ITEM: 200 Channel FM Wireless FM Transmitter (DIGITAL)
PRICE: About $8US shipped
SOURCE: eBay
SELLER: marcokiosk (other ebay sellers, like mobi-energy and pointingmouse, which are both the same seller note, have the same product at the same price). None of these 3 sellers have very inspiring
feedback (lots of negs about products never delivered, etc, despite an overall relatively high feedback percentage). I chose marcokiosk simply because he had less negs this month (but much less overall feedbacks than the other, and a slightly lower feedback percentage). n.b. Having just bough this unit off this ebay seller, I did not actually receive it yet. But I already bought one that looks very similar from another seller, I have no reason to think it'd be any different.
I decided to include this in a review because a few people occasionally ask about FM transmitters. (I hope they will do a search and find this review....). I know, I was one. I was led to this type from a tip by, if I recall, the Admin, and possibly someone else. But instead of the 4 channel type recommended, I got this digital 200 channel one.
It is actually a replica of the Belkin Tunecast II (main difference being the Belkin has an auto-off to save batteries. But note, the Belkin's ending in "APL" do not come with a car adapter). Reviews on the Belkin were pretty awful across the board, so i didn't expect much from its knockoff. I was surprised though, because I've been very pleased with this unit. (The only thing I didn't like was the fact that my previous ebay seller, 939HK, implied it came with a car adapter, but it didn't).
Battery life on 2 AAA's is about 6-8hrs. While I haven't tried the unit every which way possible, I know that it can do a good job broadcasting from my computer over to the next room. It uses the Hirose USB cable connection, that incidentally, comes with my Glacier MP4 player, and many 1st gen nano chipods (it has a standard usb connector on the other end, which then fits into the 12v car power adapter to save batteries). So whether at home or in the car, this model does not require batteries! That's one great thing about it, plus the fact that you wont have trouble finding a station to broadcast on, since it can scan any station in small increments.
Using my Glacier USB cable, I connect the transmitter into my computer via USB port to power it, and with this, I broadcast to my kitchen stereo in the next room over. I bought it to broadcast Pandora, a streaming internet radio. But you can also play mp3's, podcasts or whatever you have on your computer to a radio in another room. I think the range is 10-30m or maybe 10-30 feet.
In the car it also does a good job, you don't need to place it right near the transmitter as the bad reviews say about the Belkin. It also has 3 presets when you find the best stations in your area, a nice blue backlight, a clock, battery indicator and a temperature guage! It plugs into your mp4 player with its built in headphone cable, but you can buy an extension at a dollr store if this isn't long enough. You can also buy a plastic mp4 iPod holder at dollar stores if you like that. You can stick this transmitter anywhere on your dash with double sided tape, so you're set.
I have uploaded a photo of mine in the Accessories section of the Gallery.
It looks "pretty" similar to the one in this photo (you can enlarge it):
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache...1&client=opera
Can you do better for $8 shipped? Fuggedaboutit!
Hope this helped some people....