Honest Reviews of Philips MP3/CD Casette Adapter and Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter

Sorry for the long gap between blog entries. Should be posting more regularly now.

Today I am going to do an "honest" review of both Philips MP3/CD Car Cassette Adapter model number PH2050W and Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter. The Philips Car Cassette Adapter costs about $10 at Fred Meyer and probably other major retailers. The Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter costs about $20 at Fred Meyer and probably other major retailers. I want to clarify that price information is not a recommendation to buy these products and that Fred Meyer, where I purchased both products as well as many others that I review on here, does not compensate me to endorse or review these products.

Let me start off with the Philips Car Cassette Adapter Model Number PH2050W. This product works good with the vehichle that had a cassette deck in it that I was using. I just put the Cassette Adapter in the vehicle's cassette deck and plug the adapter cord coming from the Cassette Adapter into the headphone jack of the CD Player/MP3 Player/etc. Then I just simply turn on the vehicle's stereo and listen to the music. The only known issue with getting this to work with some vehicles from what I can tell is that you may have to open the cassette adapter up and reposition the cable which I didn't have to do in my case but looks fairly simple. So this is a product I would be willing to recommend to someone else.

Now on to the Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter. This one is a totally different story about recommending this product. This product is for people like me who have MP3 Players or CD Players that they want to plug in to their car stereo but can't in a certain vehicle because of the lack of a cassette deck and the lack of an input jack on their vehicle's stereo system.

Does the Belkin TuneCast II work? The simple answer is NO and YES. Confusing? Read on.

The Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter works by plugging a adapter cord into your music device and then the TuneCast II transmits it through the radio station of your choice between most FM frequencies. You just set the Belkin and the vehicle's stereo system to the same FM frequency and you can then listen to your CD Player or MP3 Player's music over the radio. Or can you?

According to Belkin you can, according to me you can't. Belkin talks about a 30 foot broadcasting range with the device but when I tried using it in the car or even in the house the audio output was fading away just a few feet away from the radio. So you have to have the product next to the stereo that you are using contrary to Belkin's claim.

Another problem is Belkin's advice to locate an unused frequency on the FM dial where you live. I found the product works great in a manner I will describe later on when it was broadcasting on a frequency already occupied by a radio station.

The product "as is" works best when there is someone else in the car to move the adapter because there appears to be interference from time to time when driving while using the product.

Well what do you do then if there is no one else to fix it in the car and you don't have the ability to adjust it in the car while driving? I found a possible solution that costs about another $10 or so from Radio Shack. It is called an 8 Foot Headphone Extension Cord. Apparently this thing acts like a signal booster for the Belkin TuneCast II FM transmitter when you plug this thing in between the TuneCast and your music player. After I did this I had only a little bit of noticeable static and did not have to adjust the transmitter hardly at all for some 20 miles driving down the freeway.

So let me summarize these reviews.

If you have a cassette deck in your vehicle just buy the Philips product I mentioned above.

If you don't have a cassette deck and lack an audio input for your car's stereo and live in a rural area or plan on using these kind of devices in rural areas since cities have a lot more interference which may make the Belkin very difficult to use, I would recommend the Belkin TuneCast II FM transmitter but I would also recommend you buy the 8 foot extension cord from Radio Shack because it appears to make a huge difference.

Now if you happen to live in a bigger city (like probably 100,000 people or more) or want to use a product like this in a larger metropolitan area, I would not recommend this product and my best advice would be to look for a more expensive car stereo with an audio input jack or a more expensive FM transmitter product.

If anyone has any questions feel free to leave a comment.