Zune Car Pack
After messing around with the Zune Car Pack for a couple of days, I thought I’d share my thoughts.
Right out of the box it looked pretty slick. Essentially the Car pack is two items; a Zune Car charger and an FM transmitter.
In the car, I first tried just the FM transmitter with the Zune (without additional power). I had really poor results. (at this point I should mention that I treat instructions as something you use to find out what you should have done)
After connecting the additional power I had better results but still mixed. The clarity of the music seemed to depend on me holding the transmitter and it being in a line of sight to the antenna. I don’t think I will be driving along holding onto my Zune and transmitter!
Holding the scan button down makes the transmitter to do an auto scan searching for a clear frequency to transmit on. Pressing the scan button quickly makes the transmission frequency to change by 0.1MHz.
My technique was to first auto scan for a transmission frequency and then tune the car radio to that frequency. It just seemed the frequencies the auto scan found, weren’t always the clearest. In fact it was so bad I thought “Oh {something}, I’m taking this back for a refund”
To overcome this, I switched the order of things. First I used the car radio to find a frequency that was not in use. Then I tuned the FM transmitter to that frequency. Much better results but still need to hold onto the transmitter to get good sound.
I waved the Zune and transmitter all around trying to find the place with the best sound. I ended up with it tucked behind the sun visor, right up against the roof. This gave excellent sound but you can’t use your sun visor and you have a not-so-pretty cord running up to the visor.
Might workout ok if you have a mini-van with all those storage compartments in the ceiling and it has a power outlet up there too.
I’m thinking that the power of these transmitters is pretty weak – probably to meet regulations.
The Zune brand Car Pack sells for about $70 and the Zune brand Car Charger sells for about $25, so the FM transmitter part costs you the difference or about $45.
How does $70 stack up against a do-it-yourself kit WIRED connection?
Let’s look at what you’d need
1) Up to $20 for a USB car charger adapter (USB Car Charger Adapter
Any USB car charger adapter should be ok since the USB interface is standardized
2) $20 a Zune Brand USB Cable (has to be Zune brand since the connector is proprietary) (Zune USB Cable
3) $25 for wires to connect to car radio or hi-fi (Connector cable
The bill is going to total somewhere around $75 or more.
Me, I’m going to stick with the FM transmitter and look for an additional small FM antenna to put inside the car. I’ll let you know how that turns out.
If you see a car driving around with one of those rabbit-ear antennas on the front dash or in the back window, it might be me so wave.
Posted: December 15th, 2006 under Zune.
Comments: none
Write a comment