This is a good FM transmitter, but all FM transmitters are the worst solution to the problem. BEST: a phono plug line-input on the car stereo. NEXT BEST: cassette adapter. I compared the Belkin model to the iTrip (2005). The Belkin was slightly more powerful, and came with an easy-to-use digital readout and station-setting buttons. iTrip also realised that these were needed and include them on their newer products. Ease of use - Belkin TuneCase II wins hands down. Well made. And with the F8V7067-APL Mobile Power Cord you don't eat up batteries (and this cable can run an iPod from the car battery). But you have cables all over the place - along with my phone charger, bluetooth earpiece adapter charger and radar detector makes for a spaghetti-look.

But the real problem is in how poorly it actually gets sound from an MP3 player out of the speakers. It just about DOES NOT WORK. I use it ONLY for books on tape that I have loaded on a few knock-around MP3 players. The sound of speech is muffled (though intelligible), with a slight whine in the background akin to an old car cassette player. Music is almost unlistenable. Your MP3 player might be pumping out hi-fidelity, but it comes out of the radio like an old victrola. Another major problem is that in my area of NJ radio stations are so close together that there is no "empty frequencey" that you need to transmit on. And the Belkin doesn't go all the way to the very ends of the FM spectrum - the places radio stations HATE to be anyway. And when you do find the one space that works marginally well in one town, by the time you get 5 or 6 miles away, that space is filled by another station. You need to pull over and find another empty frequency. Good luck - it's harder than it seems.

Read the other reviews - the ones that warned ME about these same problems. I'll bet this thing would work acceptibly in an open space of Wyoming, but for the majority of us: save your money for a $99 replacement radio with line-input.

I took the TuneCast II on a road trip to Canada, and I had major problems getting reception all the way between Chicago and Toronto. It seemed to help if I was touching the unit, such as if it was in my lap. It also burned through batteries. Now that I bought a mobile power cord (//www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001J3Q9W), it seems to ground the unit or something, and I never have problems with reception. The sound quality is decent, but not great. I have to turn up my radio considerably to pick up the sound. It's easy to work and does a decent job. Bypass this and plug directly into you auxiliary jack if your stereo has one.

The unit must be right next to an antenna for it to give a rather low quality sound. I used it for talk radio, so it wasn't too bad. But then it totally crapped out after about 2 months. If you have money to throw away, then this is for you!!

Well, I bought this for use in my car because it is a battery operated transmitter and my cigarette lighter port is blown out. I thought it would be nice to listen to the ipod in my car, and my non-battery operated model works like a charm. Not so with this one. I know the fcc regulates fm transmitters to low power, but this is ridiculous. I only got a clear signal if I actually touched the transmitter to the car antenna. I thought it might be my car, but it did the same thing with the other three cars I tried. To make matters worse, as some of the previous reviews state, the batteries run out very rapidly, making it worthwhile to invest in duracell stock if you plan on using this product for extended periods of time. Overall very poor performance.

After receiving the TuneCastII to used with my iPod Nano, I noticed the batteries would go dead in the TuneCastII even when the unit wasn't being used within a two week period. I contacted Belkin and they said to return the unit to them and I paid the shipping. I received a new one from them and sure enough, this one does the same thing.

It appears that the unit is still 'on' even though it appears off using up the batteries. Maybe this is due to the 'auto' on/off signal function requiring power to work. I'd rather just have a normal on/off switch to use and save on batteries. Or supply the car adapter with the unit instead of having to pay another $20 for it.

Besides the battery issue, the transmitter is very weak and after trying numerious locations in the car and different frequencies I have found listening to the iPod Nano more of a pain with the TuneCastII and have gone back to just listening to the radio.

Don't waste your money on this item!!!!!

I regularly commute along I-85, I-95 up through DC and use this with my Photo iPod. I get great reception, but I probably have to change frequency once throughout the course of the trip (just because of a local radio station that uses "my" frequency, but there are always several I can jump to). I use this with the Belkin Car charger (which powers both the iPod and the FM Transmitter) and I'm very happy with them both!

Works very good with my Creative Zen Micro, after the volume is turned to max on the mp3 player. Would be nice if it came with a car adapter so that you didn't need to use batteries. Auto on/off is a cool feature, signal is strong and sounds great in my car. Sometimes you have to change the station when your driving because you will start picking up another radio station.

This product barely transmits when it's on the dashboard, let alone if I try to set it on the passenger seat next to me. When it does work, the sound quality if pretty bad--very static-y. It's hard to find a wavelength that works--even with frequencies that sound practically clear, as soon as I try transmitting over it, I end up with all kind of interference. The signal just isn't strong enough.

Also, it does eat batteries like others have said: Two batteries only last between 2-3 hours. And the little piece of junk is even poorly made: the plastic wire covering separates from the transmitter and causes the signal to short, which pretty much makes the whole effort worthless.

This is my second TuneCast transmitter. The first one stopped working reliably when plugged into the cigarette lighter on my car. (I would have to wiggle the wire to get it to work which is not safe while driving) This transmitter continues to wear out batteries although the power appears to be off. I must remove the batteries when I'm not using it in order to preserve them. The TuneCast works well with fresh batteries but does not meet my expectations.

Comparing this FM transmitter with my Belkin TuneCast 1 and another off brand transmitter, I'd say this one is the best. All FM transmitters have very short range however (government regulations on FM bands).

OH, I GOT SCREWED..
THIS PEICE OF EQUIPTMENT SOULD NOT EVEN BE ON THE MARKET
IM GLAD I PURCHASED IT WITH AMERICAN EXPRESS CAUSE THEY CREDITED MY MISTAKE.
IT DOSENT WORK.. IF YOU LIKE STATIC, LOTS OF NOISE, WITH SOME SPRATIC MUSIC... TURN ON YOUR I POD AND STICK A FAX MACHINE IN YOUR OTHER EAR!

PRICELESS... AND I MEAN ITS NOT WORTH THE TIME AND MAILING IT BACK COSTS U MONEY..

There is an on/off button but you have to hold it down for several seconds before it turns on. I found this to be inconvienient. I've tried other FM transmitters and have experienced static during audio playback; I also experienced static with this model as well. The only way I've been able to minimize the static is to hold the transmitter in my hand. Overall this I think this product is okay. I like that it turns off by itself, but it eats up the batteries like crazy!

This unit is TOTALY WORTHLESS! Please don't waste your money! Heck, you can have mine if you want it, but it's not worth the postage to send it to you. Sounds like your speakers are stuffed with wet socks, if you can find a station that isn't pure static, which is nearly impossible. I'm shocked that they can actually sell a product that is this poorly designed. I made an oath never to buy anything with the name Belkin on it again. Are you getting that this is a really, REALLY horrible product?! No kidding. No axe to grind. Thought it was a great idea. Gladly paid for it, and eagerly tried it out. EXTREMELY DISSAPOINTED!!! I guess I should have read the other reviews. If you still choose to buy one, don't say you weren't warned.

Despite the other reviews, I decided to give this a try but I wish I'd gone with the casette adapter instead (those are getting better reveiws, especially the Coby). The static gets pretty bad, both in my hometown and on road trips. Its hard to find a consistent station (even at home where I can use the same one regularly) that doesn't pick up alot of static at some point. Like another reviewer mentioned, it works best when you can HOLD the transmitter in a certain position in relation to your radio or antenna....but its not exactly convenient!

The product also seems to be cheaply made, the cord has pulled apart from the piece that plugs into the MP3, exposing the internal wires. I think its too late to return it or I certainly would!

I also thought I had seen that this unit came with a charger that plugs into your cigarette lighter, but it does not; it is a DC adapter.

I tried this unit with both the alkaline batteries and the companion charging cord (which works fine) and found the FM transmission to be so weak as to make the unit practically useless. I discovered that by pulling over, remaining stationary with my arms in a certain position that I was able to get "three star" audio levels, but that was it.

I purchased one of these after over a year of stalling due to all of the poor reviews here and elsewhere. I was concerned about 2 primary issues: sound quality and reception. I finally bought one with a gift certificate since I wasn't willing to risk hard earned cash on it.

I drove with this model in my Mercury Mountaineer driver-side cupholder for nearly 400 miles. I ran the player for about 8 hours straight through 3 very large metropolitan areas and also through the country. I used the batteries (wish they had included a power adapter in this model).

On first setup, I turned on the device by holding both tune buttons down. I located a station range in the lower FM 90's where I could not find a clear radio station for 0.4 or so on the FM dial. I then tuned my TuneCast right in the middle of those. I turned up the sound on my car and pressed play on my iPod. I was instantly greeted with poor signal and tons of static as reported by many on the internet. I was pretty mad, then I realized my iPod volume was turned down a bit. I turned this up to about 95% and instantly the sound came pumping through my car's system clear as a bell.

On my trip I had to change the station 3 times as I moved in and out of massive metropolitan areas. This became evident as the signal would slowly gain static. All I did was first locate the closest station with no or little radio broadcast signal (tons of static), then I dialed the TuneCast to that station. It worked perfectly each time and only took seconds, so this did not bother me at all. When I came back the same way a few days later, I didn't have to change the station once.

With regard to battery life, I found that my TuneCast ran on the 2 AAA batteries for about 8 hours. When the batteries died, they died instantly and my signal was lost within seconds. I simply replaced, and was jamming again in a minute.

Possible problems people could have with this are (1) poor placement relative to your car's antenna (good in Mercury Mountaineers), (2) small signal strength of audio player - iPod (20GB, 4th gen) at 95% is pretty loud in earphones and it's possible not all players can go loud enough to eliminate much of the static in the FM broadcast, (3) trying to tune to a station that already has a radio broadcast in the area or has an FM band close to the one you're using - find one to use with some room on each side for little static, (4) songs that use intense ends of the frequency spectrum like extremely low basses or high-pitched whooshes from cymbals, etc - I found that songs with a lot of bass and crashes had some static in those spectrums (a limitation of FM in general, but not really an annoyance to me; your radio station overcomes this with special compression).

Overall, I gave this device a 4 because of the power situation. I would have liked it to come with an adapter. Things I really like are the small size, 0.1 FM resolution on the entire range, batteries optional, auto-on/off feature (works great!). This device may not work for everyone, but you need to understand the limitations of this technology before you go calling it a piece of junk. Small devices like this have Federally mandated operating powers so that they don't override your local FM stations for everyone else, otherwise I'm sure they would have a strong enough signal for anyone's car configuration (and heck, entire neighborhood for that matter).

I had high hopes for this device, but clearly should have done more research. First, I had a difficult time finding an FM station that wasn't broadcasting (I live outside NYC), then once I did, all I could get was static. I tried everything! I'm very disappointed in this product and would recommend spending a few extra dollars to get a better quality device.

I purchased this product because I had been told it was one of the better FM transmitters on the market that does not operate off your car's cigarette lighter (and, therefore, can be used both in a car and on a home stereo). The price isn't too bad. The problem is it simply did not work. I tried it first of my home stereo and was able to at least get it to produce some sound, but the quality was extremely poor, similar to when you're driving out of town and losing your radio station - in other words, extreme static. Next, I tried it in the car, where I thought I'd have better luck, but I could not get the thing to broadcast at all, on any of the available stations. The sound quality was zero, because there was no sound at all. I also agree with another reviewer who stated that the available stations are a problem, as most larger cities will already have these taken. I ended up returning this and going back to my old cassette adapter, which works a thousand times better. I don't think I'll ever try another FM transmitter, because after my experience with this one, I don't think I'm ever going to find one that works as well as a much cheaper cassette adapter will.

I actually have an older version of this Belkin product that only has 4 preset channels. Out of the box it worked okay in my Honday Oddyssey. I'd give it a B minus because of occasional static. Then I tried it in my primary car - a Subaru Forester and it was absolutely horrible. The static and sound dropouts were horrible. If I held it in my hand, I could usually get decent sound, but when I let go it was horrible. I tried locating it right by the radio with no help. Then I looked in the car manual and discovered that the antenna was built into the back window. I moved the trasmitter back there, with only modest improvement.

Then I saw that there was a wire going to the window antenna. I took about a six foot piece of wire (plastic covered not bare) and clipped it to the window antenna, then I ran the other end of the wire up to the front of the car and placed the transmitter near it and got great sound. If I wrap the end of the wire around the wire ocmming out of the transmitter it is near perfect sound.

So before you throw it away or destroy it in a fit of rage (as others have suggested), see if you can find where your car radio antenna might have an accessible place where you can attach your own antenna to and run it up to the vicinity of your ipod.

Once over this hurdle, I find it a fantastic product. If the manufacturers had given me this tip to start with, I'd give it 5 stars.

I bought the Tunecast II hoping it would play well with my Zen, but I was sadly disappointed. The sound quality was horrible on every station. This may be due to the fact that my antenna is in the back of my car, but most people's are. The only way I could hear it without extreme amounts of static was to hold it in my hand, and even then it was less than acceptable. A remarkably horrible product!!!!!

I hate this product. The reception is so bad. I have bought another tyoe to use that works great.

$40, horrible reception and on top of that you have to waste MORE $$ in batteries!
Completely unfair. I don't know who had the idea of designing this, but it was a waste of money so I'm looking for a new transmitter

In NYC (I haven't tried anywhere else) This thing is worthless. I played with this for hours & couldn't a single frequency that would give me even 5 minutes of static free music.

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

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

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

Do not buy this product unless you can afford to spend $50 a week on batteries!

Worked for 6 hours, then just stopped transmitting. What a waste of cash. Do not buy this.

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

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

This is a total waste of money and engineering. Plenty of free frequencies in my area and it would barely connect to anything. Sound quality horrible even when the device is right next to the antenna on a portable FM player. Wrapping it back up and sending it back.

I bought the TuneCast II Mobile FM Transmitter because I do not have a tape deck, and I was happy to know I didn't have to use a lighter too. Anyway, I wanted to listen to all my music in my car from my i-pod without making a cd for everything. The device ruined the experience for me because I cannot get a good sound without static and bad reception. I was disappointed.

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

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

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

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

Hey, don't listen to those other schmucks. So maybe there are a few of these that are exceptable, but the rest just complain too much. I love this thing! I got it for Christmas, and now for $20, you can't beat that. I use a standard charger for it in my car, so I never have to worry about batteries. It seems that the best way to get it to sound the best, is work with your mp3 player or whatever your using (equalizer). I have also used it on my portable DVD player in the car and it sounds awesome! For the price, I highly recommend this product.

First of all, I bought one of these a couple of years ago, I thought it was terrible and returned it.

That said, I was on a road trip and stopped at Fry's electronics. I had forgotten to bring my normal FM modulator, so I wanted to get a cheap one. I saw it on the shelf, except it was branded Hewlett-Packard. It looks and functions identical except for the brand name, and it was only $20. I figured it was so cheap I could just use it for the rest of trip and then forget about it. To my surpise, the quality was much better that I remembered. Maybe HP insisted on better quality control or something.

Other advice: Use the 12V DC adapter. It comes free with the HP version, or sold as an accessory with the Belkin one. There is less static when it's plugged in.

The transmission quality is very poor. I was unable to find a single frequency free of static. While operating the Belkin TuneCast II in my car I found that driving over or under bridges, under traffic lights, under power lines, or near large trucks increases the static to a level where the music can not be heard at all. The only way I could get audio clarity equal to that of a dirty and scratched record or a distant AM station was to hold the transmitter to the face of my radio. What a piece of poo! Can I give it zero stars? And don't even get me started on the excessive packaging that you'll need to use a diamond tipped jack-hammer to open.

With two new batteries I could not access the sign from a clock radio in my house. When I took it out to the car I could access it. but the signal was weak and the when I turned up the volumn enough to hear music I also heard static.

Unit at least mine is (smelly, brown goo!!!) and who needs that in ones car?

Simply stated - this was a waste of money. I live an hour from a large city yet I still cannot find a clear channel without getting interference when driving. Quality of sound when it does work is crap. I would give mine away for free but wouldn't want to spread the frustration to anyone else.