket when i need to. fits on my 30gb ipod

video and gen 2 ipod touch without a problem. setting your stations is very

simple also.

Review by Erik McKibben:

I was a little hesitant to spend 0 on an FM transmitter, but I had a gift card so why not? The auto-tune scans quickly, but it is frustrating. Maybe it is because Pittsburgh seems to have a ton of radio stations, but I'm sure no more than any other bigger city. It has a hard time picking a frequency that will allow me to drive the 8 miles from my office to home without having to stop and rescan. Sure I could use the presets to store three stations, but that's assuming this transmitter can overpower them.

One other thing is that the signal it broadcasts is pretty faint: you have to crank the volume up on the radio to hear the audio clearly. Your poor ears will suffer if the radio frequency suddenly overpowers the transmitter! My Griffin Technologies Navigate inline FM radio and remote doesn't require a massive volume setting to work and it uses the same docking connector.

I'll keep it for another week and see if the problem is the user and not the product, but I hope there are better options.

Review by Sergio Guzman:

You don't see too many reviews here because paying 0 for a FM transmitter is way too much.

Ignoring that I bought this for a gift I couldn't give until about 2 months after I got it.

But when we try it it was dead, the display doesn't lit so I have no way to know what channel it has selected, I know it kind of works because the iPod sets itself in charging while connected.

Don't know what to do with it now, the return is too expensive as I'm from another country, would end paying more for that.

I don't recommend it.

Sergio,

Review by C. Hanamaikai:

I have used monster cables before and have loved them but this one SUCKS. I lost my last one and had to upgrade to this one because its the one for the Itouch. There is only one station i can find driving from my house to work that i can actually hear the music on and that one is constantly cutting off to complete static. When it is playing the music there is a constant crackle and static. Don't buy this item, Monster screwed up big this time and it is not worth you money.

Review by tannaz:

i had the previous version of this product -- with 8 stations you could switch through, and when it got stepped on, thought it'd be a good idea to upgrade. big mistake. for whatever reason, this one is far more staticky than the old one, and i have to hold the cord up against the steering wheel at all times while driving to get any sound at all.

the auto-scanning feature, and the fact that you can go to any station, are also so-so. the three-button design is confusing and involves a lot of waiting 5 seconds for displays to change, which is not ideal while driving. i really wish i'd gotten the old model again.

Review by aaoindy:

Three months ago, after doing some reading in the web regarding this subject, I went to BestBuy looking for a system for my car. At that time I had narrowed down my options to either the Griffin iTrip FM transmitter for dockable iPods or the Moster Cable iCarPlay wireless FM iPod transmitter/charger but was not totally sure so I decided to ask for advice to a salesperson at the store (bad decision) and he recommended the Monster product.

He claimed he had one in his car and he loved it. He also highlighted the advantage of charging your iPod while you listen to your music.

About the same time, my son bought the Griffin product and he has been using it since then.

Well, I began using the Monster system for about 6 weeks and then switched with my son and began using his Griffin gadget and after gaining experience with both products I can say the following:

1) Because the Monster Cable system has only 8 pre-set FM stations you can use to send your signal to, you have to make sure that there is at least 1 free FM band in the city where you are using this product. If not, you are out of luck. Here in Indianapolis, after much work I found only one FM band that is not being used by a local station so I got lucky and my system works fine. The Griffin iTrip FM transmitter for dockable iPods has much more flexibility since it allows you to tune to any of over 100 FM stations in your FM dial.

2) Even if you find a "clean FM band" to use your Monster Cable FM iPod Transmitter/Charger, you will find that when you are riding your car using the system, you will hit some spots where you will pick-up considerable interference or "static". I have not yet lost my iPod signal when this happens but this situation is quite annoying. For the Griffin iTrip FM transmitter for dockable iPods this problem seems to be much less significant (but not totally absent as they claim in their manual) and this seems to be related to the fact that they use digital technology (versus analog technology which is used by competing products) to beam the signal to your FM radio and this apparently makes the quality of the signal better, stronger and cleaner.

3) The "Charge while you Play" feature is quite a plus for the Monster Cable product. The gadget does charge efficiently and very quickly and it keeps your iPod battery fully charged at all times. For long trips this is quite an advantage that the Griffin product does not have.

4) The price of the Monster Cable product is considerably more expensive than the Griffin iTrip gadget. At BestBuy, where both, my son and I bought these products, the Monster Cable iTrip product was .99 while the Griffin iTrip was .99.

5) Don't forget that another difference is that with the Monster Cable product you have a cable connected to your iPod all the time and this takes away flexibility and makes it very visible in your car. The Griffin product is wireless and thus there is no connection so you do not need to worry about hiding it when you park your car in oublic places.

In summary, these are two innovative products that allow you to listen to your own music in your own car in a practical and flexible manner. If you are mostly going to use this equipment in the city, while you comute to work and back to home and willnot make long car trips, save yourself some money and some headaches and get the Griffin iTrip FM transmitter for dockable iPods. On the other hand if keeping your iPod charged at all times is a must or if you make long, long trips on your car and want to listen to your iPod during these, consider the Moster Cable iCarPlay wireless FM iPod transmitter/charger.

Review by Zach Everson:

I was hesitant to buy the iCarPlay - I had an FM transmitter several years ago and it was miserable. I was afraid I'd get in an accident while fiddling with the dial. The iCarPlay, however, has present stations, making it easier to change the station should you pick up some static.That problem doesn't happen often though. I live near Washington, DC, and rarely have to change the station because of static. Sure, the quality isn't as good as if you have a direct line-in port on your car stereo or a cassette adapter, but for those of us with plain ole CD players, the iCarPlay works well. It also does a great job of keeping your iPod charged.Another plus is that the cord is long enough that you can pretty much put your iPod wherever you want. I also read some great reviews of it on the Apple message boards.It might take you a while to get this product, however; I was on the Amazon's waitlist for over a month before I found it elsewhere and cancelled my order here.

Review by Michael Murphy:

I like the fact the frequency can be changed using the ipod display.

Yes there can be static during playback, but that is due to using an already occupied frequencies.

I found I got the best results when I changed the region to Japan and used used 88.1.

I would definitely recommend it, I have used 2 other transmitters and this looks like the final one.

Hope that helps.

Review by Robert S. Valentine:

I bought one of these from circuit city for . I live in St. Pete/Tampa area. The auto station find was not very effective. I found clearer ones by manually searching. When it's connected to your ipod, it definetly slows down the menus. The buttons on the iCarPlay 200 are also very unresponsive. I would press the change station button, nothing happened, then press it again, then it would jump twice. So my advice is have patience when navigating the iCarPlay's menus. Sometimes I could get it to work with an acceptable amount of static, but then the unit would randomly stop working, and i get blasted with noise from my radio being cranked up. You cannot adjust the volume on the iCarPlay, only on your radio. I returned the unit, and I am in the process of getting a pioneer head unit with a built in auxillery input on the front panel. I cannot recommend this unit. It also looks cheap for the price point. It looks like it should cost about dollars. One postive note, it does charge the Ipod fairly quickly. Also in my wifes car, where she a factory stereo the static wasn't quite as annoying. I have amplified tweeters which pick up everything, including static. I also thought that putting the unit closer to the stereo would improve the sound, oddly it doesn't seem to make a difference. You could also look at one of the wired ipod adapters such as the PIONEER CD-IB100 iPod Adapter.

Review by Andrew Stone:

I have had many FM Wireless Transmitters over the years. This is the least expensive device and has the most features.

Some people reported that they receive it without any instructions. Additionally, I've had fuse problems with two units and have since switched to a different FM Transmitter.

If after reading this review, it helps you to either purchase this product or pass it up, I hope you'll click the YES button at the bottom of this review (this way, the review can be found by buyers trying to choose between FM Wireless Tramsmitters ... Thank you!)

IMPORTANT: Turn the volume level on the wireless FM Transmitter to medium to medium/high! I set mine on 12 (out of 15). This affects the quality of the FM transmission from the FM Wireless Transmitter to your car's stereo. Reviewers who have complained about poor quality of audio or static probably did not do this!

Additionally, if you are connecting your MP3 player (instead of SD memory card, MMC, or USB drive) you MUST turn the volume of the MP3 player up to a medium-high volume level.

WHAT TO EXPECT: The FM Wireless Transmitter is very light weight and fits loosely in the car's power adapter. When compared to other typical power adapter devices (i.e. Mobile Phone Charger), this may give you the impression of low quality.

To turn the device off, unplug it.

It is a one trick pony, that is you can not dynamically switch between SD memory card and MP3 player (or USB device). To switch between devices you will need to unplug, remove an existing device and put in another. The 1/8 inch Jack and cable for MP3 players cuts out SD memory card or USB devices. You must remove the cable to switch. (What do you expect for [...]).

An important product feature of this device is that it allows you to choose the FM frequency you would like to use to transmit to your radio. Additionally, this is the most powerful FM Transmitters that I have ever used. It easily overrides existing radio station if you choose. The signal strength of the transmission relates directly to the `VOLUME' setting (see above).

When you disconnect the FM Wireless Transmitter or shut off your car, the FM Wireless Transmitter's internal memory will store all the device setting including the last song played from a memory device. When you plug in the 1/8 mini plug cable (about 1 foot long with Male to Male plugs on both ends) to connect a MP3 Player, the attached memory cards or USB device will not be accessible. If you are using memory cards or USB drives when initially installing the device, leave the cable unplug.

The wireless remote control to the FM Wireless Transmitter works fine, but you do need to press hard enough so that within the button's switch electrical contact is made. Also, the remote is infra-red and needs to be in the line-of-site to the FM Wireless Transmitter. If the transmitter is hidden by a gearshift, or back of a seat, the remote control will not work.

PRODUCT DOCUMENTATION: The `user manual' is just a small slip of folded paper with multi-language instruction and a few inaccuracies. For example, the documentation referred to the label name/symbol of buttons on the FM Wireless Transmitter, but the physical device had different name/symbols. The product documentation referring to the remote control is accurate, and you can completely configure and control the transmitter via the remote control.

WHAT REALLY SUCKS: For what ever reason, you can blow the internal FUSE. I did replace the fuse on mine two times now in less than 2 weeks. Finally, I just gave up with it, just too lazy to replace the fuse. I think maybe that the volume level may be part of the problem and that the volume level needs to be turned down before turning off your car so that the device will not draw too much power when the car is started.

NOTE: Two spare fuses are included in the product packaging.

EASY FUSE REPLACEMENT: Unscrew the tip of plug by gripping the base of the plug firmly and the small black plastic tip at the very end (very little black plastic on the tip to take a hold of and farther to the end than the metal ring), be careful when doing this or you will drop the FUSE and loose the cap that goes over the FUSE. Once apart, it's a no-brainer to swap out the FUSE.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Buy a Micro SD memory card with an SD adapter (that accepts the micro SD card). I bought mine on Amazon from ChiTek (Amazon Vendor) for [...] and [...] shipping. The Micro SD card was 2 GB from SanDisk. The Micro SD Card slides into the SD adapter so that it is compatible with the FM Wireless Transmitter card slot. I suggest getting the Micro SD memory instead of SD memory because it will be more versatile in the near future (phones, camera's)...etc. Additionally, you if do not have a Micro SD or Mini SD card reader on your computer, you can get one from Amazon. NOTE: I have read from comments on this product that this device will not work with memory larger than 2 GB.

If you are looking for a memory card on Amazon to go with the FM Wireless Transmitter use the keyword `BULK' in your search. For an exact search for the memory product I used copy and paste = "SanDisk 2GB MicroSD/TransFlash Card w/SD Adapter".

Review by Kiran Chindam:

I bought this last month. I am very satisfied with this FM transmitter. Works great for me.

Today I figured that this also has shuffle repeat or all repeat functionality as well. If you press and hold the play/pause button (on the device and not the remote) for few seconds then it will toggle between "shuffle repeat" mode and "repeat all" mode. On LCD display you will see "A" for repeat all mode and "S") for shuffle mode.

Also if you press and hold on next button for few seconds then it will increase the volume.

Hope this helps. I would definitely recommend this.

Review by Darryl Pierce:

I bought this unit with a specific purpose in mind using the RDS functionality. I just recieved this unit yesterday and it is pretty impressive considering the low costs and RDS functionality.

1.) Sound - This is tricky. The sound is good using USB and SD cards as your source. However, the sound is great when you use the Analog input(2.5mm input) I would have expected the sound to be better with USB/SD cards. I was blown away when I played my Sony MP3 player thru the input jack. It sounded great. ( 4.5 Stars here)

2.) Power - This is powered by a 12v cigarette lighter plug. I wanted to use it in the house and power it from an AC outlet. I used a litte converter specifically designed for that purpose. On other units, as soon as you plug the unit into AC, you get a nasty little hum, and sometimes static. When this unit, it is very clean, no hum at all. ( Five Stars for that)

3.) Ease of Use - This unit has a very simple display that can be cryptic if you don't read the instructions. It is easier to use via the remote control,than the buttons on the unit. Most notable is the equalizer display which also doubles as a Volume Unit ( VU) meter. The instructions don't mention that, but that is how it works. There is also a volume control on the remote, but not on the unit itself. You can save up to 7 FM freqencies in memory and use the remote to scan the frequencies, pretty cool.

4.) RDS - This is the feature I was most curious about. The instructions say that RDS only works with the USB memory port, however that is not true. It also worked with the SD card port too, which was a nice surprise. The SD card hides away neatly. When you use a USB Flash drive, the flash drive sticks out and takes away from the compact form factor. The unit displays the name of the Song, track number and folder name. It also displays " Musicfly" intermittenly when a song is playing via SD or USB use. It displays "Musicfly" continuously if no song is playing. ( I am assuming this is an advertising splash screen from Sound Fly). Didn't see anyway to get rid of this.

Here is another operational quirk not mentioned in the intructions. If you decide to use the Analog input, but leave a USB or SD card in the unit,t he unit will keep playing and displaying the Song information on your RDS radio screen even though the audio switches the Analog Source. This was actually a plus for me because it means I can search through memory cards while listening to another audio source.

5.) Transmission Range - This is the only area where I was dissappointed. In all fairness to Satechi, it is advertised as a personal transmitter, and is probably not designed to transmit very far. That being said, I have other personal units that will transmit over 75 ft. ( line of sight) with no problem. This unit may give you 15 ft, but operates best within 10 ft of your radio. If Sound Fly would add just a little bit more power to this unit, it would be a great unit.

Summary -- The sound is great on the Analog input jack, Sound is good using SD or USB input. The remote control is very useful and adds some functionality that you can't do with buttons on the unit. ( don't loose your remote) It can be powered with AC/DC converters sources without the worry about HUM and interference. The RDS display works well if your radio is so equipped. ( I have only been able to find, 1 other RDS capable transmitter(Kennsington) and it is for the Ipod only and costs twice as much as this one.)

The only downdside for this unit for me is the transmission range, but that should not be a problem for anyone using this in a car.

Would I buy another one ? Yes

Update - 8/14/08

I did finally take this unit out an use in my car driving around town and it worked flawlessy most of the time. The only propblem, as I mentioned earlier, is power. You get a litte bit of hiss on the radio at various times, and I also noticed that if you pass another car that may be using a similar device, you will get interference from that passing cars' transmitter. As we use to say in the old days of CB radio, other transmitters just " step all over" this device. I don't have this problem with my VR3 transmitter. So again, if Satechi would add just a litte more power, this would be a 5 Star Unit.

Update - 11-10-08

This unit is great and has quickly become my favorite player transmitter. The sound is great and I only seem to have interferrence in heavy traffic or downtown ( Atlanta) settings. This unit is so easy to use. I also want to correct something I stated earlier, you can adjust the volume without the remote. You just have to press the right sequence of buttons to do it. I plan to order two more of these for Christmas Gifts.

Update - 10-21-09

Still love this transmitter. Take it with me when traveling because it works great in rental cars. Only issue now is not a problem with the unit, but local issue. CDC( Center for Disease Control) uses the 87.9 frequency for low power FM Emergency Broadcast. Anytime you are within about 3 miles of the CDC, all you hear is the CDC announcer. I had to program an alternate frequency for use when I travel near CDC now. The only problem is there are not that many open frequencies above 88.1 in the Altanta area anymore. 87.9 is still your best option in most places.

Review by W. Wilson:

I ordered this curious thing online to solve one of my most insane driving frustrations, ADVERTISING! Instead of corporate tripe interrupting my peace of mind every few songs, I set my home PC to record choice streams for hours on end all night and save them on my SD card. Who hoo! For less than the cost of a new radio for 3 vehicles, and without the hassle of carting around a bunch of CD's life is good!

The sound fly works like it should, like you'd expect and it's really simple, intuitive. I can play MP3's off my cell phone with the little adapter cable they include. The plug in unit is flexible for easy visibility, though the only drawback might be the red LED display is washed out in bright direct sunlight. I find this a very fair trade off for the ease of visibility at night. I plugged this FM transmitter into my car and could receive the signal in my truck 2 or 3 parking spaces away, *more* than good enough! I do not need Blue Tooth so this is perfect for me. After reading the minimalist instruction sheet, I realized I had to name my music folder 'MP3' and put the files in a subdirectory, then the Sound Fly automatically can search and skip to where I want. I love the Bookmark button on the remote since my files are sometimes 500m or more, it saves where I stopped it and restarts without having to fast forward 2 or 3 hours.

My unit arrived in an astonishingly short 3 days. I had a small inconvenience with the nifty remote control being inoperative, but I must absolutely commend Satechi and their people in San Diego for being VERY VERY prompt, trusting and sincere in their customer service by promptly sending me a working replacement. I got email replies from them within 24 hours or less. I'm sure the bad part situation was one of those darn one in a million things that just happens. I highly recommend that you can trust them to deliver what they offer...a good product and professional service. I should also say the USPS did their job too, they surely could have lost it for us! If you misplace or lose the remote yourself, the unit is still quite functional, though you lose bookmark and fast forward functions.

I'm a happy guy! Thanks. W. Wilson

PS. You might like Somafm or RadioParadise, two of my favourite streams that have NO advertising.

UPDATE March 15 2010

Still working great. Here's a couple things I wish I had been able to know before I bought it. It can accept USB drives, the socket is on the bottom edge, center. The audio cable is a MINI stereo style on the left side near the top and the supplied cable is kinda short so I bought an extension at my local radio rip off store...so I could look at my BlackBerry to select files without bending my face to the dash. If you have the audio cable plugged in, the USB and the SD sources will not play and this *may* cause you to panic and think the unit died...which it hasn't! You HAVE to understand and follow the file folder structure and it's limitations or it won't play. Top folder should be 'MP3' or 'mp3' . I have not used 'soundfly' which is suggested also. There is a VU meter function, when music plays, the display ramps up and down with the beat. It WILL work without the remote, but not as nicely. When fast forwarding/ or reversing it has several speeds, indicated by display maquee style with a bracket which roughly imitates an arrow (A really nice feature) The unit will remember the last song playing when the power is turned off, but it will start at the beginning of the file again. If your file is really really long, you will prefer using the book mark feature to make it start at the same point within the file when it powers up. If you pull out the USB or SD card, it will forget your place and have to initialise again, which I should mention can take like 30seconds with a big card. I used an 8gig SD and it seemed like forever for it to scan and index / initialize. The limit I think is 500 files so anything more than 2gig is kinda overkill in my opinion. I just keep several 1gig cards with different genres of music on them. You can hot pull and insert the SD or USB cards. Switching SD cards while driving is okay and easy to do. The SD card inserts from the right side with a positive spring loaded catch feel, no doors, covers or fumbling. The unit is pretty rugged. The head tilts to accommodate your socket angle / visibility and after all this time of yanking it still holds its place without drooping. My one gripe is that it doesn't fit all lighter sockets tight. I have to do the *fold up a receipt into a little shim and insert it as I plug in the unit to the car* trick. Maybe it was intended for foreign/ etc cars. I drive a Malibu, a Chevy P/U and a Saturn and a F-550 and they all are a loose fit. One road bump and it loses power. One paper shim and it will run all night, playing away looping around to the beginning of the file list again and again. It gets a bit warm, but not hot. Reception is very good. I don't use the presets, I leave it on 87.7mhz. I really like this player...I wish it had bluetooth..., and presume the bigger/ newer one is just as good. The company service was excellent. Buy it new and get the warranty. My remote was replaced promptly (see prev in my review).

Review by Maximus:

On my quest to find a FM Transmitter, I bought a different itrip from Griffin, but it did not charge my ipod nano 4th Gen. So I called Grifin and they told me that in order to charge my ipod nano 4th Gen that it needs to be an itrip with Smart Scan technology. So i returned it and bought this one, and i'm very happy with it.

1. This unit charges our ipod nano 4th Gen no problem. The ring of light on the cigarette lighter plug lights up red when initially connected denoting power to FM transmitter, then amber once the ipod is connected (charging), and then it turns green when the ipod is fully charged.

2. I have a sealed radio in my car so therefore don't have an audio input unfortunatley (2005 Volvo s40 2.4i) and so FM Transmitters are a way of life for me. Your not going to get the perfect sound quality from these like you would with a direct input, so check to see if you got an aux input in your car first and then just buy a charger and a double male head phone wire. I have a Sirius Radio has an FM Transmitter so i'm use to dealing with changing frequencys every so often. I live in NJ and am in NYC and Long Island a lot. My car can tune to 87.9 which I use for the sirius radio almost everywhere, but sometimes while in NY I use 93.3 (pretty high on the frequency list, but for some reason it's clear).

3. Check to make sure your car can go into 87.9 range first, these channels are hardly ever used by radio stations, then switch this grifin itrip autoscan to international frequencies just press function, then press AND HOLD mode for roughly ten secons until a new menu appears. It'll give you US, EU, and JP choices above each of the three buttons on the itrip. I picked JP (for japan) which enables all the normal US frequencies plus the lower range, lower then my car can go, my car only goes to 87.3 or something. A funny thing is that when i tune my car and itrip to 87.9 i get static, but if i keep the itrip at 87.9 and tune my car to 87.8 it comes in perfectly clear. It doesn't do that in my wife's car, 87.9 is 87.9. Just set one of your car radio presets to that and your good to go!

4. I took someone else recomendation to adjust the ipods equalizer to "Acoustic" and that definetly sounds better.

5. Long story short, I like this product, I got it for a heck of a lot cheaper then any FM transmitter at the apple store. One downfall which people do mention is that it is a tad bit hard to read the display of the itrip when you got a glare, but you can set your own presets on the itrip. Autoscan function is stupid, but apparently this is the model that'll charge the ipod nano 4th gen. Scan the radio yourself for static/ or free channels and then tune the itrip to those.

Review by G:

I've bought many FM transmitters from Kensington to Monster to DLo. This one is by far one of the best ones I have used. Kensington worked well, but stopped working after about 3 months of using it. I had returned others because there was too much static. I like this one because it searches for the 3 clearest channels that you could use, a feature that many others FM transmitters do not have.

Review by D. Senft:

I give this a three mostly for the price the sound isnt great but decent for what you pay. I do like the fact that it is wireless so unless you are charging your ipod you dont need it pluged in. What I dont like about it is there are no buttons to pre-set so if you get static you have to fumble around til you find a clear station. If all you wanna do is listin to your ipod to and from work go ahead and get this but if you travel alot Id go with something else

Review by smoke:

I bought this really not expecting much. It's dirt cheap, and goods this cheap tend to not be a quality product. What a surprise to see that this thing works better than my friends Belkin car adapter/mount for the iphone. Sound quality is just as good as i've heard on any other FM transmitter- not great, but if you care that much about sound quality, you'll need an audio input on your head unit. No FM modulator is gonna put out stellar sound, regardless of the price or quality of the product.

Overall, love it. It was cheap enough that even with expedited shipping it was still only ten bucks. Can't beat that deal!

Review by Colin B. Verrilli:

First, let me say that this item works mostly as advertised. It hooks up fine with my ipod 5th generation and plays over the FM radio without much static as long as I choose an unused station. It also remains in place fairly well in the lighter socket.

My big problems with this product are:

1) Each time you turn off the car and turn it back on, you have to reset the transmitting frequency (station) on the unit. It resets to 88.1 every time power is removed.

2) Each time you turn off the car you have to also turn off (or pause) the ipod or else the ipod will keep playing. Likewise, each time you turn on the car, you have to press play on the ipod to start playing.

In my other car I have an old product (no longer available) that has neither of these problems. I don't need to touch it when turning off or on the car and it continues right where it left off.

Review by B. Shumate:

Overall this is a fantastic product at a great price and it works beautifully! I bought it to be able to play my MP3s from my Motorola Droid through my vehicle's stereo and it works great for it.....the sound and signal quality from the FM transmitter impressed me - to be quite honest, I figured (at the low price) that it would end up sounding like crap but I was amazed that it works REALLY well. Only two problems I have with it....one is REALLY minor.

1) The mini-jack cord supplied with it to connect your non-iPhone items to it is a bit cheap. Mind you, it works well but I would suggest buying a better quality cord online or at your local Radio Shack (or The Shack as they seem to be called now). It's a minor thing and may only be of any importance to me....lol

2) For any Droid users who are thinking the same thing for this that I did........The FM transmitter seems to interfere with the cell phone signal. I don't know how or why, and it doesn't really make any sense to me, since cell frequencies are considerably higher than FM, but when I put the Droid in the holder it loses it's 3G signal, and most of it's signal PERIOD! If I take it out of the holder it comes back and it will sporadically come back as you drive - I'm assuming when you hit a stronger signal area. I've repeated this over and over again, in different geological locations, with the results always being the same. I don't understand it, but it does it. In a urban area I doubt if it would be an issue, with the signal strength being so high in all areas of a city mostly. But in a rural area, like I currently reside, it does seem to represent a problem.....although I haven't had the opportunity to test that theory as of yet.

If not for the second problem, I would have given the item a five-star rating as it is a great product for an incredible price. If you are going to use it for an iPod (possibly even an iPhone) then it would be a WONDERFUL deal - it comes with an iPod remote as well, which I don't think it mentions in the product description. If you are buying for a Droid, or possibly other phone, then be aware of where you might have issue.

BTW, make sure that you keep whatever you use this for at about half volume and use your stereo for volume control......makes it sound MUCH better!

Thanks for reading my review and I hope it was helpful to you.

Review by Stephen P. Collins:

Buy with confidence. I purchased this item with some trepidation and not a lot of high expectations but it has pleasantly surprised me. The device works great with both SD and thumb drives. I haven't even bothered to use my MP3 player though I'm sure it would work just as well.

A 1meg SD card holds over 300 MP3 files for more than 10 hours of music and I had several laying around to use for each style of music I listed to. With device volume set at or near max It produces good sound through the radio and I use the radio volume for fine control.

Best features: full spectrum broadcast channel selection, remote control, equalizer by music style and volume control. Inexpensive enough to try with little risk. You can save albums but the device ignores the file associations.

Only Negative: it could use a "random" feature as it only will play songs in the directory save order and ignores album information. For the price it is a minor pan.

Review by Angie:

When I purchased this MP3 player for my car, I was surprised at the low cost. I now am happy that I spent so little to get a pretty good quality product. There are times when it gets a little fuxzy with static, and sometimes there is a slight buzz behind the music, but most of the time with a little adjusting I can eliminate the fuzz.

My one major negative is that it starts from song #1 every time you restart your car when using an SD card or USB drive. Unlike a cd that starts up where you left off, this always returns to song #1 so if you aren't sure what number you were on when you turned the car off, good luck finding your place.

I do enjoy the ability to plug in sd flash cards, usb flash drives or my MP3 player to the unit. The MP3 player is best also, because it remembers the last song you were listening to...unlike the SD card or USB drive.

Review by T. Townsend:

This is the BEST product of it's kind. Unfortunately, that's not saying much. Unless you have a tape deck in your care or you're willing to drop about 4 bills, an FM transmitter is the only universal tool for hooking up your mp3 player to your car stereo.

We live in DC, and considering that the radio waves are pretty crowded here, the transmitter works very well. There is some fuzziness between songs, but we have found a few stations that offer mostly good quality sound. It is essential if you live in a metro area to purchase a transmitter that allows you to use any station.

However, in order to change stations you must first save it as a preset station and then move to that station. You can't just push an up or down button and stop on a station you want to use, you must first save it. This can be annoying and almost impossible if you are driving.

Despite all this, I would recommend this product specifically for anyone looking for an FM transmitter. Trust me, this is my third one!

Review by Gedimin A. Bulat:

I enthusiastically endorse this product (shame it's not in stock right now as I type this). I purchased the iRiver AFT 100 and the Belkin TuneCast II after buying this product, and was able to do a direct comparison. I live in the San Diego area which is flooded with FM radio stations where it's difficult to find an empty, available radio station. My best bet with each player was 88.1, which I used to test all three products. The TuneCast was first up: It made a horrible sound as I plugged it in, scratchy and staticky which then faded into the music. Overall, it sounded like a semi-weak radio station. The iRiver was a little less weak, but still very scratchy with an inredible background hiss that persisted even as I tried every volume and position combination. The only product that created a very crisp and clear sound was this Monster Cable Transmitter. It's even powerful enough to overide live/powerful stations (though with some static) and at best sounded very similar to my CD player. I am so extremely satisfied with this product and so completely bummed out about the iRiver which from the bulk of its reviews sounded like a champ. It's not, it's a chump. The Belkin product has mixed reviews, but I have a friend in San Fransisco that says it works as well my Monster product there. All in all, thumbs up for the Monster Cable Transmitter for its shining reign over the other two "top rated" products.

Review by Anthony J. Rohs:

I bought this for my girlfriends 16gb ipod touch 2g. This is a very simple piece of equpment to use, simply plug it into your phone, find a radio station frequency that has a bunch of static, tune your transmitter to it and like magic...your music is playing on your radio.

This works great in my girlfriends car, but i found myself having a bit of trouble finding a decent frequency to use when i was in my car. This only happened a few times, and after removing my antennae we had no problems. Something that needs to be mentioned is that this product comes with a remote control for your transmitter! This was a pleasant surprised because i dont think i read anything about that.

Keep in mind this transmitter is going to perform best if the ipod is sitting still and not being moved around too much. I noticed that sometimes when my girl was touching the actual transmitter, it would make a loud bass noise through the radio. So its best to put your ipod on shuffle and just let it go.

The audio quality is great once you find a frequency that works for you. The little things i have mentioned were not a big problem...we can always get it to work fine with some tweaking. But i took a star off this review because we received a black transmitter...not silver like the description states. This may seem trivial, but you should get what your paying for...

Anyhow, if youre looking for a cheap way to wirelessly transmit your ipod to your fm radio...and you dont want to use a car charger...or cassette adaptor everytime. This transmitter is for you. Great price, and all in all...a great purchase.

Review by Win2000:

I tried this one and I tried another one Amazon sells for .99 (called a Jam Cast by I Essentials)...the other one worked much better at locking in stations. I realize a lot of it is based on your surroundings and not always the fault of the unit...however, using the same car, in same location, the other brand unit pulled in signals significantly better than this unit did. I wanted to like it at 1/3 the price but it just didn't work well enough for me. The other one that did work great was the Jam Cast...not only did it work great, it fit the phone better too...the width was the same as my Iphone and it had an identical looking button to the Iphones on the bottom. The only drawback to the Jam Cast is that you push a button and the stations seek out one...you can't go backwards (or if you can, I haven't figured it out yet). As far as using them, both are very simple to use...plug and play...the cheaper one that didn't work as well also came with a wireless remote...nice touch but not something I would ever use...I am using this in my car, not at home.

Review by J. Waller:

To get a bluetooth hands free device that also plays my music through my car's sound system for only 80 bucks I think is a sweet deal! I've had it for about a week, it's been working great and I love it! The sound quality seems the same as any other radio station. That includes the fact that when people call and I hear them through my speakers, they sound like someone calling into a radio station, which is kind of cool. Haven't made many calls using bluetooth yet, but so far the person on the other line says they can't even tell I'm using a hands free device.

Pros:

- It's a great idea that works well.

- The price is reasonable.

- I love being able to play music from a flash drive or an SD card.

- It remembers the last song that was playing when I turned the car off and picks back up with that song when I start driving again.

- The music pauses automatically when a call comes in and it shows the number of the incoming call on its screen.

- You can either clip the mic on to your shirt or seat belt when you want to use it, or it comes with a different clip that attaches to your visor so it's always ready to go. They provide two adhesive clips for the wire to fit into so you can guide the wire along a non-obtrusive path.

Cons:

- You need to use your phone to make a call; pressing the call button on the device redials the last number, rather than activating voice command.

- When playing from USB/SD card, it only supports 1999 songs and 20 folders. The music also must be in a folder named MP3 or Soundfly. This means that if you sync with Windows Media player, you will need to select the option for it to not create a folder hierarchy (otherwise it creates a folder for each artist) and then copy the songs from the root directory on the drive to the MP3/Soundfly directory.

- It can't read songs with any digital rights info (though I think this is pretty common).

- The users manual and packaging have a bunch of grammatical mistakes. The English was clearly either translated with some mistakes or written by someone who is not fluent.

- Most of the buttons and functionality are through the remote, which must be pointed directly at the device (I don't find it necessary to use it very often, though).

I haven't found any of these cons to be a big deal, though, just minor things that leave some room for improvement. I would say this a great product, which I am recommending to my friends and family.

Review by PKAP:

I bought this product after seeing the review over here. I had VR3 USB-SD transmitter for over 4 years and was looking for new one after it broke.

First and foremost, the Satechi Customer service is excellent, very prompt response and prompt delivery. I Could give 10 stars for their support.

Pros on this product,

i) Bluetooth and MP3 Player with stereo FM transmitter

ii) The remote works for folder froward and track forward (lagged in VR3)

iii) Quality of FM transmission, constant stereo transmission with good signal.

CONS:

i) Limited folder level, Satechi should bring some Firmware to recognise more folders (VR3 has unlimited folder level)

ii) Remote power is weak, should plan to improve on this. works only line of site, maximum 3 feet away (in car it doesnt matter, but you have to have your hand pointed towards the unit, depending on model, could be painful).

iii) Not all the functions available in the unit, if you loose remote you loose,

- Save or book mark option

- A-B option

- Folder switch option

When I received the product, I was surprised with the quality of the sound in FM, it was near CD quality, when I used VR3, I could see a huge difference in the audio quality using SD and USB disks. When I connect external source (cd player or computer and transmit, the volume is much better and the range of reception is about 35 feet with walls in between. I plugged this unit with wall power adapter, and used portable player to transmit, then I could receive signal in basement and second floor without any problems.

After 4 days, using bluetooth in car, the receiver could not hear me clearly and the remote I received I had to hold very close to the unit (literally less than 2 inches). I was little upset due to this considering the price I paid. (may be mine was one of the unlucky one's)

Sent a mail to support in Satechi, less than two hours, received prompt response, with couple of mails, then arranged for replacement unit. for some reason it got delayed, but the Customer serveice repsentative was curteous and helpfull tracking the package and made sure it is picked up on following day. Due to their response, I even kind of forgot on the issue and cooled down. was looking forward the new unit. It arrived two days ago and testing. So far so good, the MP is working really good and remote works about 3 feet from the unit (useful when I connect this at home). On bluetooth connectivity I am still need to test fully, so far it appears to be okay, the receiver is able to hear me okay. have to try during long drive and check. will update my posting soon on this.

Over all great product, if they over come the short falls (directory recognition and increased power on remote,) I would give them 5 Stars.

Compare to Vr3, much better product, there is very low interference and static. I would recommend this product.

As promised, I am updating my experience with Bluetooth

So far so good, when I drive in city the bluetooth quality is good at the receiving end, but when I drive in Highway at 70 to 75 MPH, the receiver complained I am breaking. It appears that mic is too sensitive and picking up the vehicle vibration, I am still trying to get an optimum location for the mic to reduce outside noise. Since within city limit, the quality is good I am not worried much.

Also, the sound quality on my radio in the car is really really good. So Bluetooth works for me. I am not planning to return this product, I recommend this to any one looking for great quality of sound and a versatile product.

On FM transmitter, the power is sufficient enough to suppress a moderate radio signal (88.5 is NPR station in Dayton, I am able to suppress this thru this unit). So as far as static is concerned it is virtually null if use free or moderate station channel.

Return on Cost is good compare to options I explored like Parot and other dealer supplied Bluetooth units.

Over all I will give 4.5 for this, giving room for other improvements suggested earlier.

Satechi, Great product, looking for advanced one in future from you. Your customer service Rocks!!!!!!!! Great and thanks a ton for a good product.

Review by CMurph:

The FM transmitter for MP3s is one of the best I've ever had. It works perfectly and there's never any static.

Review by Prabhjot Singh:

Please don't buy this product. I was not able to get this working in the beginning. And then it worked but the quality of the signal was too poor. You wont enjoy the music with this product.

Review by CMurph:

The FM transmitter for MP3s is one of the best I've ever had. It works perfectly and there's never any static.

Review by Prabhjot Singh:

Please don't buy this product. I was not able to get this working in the beginning. And then it worked but the quality of the signal was too poor. You wont enjoy the music with this product.

Review by P. Catlin:

the clearest frequency to transmit on is 87.9. However this station is only available while the device is in international mode. Customer support will not tell you how to change the device into international BUT I WILL. Hold down the + and - button for about 20 seconds. 'US" will flash in the upper left corner. Now press the + button until you see 'intl'. Now the device will unlock ALL frequencies 87.7 - 107.9. Use 87.9 or 87.7 for best reception. Also try changing from LX to DX (stereo to mono) because DX (mono) seems to give off a stronger signal without compromising sound. your welcome.

Review by Glen J:

After reading other reviews, I was worried this wouldn't work well for us. But it does just fine.

Used it with Zune, iPod and iPhone without a hitch. Around town, a selected preset works the best and avoids re-tuning. On the road, click the button once when you encounter static or interference, and you are in the clear.

A hard wired connx would be better; this is a good second option.

Review by Random Bimms:

I love this transmitter! When I first got it, I was disappointed that it seemed like you could not transmit in the best frequency of 87.9, but then I figured it out:

To change it to international mode (with the frequency 87.9 and so forth) all you have to do is hold the preset button for about 15 seconds, and the US will start flashing. Then you just hit the plus or minus to change to international mode, and voila! You now have the much coveted 87.9 frequency!

Since this transmitter will always be usable for any future mp3 player that I can imagine, (they are all going to have to have headphone jacks, right?) this means:

THIS IS THE LAST TRANSMITTER YOU WILL EVER HAVE TO BUY!

End of story. Get it. Now.

Review by M and G:

As an iPhone owner it took months for us to find a FM transmitter that gave us the ability to use our iPhone's iPod music capability in the car. Yes, this item is compatible with iPhone. Please see pros and cons below... (reviewed updated 6/21/2008)

Pro:

-iPhone and other MP3 player compatible (i.e. equipped with a "super minijack" headphone connection). Note: please don't confuse compatible with exceptional quality.

-Will power the iPhone and I think it can serve as a charger for it too

-Stores 4 pre-programmed stations

-Long cord could connect to a back seat lighter, not just the front (nice for those of you who have a lighter/socket in the rear)

-Acceptible broadcast strength, plenty loud as long as the iPhone volume is set loud.

-Price is reasonable relative to others on the market

-Buttons are flush with the front, fewer accidental button presses like I had experienced with my other (obsolete) transmitter

-In addition to buttons that cycle through the presets, there's up/down buttons to fine tune stations

-Socket has green LED when ready, turns amber when charging signaling that you are actually getting power

-Plastic case is less hard to open than others, the first that I can recall where I could pull it apart by hand (there's a tab in the back)... although a heavy pair of scissors are recommended

-Price is moderate, less than many (although not the least expensive either)

Con:

-Display is not backlit

-Broadcast strength and quality could be better

-Two cords, one plugs into the headphone jack, the other supplies power... a "quick and dirty" design (other competing models now use only one connector through the bottom connector, no separate connection to the headphone jack)

Nuetral:

-You must supply your own USB-based power cable. Since this is a one-size fits all device, it would be unreasonable to ask them to give you one for every player on the market...

-A small display... a pro or con, depending on the situation

-Made overseas, where quality often suffers (however, so far so good)

-Between the cable and the power cords, that's a lot of cable. I used the twist ties that came with the unit to help wrap up the excess wire to minimize tangling, you may want to too

-For iPhone users: the iPhone periodically emits a powerful magnetic field that interferes with this unit. I've found this true with other devices like my clock radio and phone at work

Bottom line: with recent advances now 3 stars (Amazon does not allow you to change the rating for an item once it is ranked). There are better items now on the market, but a low-cost option, especially good for non-iPhone applications due to random iPhone static interference.

Review by Michael Paradis:

This is a great and useful product, but must be turned to European mode to reach 87.7 - 87.9 since for some reason Griffin thinks that they are not allowed to use these frequencies (they are).

On the FM transmitter box, push the middle button (Function) and then press and hold the "Mode" button (the right one) for approximately 10 seconds. When you let go you will see a menu for "Us" "Eu" "Ja", select the middle button, "Eu". Let the device sit for a few seconds until it goes back to the main screen, then tune your radio and the transmitter to 87.7 - 87.9! Now you can use the device on the frequencies that will rarely give you interference (I have the best luck in St. Louis with 87.7).

Review by P. Patel:

I have been looking for a car charger that will also work for the iPhone 3g that is FM transmitter, Dock/Holder all in one. Read all kinds of reviews on all kinds of sites.. THIS ONE I FINALLY TRIED AND WORKS AWESOME. you will however see the apple nag screen that it is not designed for use with this device but just click ignore and off you go.

Sound quality is very good

Easy to use

Charging is Fast

Has swivle neck so i can put phone in portrait mode

THIS IS THE ONE TO GET IF YOU HAVE iPhone 3G.

Review by David J. Magallanes:

I bought this as a replacement for a Kensington FM Transmitter. I had recently bought a iPod Nano 5th Gen and my old transmitter wouldn't charge it because it was incompatible. So I went shopping for a new transmitter, and decided to find something that could run off the iPods battery as well as having the option to be plugged in for power. Which is how I ended up with this device.

The device works pretty well for the most part, but the signal strength is not all too powerful. The SmartScan feature does what its supposed to find a clear station, but is not always too accurate. A couple of tries usually gets a good station. I wouldnt expect amazing signal strength from this since its power comes from the iPod whether its plugged in or not (The option to plug it in sends power to the iPod directly, and not to the FM Transmitter).

There is an International Mode on this device, but accessing it is hidden. Setting the device to 87.7 or 87.9 really does help but there is still static sometimes. In order to get International Mode you press "Menu" until you get the option to reset the device. Once you see the option for reset appears press and hold "Reset" for about 5 seconds. You should then be able to scroll between US, UK, or JP. Choose the one thats best for you. Of course you should only use the feature when traveling overseas

The Sound quality is decent, but not great. The sound from my old FM Transmitter sounds much better than this. There is a "SmartSound" feature but all it really does is increase the sounds. Switching between Stereo or Mono doesnt really help the sound either. I have noticed that sound does get a little weird sometimes and tends to change in volume every now and then.

The device buttons are solid, and navigation through the menus is simple. The design is nice and stylish. Its also small enough to pocket and travel with. The option to display the song title and have some playback controls is nice for those using an iPhone or iPod Touch. The only real complaint I have on design is when the device is plugged in it doesnt sit flush with the iPod you are using because of the rounded edges. This can give a somewhat flimsy feeling to it and can make me worried that it will become unplugged or break off.

The app for the iPhone is simple and easy to use. Whenever you plug it in it automatically ask you if youd like to download and install the software which is nice. Theres not much to the app other than tuning, presets, and audio control. The app itself seems more like a gimmick to me. I dont really consider it necessary since its just as easy to control the device from its on board buttons.

The last thing I have to say isnt really a complaint but more of a "heads up". Most FM Transmitters when unplugged will pause your iPod, and eventually the iPod will turn off. This particular one does not pause when you unplug power, or when you unplug the device itself. So remember to turn off your iPod on your own or else you have a dead battery!

Overall I do like this FM Transmitter, and I do recommend it. Just be aware its not perfect. I hope this review helps!

Review by BD_Traveler:

I purchased this FM transmitter for my iPhone 3G recently, and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. My car doesn't have an AUX input or a cassette deck, so I was stuck getting and FM transmitter to get my music out in my car. I knew this was the least desirable of the 3 methods, but not wanting to spend a fortune or redo the interior of the car with wiring rework, I chose the FM route. The device is a sleek, compact one that visually works well with the iPhone. It doesn't add much bulk or weight (it's really light!) to the combined device at all.

This is my first FM transmitter and reading about them in general, I did not have high hopes, especially as I live in a large metropolitan area without many dead regions on the FM dial (I live in the Metro Detroit area). I used the Radio Locator website to find vacant frequencies for my home and work zip codes, and found two that were "Great" and two that were "Good". I manually set three of these as my presets and haven't had many issues with interference using one of these. (I found using the Radio Locator directory of frequencies much more reliable than the SmartScan feature to set the presets.) I would guess that over 95% of the time there is no static in my music and and about the same amount of time, I can leave the iTrip on the preset I started with throughout my drives around the Metro Detroit area. I should note that the iTrip can be set in the options menu to international modes in which frequencies lower than 88 MHz can be used, which are probably clearer in most areas of the US, if you radio can go that low. Turns out in my case I don't need it anyway - 92.7 and 102.3 are just as clear. I would compare the sound quality to be comparable to the stronger radio station in our area 90% of the time. This was true even if I moved the phone around to 2 or 3 locations in the car (hand holding, in the ashtray, in the cup holder, on the passenger seat, on the dash, etc). I did notice that that volume level ramps up and down when the iTrip or iPhone screens go on and off, but usually it corrects itself quickly. The battery drain on my iPhone is minimal, but my commute is only 20 minutes, but even over 1 hour drives, the iPhone battery was not significantly lower than I would have expected if I had left it playing with no iTrip attached for the hour. Probably a non-issue, but I do think that Griffin should have supplied a micro-USB-USB cable that is needed to charge the phone through the iTrip.

The iPhone app is an interesting add-on, but honestly, I played with it once I installed it, but haven't opened it once since then. The hard buttons on the device itself are much more usable, especially while driving - no looking down required.

This iTrip is supposed to support RDS, but unfortunately I can't get it to work at all in my case. Disappointing, but not a big deal as I can look at the phone to see what is playing, but if it showed up on the car screen through RDS that would have been even better. I asked Griffin's Customer Support about this by email, and they replied that since FM transmitters power is limited by law, often they cannot support RDS, which requires additional power output, and that the performance varies based on the stereo being used and the distance/location of the transmitter. I tried moving things around, but never got RDS to work with my Saab 9-3 stereo. Customer Support was very helpful and responsive by email on this and some other questions I had, by the way.

One big benefit for me with this FM transmitter compared to others on the market is that it works with my iPhone case in place. I use a Griffin Wave plastic case, which I never take off (it has cutouts for all connectors and no removable panels for them). Some of the other transmitters could not connect to the 30 pin connector if a case was in place as they were too wide and sat flush with the phone while connected. This iTrip leaves a small gap when fully connected, which is enough for a thin case. If I had to take the case off every time, it would have been a deal-breaker for me, as it was for other similar wire-free transmitters.

One complaints that I have is that over time the iTrip comes loose from the iPhone when I have it sitting horizontally (so that the iTrip is off the right side of the phone) propped against a storage compartment in my center console. I think car vibrations may be causing it, and the case I use may be contributing, but probably not much as I think the iTrip is pushed in as far as it is designed to go with the case in place. None-the-less, once in a while I get blasted with loud static as the iTrip has come loose and there is no longer any transmission to the radio. I've learned to push the iTrip in once in a while if I think it might be coming loose.

Overall I am quite impressed with this purchase. Most of my fears were unfounded, and it is a relatively cheap solution to my issue to listening to my music in my car. I am sure that how well it works for you will significantly depend on where you live, but at least in out area, I have no complaints. The sound quality is better than I was led to believe I could get from an FM transmitter. Any transmission faults are probably an issue with the other FM signals in the area, and the US legal limits on FM transmission power, none of which are the fault of this unit, and would be shared with any of its competition. Try to get it such that it can be returned and try it out - you may just be lucky like I was.

Review by Michael Karelius:

I have bought several fm transmitters for myself and family members. This one is better than the Belkin TuneCast but not as good as the iRiver (at least in my area in Northern California). I tried all of the suggested frequencies but I do pick up some noise from the ignition during acceleration. I listen to a lot of classical music so I do notice the interference. For other music genres, it shouldn't matter. Once at speed on the road, the music sounds great.

Review by GJ Stoop:

Easy to install, just follow the manual. The sound quality is good, providing the volume of the MP3 player is set at mid range, too high will give distortion, too low will produce some hiss. Works with any MP3, CD or cassette player, even with a laptop or netbook, anything with a 3.5 mm headphone output.

Review by Maximus:

On my quest to find a FM Transmitter, I bought a different itrip from Griffin, but it did not charge my ipod nano 4th Gen. So I called Grifin and they told me that in order to charge my ipod nano 4th Gen that it needs to be an itrip with Smart Scan technology. So i returned it and bought this one, and i'm very happy with it.

1. This unit charges our ipod nano 4th Gen no problem. The ring of light on the cigarette lighter plug lights up red when initially connected denoting power to FM transmitter, then amber once the ipod is connected (charging), and then it turns green when the ipod is fully charged.

2. I have a sealed radio in my car so therefore don't have an audio input unfortunatley (2005 Volvo s40 2.4i) and so FM Transmitters are a way of life for me. Your not going to get the perfect sound quality from these like you would with a direct input, so check to see if you got an aux input in your car first and then just buy a charger and a double male head phone wire. I have a Sirius Radio has an FM Transmitter so i'm use to dealing with changing frequencys every so often. I live in NJ and am in NYC and Long Island a lot. My car can tune to 87.9 which I use for the sirius radio almost everywhere, but sometimes while in NY I use 93.3 (pretty high on the frequency list, but for some reason it's clear).

3. Check to make sure your car can go into 87.9 range first, these channels are hardly ever used by radio stations, then switch this grifin itrip autoscan to international frequencies just press function, then press AND HOLD mode for roughly ten secons until a new menu appears. It'll give you US, EU, and JP choices above each of the three buttons on the itrip. I picked JP (for japan) which enables all the normal US frequencies plus the lower range, lower then my car can go, my car only goes to 87.3 or something. A funny thing is that when i tune my car and itrip to 87.9 i get static, but if i keep the itrip at 87.9 and tune my car to 87.8 it comes in perfectly clear. It doesn't do that in my wife's car, 87.9 is 87.9. Just set one of your car radio presets to that and your good to go!

4. I took someone else recomendation to adjust the ipods equalizer to "Acoustic" and that definetly sounds better.

5. Long story short, I like this product, I got it for a heck of a lot cheaper then any FM transmitter at the apple store. One downfall which people do mention is that it is a tad bit hard to read the display of the itrip when you got a glare, but you can set your own presets on the itrip. Autoscan function is stupid, but apparently this is the model that'll charge the ipod nano 4th gen. Scan the radio yourself for static/ or free channels and then tune the itrip to those.

Review by G:

I've bought many FM transmitters from Kensington to Monster to DLo. This one is by far one of the best ones I have used. Kensington worked well, but stopped working after about 3 months of using it. I had returned others because there was too much static. I like this one because it searches for the 3 clearest channels that you could use, a feature that many others FM transmitters do not have.

Review by lucky-9468:

After looking on other sites for an iPod Touch 3G car charger and fm transmitter that were both excelent in quality and price, I finally found it here! I bought this like 4 days ago and I just looked up for the mail and there it was. The sound is awesome, it can really charge any iPod version (I tried it on my iPod Touch and on my lil bro's iPod Nano 1rst Gen.).

I am really glad I chose your product.

Review by Chris R. Dow:

Amazon doesn't have this product, but other online stores have it, and you can get it from the manufacturer. Look around. I paid .99 + Shipping for the iTrip from the manufacturer, and it works great.

First off, Griffin has always spent time on their product's outward appearance. How long will you stare longingly at it before you get to actually try it out? Can it be a truly great product if the outside looks like one of those old "Electronic Science Kits" or something? Glossy, smooth exterior almost perfectly matches the Sansa. (The Sansa is more rounded than the iTrip.) How many buttons do you need for something like this? Answer: 3. An up, down, and select button is all you need, and the iTrip's uncluttered front display is perfect for the job.

Operation of the device is nearly plug and play. I have a couple reasons for the "nearly" qualifier:

1. You NEED to make sure you've got the latest firmware from Sandisk for your Sansa. The original firmware was not designed to work with the "Made for Sansa" devices, and won't work without updating. Download the updater from Sandisk before trying out the iTrip Auto. You WILL need your synch cable in order to do this. Once you've got all that together, the actual update is a snap. When I bought the iTrip, I immediately upgraded my firmware, as I knew that I wouldn't be able to do so at work when I got the device. Easy to do, and the iTrip won't work without the new firmware.

2. The iTrip is excellent in that it will operate on any frequency of the FM band. However, I anticipate that this will cause problems with users who accidentally change the band and can't get it back easily. The nice thing is that you have to press the Select button when you find the frequency you want to use in order to change it. So it's pretty easy to set and forget it. I recommend finding your frequency before going on a drive. Better to mess with the distracting electronic device while sitting still.

That being said, the device will work for most people out of the box. I forget what frequency it worked, but it was in the high 80's, which is rarely used for actual broadcast. The thing is backlit, which makes changing stations in the middle of the night a snap. It runs off the car's 12v system, and even charges the Sansa's battery...all without any problems whatsoever.

To answer the guy's complaints about the delay in Griffin getting the technology out the door, he is dead wrong. It's not just a matter of putting a Sansa connector on an iPod iTrip. The simplest thing is getting the sync cable end to work with the internal software of the iTrip. The hard part is working with the Sansa firmware to get it to work. The Griffin device has to be completely compliant with whatever standards Sandisk has, and I guarantee that a major part of the delay was the Sansa firmware itself. If Sansa could avoid releasing firmware updates, they would. However, I would venture to say that the reason they had to release firmware was because the original firmware was impossible to work with, etc. If I had to point the finger at anyone for the delay in devices, I would point to Sandisk for either not providing the firmware specs to the manufacturers in a timely fashion, or else creating a firmware that was originally impossible to work with. It's not just Griffin who was slow...Macally only just got their device out before Griffin, and DLO still doesn't have anything out there for the Sansa.

This device is excellent, and anyone who can lay hold of one, you will not be disappointed.

Review by Charley Cross:

This is a neat product, and easy to use. Too bad the quality of the FM transmission isn't that good. I picked a quiet FM frequency, but once the iTrip is turned on--even when the Sansa is paused--there's a whole new level of noise above that of my chosen frequency. When loud music is playing, you really don't notice it, but in quieter passages it's annoying. Also the volume level is quite a bit lower than real radio stations. So when I switch the to iTrip, I have to crank up the volume; and when I switch the other way, I'm apt to be blasted! One other quirk is the iTrip manages to transmit these odd little clicks and buzzes associated with the Sansa switching to the next song in a random shuffle--sounds I do not hear when listening directly on earphones.

Review by L. Dai:

First of all, all FM transmitters cause noise on the receiving end, if you turn volume up enough. And don't expect the sound quality to be better than your FM radio itself. It will be worse. If possible, use a wired option such as a "cassette connector" for car. That said, wireless transmitters do offer convenience, and some are better, while others are worse, depend mostly on unit's output power, range, and station selections. After trying out 4 of them personally, I found station selections to be the most important in getting good quality sound on your radio. Hence, the Belkin TuneCast II is the best out there. As far as I know (in the price range I search), it is the only one on the market that offers full frequency digital tuning (Arkon offers transmitters with full frequency analog tuning - SoundFeeder 150x).

Here is a summary of my review on the four transmitters I tried.

Belkin TuneCast II:

+ full frequency digital tuning with 0.05 stepping

+ 4-station memory

+ dual power (battery and DC)

+ auto on/off

+ good output and range

+ LCD display

+ cord storage on unit

- USB power will be nicer, as I have my own USB2DC adapter

- LCD not lighted

iRock 400FM

+ dual power (battery and DC)

+ good output and range

- only 4 preset stations

- dangling cord

- kind of ugly

Arkon SoundFeeder 250

+ good output and range

+ cord storage on unit

- only 8 preset stations

- battery power only (spec claimes 60hr, but I seriously doubt it as others with similar battery could only last 10-13hr)

SIIG Music Adapter Pro

+ dual power (battery and USB, could be tripple if you have your own USB2DC adapter)

+ ok output and range (volume is kind of low)

+ lighted LCD

+ cord storage on unit

- claimed to have 9 preset stations with autoscan, but it was so hard to operate that I could only verify 5 stations through manual stepping, and autoscan does NOT pick up the best station

- battery compartment very hard to open

- DO NOT BUY THIS, even though it looks good, and has good spec

Here are some personal tips on any FM transmitter setup:

1) If your radio and transmitter allows 0.1 stepping, choose an even frequency station such as 88.40, since very very few stations broadcast on even frequecies.

2) Make sure your MP3 files have loud enough volume, so you don't have to boost your MP3 unit or radio's volume too much. High volume magnifies noise. There are many software out there that fine tunes MP3, including volume.

3) If you have to boost volume, boost MP3 unit's volume instead of radio's. High radio volume causes more noise.

4) Always make sure you have new battery or are using DC adapter. Low power forces you to turn up volume, and it in turn causes noise.

5) In general, songs fair better with these transmitters than solo instruments, as noise could become more obvious on the later.

Review by D. J. Douma:

After reading the reviews I was a bit trepidacious about this item. It seems like a lot of people have difficulty getting satisfactory performance, but I really wanted to be able to use my mp3 player in the car so I grabbed one with the expectation that it might be marginal. Sure enough, out of the box it had pretty poor FM reception in both of my cars. I moved it around in the car and tried various 'blank' stations, but the unit would dropout and could be static-y even when reception was relatively good. Moving it around in the car has a big impact on performance, so the problem is pretty clearly just low transmistter power competing with big city radio interference (I live in the bay area, which has a LOT of radio stations). As an engineer I'm generally OK with working around the limitations of a gadget but I found this product pretty trying in its virgin state.

So I decided to see what sort of 'enhancement' it would take to bring it up to snuff. My first approach was based on the observation that the physical size of the device was too small to get decent antenna performance at FM wavelengths. I guessed that the cable to the mp3 player might be functioning in part as an antenna, so maybe adding an extension cord would improve the transmission efficiency. So I got a 6 foot headphone extension cable (the smallest one at my local store) and used it between the player and the transmitter to stretch out the antenna length. That pretty much solved the problem for me. I spread out the new 'antenna' by tossing the transmitter in the back seat, put the player next to me in front and it works much better and I'm happy with it now. It works well in both cars and the quality is more than good enough for my audiobooks and pop music. I use rechargeable batteries in the unit to avoid having to plug it into the lighter socket, and I generally just disconnect the player and leave the transmitter in the car - it turns itself off automatically 60 seconds after I disconnect the player.

Review by Morrow:

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)

Review by technojerry:

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 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.

Review by B. Kriesman:

I had a lot of optimism for this because my girlfriend has a

Griffin FM transmitter for her ipod and it works great. I liked the awesome display and that it could operate on batteries. The only problem is that it doesn't work. I tried it in both of my cars (a truck and a car) and I held it all over the interior of both cars trying to find the "sweet spot" but I couldn't. I also tried going up the whole FM frequency and couldn't find anything that would work. In frustration I picked up the Sony cassette adapter and it works perfectly and sounds great. Oh well.

Review by Miguel Aguiluz Franco:

The range of this product is very very short. The radio frecuency it's clear if I stand in front of the antena, but inside the car, I hear a lot of noise and the volume it's low.

Review by Casey A. Henry:

Strengths: All-in-one solution for docking, charging, and FM transmission; adaptable to all iPods and vehicles; versatile FM tuning options

Weaknesses: Sound quality issues typical of FM transmitters; no auxiliary audio input or output

Let's face it: using your iPod in your vehicle just isn't as simple as it should be. Unless you're driving a 2006 model year or later vehicle, chances are that your vehicle's stereo head unit doesn't provide any easy way for you to connect your iPod (or any other digital music player, for that matter). That means that you only have three options for listening to your iPod through your vehicle's stereo: direct connection to your head unit via an auxiliary input, a cassette tape adapter, or an FM transmitter. Most automobiles don't offer an auxiliary input jack on the front of their receivers, and connecting your iPod to a rear aux input--if your unit even has one, that is--is a complicated process that involves removing your receiver and (sometimes) part of your dashboard as well. So even though this setup offers the best sound quality, installation can prove difficult...or impossible. On the other hand, cassette tape adapters provide a far simpler and good-sounding method to connect your player, but they only work if your vehicle has a cassette player. So if neither of the above solutions are an option for you, then you have to begin considering either (1) purchasing an aftermarket, iPod-friendly head unit or (2) looking for an FM transmitter, and that's where the Belkin TuneBase FM for iPod comes into the picture.

If you decide to go the FM transmission route, you really can't lose with the TuneBase FM. Not only does it transmit the audio output from your iPod to an FM frequency you select, but it also provides a convenient dock for your iPod that even charges your iPod while it's in use. Many all-in-one solutions such as this are poor performers all around, but the TuneBase FM fulfills all of its duties superbly.

It goes without saying that the most important element of the TuneBase FM's performance is sound quality. After all, it doesn't do much good to dock and charge your iPod in the car if you can't listen to your music. As FM transmitters go, the TuneBase FM does an admirably good job getting audio output from your iPod to your vehicle's stereo, but it is plagued by the same sound quality issues that affect all FM transmitters. I live in an area that has a pretty crowd frequency spectrum; there are only a few frequencies that are relatively free of other transmissions. Despite this, however, the TuneBase FM still manages to transmit a clear audio signal to my receiver most of the time, although static can be a problem from time to time. I commute almost forty miles one way to work everyday, and I rarely have to switch frequencies, which is pretty impressive. Your results may vary depending on how crowded the airwaves are in your region. Compared to my last FM transmitter, a highly-rated iRock! BeamIt model, the TuneBase FM transmits a slightly clearer and more powerful signal. You won't get a much better FM signal from any other FM transmitter.

The TuneBase FM's other features are what really make it stand out from the rest of the crowd. Its docking solution, utilizing a flexible steel "neck" to support the cradle, is much more elegant, flexible, and pleasing to the eye than other solutions that use a series of thick, jointed plastic connectors. This allows you to position your iPod just about any way you please, and it also virtually guarantees that this dock is adjustable to fit just about any vehicle on the road. The dock is secured by inserting the base into a free power or cigarette lighter outlet, which is also how the device receives power for charging the iPod. Included in the box are plastic and rubber outlet adapters to ensure a snug fit in just about any outlet, and this seems to work quite well; even over bumpy roads or terrain, my iPod remains firmly upright in its cradle. It would be nice if the adjustable neck were just a couple inches longer (this unit includes a four-inch neck, the TuneBase FM for iPod nano includes a seven-inch neck), but a longer neck would likely be too flimsy to support heavier iPods such as the 60GB and new 80GB 5G video iPods.

The TuneBase FM automatically pauses and powers down a docked iPod when it the power supply to the device is interrupted, and it powers up the iPod and resumes playback when power is restored. One note about this: there is no on/off switch on the device, so it remains powered as long as the vehicle's power outlet is powered. If your vehicle's power outlets deactivate when you remove the key from the ignition, then this is not an issue. However, if your vehicle (like mine) powers your outlet(s) continually (even when the vehicle is off and the key is removed from the ignition), you need to remember to manually turn off your iPod when exiting your car or risk draining your car's battery.

Tuning to different radio frequencies with the TuneBase is a simple exercise. The device interfaces with the iPod through its dock connector, so it is able to display frequency and present information on the iPod's own display, which is much easier to read than a separate LCD readout. Tuning options are very flexible. In addition to four presets (which, if you sync with the presents on your vehicle's receiver, makes channel-hopping a breeze), the TuneBase FM allows you to to any frequency from 87.9 to 107.9, including broadcast-free even-numbered frequencies such as 88.8, 96.2, etc.

I only have a few minor complaints about the TuneBase FM for iPod. As I mentioned earlier, there is no on/off switch to accommodate vehicles with continually-powered outlets and cigarette lighters. I haven't experienced any difficulties with leaving my TuneBase plugged in for extended periods of time as long as I manually power down or remove my iPod, but it's an unnecessary extra step that I shouldn't have to take. It's also unfortunate that Belkin does not include auxiliary input and output jacks for direct connection to supported receivers or the ability to use the TuneBase for other digital media players and not just iPods. There's even a spot on the cradle specifically for an auxiliary jack; Belkin just decided not to include it with this model. That's really too bad, as I would have been more than willing to pay an extra five dollars or so for the added functionality of an auxiliary jack.

Overall, however, the TuneBase FM for iPod is an excellent product. If you have decided that FM transmission is your only option for in-car iPod connectivity, then this product is definitely worth considering and will perform admirably.

Review by R. P. Poletti:

This is solution for your traveling iPod! The unit includes adapters for many different iPod models. It also includes fitting to ensure a snug fit into your 12-volt car power adapter. The fit is tight enough that the plug will not rotate with the weight of the iPod.

Sound quality is great. It holds your iPod quite securely. You can position your player where it is most convenient and visible!

I have two complaints:

1. As high volume, you can hear the electronic whine of the charger. This is unavoidable but less at lower frequencies. It may not be noticeable with some music but I am an audio-book listener so I can hear it.

2. The controls are little limiting and awkward. Adjusting the transmit volume, which you admittedly do only once, is quite awkward requiring you hold the unit, hold two buttons down while pressing a third. However, selecting a different station is very easy and one-handed.

Overall, I am quite please with this and recommend it.

Review by Robert:

I was looking for an FM transmitter which charges my iPod Touch and broadcasts over FM in a convenient, usable way. Many don't transmit well, or limit you to a range of the FM spectrum which may not work for your area.

This item is the best I've found, but still not perfect.

For my Video Ipod, I used a Kensington FM transmitter (white one), which was the best. Strong transmitter, easy to use, could dial in any frequency. The only reason I stopped using it was because it doesn't charge the iPod Touch, which is a pain for long drives and days where I commute in and then listen to music at work. The battery gets low and the commute is too long to go without.

Pros:

The scan feature lets you find an empty station quickly. It discovered a new empty station for me, after a lame music station took over my old favorite freqency...jerks.

The display is nice, and there are two preset buttons, so you can set presets you like.

It charges all Ipod Touch/IPhones. My iPod Touch was bought in Jan, 2009.

Cons:

The FM transmitter isn't very strong. Its usable most of the time, but I get interference sometimes, which is annoying, but fairly rare.

I could quickly find a different station if I needed to with the search button. The transmitter is not as strong as my Kensington, but if it gets too bad, I can search for another frequency.

The button you press to search for other stations is rather large. I've had that part of the controller swing over to the driver's side and hit it with my leg a few times, which changes the frequency. It probably more how my car is set up, but its still annoying. You have to have the thing somewhere and there is only so much room in a car. I should probably get some tape and mount it somewhere on the dash.

One thing to look out for with the search button is that when you hold the unit, you are acting as part of the antenna and affecting the reception, which messes up its ability to find a clean station. You need to leave the unit where it is and just press the button and take your hand away. Not a big deal, just a heads-up.

Otherwise, its a good transmitter. Not the greatest possible, but I haven't seen anything better from Kensington. The Kensington RDS FM Transmitter does charge the ipod touch as well, but I tried it and its got some quirks that made it too annoying to use. It does seem to transmit stronger, but it doesn't have a display, so you don't know which frequency it is tuned to. On the older ipods, the freq showed on the Ipod screen, but with the Touch, it doesn't show. This makes it unusable.

Review by Russell Lawrence:

I have tried the Griffin iTrip Auto, iTrip Autopilot with RDS, and this transmitter with my iphone 3G. I tried them in that order based on reviews. For me, this transmitter performed the best by far. The Autopilot and iTrip Auto would both shut off after a minute or so with any music source other than the IPOD. So, Pandora, Slacker, iHeart Radio would not work with the Griffin Autopilot or iTrip Auto. The Belkin does not have this shutdown feature, so it plays any music source. Belkin instead shuts the transmitter off when there is nothing connected to the dock connector.

The audio quality between the 3 seems to be equivalent to me. That is, if you find a good station, it sounds as good as FM radio. I did find that the Belkin's output level is closer to that of other FM radio stations, so you don't have to adjust the volume when switching from the transmitter to other radio stations.

Oh, I also tried one of the generic transmitters sold here on Amazon and it transmitted very well, but it clipped any audio source with a high output level and when you are playing audio through the dock, you can't adjust the output level from the iPhone. I did have some luck with turning on the Soundcheck, but even that didn't work for all songs. So, what you end up with is a really static filled song.

I didn't have much luck with the auto station search feature on any of the transmitters, but for me it was easy enough to find an empty frequency and set it as one of the memory stations.

If you have an iPhone 3G, then this is the only transmitter I would recommend if you want to be able to charge your phone while you listen to any music source.

Review by MBA dude:

Basically, this thing has a really weak transmitter. I tried using this indoors with both a Denon receiver and a cheaper Sony receiver. Nothing came through on those receivers, though the TuneCast was able to interfere with a couple stations. Sadly, there was even less audible on the frequencies with no stations.

Fortunately, I did find a frequency in my car, and the Alpine head unit was able to pick up a signal. I was able to use it for a while... the static wasn't too bad. However, as soon as I drove within range of any other signals, no matter how weak they were, the TuneCast was totally overridden. This thing probably needs about 10 dB of gain to be a viable transmitter, even for a range of 10 feet.

Quite simply, check your airwaves for 88.1, .3, .5. and .7. If you're in a large city or college town, those frequencies are probably littered with college radio or public access stations... no matter how weak they are, they will dominate this guy.

Avoid this. The Griffin iTrip works reasonably well, and is a better allocation of your hard-earned funds.

Review by Gman:

I bought this, and i didnt like the idea of having to pay more for the tunecast 2 at walmart. So i bought the TC 1. This thing sucks out of the box! It is in desperate need of an antenna for starters... Well, i used it for about a month, then, it just started going downhill-sound got crappier, kept eating batteries...just a pain...

So a few weeks later...me, being the adventurous person i am, took the product apart to see the 'goods'inside. Upon getting inside, i spied an 'Inductance coil' smothered in wax. As any electronics hobbyist will tell you, DO NOT touch these as if you accidentally move one of the wraps of the coil, the frequency changes. Wellllllllll, i just had to! So i did, and guess what-The whole coil fell off into my hand! I was sitting there thinkin "jeeze, im really screwed now!' So that was late at night. The next morning, i was digging thru my closet and found an old nonworking car cdplayer that my friend gave me about a year back. Just for kicks, i took it apart, and what was the most glorious thing i saw inside?? AN INDUCTANCE COIL! I immediately grabbed my soldering iron and de-soldered the 3 coils off the board. I then, brought them over, and soldered them onto the back of the mainboard of my tunecast. (i had to put them on the nubs of the old solder on the back of the board because i couldnt get in the small space with the soldering iron, if i would have put it on the front with all the other components) Well, i had it all soldered on, turned on, and hooked up to my cd player, i turned my cdplayer/radio on, to a station i desired (i picked 102.0, just because i wanted to...) and took my pocket knife and proceded to spread apart the wraps of the coil, one by one. (there are about 7 wraps) Basically, you just screw around spread one here and spread one there, do a few in the middle pretty soon you'll hear the song playing on the radio! Congratulations you have just tuned in your signal. Now, most likely, you will hear your song, but when you remove the knife from between the coils, you'll loose everything. DONT GET TICKED-IT HAPPENS!. Just spread the some a little more, if you see some that look too wide, close em up! pretty soon, youll have a signal that you dont have to hold the knife in to hear. You should also note that doing this modification overrides the 4 station selector switch-it will do nothing. If your tunecast currently works, you risk killing the thing all together. Also, when you put the new coil on the back of the board, you can no longer fit it in the case. it looks trashy but it works. Just put a drop of superglue on the headphone wires where the go on, and a drop on the wires going to and from the battery's and the on-off switch, just to make sure they dont come off. Also, DO -NOT- put a drop of superglue or ANYTHING on the coil to hold it down. The solder will have to do a good enough job. For the curious ones out there who want to know what happens if you DO put glue on the coil: It messes up the inductance properties of the coil and changes the frequency. I made that mistake the first time, with the first coil-I had my station all tuned in to what i wanted and i put one small drop of glue on it, and it faded right out. Now, im searching for a way to put some sort of antenna on this. All the attempts i have tried have involved melting the solder holding the existing antenna wire on, and slipping another one in there. That didnt work...but im still spawning ideas. Basically just play around with it, if you like feeling adventurous. And yes i know, if its working pretty good, but not good enough and you do something that messes it up, you WILL kick yourself, all the while saying 'why cant i leave good enough alone!?'...Dont worry, i did it too, a few times....

Good luck and happy modding....

Review by CMurph:

The FM transmitter for MP3s is one of the best I've ever had. It works perfectly and there's never any static.

Review by Prabhjot Singh:

Please don't buy this product. I was not able to get this working in the beginning. And then it worked but the quality of the signal was too poor. You wont enjoy the music with this product.

Review by P. Catlin:

the clearest frequency to transmit on is 87.9. However this station is only available while the device is in international mode. Customer support will not tell you how to change the device into international BUT I WILL. Hold down the + and - button for about 20 seconds. 'US" will flash in the upper left corner. Now press the + button until you see 'intl'. Now the device will unlock ALL frequencies 87.7 - 107.9. Use 87.9 or 87.7 for best reception. Also try changing from LX to DX (stereo to mono) because DX (mono) seems to give off a stronger signal without compromising sound. your welcome.

Review by Glen J:

After reading other reviews, I was worried this wouldn't work well for us. But it does just fine.

Used it with Zune, iPod and iPhone without a hitch. Around town, a selected preset works the best and avoids re-tuning. On the road, click the button once when you encounter static or interference, and you are in the clear.

A hard wired connx would be better; this is a good second option.

Review by Jason Bateman:

Got this baby about two weeks ago after i broke the aux input in my car...works just as good AND charges my iPod. Some people say an FM trnasmitter wont work as good as an Aux input but in my car it works great. happy bout the purchase.

Review by C W:

works great. allows you to play IPOD nano in car using the car radio after you set both transmitter (IPOD is plugged into) and car radio to same radio frequency setting. worked great on my IPOD nano 4th generation and 5th generation (have one of each). have tried other transmitter brands in past and this one worked great compared to the those others. clear and easy to use.

Review by congiundi:

This product is the best consumer product available for this type of A/V transmission. Using the 5.8MHz band keeps it free of the dreaded microwave oven interference, as well as interference from most cordless telephones. The picture is good, though not perfect. But it's more than adequate for all but the largest TVs (great for a kitchen-sized screen). Be sure to experiment with all four channels to find the one that works best.

The only glitch I have found is with the power. Occasionally the A/V link would fail and I would have to restart either the sender or the receiver, depending on which one failed. Also, occasionally the channel selection would change spontaneously on one unit or the other, thus breaking the link. I solved both of these problems by installing small APC battery backups on both sender and receiver unit. I think electrical storms were at the root of both problems. Since then, I haven't had a single recurrence. I've used these units now for over two years.

We don't use the IR link because we have a different one (made by RCA) that works well and serves other devices not connected by the AVS-5811/5813.

Review by Ron Krell:

My original review was a 5 but after a couple of weeks of use I have had to lower it to a 4. The picture is great but the remote extension isn't up to par with the picture. Some days it works great and other days it won't work at all. Most of the time it is in between and the channel will change when you want except instead of going one channel at a time it starts going through a loop till it gets tired and stops on a random channel. I've also figured out that when using the normal tv source I have to shut off the transmitter in order for the remote on that tv to work properly. The main thing though is that the picture transmitted from the living room to the bedroom is great and the remote issues are simply an inconvenience. This is only a temporary set up for a few months and does what we needed.

Review by Paul Lee:

WOW...

My purchase before this item was a logitech universal remote. I spent 10 hours and 2 calls to India to set up and I ended up not using the RF remote because it didn't work.

REASON FOR PURCHASE (APPLICATION):

I wanted to gift my mom the ability to watch her DirecTV in the kitchen on the new 23" Samsung I got her. We didn't want to go through the hassle of having another big DirecTV HD DVR box and more coaxial line run around the house, so I bought the Briteview.

INSTALL:

1. Plugged HDMI cable from Family room DTV receiver to back up base unit (kept the component video and audio plugged into cinema receiver for the main TV).

2. Plugged BV-2500 base unit into wall.

3. Placed Infared receiver over the DTV receiving IR port

4. 40ft away and through 1 wall I plugged receiving unit into back of Samsung 23" TV via HDMI

5. Plugged receiving unit into wall

6. Turned on both TV's and whaa-la

PRO's

* Not sure for all applications, but the DirecTV receiver was capable of sending component audio/video and HDMI aud/vid at the same time, so we could watch and adjust volume on both TV's at same time with ZERO LAG (both audio and video).

* SUPER EASY INSTALL WITH INFARED WORKING ON FIRST ATTEMPT

* HD picture quality is 1080P

* No extra running of cables for my application

* Small receiving unit makes for a clean looking install. Unit is smaller than most computer home routers.

CON's

* No HDMI out on the base unit (would make nice for lots of us who want to pass through the HDMI and don't have an AV receiver or want to change AV receiver input). Instead I have to use both HDMI and component out so.

UNKNOWN AND OTHER SUGGESTIONS

To complete the install I think I will probably need to buy an additional DireTV remote and program the 2nd TV's volume control to that.

Keep in mind your are going to be watching the SAME channel on the 2nd display if you are watching the primary display at the same time. That being said this isn't for most family's. My mom lives with just my dad and they enjoy watching the same thing.

Now my mom can cook family dinner and watch TV at the same time!!!

Keep in mind this was a gift from someone (me) who doesn't even own or watch TV.

FIRST REVIEW OF A PRODUCT ON AMAZON... WHATCHA THINK?

Review by yinlun:

My friend and I have been looking for a wireless HDMI setup for some time now. We've tried the Sony Bravia Wirelesslink, and we both ran into the same problem. That unit sends video, but no audio to a Samsung LCD. In addition, there was a lag in the video. The video quality was good, but not exceptional. Then as I was returning that unit, I found this. Figured it was worth a try. Let me just say..I'm glad I did.

This is near perfect. The video quality is better than the Sony. Unfortunatley, there's no 1080p, but 1080i works just fine for me.

Pros:

No lag in transmisisons

IR Repeater allows everything to be tucked away from plain site

Easy to install

Easy to setup

Works really well with no interference to video/audio quality

Cheap in comparison to other available products

Cons:

-Upon initial setup, the reciever was dropping in and out in connection. I ended up following the instructions and changing the recieving channels, after that I haven't had an issue.

-The remote that comes with it is bare bones, meaning another remote to manage. If only it was like the Sony unit that could replace other remotes..

One additional thing I would like is the option to add additional recievers to the sending unit. Otherwise, this unit has more than exceeded my expectations.

Review by T. Flanagan:

I'm a hi-tech gadget guy who is hard to please, but this far exceeded my expectations! I have it connected from a bedroom Directv Receiver(6" from a 2.4GHZ wireless PC lan) to a kitchen 15" Magnanox LCD TV sitting 12" below a micrwave oven without interference from microwave or lan! I'm even transmitting through 6 walls and a 5 gal. metal potato chip bucket and people walking in the kitchen without affecting the picture! I was getting a super picture w/o even having 1 antenna directly facing the other antenna. I thought I was going to have to run between floors for hours until everything was aligned perfectly - it only took 15 seconds because alignment is very forgiving. Picture quality is 5 star crystal clear with no lines, static, etc. All TV channels are 5 star and the HDTV stations blew me away even though I know its not sending true HDTV though the avs-5811.

What surprised me most was that I could use my bedroom Directv remote (down in the kitchen) to change channels (up in the bedroom) by simply pointing at the (kitchen)avs-5811 receiver. It sends the remote control signal upstairs to a "mouse" that you place in front of your TV receiver, cable box, etc, IR sensor. I had a spare remote so I keep 1 in kitchen and 1 in bedroom for convenience.

The owners manual iS POOR and doesn't tell you all this, but basically I can point the remote at the avs-5811 receiver in kitchen requesting a Directv channel change (or any other remote control function) in the upstairs bedroom. The avs-5811 transmitter in the bedroom receives the request and sends it through the "mouse" to the Directv Receiver which changes the channel as requested and the new channel video and sound is return to the kitchen! Pure magic and ingenious!

It is a very cost effective way, without losing picture quality and convenience, to avoid running cables and drill holes through my tiled walls or granite counters.

Review by Paperback Writer:

I have an HP Windows Media Center PC and wanted a wireless A/V solution to enjoy the media content on my PC. I wanted to send the signal from my PC in my bedroom to my living room where I could hook up the audio to my home theatre system, (to enjoy the digital music and nice sound from recorded shows), and the video to my TV, (to watch movies, pictures, home videos, and TV shows I recorded on my PC). I live in a condo and I tried (2) other 2.4GHz Wireless A/V senders, (The Radioshack model and a product I got from Best Buy), before I arrived at this gem. With the 2.4GHz A/V devices I got a lot of interference from my neighbor's wireless routers, microwave ovens, cordless phones, etc., which operate on the 2.4GHz freq. band. The results I got were unsatisfactory and I was very disappointed that my vision seemed impractical.

When I learned of this product which operates on the 5.8GHz band my hope was renewed. Going up to 5.8 GHz made all the diff. for me as this freq. band is less populated, (for the time being), then the 2.4GHz freq. This product is a great invention and works as advertised. I wouldn't be able to enjoy the media content on my PC the way that I do if I didn't have it. The sound and video is crystal clear. Not only does it do the wireless A/V thing, but it also is a remote control extender. My PC has a remote and I control my PC in my living room while sitting on my couch.

There are only a few negatives things. I do experience some interference sometimes if someone is walking around in the other room, and the audio transmission is in stereo only, not dolby 5.1 surround sound. There also is the fear that wireless products will start populating the 5.8GHz freq. band in the coming years and interfere with my product, but I'll cross that bridge later. Also, anyone wanting to buy this in a retail store is going to be hard pressed to find one. The 2.4GHz devices are out there, but it seems that this 5.8GHz A/V device is a novelty item. I only saw the one I bought on the internet, so if someone else buys this thing and it doesn't work for them it will be very cumbersome to try to return. The cost also is about -50 more than the 2.4GHz devices I returned, but I think the extra cost is well worth it. I never tried out how it works on differnt floors. I think these are small draw backs however. I love this thing and am well satisfied. It works great for me. I've only begun to really fully utilize what I can do with it. 5 stars and I might buy another one!

Review by Facts, Plain and Simple:

This device works well. All those who say range is crap etc simply don't know or understand bluetooth application. If you use it with a laptop built-in bluetooth or a mobile phone, then range will be short because the laptop or mobile bluetooth is for connecting to devices in the immediate proximity to your work area. Thats why it's called PAN - Personal Area Network.

If you want to use it with increased distance, get a class I (class 1) USB dongle rated for 100 meters. You will not have any trouble.

I have validated it first hand - my HP laptop's built-in BT cuts off all the time if more then 2 meters (6 feet) away. My ipod and iphone work nicely to about 5 meters (15 feet). A cheap billionton class 1 dongle doesn't cut off even at 10 meters (30 feet) and a belkin class 1 usb dongle even works at 12 meters (36 feet) with one concrete wall between.

Another advantage I find useful is that it supports multiple device pairing, I just leave it powered and once you 'disconnect' one device you can 'connect' a different one.

The device is powered by a 5V/0.2A universal (100V-240V) adapter and remembers my paired devices even after disconnecting and reconnecting power.

Audio quality is as good as any other A2DP bluetooth audio device. They all use the SBC (Low Complexity Subband Codec) bluetooth protocol which limits bandwidth to 512 kbit/s - which allows to enjoy sounds similar to a 256 kbit/s stereo mp3 file.

Review by Scott:

I purchased both the Belkin Bluetooth Reciever and the BluBridge Receiver from two different locations and was going to return the one that I liked the least. So here is a very quick comparison. In the testing I also had one of my friends give his opinion as well. Here is what we both thought:

Belkin Bluetooth Reciever

Sound Quality: Amazing/Excellent 10/10- sounds just as good if not better than standard wired 3.5mm audio connection

Range: 8/10 Line of sight maybe 20-25ft, although I hear that this also depends on your transmitter, I was using Lenovo s10-3t netbook integrated bluetooth and Iphone 3GS integrated bluetooth as source.

Connectability Ease: 10/10, once you have paired it, it stays plugged in to the wall next to your stereo. Example: I turned off my Lenovo s10-3t netbook, the blue light went out on the belkin receiver showing disconnect, I turned the netbook on a day later, immediately I notice the belkin blue light come back on the belkin receiver, and the connect is so fast that the windows 7 startup sound/chime came in through my stereo. Obviously if you connect your computer to a different bluetooth audio device, you will have to later tell it to reconnect to the belkin. But the whole process is super smooth.

Portability: NOT PORTABLE, stays plugged in to wall, this is also a PLUS, because it always stays very ready for easy connect.

BluBridge 3.5mm Mini-Jack Rx - Receiver

Sound Quality: Excellent 9.8/10, wired and the belkin bluetooth sound were slightly better, it was more of a slightly fuller/richer, slightly louder sound with the belkin or wired connection. Note: it is only very slightly better sound. My friend and I could only tell the difference when we used the same song, same sound source connecting back and forth very quickly. In the BluBridge's defence it produces 9.8/10 sound whether on battery power or connected to usb charging.

Range: 9/10 Line of sight maybe 25-30ft, basically I got an additional 5ft of range from the same bluetooth transmitters. The signal did seem stronger, when I would start to reach the max, the signal would break and then regain clear again for 3-4 more feet if the transmitter was stable. With the belkin as soon as the signal started to break, the signal was gone.

Connectability Ease: 8/10, this is mainly because the unit has a battery power saver that shuts off the device when not in use. So you have to hold down the button on the unit for 7 seconds, then connect with your device (Iphone 3GS or Lenovo s10-3t netbook)

Portability: Extremely and Easily Portable 10/10. I use it off of battery power mostly, I have it plugged into my Harman Kardon Go + Play High-Performance Portable Loudspeaker System with Dock for iPod (Newest Model) which can also operate off of battery power (8-D-cell batteries). Makes for a excellent portable sound source.

Testing: Used the Belkin RockStar 5-Way 3.5-mm Headphone Splitter (White) with Harmon Kardon Go and Play, 2 computer inputs, Belkin bluetooth input, and BluBridge bluetooth input, and Logitech Z-2300 THX-Certified 2.1 Speaker System with Subwoofer. Everything was connected at once and audio was crystal clear, from anysource, this really speaks volumes for the Belkin rockstar. And if your wondering, yes I did play the movie "Gone in 60 seconds" from my HTPC throught the belkin rockstar outputing to both the Logitech z-2300 speakers and the Harmon Kardon Go and PLay at the same time, sounded really good.

Before Very Close scrutinizing side by side testing, I thought I was going to be returning the Belkin, because the range was about 5ft less, and it wasn't portable. And playing with them separately 20min apart I nor my friend could tell a difference in the sound Quality, so it is very slight. But I ended up keeping them both. I recomend the Belkin if you have a stationary high end stereo system and have no need for bluetooth portability with your stereo system. Other wise I recomend the BluBridge 3.5mm receiver if you think you might ever want to hook it up to portable stereo. The Ease of connectiblity at the end of the day with the belkin is what made me keep it.

They are both EXCELLENT PRODUCTS, read details so see which fits your need better, I found a need for both.

PS: at the end of the testing my friend said he is going to buy the BluBridge bluetooth receiver, he like it because the sound quality was still excellent, it was portable, and he liked the look of it.

Review by Kenny L.:

i wanted to send video from a tv to the next room. this did the job, and what a great price. the video quality was great after i found a proper location between the 2 units. i just made sure not too many walls, objects, etc got in the way between the 2 units.

Review by Alex Leung:

The unit works very good within 100 feet distance, you may have to change to different channel to get the best performance, but it is working ! I transmit Audio and Video from my cable TV to my sleeping room on the upper level of my house, and pick up the signal with the receiver and connect to the TV set so we can watch the same show.

Review by D. Senft:

I give this a three mostly for the price the sound isnt great but decent for what you pay. I do like the fact that it is wireless so unless you are charging your ipod you dont need it pluged in. What I dont like about it is there are no buttons to pre-set so if you get static you have to fumble around til you find a clear station. If all you wanna do is listin to your ipod to and from work go ahead and get this but if you travel alot Id go with something else

Review by smoke:

I bought this really not expecting much. It's dirt cheap, and goods this cheap tend to not be a quality product. What a surprise to see that this thing works better than my friends Belkin car adapter/mount for the iphone. Sound quality is just as good as i've heard on any other FM transmitter- not great, but if you care that much about sound quality, you'll need an audio input on your head unit. No FM modulator is gonna put out stellar sound, regardless of the price or quality of the product.

Overall, love it. It was cheap enough that even with expedited shipping it was still only ten bucks. Can't beat that deal!

Review by Colin B. Verrilli:

First, let me say that this item works mostly as advertised. It hooks up fine with my ipod 5th generation and plays over the FM radio without much static as long as I choose an unused station. It also remains in place fairly well in the lighter socket.

My big problems with this product are:

1) Each time you turn off the car and turn it back on, you have to reset the transmitting frequency (station) on the unit. It resets to 88.1 every time power is removed.

2) Each time you turn off the car you have to also turn off (or pause) the ipod or else the ipod will keep playing. Likewise, each time you turn on the car, you have to press play on the ipod to start playing.

In my other car I have an old product (no longer available) that has neither of these problems. I don't need to touch it when turning off or on the car and it continues right where it left off.

Review by B. Shumate:

Overall this is a fantastic product at a great price and it works beautifully! I bought it to be able to play my MP3s from my Motorola Droid through my vehicle's stereo and it works great for it.....the sound and signal quality from the FM transmitter impressed me - to be quite honest, I figured (at the low price) that it would end up sounding like crap but I was amazed that it works REALLY well. Only two problems I have with it....one is REALLY minor.

1) The mini-jack cord supplied with it to connect your non-iPhone items to it is a bit cheap. Mind you, it works well but I would suggest buying a better quality cord online or at your local Radio Shack (or The Shack as they seem to be called now). It's a minor thing and may only be of any importance to me....lol

2) For any Droid users who are thinking the same thing for this that I did........The FM transmitter seems to interfere with the cell phone signal. I don't know how or why, and it doesn't really make any sense to me, since cell frequencies are considerably higher than FM, but when I put the Droid in the holder it loses it's 3G signal, and most of it's signal PERIOD! If I take it out of the holder it comes back and it will sporadically come back as you drive - I'm assuming when you hit a stronger signal area. I've repeated this over and over again, in different geological locations, with the results always being the same. I don't understand it, but it does it. In a urban area I doubt if it would be an issue, with the signal strength being so high in all areas of a city mostly. But in a rural area, like I currently reside, it does seem to represent a problem.....although I haven't had the opportunity to test that theory as of yet.

If not for the second problem, I would have given the item a five-star rating as it is a great product for an incredible price. If you are going to use it for an iPod (possibly even an iPhone) then it would be a WONDERFUL deal - it comes with an iPod remote as well, which I don't think it mentions in the product description. If you are buying for a Droid, or possibly other phone, then be aware of where you might have issue.

BTW, make sure that you keep whatever you use this for at about half volume and use your stereo for volume control......makes it sound MUCH better!

Thanks for reading my review and I hope it was helpful to you.

Review by Maximus:

On my quest to find a FM Transmitter, I bought a different itrip from Griffin, but it did not charge my ipod nano 4th Gen. So I called Grifin and they told me that in order to charge my ipod nano 4th Gen that it needs to be an itrip with Smart Scan technology. So i returned it and bought this one, and i'm very happy with it.

1. This unit charges our ipod nano 4th Gen no problem. The ring of light on the cigarette lighter plug lights up red when initially connected denoting power to FM transmitter, then amber once the ipod is connected (charging), and then it turns green when the ipod is fully charged.

2. I have a sealed radio in my car so therefore don't have an audio input unfortunatley (2005 Volvo s40 2.4i) and so FM Transmitters are a way of life for me. Your not going to get the perfect sound quality from these like you would with a direct input, so check to see if you got an aux input in your car first and then just buy a charger and a double male head phone wire. I have a Sirius Radio has an FM Transmitter so i'm use to dealing with changing frequencys every so often. I live in NJ and am in NYC and Long Island a lot. My car can tune to 87.9 which I use for the sirius radio almost everywhere, but sometimes while in NY I use 93.3 (pretty high on the frequency list, but for some reason it's clear).

3. Check to make sure your car can go into 87.9 range first, these channels are hardly ever used by radio stations, then switch this grifin itrip autoscan to international frequencies just press function, then press AND HOLD mode for roughly ten secons until a new menu appears. It'll give you US, EU, and JP choices above each of the three buttons on the itrip. I picked JP (for japan) which enables all the normal US frequencies plus the lower range, lower then my car can go, my car only goes to 87.3 or something. A funny thing is that when i tune my car and itrip to 87.9 i get static, but if i keep the itrip at 87.9 and tune my car to 87.8 it comes in perfectly clear. It doesn't do that in my wife's car, 87.9 is 87.9. Just set one of your car radio presets to that and your good to go!

4. I took someone else recomendation to adjust the ipods equalizer to "Acoustic" and that definetly sounds better.

5. Long story short, I like this product, I got it for a heck of a lot cheaper then any FM transmitter at the apple store. One downfall which people do mention is that it is a tad bit hard to read the display of the itrip when you got a glare, but you can set your own presets on the itrip. Autoscan function is stupid, but apparently this is the model that'll charge the ipod nano 4th gen. Scan the radio yourself for static/ or free channels and then tune the itrip to those.

Review by G:

I've bought many FM transmitters from Kensington to Monster to DLo. This one is by far one of the best ones I have used. Kensington worked well, but stopped working after about 3 months of using it. I had returned others because there was too much static. I like this one because it searches for the 3 clearest channels that you could use, a feature that many others FM transmitters do not have.

Review by Dee Dee:

Don't waste your on this transmitter. I honestly cannot believe it has a 4-star rating (note that the rating is based on only a handful of customer reviews). Before you buy, be sure to check out other feedback on this SAME item that is sold from multiple sellers via Amazon (that feedback is more consistent with mine). When using this transmitter, there is constant interference (even when it is plugged into the charger). When it is not plugged in, the interference is simply intolerable. In addition to the static, the music sounds weak and muffled (no matter where the unit is placed in the car). I have tried to use this transmitter for three days now -- and it has done nothing but frustrate me. The ONLY reason I gave 2 stars is because it doubles as a charger.

Review by C. Navarro:

Just find an empty FM frequency on your car or home stereo, plug in the transmitter to your iPhone, tune the transmitter to a matching frequency and you can now listed to MP3s or YouTube from your iPhone.

The Transmitter has around 8 ft of transmitting range on direct site to the target stereo. The sound quality is pretty good up to max transmitting range at which point it drops rapidly.

The Transmitter goes to sleep around 1 minute after idle. The Transmitter works as a car charger even on sleep mode. However it works out of your iPhone's battery, so it does not need to be connected to the charger in order to work. The provide mini USB to USB cable can be detach from the car charger and plug into any USB Home Charger that you own.

On long travels it is a bit frustrating finding empty FM Frequencies to Tune into. It may be irrelevant to most of us but it may be something to consider for truck drivers and those people with long commutes.

Over all, I am pretty happy with my purchase.

Review by Sarah:

The transmission is terrible, you can barely hear the music over the static. The scanning function doesn't even pick the best of the static stations, when you are lucky it is only .1 or .2 off from a decent station, but about half the time there is no transmission at all. Also the dial, which initially looks fancy and fun, is very awkward to manipulate while driving. So essentially this is a very expensive ipod charger for when you are on the go.

Review by cool mom:

I've had a monster fm transmitter for over a year. I loved it. I broke it by setting a heavy object on it. I thought I would try this newer version. What a mistake. I couldn't get it to play without static, even setting it to the station my other one had been on. I tried their auto scan feature, it kept choose a station that was playing country music. I could not get a clear station. I'll go back to the older version which I know works Monster iCarPlay Wireless FM Transmitter with Auto-Scan for iPod and it is quite a bit less expensive.

Review by portadelsol:

Decent item, but the description says the charger works and has been tested with the iPhone 3G.

What it doesn't say is that it that you will get a message stating that it will only work in AIRPLANE MODE. Click "NO" to NOT go into AIRPLANE mode and it wil work fine anyway.

Also, you can skip connecting the charging piece and only connect the sound/headphone output to the FM transmitter -- it works fine as well.

Review by E. Cook:

I have three complaints regarding this device:

(1) The part of the device that plugs into the car's cigarette lighters (i.e. outlets) is a rigid plug extending from the back of the device. This means that if your cigarette lighters are tucked into corners, gloveboxes, etc., the device cannot be plugged into your car. You need a wide, unobstructed approach coming into your outlet. Check out the pictures I added to the product description - you'll see what I mean.

(2) I live in an urban area where MANY radio stations broadcast FM signals. There is only one spot on the dial that is essentially unused, and therefore available to the device. The sound quality in this one open spot is not that great - some static carries through. Perhaps we will get better transmission on our drives into rural areas of the country.

(3) While the device claims to be compatible with iPhone 3G, it is not an Apple supported device. Consequences? (a) Your iPhone gets forced into Airplane Mode when you connect to the device. (b) You get warnings about it being an unsupported device, and (c) The battery charging icon does not indicate that charging is actually occurring. (No giant green battery on the front screen.) All this gives me the heebie-jeebies, but perhaps that's just what Apple wants me to feel. We paid a lot for our iPhones 3G, and using unsupported gear makes me nervous.

A redesign of the plug on the back would solve the fit problem, but not the issue of it being an unsupported product.

Be sure to check the vendor's return policy before choosing this for your car. You may need to send the device back!

Review by Andrei Bolkonski:

As someone else already noted, there are better methods of listening to your MP3 player in your car, such as through the tape transmitter. For those of us who don't have it, though, this is a sufficiently apt substitute.

First, whoever said that there are 8 presets must be thinking of some other device. You only have 3 presets here, but you define them yourself from the whole FM range, an you can always deviate from them. Hence, this thing has an advantage over, say, the iTrip because you can easily surf between three stations if the one you're listening to now starts getting static.

Second, I find it powerful enough in most situations. I live in Boston, and drive around it often enough. Downtown, most stations will give you a small amount of interference, and that is probably the best you will get. Drive around the suburbs, though, and you can easily find around 3 stations that will play almost as well as your CD player in terms of quality.

The secret to this is to set your iPod volume somewhere around the middle to upper two-thirds of its capacity. If you set it to the maximum, all bass lines will be completely distorted. Set it to the middle, though, and you'll have rather crisp audio, although you will have to compensate for the lost volume by turning up the car radio. Hardly anything to complain about, though.

My two complaints with this device are these:

First, the marked price is far too high. You can find a much cheaper device on eBay, or even in the Amazon marketplace. I paid around for it, plus delivery.

Second, some types of music sound distorted even at medium volumes on a lot of the stations. I have in mind the Waltz of the Snowflakes from the Nutcracker when I write this. Beside it, just about every song I played sounded clean, although sometimes a given station would encounter pockets of interference.

Given that a more powerful transmitter would probably end up messing up the radio reception of neighboring cars, I'm prone to think that this is an inherent problem to all FM transmitters. I think this is one of the better ones, though, because of its preset options, its ability to scan the whole FM range, the fact that it doesn't drain your iPod's battery, and the fact that you can manipulate your iPod volume on it for better performance. The iTrip can't do three of these. You will, of course, have to sit down in your car and look for usable stations manually, .2 by .2, but ultimately, and if you have no other option available, I think you will find this device to do a good job. Just do yourself a favor, and find a cheaper source.

Review by G. Edwards:

I have owned this iPod FM transmitter for about 11 months and have used it while driving thousands of miles through many FM radio markets. In urban areas this unit is not useable, because, despite the availability of the three FM presets, you can't find open FM frequencies in urban areas, and if you do, the unit's FM modulator is not strong enough to overcome adjacent channel interference from city FM radio powerhouses, and typical poor car stereo FM tuner performance (selectivity).

If you live in the country this unit's FM performance is just fine, unless of course you regularly travel to a nearby urban area.

Also, my unit "overdeviates"--the iPpod audio is distorted on loud passages when hooked up to my Dodge Durango with the factory stereo installed. When the FM transmitter is hooked to my Subaru's top-of-the-line McIntosh stereo, the audio is good.

I believe this product is overpriced, and should be sold with a caveat: Not useable in and around major cities.

Review by bixodoido:

I recently purchased this product and took it on a 30 day roadtrip across the country. I used it all over the nation, from the Midwest (where it's relatively easy to find a frequency), to more congested areas like around Washington DC and Philadelphia, where its not easy to find a signal. Through it all, the Roadtrip provided incredible sound quality for an FM transmitter.

The cradle and mount is very handy in that you can adjust it so that you can view both the Ipod's screen and the frequency the Roadtrip is on without really having to take your eyes off the road. As one would imagine, I had a lot of stuff in my car on the trip, so I didn't want to mess with a typical corded charger and transmitter. This allowed my Ipod to be mounted close to my radio controls and didn't take up any space on my floor or console.

A couple of things to note here, however. First is that the mount comes with two pieces, one which you plug into your cigarette lighter and one which is an extension piece if the Roadtrip is in your way. I used the extension and was very pleased with it, but over time the sheer weight of it would not let it fig snugly in my cigarette lighter, and it tended to move around when I went around corners. Taking off the extension solved this problem, and, while it was not as conveniently placed, still allowed me to see and use it easily.

The sound quality of this product is also not as good in my other car (a '97 Grand Am), but I suspect that's the fault of the car itself, not the Roadtrip. The antenna on that car doesn't pick up very good signals anyway. Overall this is a great product, certainly a great asset for me on my cross-country adventure.

Review by K. R. Tucker Seeley:

After having bought the "Monster Cable iCarPlay Plus Wireless FM Transmitter/Charger for iPod" (and then promptly returned it because there was just too much static/interference), I decided to try the Griffin RoadTrip. First, I was shocked at the difference in sound quality between the two products. The Griffin sounds crisp and clear and there is NO static! I live in Boston and have set the frequency to 88.5 and have not had a single problem. Second, the Griffin is so much more convenient and easier to use because you just plug it in and turn it on (it remembers whatever frequency you used previously). No wires, no having to dangle my Nano around the rearview mirror just to get music to play (albeit with frequent static and a constant hissing sound in between songs), and I have a nice, solid, safe place to put my Nano that's right at my fingertips. My only caution is that the holder-adapter that's designed to fit the Nano will only fit if I take mine out of the leather "Marware" protective cover I bought to keep it from getting all scratched up (I have the 2G Black one). An easy solution (at least for me) was to keep my leather cover on and simply use the "larger" holder instead of the smaller "Nano-sized" one. Griffin conveniently provides two different thicknesses of padding to customize the fit for virtually all iPods (except the Shuffle, of course) so I just put in one of the pads and my Nano stays nice and secure and will never get scratched. I highly recommend the RoadTrip and am frankly, shocked that others have rated it so poorly. I love it and could not be happier with my purchase!

Review by Darryl Pierce:

I bought this unit with a specific purpose in mind using the RDS functionality. I just recieved this unit yesterday and it is pretty impressive considering the low costs and RDS functionality.

1.) Sound - This is tricky. The sound is good using USB and SD cards as your source. However, the sound is great when you use the Analog input(2.5mm input) I would have expected the sound to be better with USB/SD cards. I was blown away when I played my Sony MP3 player thru the input jack. It sounded great. ( 4.5 Stars here)

2.) Power - This is powered by a 12v cigarette lighter plug. I wanted to use it in the house and power it from an AC outlet. I used a litte converter specifically designed for that purpose. On other units, as soon as you plug the unit into AC, you get a nasty little hum, and sometimes static. When this unit, it is very clean, no hum at all. ( Five Stars for that)

3.) Ease of Use - This unit has a very simple display that can be cryptic if you don't read the instructions. It is easier to use via the remote control,than the buttons on the unit. Most notable is the equalizer display which also doubles as a Volume Unit ( VU) meter. The instructions don't mention that, but that is how it works. There is also a volume control on the remote, but not on the unit itself. You can save up to 7 FM freqencies in memory and use the remote to scan the frequencies, pretty cool.

4.) RDS - This is the feature I was most curious about. The instructions say that RDS only works with the USB memory port, however that is not true. It also worked with the SD card port too, which was a nice surprise. The SD card hides away neatly. When you use a USB Flash drive, the flash drive sticks out and takes away from the compact form factor. The unit displays the name of the Song, track number and folder name. It also displays " Musicfly" intermittenly when a song is playing via SD or USB use. It displays "Musicfly" continuously if no song is playing. ( I am assuming this is an advertising splash screen from Sound Fly). Didn't see anyway to get rid of this.

Here is another operational quirk not mentioned in the intructions. If you decide to use the Analog input, but leave a USB or SD card in the unit,t he unit will keep playing and displaying the Song information on your RDS radio screen even though the audio switches the Analog Source. This was actually a plus for me because it means I can search through memory cards while listening to another audio source.

5.) Transmission Range - This is the only area where I was dissappointed. In all fairness to Satechi, it is advertised as a personal transmitter, and is probably not designed to transmit very far. That being said, I have other personal units that will transmit over 75 ft. ( line of sight) with no problem. This unit may give you 15 ft, but operates best within 10 ft of your radio. If Sound Fly would add just a little bit more power to this unit, it would be a great unit.

Summary -- The sound is great on the Analog input jack, Sound is good using SD or USB input. The remote control is very useful and adds some functionality that you can't do with buttons on the unit. ( don't loose your remote) It can be powered with AC/DC converters sources without the worry about HUM and interference. The RDS display works well if your radio is so equipped. ( I have only been able to find, 1 other RDS capable transmitter(Kennsington) and it is for the Ipod only and costs twice as much as this one.)

The only downdside for this unit for me is the transmission range, but that should not be a problem for anyone using this in a car.

Would I buy another one ? Yes

Update - 8/14/08

I did finally take this unit out an use in my car driving around town and it worked flawlessy most of the time. The only propblem, as I mentioned earlier, is power. You get a litte bit of hiss on the radio at various times, and I also noticed that if you pass another car that may be using a similar device, you will get interference from that passing cars' transmitter. As we use to say in the old days of CB radio, other transmitters just " step all over" this device. I don't have this problem with my VR3 transmitter. So again, if Satechi would add just a litte more power, this would be a 5 Star Unit.

Update - 11-10-08

This unit is great and has quickly become my favorite player transmitter. The sound is great and I only seem to have interferrence in heavy traffic or downtown ( Atlanta) settings. This unit is so easy to use. I also want to correct something I stated earlier, you can adjust the volume without the remote. You just have to press the right sequence of buttons to do it. I plan to order two more of these for Christmas Gifts.

Update - 10-21-09

Still love this transmitter. Take it with me when traveling because it works great in rental cars. Only issue now is not a problem with the unit, but local issue. CDC( Center for Disease Control) uses the 87.9 frequency for low power FM Emergency Broadcast. Anytime you are within about 3 miles of the CDC, all you hear is the CDC announcer. I had to program an alternate frequency for use when I travel near CDC now. The only problem is there are not that many open frequencies above 88.1 in the Altanta area anymore. 87.9 is still your best option in most places.

Review by W. Wilson:

I ordered this curious thing online to solve one of my most insane driving frustrations, ADVERTISING! Instead of corporate tripe interrupting my peace of mind every few songs, I set my home PC to record choice streams for hours on end all night and save them on my SD card. Who hoo! For less than the cost of a new radio for 3 vehicles, and without the hassle of carting around a bunch of CD's life is good!

The sound fly works like it should, like you'd expect and it's really simple, intuitive. I can play MP3's off my cell phone with the little adapter cable they include. The plug in unit is flexible for easy visibility, though the only drawback might be the red LED display is washed out in bright direct sunlight. I find this a very fair trade off for the ease of visibility at night. I plugged this FM transmitter into my car and could receive the signal in my truck 2 or 3 parking spaces away, *more* than good enough! I do not need Blue Tooth so this is perfect for me. After reading the minimalist instruction sheet, I realized I had to name my music folder 'MP3' and put the files in a subdirectory, then the Sound Fly automatically can search and skip to where I want. I love the Bookmark button on the remote since my files are sometimes 500m or more, it saves where I stopped it and restarts without having to fast forward 2 or 3 hours.

My unit arrived in an astonishingly short 3 days. I had a small inconvenience with the nifty remote control being inoperative, but I must absolutely commend Satechi and their people in San Diego for being VERY VERY prompt, trusting and sincere in their customer service by promptly sending me a working replacement. I got email replies from them within 24 hours or less. I'm sure the bad part situation was one of those darn one in a million things that just happens. I highly recommend that you can trust them to deliver what they offer...a good product and professional service. I should also say the USPS did their job too, they surely could have lost it for us! If you misplace or lose the remote yourself, the unit is still quite functional, though you lose bookmark and fast forward functions.

I'm a happy guy! Thanks. W. Wilson

PS. You might like Somafm or RadioParadise, two of my favourite streams that have NO advertising.

UPDATE March 15 2010

Still working great. Here's a couple things I wish I had been able to know before I bought it. It can accept USB drives, the socket is on the bottom edge, center. The audio cable is a MINI stereo style on the left side near the top and the supplied cable is kinda short so I bought an extension at my local radio rip off store...so I could look at my BlackBerry to select files without bending my face to the dash. If you have the audio cable plugged in, the USB and the SD sources will not play and this *may* cause you to panic and think the unit died...which it hasn't! You HAVE to understand and follow the file folder structure and it's limitations or it won't play. Top folder should be 'MP3' or 'mp3' . I have not used 'soundfly' which is suggested also. There is a VU meter function, when music plays, the display ramps up and down with the beat. It WILL work without the remote, but not as nicely. When fast forwarding/ or reversing it has several speeds, indicated by display maquee style with a bracket which roughly imitates an arrow (A really nice feature) The unit will remember the last song playing when the power is turned off, but it will start at the beginning of the file again. If your file is really really long, you will prefer using the book mark feature to make it start at the same point within the file when it powers up. If you pull out the USB or SD card, it will forget your place and have to initialise again, which I should mention can take like 30seconds with a big card. I used an 8gig SD and it seemed like forever for it to scan and index / initialize. The limit I think is 500 files so anything more than 2gig is kinda overkill in my opinion. I just keep several 1gig cards with different genres of music on them. You can hot pull and insert the SD or USB cards. Switching SD cards while driving is okay and easy to do. The SD card inserts from the right side with a positive spring loaded catch feel, no doors, covers or fumbling. The unit is pretty rugged. The head tilts to accommodate your socket angle / visibility and after all this time of yanking it still holds its place without drooping. My one gripe is that it doesn't fit all lighter sockets tight. I have to do the *fold up a receipt into a little shim and insert it as I plug in the unit to the car* trick. Maybe it was intended for foreign/ etc cars. I drive a Malibu, a Chevy P/U and a Saturn and a F-550 and they all are a loose fit. One road bump and it loses power. One paper shim and it will run all night, playing away looping around to the beginning of the file list again and again. It gets a bit warm, but not hot. Reception is very good. I don't use the presets, I leave it on 87.7mhz. I really like this player...I wish it had bluetooth..., and presume the bigger/ newer one is just as good. The company service was excellent. Buy it new and get the warranty. My remote was replaced promptly (see prev in my review).

Review by Meh:

This item is pretty damn great I must admit. It works. The only reason it didn't get 5 stars is the irritating remote that you have to use just to turn it on and off. The sound quality is good in my car but if I turn it up using the remote while it gets louder the static gets really bad. Speaking of static unless I turn up the volume with the remote there isn't any. I don't have to change radio stations all the time! Last thing I wish the neck were flexible. Where my lighter is in my car makes where the iPod sit kinda awkward it's straight up and I can't read the songs. Still a great product.

Review by Brandon D:

I bought this and it's horrible. It doesn't even work with the iPhone 3GS! It will only hold it if it's standing straight up and only if you don't go over any bumps in the road, accelerate, or slow down. Also, it doesn't work in a 2005 Honda civic, a 2005 Volkswagen Jetta, or a 1985 Cadillac Seville. The transmitter is weak and the iPhone blocks it so you have use the remote pointing directly from the top. I would not recommend this for my enemies. If hitler himself came back to life I would not give this to him because it would be too cruel. Don't buy this, you will be grossly disappointed.

Review by Almitrah:

I upgraded from my factory 1998 Dodge stereo in my Caravan. Stereo sounds great and I love that I can hook my iPod up and operate it through the radio controls. I thought a remote was sort of silly for a car stereo, but I find I use it all the time- I don't have to even look down to change stations or advance through the iPod. Also, the HD is pretty cool, it picks up extra stations that were never there before.

I can't speak on the ease of installation, because I took it to a local shop and had it professionally installed and it looks great. I do find the bright blue is a little too bright for night driving, and the green is too dim for daytime driving so I am constantly switching colors and there are a TON of features I haven't discovered yet, but for the basic listening that I do (I'm not a commuter), it's an awesome stereo.

Review by James S. Hollenbeck:

Wow! I love it! HD radio is great. This stereo has all the options I was looking for, the HD, The front jacks for the I-POD, and way more power than my factory stereo had. I was told by the Best Buy tech that Sony lead the market for easy to use stereos, he was right. I'm far from into electronics, this unit is simple to set up. I remember thinking who in the world needs a remote for a car stereo, wow, it does everything, I never need my eyes to leave the road. I'm very happy with this unit!

Review by K. howard:

You can't beat this product for the price.

The FM quality is very good, very clear.

I can pick up stations that I was unable to receive before (too weak of a signal--maybe my other head unit was going bad?).

The HD is very cool; crystal clear and a wider stereo effect.

Downside to HD is that it drops out when signal is weak.

4GB usb thumbdrive worked flawlessly.

The overall sound is very good, in my opinion.

I have the option to upgrade to bluetooth and sat radio as well.

I am very satisfied.

On the downside, I find the menu and buttons cumbersome.

Some of the buttons are too small, the menus are not intuitive, etc.

The remote is VERY basic.

Still, I am very satisfied.

I give it a 5 because of the price and options.

Review by J. Lambert:

iWhat/iWho who cares , you can plug a storage drive into the usb port giving you a jukebox selection, and its got hd tuner built in. these features aren't available on any other unit in this price range. Providing good speakers it has great lifelike sound and the 7 band EQ make this an awsome stereo.Its only problem is no rear rca out, my solution was to use the front rca and swap my front and rear speaker wires. It works instantly with genaric SD card and reader.

Review by W. T. Fork:

For the past 4 years I've been using a Pioneer DEH-P6700MP car stereo which is almost identical to the Pioneer DEH-P670MP. I really liked the Pioneer as it seemed to really be able to liven up my 1998 Toyota Corolla factory speakers and had several features I regularly used and loved. I decided it was time to upgrade recently as my old Pioneer was having difficulty playing CDs while the AC was on, and it was making ticking sounds with many of my CDs. I decided right off the bat I was going to stick with Pioneer.

I spent a few days researching units and the main thing I kept noticing with many of the new 2010 Pioneer CD Players was the choice of going with one that had HD Radio or going with one that had Bluetooth functionality. It doesn't appear you can get a Pioneer with both. I decided to go with the HD Radio functionality due in part to the talk about how FM broadcast quality was greatly improved. (I'll post a small rant on this at the end of my review.)

It seems like all Pioneers have the ability to read MP3 CDs still which is great, but one of the nicer additions is the USB port on the front. You can plug in your iPod, Zune, or USB thumb drive and play music off it instead of burning a CD or MP3 CD. It also works for charging USB devices. I tried plugging my Black Berry 8350i into the USB slot, but it would not recognize it as media and would only charge the phone. Another input on this Pioneer head unit is the aux audio input jack on the front of the face that you can plug into with a male to male stereo audio cable. An unannounced features this unit has that will be useful for many is RDS support. The unit will display the song/artist when listening to radio stations that broadcast this information.

Installation: I thought going from one Pioneer to another would be a breeze and that the stereo wire harness would be the same as my old Pioneer. Just to be sure I contacted Crutchfield whom said many stereo manufacturers use the same harness for several years. Unfortunately I want to confirm in my review that the one from my DEH-P6700MP and the one in this new DEH-P5200HD are not the same. They look similar, but they are wired like a mirror image of each other and will not fit each other. *A note to the beginners, if you've still got a factory stereo in your vehicle, do yourself a favor and buy a harness adapter so you do not have to cut the factory wiring in the dash. That way if you ever go to sell your vehicle or you decide you do not like the stereo, you can just disconnect the harness and put the factory stereo back in.

I've been using the Pioneer DEH-P5200HD for a few weeks now and I like the unit a lot. Many of the various equalizer settings are the same as what was available on my old unit, and MP3 CD playback is about the same as well. Having the USB slot on the front is extremely convenient and I use it frequently to plug in a 8gb USB thumb drive full of songs. When you pull out the drive and plug it back in, the unit remembers where you were at in the last song and picks right back up. One major thing that takes some getting used to is the control knob on the radio. It seems to control everything in that one knob and it takes time to get used to. The remote control will help ease you into things as all the buttons are easily spelled out on it. It's also worth noting the remote is identical to my previous Pioneer remote and both were even cross-compatible.

Pros:

-Same fantastic EQ options Pioneer is known for. Includes bass frequency filtering options.

-USB & Aux input on the face

-USB input plays immediately when you plug in a USB drive, it also remembers what file and where it was at when the device was last plugged into it.

-iPod control from the face or remote

-RDS support for showing titles of songs from broadcast radio

-No lights and animated character distractions flashing all over the display.

Cons:

-Face detaches to the left side instead of flipping down which may be harder to remove depending on your dash

-HD Radio is not much of an improvement in quality of FM radio.

-USB input when reading from a USB thumb drive appears to read the folder order from last to first. (Song order is also affected if you add more songs to a folder later.)

-Control knob is an awkward all in one with a bit of a learning curve.

Do you remember upgrading from a tube TV to a flat screen? Do you remember the difference in picture quality? HD Radio is NOT that same upgrade. The HD FM radio broadcast quality is almost the same as what you've heard for years except now you don't get static, instead you get cutting in and out for seconds at a time when the signal starts getting weaker. Sometimes you hear the radio DJs talking about how much better their station sounds in HD, but the truth is there isn't much of a difference. I've read AM broadcast is hugely improved, but I have no interest in most talk radio programming so I have not tuned into any of it.

I'll try to come back and update this review once I've had some more hands on time.

*UPDATE 5/21/2010*

HD FM Radio: I've had this unit installed for a month now and have spent more time with the HD FM Radio functionality. I have turned off the blending mode that combines the HD and regular FM signals and find HD reception to be bad. I live minutes outside Houston and the reception on most the FM HD stations is extremely poor. For HD when the signal gets weak, the broadcast just cuts out all together. When I go downtown the signal is usually exceptional, but at 20 miles away from one of my frequent stations, quality becomes more miss than hit. When I drive to the southeast side of town, most the HD stations are unavailable at all. If you live inside a large city and are close to the radio stations you might enjoy HD radio, but for those of you who live in suburbs or you are far from the radio stations FM HD Radio is probably not for you.

Sound quality: I have finally decided this unit out performs my old Pioneer in sound quality. One of the custom features you can set and adjust that makes this possible is the ability to filter low bass frequencies from your 4 regular speakers. For those that like to turn up their music really loud sometimes, this can help you from blowing a speaker and also get rid of some of that extra distortion you can get from turning up the volume too much. That's not to say you can't still blow a speaker, but it should help.

Other than the HD Radio and the occasional issue with the all in one control knob accidentally getting pressed in when changing the volume, this Pioneer is a great unit. I'd definitely buy another Pioneer car stereo, they have not let me down yet. I'll update this review again if I come across anything new or something worth updating.

*UPDATE 6/22/2010*

USB Input Reading: I have finally found out what the order folders are read from USB flash drives. Apparently all folders and subfolders are read from the flash drive based on the order in which they are copied to the drive. While you would think this wouldn't be an issue, it can be an annoyance for those with multiple folders. If you select and copy multiple folders at a time to a flash drive, Windows seems to want to copy the folders from last to first. It does the same thing if you copy a folder with subfolders in it. Also if you go back and add more folders later, those will play after all the other previously copied folders.

Song playback order is also affected by the order in which they are copied. If you go back later and add songs, they will play after the previously copied songs in that folder. If you are like me and have purchased multiple albums from an artist and want to play them from oldest to newest, you'll have to copy the folders to the drive in the order you want them to play. If all this file order talk sounds like too much, the good news is that you can burn a MP3 CD with folders and they will be played in alphanumeric order without any special copying order or anything. For those of you with iPod, none of this order playback should be an issue since the iPod is actually playing the songs and sending the music to the receiver.

Review by D. Matheny:

I installed the P5200HD in a Mustang with a Mach460 sound system. I chose to go old school and hard wired it without using a wiring harness; but, please save yourself a few hours and get the wiring harness!

The things I like about this receiver are:

1) The unit puts out incredible sound and the HD radio is crystal clear. I live just North of Austin and haven't noticed any of the cutting out that other reviewers have described. I'm sure the quality of your local HD radio stations will impact your experience quite a bit.

2) I love that I can plug a USB thumb drive full of songs into the receiver! To me, this is far more convenient than using CDs or even pluggin in my iPod most of the time.

3) Although I prefer using the USB thumb drive, the ability to use my iPod through the radio is also great. I hadn't played with iPod tagging before now, but it has turned out to be a nice feature.

Although this receiver has been very nice overall, there are a few problems that I've run into:

1) For some reason the unit automatically came with the clock feature turned off - it took a while to find that and turn it back on.

2) I felt that the method for setting up preset channels was a little antiquated and the instructions were limited. Once I played with it for a while, I got the hang of it.

3) If you plan on removing the face, the side mount is a bit of a pain and it gets hung up on my dash. I really have to play with it to get it off - so I suspect I'll probably just leave it in place.

Overall, I am very pleased with this head unit. It looks great, sounds awesome, and has more features than I have ever had single-DIN car stereo.

Review by John Thomas:

First of all, yes, this is a tuner, NOT a radio, and Amazon should correct that! Also, HD radio is NOT High Definition radio. The HD stands for Hybrid Digital. So don't assume you'll have better sound in HD than analog radio! That said,

I have been interested in getting an HD radio to try out the format. Being an audiophile, I checked several audiophile review sites for the Sangean tuners, and they weren't getting too good of reviews. Also, their price is 0-250.

Then I came across a review for this tuner, and how much better it is, saying the FM analog portion alone is worth the price.

I have to agree, the FM tuner is much better than the tuner in my 00 PrePro! Analog reception picks up more stations and the sound is great! Haven't heard analog FM sound this good since the 60's! Analog AM is also better than my Prepro (though not by much). Great sound, and only ! This is a steal, grab it before they jack up the price! Audiophie FM tuners go for 0 & up. All this performance, and it's about the size of a car stereo!

There are about 20 FM HD stations here in Chicago, and it pulls them all in great, except for one, which keeps switching between analog and HD. There are some AM HD stations in Chicago. It would show which were HD, but none of them had enough strength to switch the tuner from analog to HD, so I couldn't judge AM HD.

Now for some things that need improving: there are 40 presets; 20 for FM and 20 for AM....not enough for FM and too many for AM. If you want to hear a HD station in analog, there's no way to switch it back to analog, you have to listen in HD. The dial glows like a cellphone, which is great while you're using it, but when you turn it off, it still glows, like a night light in a dark room. When powering down, it should dim. You can dim it down in the menu so it doesn't glow in the dark, but then when you turn it on, you can't read it because it's dark. Who wants to set the dimmer everytime you turn it on and off?

Overall, it's more than worth it.

Review by Kriston Rehberg:

The receiver is a tuner that is very small and intended to plug into your existing stereo system in a living room setting and it does this very well.

Acquiring HD is the fastest I've experienced, not the 8 seconds it should be, but close enough.

There is a really handy arrow that tells you if there are more subchannels and if you should tune 'up' or 'down' to hear them. This is really handy since it takes a while to tune HD signals, even on the best tuners.

Sound is excellent. You hear the talk radio host sip his coffee.

Remote is handy and not as useless as others think.

Presets can be set to HD subchannels. This is a major, crucial feature, and I'm very happy with it.

On AM Radio, even if the analog signal has static and interference, the HD Radio signal still comes on with crystal-clear audio. This is a huge advantage.

Some issues:

The unit runs extremely hot when tuning HD, hot when running, and very warm when off.

The back light cannot be turned off and remains lit when the power is turned off--this is a major flaw.

No optical output is a major omission for something that is just a tuner.

You cannot input a frequency. You must tune up or down one step or use presets.

The radio does remember its presets when AC power is removed, so I'm not seeing what other reviewers said.

The tuning buttons are to the left of the preset buttons meaning that I accidentally hit the preset when I want to "tune up" or "tune down".

Tuning off an HD channel is easy to do accidentally and tuning back takes a while for the HD to come back.

The tuner machine picks up alot of its own digital hash on AM.

Nighttime AM HD is currently banned by the industry due to adjacent channel interference so your AM radio will go to analog when local sunset occurs.

One word about talk radio: Even though HD Radio has been around for a few years most broadcasting equipment in my area is not upgraded well enough to provide clean broadcasting, especially on AM talk radio stations whose old analog signal covered up a world of audio hurt that you can now hear in HD. Talk radio is hard to listen to unless it's a national show that is well produced and processed. You'll hear background sound, hiss, hum, and feedback which would otherwise be masked by traditional AM broadcasting.

Review by M. JEFFREY MCMAHON:

After owning a Sangean WR-2 clock radio for a year and a half and growing more fond of it, I decided to get another upscale radio for my office, a radio with a remote control so I could avoid computer interference by keeping the radio a good 6 feet away. After reading about HD radio and Sangean's entrance into the market, I decided to take a chance. Worst case scenario, I figured, is that it would be another high-grade radio like my Sangean WR-2. Like the WR-2, the HDR-1 has a high-grade feel, a solid construction, memory presets, a remote control, and strong sensitivity on AM and FM. However, the HDR-1 is definitely an upgrade and you might consider that it has the following advantages and differences:

1. Two speakers instead of one.

2. Easy-to-use (simply plug in) AM external antenna for hard-to-get stations.

3. HD quality is clearly discernable, clear, full, no static, no "birdy," no chirps.

4. Some HD stations have multi-broadcasts.

5. Most functions have to be performed with the remote. For this reason, I don't see this as a bedside radio. Who wants to squint at their remote in a dark bedroom? More appropriate for a bedside radio is the Sangean WR-2 or the Eton Sound 100. But for office or anywhere that requires a distance between you and your radio, the HDR-1 is an excellent choice.

Update: Be aware that in AM it takes a few seconds before the radio "kicks in" to digital mode. The sound is so good it's hard to listen to non-digital AM stations. Even the strongest station in Los Angeles, KFI 640, sounds bad because it's non HD. One last point: I'm more and more in love with the speaker sound. I can't even play them as loud as I want to as I'm working when I have the radio on. But these dual speakers really shine.

Second Update: 1-19-07: After 3 weeks, I've discovered a weakness on AM: Rainy weather compromises the HD signal. This problem is compounded by the fact that the radio has weak conventional AM (much weaker for example than my Sangean WR-2 and my Eton/Grundig S350) so that when it's not in HD mode the AM sounds bad, a constant crackle in the background. FM remains strong in both HD and non HD mode, but Sangean needs to address this AM weakness.

Review by Jim M:

I am returning this radio, even though the sound was very good and -- except for one difficult station -- the reception was also very good.

I bought this to use as a bedside clock radio. It has no real controls except those found on a poorly laid-out remote (the bose for some reason also just uses a remote only). If you lose the remote, or even if you can't find it in the morning, you can't operate the functions. Changing the clock time, changing the alarms or putting the radio into sleep mode all take endless button pushing on the remote. It got very frustrating after a while, but because I liked the HD sound I had planned to keep it.

That was before I found out that the radio alarm would sometimes just not go off. Then the machine sometimes jammed up when setting the functions and refused to respond to the remote or the on and off switch until the unit was "reset". Resetting the unit means unplugging it, unplugging it means you lose everything but your presets (you have to go through all the cycles to set the clock and alarms). The final final straw that caused me to return it and find a new radio was when it started losing the signal from a local station (but not the sister hd stations transmitting on the same frequency).

So, in sum, I liked the look, I liked the sound, I liked the hd stations, I hated the required remote, I hated the difficult and cumbersome user interface, I hated the buggy operation.

Review by Kevin L. Michaels:

Installed in 1995 Ford F150 XLT Ext. cab w/stock {for now} speakers.

Installation took about an hour, direct replacement of the factory HU. Pretty basic once you get the original HU out.

I've had my P7200HD for about a month now.

The HD sig reception is great and I've had no probs breaking/losing signal. Having the 3 row display is nice for song info, etc.

ipod {I'm using USB2.0 cable} controls are great and ipod can be controlled from HU or ipod, which is nice for passengers.

Audio control gives many options for tailoring personal tastes. I've been able to fine tune to where my factory speakers sound pretty darn good. {Still going to upgrade them though.}

I haven't tested the CD/XM/bluetooth capabilities yet, but I'm confident that they will perform as well as the rest of the system.

On a scale of 1-10 I give the P7200HD a 9.5.

The only improvement that I would have would be a dedicated ipod connection from the rear of the unit.

Would I recommend the P7200HD?

You bet!

Review by S. McDonough:

This is a great deck with a 3 sets of 4 volt pre-outs, a built in hd-radio tuner, and usb and ipod capabilities. Great deck for functionality. The only two things I would have liked to see are a fold down face to cover the cd entry slot and a second usb port in the rear of the unit to allow a hidden usb connection somewhere in your vehicle. Still beggers can't be choosers and I found through extensive comparison that this product had more of the features that I was looking for the best price. Thank amazon for the lowest price and super saver shipping.

Review by Brian T. Clem:

I love it. Does everything it claims very well. I am not sure what else to add positive about it. Comes with a car kit and the kit rocks also. My suggestion is to wrap, wrap, wrap your cords. They are LONG and can be a mess if you dont take care in the beginning. But it can go where you need it.

CONS: Only one con. You can NOT save the 2nd station oh HD stations if there is more than one. So if you perfer the 2nd station, you have to click on the spot you saved it, then UP to the 2nd station in the HD multicast. Seems like they just need to address this in a firmware update.

Review by Vinh M. Tran:

Pros:

if you want an easy to install cheap HD receiver unit, this is for you

-The unit is fairly easy to install if you do it yourself, though you would want to have basic understanding of your own car and how to hook up a car radio and some mechanical knowledge.

other then that you should have a professional or someone with knowledge of car radios to install it for you

-come with a good quality car kit and mount.

-Easy to program and easy navigation of menus

-good price and nice simple LCD screen

Cons:

-a lot of wires hanging about unless you can some how organize it well, if you don't like a lot of wires hanging about, you'll probably think about an internal HD car radio instead of a external receiver unit.

-Unit does gets a bit hot, but i there doesn't seem to be any problems with it as of yet

-depending on your car, the receiver uses AUX port or the tape player adapter, if you don't have one, there is installation instructions for cars without AUX, but its going to be a little harder to install.

Review by bigfoot1970:

I just purchased one of these units at a local merchant and so far so good! I just wanted something cheap and simple to upgrade my factory stereo. I wanted bluetooth but there are too many head units that have horrible bluetooth capabilities so I decided to go without (I may add the extra unit later on this one).

This unit is equipped with a 7 band EQ as well as a subwoofer level control, both are MUST haves in my book. So far after one day I am very pleased with the sound quality! Crisp Highs and zero distortion that I can hear. I have been out of the car audio game for about 10 years now so I was clueless going in and for 5 I wasn't expecting much but I must say I am pleasantly suprised! I still have my factory Dodge speakers in and also added a 12" Orion Sub/Amp in the trunk. The menu's can be a bit tricky but after only one day (2 hours) I think I have them down pat. If you're looking for something simple for an up-grade to your existing factory tunes I would definitely recommend this unit. A Kenwood deck with similar features goes for almost 0 more and I can't see that there would be that much of a difference in sound and I'm not looking to enter any sound competitions anytime soon. Bottom line: if you are looking for an upgrade from the factory head unit (junk) installed by the manufacturer..for the price, this head unit is a steal!

Review by MICHAEL65:

I have been listening to my crappy old factory Dodge ram 1500 truck stereo system for the past 8 years thinking Oh! it dont sound so bad, (Man was I wrong!) One night I was on the Amazon web site and noticed they had many car receivers for under 0 bucks so I figured what the heck! I will go ahead and purchase one, I did some research / read a few reviews and decided on the JVC KD-HDR40

I purchased the installation kit with wiring harness/antenna adapter custom made my truck for around , (this made the install much easier.) I had the old head unit out and the new one hooked up in less than 30 minutes, I also purchased a set of Rockford Fosgte P1S652 Punch 6.5 speakers to replace the old factory paper cone 6 x 9's in the doors and a couple of JBL GTO series 5.25" for the rear.

What a difference! Receiver reception and cd playback is crystal clear and crisp with great mid range bass, Signal reception is much better than factory, I love the 7 band equalizer, Aux/Ipod input,remote control and the built in HD receiver,I cant believe how much better the HD stations sound over the non-HD.

Some reviewers have complained that the KD-HDR series receivers are difficult to program and should have preset station buttons. Personally this hasnt been a major issue with me, within 10 minutes I was able to program my presets and all other settings.

Presets buttons probably would have been nice to have but the remote makes changing between stations a breeze.

All in all the JVC KD-HDR40 is a very solid head unit and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Review by F. Shue:

This is a great car receiver for anyone who's interested in free HD radio. It's hard to tell the difference between FM and HD radio FM, but the additional channel on each band allows the user to listen to more music. The huge improvement is listening to AM radio on HD. For Bay Area residents, listen to KNPR 1050 Sports (too bad they don't broadcast HD on its sister 680 AM band). The difference between 1050 AM and 1050 HD is truly amazing. The front AUX is a nice feature where you can plug in your iPod or MP3 player with a mini-stereo cable. When you play a MP3 CD, you can search quickly for the MP3 (by number) you want to listen to by using the volume dial (better than using the buttons).

The only problem is it takes nearly 5 seconds to synch from regular radio to HD, and it's not a very stylist front panel. But it only costs 0 or less... I got the unit installed by Best Buy so I can't tell you about any installation issues (installing my previous car receiver was a pain so I decided to pay for labor this time).

Review by David Bachman:

Had this for a couple of weeks now, and I still love it. The sound is great, the functions are simple and easy, and the CD player has only skipped once over a VERY rough patch of road (in a Mustang with a stiff suspension, no less). Even without the HD Radio part, the radio reception on this deck is MUCH better than some of the others I've had.

My only real gripe is how it switches back and forth from HD Radio to analog radio and back again whenever it loses signal from HD, at least on the stations that simulcast on the same frequency. For example, if I'm listening to 97.9FM, when you first turn it on it'll play analog while it buffers the HD signal, then it'll switch over to the HD signal and you'll hear the same 4 or 5 seconds of audio you just heard on the analog side. This is annoying as hell when you get to the outer limits of a station's HD range, at which point you may as well switch off HD reception; the alternative is to put it in HD-only mode, but whenever it loses signal there, you get complete silence while "LINKING" displays on the screen, which is even more annoying to me.

I also kinda wish I'd opted for the slightly higher-priced version of this deck with the USB port on the front, but oh well, this deck plays MP3's off of CD-R's just fine without any problems, and the auxillary jack on the front is handy for your iPod or mini-MP3 player or whatever else. I'm much more pleased with this deck than the Kenwood my girlfriend just bought for + more.

Review by Steve:

Like most other reviewers I have been extremely impressed with what I got for the money. I purchased the XHD6425 and the Bluetooth add-on. They were installed in my 2000 Ford Explorer about a month ago. I didn't want to write a review until I had some time to work with the unit and see its positives and negatives.

The positives are well known, HD radio, inexpensive bluetooth option, available USB port and a 3.5mm aux jack. So lets go over the issues, both good and bad, for each.

HD Radio - Very nice. I won't lie, I didn't know what to expect. I normally get excellent reception here in NYC. So was I knocked out by the sound quality? No, not especially. But it *IS* better. It's also nice to see the second and sometimes third HD feed in the same frequency. I wasn't aware of that when I bought it. Any negatives? Not really. It's a good feature nice feature. I also like that you can set it so that it only scans for HD stations.

Bluetooth - Now I was really looking forward to this for two reasons. One was obvious. I wanted to link my phone up to the head unit (HU) to make and receive calls. As far as this is concerned, it worked great. pairing was a cinch with my VZW Treo 700P. The second reason was that this unit is able to handle A2DP Bluetooth Stereo. It worked great. I was able to stream Bluetooth audio from my phone and also from my bluetooth enabled MP3 player. I can use either the device itself or the HU to control the playback. Very sweet. Any negatives here? Yeah, kind of. The BT features does not allow you to import your phonebook, so you either start the call on your phone or dial the number on the HU. Dialing on the HU is interesting, but not smart. You use the radio preset buttons as well as several other buttons on the HU. They're too small and it's too distracting. This is a minor problem honestly as I have my phone mounted on a ProClip on the AC vent. But others might have an issue here. Also, ending a call requires you to hold down the mute button on the HU for three seconds. This is dumb. You should be able to disconnect by pressing the phone icon on the BT module. But no. The BT receiver button is for accepting a call, not ending one. Again, not a deal breaker, but disappointing.

Available USB port - Genius. I can use this to charge any device that uses a USB charging cable. Including my work Blackberry. I can use a USB flash memory card and it works great. Negatives here? Yes. Navigating through music folders is a chore. Not fun at all. I don't normally use this option as I simply control my MP3 player through either the BT or through the aux port, but again, it's worth mentioning.

Aux port - Again, genius. Simple feature that should be on all radios. Does exactly what it's supposed to. You just purchase a simple 3.5mm cable from Radio Shack or anywhere else and you can plug in any high-tech or low-tech audio feature you want. No negatives. It just works great.

Overall device... Nice. But there are some usability issues. The default sound is kind of weak in my opinion. I don't listen to things too loud, but it was still softer than I preferred. Setting "Loudness" to "ON" in the settings fixed that, but almost too much. Again, it's all about preferences. It's subjective. I also wish the radio presets had better shapes. They can be hard to hit and they toggle from the sides. 1 and 2 share the same button, so you have to hit the edges and not the center. It's annoying. As others have said, you can't dim the display, but this never bothers me.

One last thing is car specific but still an issue. My car has controls on the steering wheel that I use to control volume, switch between radio bands, CD and cassette as well as switch between radio presets (or tracks). I tried to keep as much of this functionality intact by separately purchasing a IR steering wheel control kit from PAC. It worked, but not well. Volume works fine, but the radio doesn't have a remote setting for switching between presets, so you're forced to use the HU (or the remote control). Other than that, you're just scanning between frequencies. That's annoying. Switching bands is just that, radio only. If I want to switch between inputs, I have to use the HU or the remote. Some might think these are minor issue, but I use my steering wheel controls constantly. This became my biggest disappointment by far.

All in all, a very good deal for the dollar. No doubt. The device has issues. They all do, but as long as you go into the purchase knowing the compromises up front, I think you'll be very impressed. I am.

Review by Srini P:

Update after 3 months of use: The BT stopped pairing with any phone. Tried resetting the unit. Started pairing again disconnecting and connecting the car battery. Looks like some kind of software/firmware bug. Pain to disconnect the battery every time this happens.

Near power lines, the HD signal is lost. May not be specific to this unit.

Pros:

- Excellent value. You get HD radio, MP3/WMA CD player, USB input, 3.5mm input, remote control and bluetooth ready for less than what you would spend on a Sony unit.

- Bluetooth adapter works flawlessly. I installed this in a 99'accord which is a noisy car on the freeway and my friends could not tell I am calling from car BT. Infact, my handset picks up a lot more noise.

- BT works with voice dialing feature with my SE w810i.

- Good sound quality.

Cons:

- Hard to read display in bright daylight.

- No option to turn off BT when the ignition switch is off. My phone stays connected as the car is parked less than 50 feet away. A bit annoying.

- Radio is picking up some "alternator whine". This could a grounding issue and nothing wrong with the unit itself.

- The "display" mode that shows song, title, artist info etc doesn't stay in that mode when radio is turned off and on.

- No option to continuously scroll title, artist and station info all together. You can get this info separately by pressing "disp" button repeatedly.

- Cannot store any phone numbers on the unit although it remembers last 5 dialed, received and missed numbers. It would be nice to provide a phone book on the unit itself.

- Buttons are a bit tiny. Call hang-up requires pressing a tiny button for 3 secs. There should be a dedicated button for this.

Review by Steffan Piper:

Having used a myriad of devices from the squeezboox boom and the squeezebox duet system -- as well as a few other devices that are not worth mentioning, I'll say that this is by far the easiest to use, install and operate.

Let me walk you through my set-up ... which took about 10 minutes ...

1. Unpacked the box and did away with all the plastic detritus.

2. Installed and registered the software on my laptop.

3. Plugged in the transmitter to a USB port in the back.

4. Rebooted my laptop, turned on iTunes and played a U2 album.

5. Plugged in the receiver (using a nicer set of cables) to my Sony Stereo Receiver on Aux 3. Was tempted to go optical.

6. Hit the find button on the underside of the little device and walked away.

7. 15 seconds later -- music played.

8. Stuck the batteries in the remote and turned it up.

That simple and absolutely no stumbling blocks to speak of.

Sound Quality? -- Better than I expected for this, but I wasn't looking for Mark Levinson to come out of my office and sit down on the couch with a glass of wine. The sound quality is more than adequate for casual home listening and the better your system is, the better the device will sound to you.

Responsiveness? -- I'm constantly unplugging the transmitter from my laptop and taking off somewhere, only to come back replug it back in, and find it working almost instantly and flawlessly. Windows and iTunes are not always asking questions or looking for drivers. It seems that whatever iTunes needed to do to make this thing be compatible with itself, was worked out ahead of time by Creative Labs and Apple. That's a first.

The Software -- is quite good and quite simple. You can customize it to play in zones, if that's your thing or adjust the quality of the sound and other minor changes. The software, from what I saw, doesn't appear to be a resource hog, nor has it been the culprit of crashes or bluescreens. If you don't use iTunes , you don't like to, or don't want to, this may be the only *real* problem one could face. The good thing is that it doesn't require you to depend on it as a player like other companies, or other devices do.

I can find no fault with this and I'm happy with the success of this device. I use it everyday now and I'm thoroughly pleased.

Well done ... a great idea to give as a gift for young or old as the ease of use with this is simple and the learning curve low. How about that for innovation?

...

Review by J. Herman:

Everything works and sounds great once I figured it out. The instructions that came with it made it sound simple, plug this here, plug that there and (viola!) you're up and running. Don't believe it. After checking the Creative website for troubleshooting tips (again, no help), I stumbled upon the answer on my own. Using Windows 7, I went into the Control Panel, then Hardware & Sound, then the Sound option, where I had to select the Sound Blaster Wireless card as the default sound option. That redirected the sound from my computer speakers to the Blaster transmitter. I had to then reposition my computer in my home office so that my kitchen (with its big appliances) weren't directly between the transmitter and the receiver in my family room before the reception improved. But it does now work as expected. The lesson here is that, if it is made to sound simple, you can bet it is anything but. But if you know about changing the default playback device to the Blaster USB card, then make sure your transmitter won't have big obstacles (like metal appliances) between it and the receiver(s), you'll be fine.

Review by congiundi:

This product is the best consumer product available for this type of A/V transmission. Using the 5.8MHz band keeps it free of the dreaded microwave oven interference, as well as interference from most cordless telephones. The picture is good, though not perfect. But it's more than adequate for all but the largest TVs (great for a kitchen-sized screen). Be sure to experiment with all four channels to find the one that works best.

The only glitch I have found is with the power. Occasionally the A/V link would fail and I would have to restart either the sender or the receiver, depending on which one failed. Also, occasionally the channel selection would change spontaneously on one unit or the other, thus breaking the link. I solved both of these problems by installing small APC battery backups on both sender and receiver unit. I think electrical storms were at the root of both problems. Since then, I haven't had a single recurrence. I've used these units now for over two years.

We don't use the IR link because we have a different one (made by RCA) that works well and serves other devices not connected by the AVS-5811/5813.

Review by Ron Krell:

My original review was a 5 but after a couple of weeks of use I have had to lower it to a 4. The picture is great but the remote extension isn't up to par with the picture. Some days it works great and other days it won't work at all. Most of the time it is in between and the channel will change when you want except instead of going one channel at a time it starts going through a loop till it gets tired and stops on a random channel. I've also figured out that when using the normal tv source I have to shut off the transmitter in order for the remote on that tv to work properly. The main thing though is that the picture transmitted from the living room to the bedroom is great and the remote issues are simply an inconvenience. This is only a temporary set up for a few months and does what we needed.

Review by Paul Lee:

WOW...

My purchase before this item was a logitech universal remote. I spent 10 hours and 2 calls to India to set up and I ended up not using the RF remote because it didn't work.

REASON FOR PURCHASE (APPLICATION):

I wanted to gift my mom the ability to watch her DirecTV in the kitchen on the new 23" Samsung I got her. We didn't want to go through the hassle of having another big DirecTV HD DVR box and more coaxial line run around the house, so I bought the Briteview.

INSTALL:

1. Plugged HDMI cable from Family room DTV receiver to back up base unit (kept the component video and audio plugged into cinema receiver for the main TV).

2. Plugged BV-2500 base unit into wall.

3. Placed Infared receiver over the DTV receiving IR port

4. 40ft away and through 1 wall I plugged receiving unit into back of Samsung 23" TV via HDMI

5. Plugged receiving unit into wall

6. Turned on both TV's and whaa-la

PRO's

* Not sure for all applications, but the DirecTV receiver was capable of sending component audio/video and HDMI aud/vid at the same time, so we could watch and adjust volume on both TV's at same time with ZERO LAG (both audio and video).

* SUPER EASY INSTALL WITH INFARED WORKING ON FIRST ATTEMPT

* HD picture quality is 1080P

* No extra running of cables for my application

* Small receiving unit makes for a clean looking install. Unit is smaller than most computer home routers.

CON's

* No HDMI out on the base unit (would make nice for lots of us who want to pass through the HDMI and don't have an AV receiver or want to change AV receiver input). Instead I have to use both HDMI and component out so.

UNKNOWN AND OTHER SUGGESTIONS

To complete the install I think I will probably need to buy an additional DireTV remote and program the 2nd TV's volume control to that.

Keep in mind your are going to be watching the SAME channel on the 2nd display if you are watching the primary display at the same time. That being said this isn't for most family's. My mom lives with just my dad and they enjoy watching the same thing.

Now my mom can cook family dinner and watch TV at the same time!!!

Keep in mind this was a gift from someone (me) who doesn't even own or watch TV.

FIRST REVIEW OF A PRODUCT ON AMAZON... WHATCHA THINK?

Review by yinlun:

My friend and I have been looking for a wireless HDMI setup for some time now. We've tried the Sony Bravia Wirelesslink, and we both ran into the same problem. That unit sends video, but no audio to a Samsung LCD. In addition, there was a lag in the video. The video quality was good, but not exceptional. Then as I was returning that unit, I found this. Figured it was worth a try. Let me just say..I'm glad I did.

This is near perfect. The video quality is better than the Sony. Unfortunatley, there's no 1080p, but 1080i works just fine for me.

Pros:

No lag in transmisisons

IR Repeater allows everything to be tucked away from plain site

Easy to install

Easy to setup

Works really well with no interference to video/audio quality

Cheap in comparison to other available products

Cons:

-Upon initial setup, the reciever was dropping in and out in connection. I ended up following the instructions and changing the recieving channels, after that I haven't had an issue.

-The remote that comes with it is bare bones, meaning another remote to manage. If only it was like the Sony unit that could replace other remotes..

One additional thing I would like is the option to add additional recievers to the sending unit. Otherwise, this unit has more than exceeded my expectations.

Review by H. D. McBride:

First of all the seller (JCC Electronics) was fast, communicated well, and delivered to their commitments. Would buy from them again.

I was looking for a solid, accurate wireless connection for subwoofers not located within cable distance/convenience of the AVR. Purchased and evaluated the Soundcast SubCast and have to give it 5 stars +++. Here's why:

Frequency response: Measured electrically flat in the sub range of around 250Hz to below 20Hz. Actually, short of a bit of ringing in the very high frequencies (+15kHz) this device works well as a full range, 2 channel wireless audio transmitter. It is just being packaged and sold for subs in this application. Anyway, frequency response was down .3 dB at 15Hz, down 1 dB at 10Hz, and down 3.4 dB at 5Hz.

Connectivity: Comes with multiple audio cables for each end of the wireless connection so it is highly unlikely you would need to buy any additional cables. Also includes wall worts (power) for each end which is provided via USB connectors (USB cables supplied) between the wall wort and the transmitter/receiver.

Latency: All wireless solutions that transmit digitally introduce latency (delay) into the audio stream between the transmitter and receiver. Soundcast claims 15ms and I measured 15ms. Other solutions on the market are much higher than this or use analog transmission that allow static and noise injection into the audio. The latency must be accounted for in the AVR and 15 ms (around 15 feet - one foot per ms) is easily handled by most AVRs.

Interference with other 2.4GHz devices: The transmitter and receiver operate on the standard 2.4GHz band used by cordless phones, wireless networks, etc. Testing revealed no interference one way or the other between devices or external sources of interference like microwave ovens, etc. The transmitter and receiver operate on a narrow band/band hopping process that claims to virtually eliminate interference. My testing confirmed no issues.

Size/Appearance: The size of the transmitter and receiver are quite diminutive hence easy to hide. If you want to look at them, they are very attractive and have two lights in their bases - a green one indicating power, and a blue one indicating signal connectivity between transmitter and receiver.

Bottom line - if you are looking for a reliable, all-inclusive subwoofer wireless connectivity solution that won't affect the sound quality or performance of your sub, give this a look.

[...]

Review by In House Chef:

Works great, after calibration from the receiver. It detected the subwoofer is 28 feet away from the mic, but actually only 5 feet away because of the internal delay of this product.

Just make sure to set it up at "S" mode, not the "M" mode to get the units to sync up correctly if you only have one woofer.

I tested it vs. direct cable connection, I can't notice the difference.

The auto-on/off function on my Velodyne DEQ-10R still works fine with this wireless unit.

Review by E. Ham:

This thing is tiny, convenient and reliable. It's a truely wireless solution in that it requires no adapters or additional cables AT ALL. (But in case you want to add cables and adapters, it comes with PC sync and miniphone sockets.)

The flash mounts directly onto the receiver's built in hot shoe. Then, the receiver unit can be mounted directly onto either a tripod or a light stand via the standard 1/4" thread. Fast, Simple, and Easy set up.

Let's face it. Everyone wants and think they need something that can trigger their flash from a mile away. So, everyone clamors for Pocket Wizards. But for 99.99% of the users, that's simply an over kill. I've used the original version of Flashwaves which has "only" 50 meter range for over a year and half now. Never once during that time, I've went beyond its range or close to it. Anyhow, as is obvious from looking at the photos of this trigger, the convenience factor is obvious. Having the hot shoe built into the receiver seems like such an obvious thing, it's surprising how others don't do it. Is it perhaps so they can sell you the additional accessories to make more money? With Flashwave, there is no need to buy anything ever. There is hardly any set up time either because Flashwave receivers are always on my flash. I store them that way. So, I just take them out, mount them on the light stand, and am ready to shoot. Before, when I had the other kind, e.g., Microsync, I had to take out the receiver, a hot shoe adapter, and a cable, then screw on the hot shoe adapter on the light stand, connect the cable to the hot shoe adapter, and then to the receiver, then carefully hang the receiver so that the cable does not get disconnected (or as others do, buy an extra accessory like a "caddy" to hold on to the receiver) and then mount the flash. You get the picture ... . The advantage is crystal clear.

I just bought additional units ... this time FlashWave2. It's 100% compatible with the original Flashwaves I have. The advantage of the FlashWave2 is the longer range.

Here's another good review of the product. [...]

Review by Buckeyes:

This seems to be a hidden gem. It is not well known. But it's a great alternative to Pocket Wizards. Flashwave2 is reliable and very convenient. It's very small and very well made. Feels solid in my hands. It's very convenient because I use portable flash units and the receiver unit has hot shoe on it as you can see in the pictures. There is no need to buy any additional cables or adapters. Also, I can keep the receiver unit mounted on the flash units. I now store and carry all my flash units with the Flashwave2 receivers on them. Needless to say, set up is now very quick and easy. These are much much more reliable than any cheap Chinese made triggers. Great alternative to Pocket Wizard. Love this thing.

Pros:

1. Hot shoe on the receiver

2. Reliable

3. Small and sturdy

4. Uses common easy to find batteries, not proprietary batteries

5. Easy to mount on either tripod or light stands.

Cons:

Not much ... Costs over 0?