Posted by batesie
Please Post your reviews Here:
Facts and features
The FM Music Transmitter MMR-60 allows you to transmit music from your mobile phone to a radio up to ten metres away. Wirelessly connected to any device with an FM receiver, the MMR-60 is powered from your phone’s battery.
Key features
Transmits music wirelessly to any FM radio within ten metres
Remembers last frequency used
Runs on your phone’s battery – no separate charging necessary
Sizes
25 x 10 x 40 mm
1 x .4 x 1.6 inches
I will be recieving mine soon, and i'll post a review here...
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[ This Message was edited by: batesie on 2006-01-30 14:17 ]
[ This Message was edited by: batesie on 2006-01-30 15:02 ]
Posted by Dan_Aykroyd
Ok... keep us posted!
Posted by batesie
Ok! So here's my Review.
first things first, ive been using it all day, and i havent noticed my battery level go down any more than usual... which is nice.
Heres some pics of the product and its packaging....
It comes in a nice litte re-usable tin, with a foam insert which it fits snugly in!
Logo on the back.... (mine was made in Sweden)
OK, so you plug it in, and it glows orange, and it suggests a frequency you want to transmit on...
Once youve chosen a frequency (one without a radio station already transmitting on) it starts to fade the orange light on and off..
then you just tune in your hi-fi/stereo/car stereo to the same frequency start playing your media files/music/live TV as usual!
It also works happily with a K750...
If you go to settings, then connections, then Accessories, you can choose another frequency, and or switch the orange glowing light on or off.
It also remembers the last frequency used whichever phone you plug it into!
Overall its a great accessory, one of the best
has ever come up with
More to follow shortly, as i will be testing battery usuage/range etc at a later date!....
Posted by petrutms
how much this costs?
Posted by batesie
well i got mine off ebay for around £35. thats the only place i can find selling them to the UK at the moment...
Posted by batesie
£46 delivered here...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Son[....]-W900-W800_W0QQitemZ5861665608
Posted by jcwhite_uk
I would be tempted to get one if I wasnt saving for a PSP.
Posted by Coxy
Was gonna get one of these. So far there are only two reasons why I have not. Firstly I have a Belkin Tunecast II and I do not rate it very well, it gets lots of interferance. So a review would help me with this one. Secondly (and more importantly) it would cost me a hell of a lot to get one of these and use it now, as I do not have either my K750, W800 or W900 anymore!!! lol.
Posted by Supa_Fly
Batesie, how on earth did you get this to work with the w900i? I thought the radio wasnt built in to the w900i and its in the headphones?
>unless this just broadcasts the MP3's off the phone into the air for stereo tuned into the preset frequency, right?
Posted by jcwhite_uk
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You answered your own question. It can transmit anything from the media player to a FM radio.
Posted by batesie
yes, any audio id transmitted up to 10 meters but ive gone further up to 30 metres with a direct line of sight to the reciever.
also, @coxy, it does get interference in built up areas, as long as you can find a 'free' frequency it works fine.
Posted by jcwhite_uk
Does it send an RDS signal? It would be cool if it did.l
Posted by batesie
mmm, nope
yes an RDS would be good if it says "W900i via MMR-60" or just "Walkman"....
Posted by Ente1011
Alop
hey, i got a question, what happen when a call enter and you answer it?
you hear the sound in the loudspeakers????? O_O"
Posted by Dan_Aykroyd
Couple of questions:
1) What does the light effects option in the menu?
2) Can you send audio from a currently playing video?
3) Sure about the RDS? There was a pictures (SE original) that showed it playing in a home audio displaying MMR or something I can't remember now on it.
4) Why can't you take pictures with it? What happens when you open the shutter?
5) How great is the song quality in the hifi? As the best radio you can tune?
Posted by jcwhite_uk
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You can use the camera while the MMR60 is attached but the pictures that have been posted were taken with the phone that the MMr60 would be attached to so pictures can be taken of the MMr60 in action.
Posted by etaab
@ batesie
How long did it take your MMR-60 top arrive after you bought it ?
Please give more on the reception quality. Im currently using a Belkin Tunecast II (like coxy), and the reception is very very poor. I literally have to stand next to the receiving radio for any sort of sound to be audible over the crackling noise.
You said you've stood 10m away, does the sound quality remain ?
Its very important that before i buy one i know it'll have good reception, otherwise i'll be wasting my money like i did with the Belkin.
Please give us a thorough test of the reception
Posted by pblocal
what happens when a call comes in when it is playing?
does the ring come through the stereo's speakers?
when you answer it then goes directly into the phone only, correct?
thanks
FYi - sony ericcson is selling them cheaper on their website than what they are going for on ebay right now!
Posted by etaab
Thats not the point though, you cant buy them from every SE website, because in some countries like the UK, FM transmitters are banned.
Posted by batesie
ok, i'll be answering some of your questions now its been tested.!
Posted by etaab
Go on then..
Posted by emanuelj
Seems like he sold it...
Posted by dgilmartin
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He sold his spare on
Posted by pblocal
ok then.......
Posted by max_wedge
batesie, please please pretty please do a thorough reception and range test? With sugar on top? We will love you forever
Posted by pblocal
he is probably not writing a review because the thing just sucks!
I have seen the other reviews in the accesories thread and it works well for only 1 person. the rest says it straight up sucks. Will not work in cars and has to be within one foot (less than 1/2 meter) to antennas to get it to come in at all! 10 meters, no freakin way!!!!
dude, yes you were the lucky/unlucky one to be the first to own one but by acknowledging the fact that yours sucks too the rest of us can save OUR money for something better down the road, like an UPDATED, MORE EFFICIENT model.
Can you get your money back?
bummer.......
Posted by batesie
Well, it works ok, and does the job. The thing is it doesnt work well in 'radio noisy' areas. but it does let me wap while using it....
i'd say it works better sitting next your home stereo, or in a phone holder in you car, but there is noise between tracks, maybe firmware can improve on this.
Also, it doent use that much battery, which is good in a way, but if it had more power to boost the signal, it would improve the strenght and quality of the signal. but obviously it would drain more power. but as i'm used to 3G services draining my battery fast, i guess it wouldnt be a problem.
I like the fading light, and the menus are nice and simple.
Overall Its a Sony. and Sonys should always perform well, but in this case i feel its substandard.
User Interface - 8/10
Sound Quality - 6/10
Battery Life - 9/10
Design Aspect - 9/10
Overall - 8/10
Hope this helps
Posted by etaab
Its the same with the Tunecast II, however it comes with a car adaptor, which means you dont need batteries when in the car.
You'd think it might help improve the signal, having a better power supply - it does not.
Ive come to the conclusion FM transmitters are just a waste of time and money. Avoid everyone.
Posted by max_wedge
@batesie, thanks for that extra info, much appreciated, very useful.
@etaab, I get where you are coming from, but I've used fm transmitters for several years and they have given me a certain degree of freedom to listen to my music when I want.
I understand that you have given up on them, and this may have something to do with the noisy (radio noise) environment where you have used them, but this is not everyone's experience. Another factor is people's demand for crystal clear music. Someone who won't listen to less than 192Kbps quality mp3 files, probably would never be happy with any fm transmitter.
However some people are less demanding and are happy as long is the music is listenable (which is a personal judgement).
I think it's something people have to try for themselves. There are atleast three (not one) cases on these forums of people who have used the transmitter and are happy with it's performance. That's against only 5 at the most who weren't happy. Maybe some of those that weren't happy didn't try hard enough to find a clear station?
I know in your case you will have tested it thoroughly, but not everyone is as thorough as you or I. So I tend to be more inclined to believe favourable reports than negative.
Where do you want to listen to your music the most? If in the car, just get an inline fm transmitter, it's not wireless, but will enable you to plug your phone into the car stereo. works a treat.
The problem with belkin etc is the antenna (and by extrapolation the mmr-60 as well). I found this interesting article about fm transmitters by someone who seems to know what they are talking about:
"Make the antenna longer by adding a headphone extention cord: female at one end and male at the other. Put it between your audio player (iPod, Archos or whatever) and your transmitter. Stretch it out. The signal increase is remarkable. My Belkin TuneCast II is useless without it, and a workhorse with it. Here's one that Radio Shack sells.
One more thing. These little transmitters blow through their AAA batteries. When traveling, be sure to use the car power adapter (the Belkin comes with one). "
You can see the rest of the article here:
http://doc.weblogs.com/2005/06/29#littleFmTransmitters
(etaab, do you use a fastport to 3.5 jack converter or the full hpm-70? The hpm 70 with the extra length, stretched out, may be why I get reasonable use out of my belkin? Just a thought, may be off track...)
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[ This Message was edited by: max_wedge on 2006-02-11 02:31 ]
Posted by etaab
Dont get me wrong, im not saying FM transmitters are entirely useless, in fact in my car i got quite good sound reception from the Tunecast II and my K750i.
The problem was, it would often, sometimes as frequent as every 10 seconds would pick up a few seconds of static noise - very annoying when you're listening to a track at high volume.
I am the type of person that likes high quality music, i dont mind a bit of background crackle from the usual FM stations, but from the Tunecast II it was much more noticable.
I used one of those poor 3.5mm adaptors with only 5 cm of cord with my K750i and the Tunecast, but then i also tried the Tunecast with my Walkmans extention cord (about 3 feet long) at home and the reception was just as bad as without. What i think made a massive difference to my Tunecast was using the car adaptor - the power from the car made the signal better than with the batteries two-fold.
However, how on earth would you go about improving the MMR-60's reception - since it does not use any sort of wire.. ?
Posted by Coxy
Perhaps try it (the mmr) with a charger plugged in?
Posted by etaab
I dont think it works like that..
Posted by max_wedge
etaab, it's true the mmr60 can't be improved that way, though it should be relatively easy to mod an external antenna onto the thing.
Still it's all a bit pointless for something that should work as advertised. I guess if it works as my tunecast does, then atleast I'll be better off (since the mmr60 connects direct and is more convenient than the tunecast). I don't find my tunecast does that little ten second thing, once I get a reasonable signal it's stable. Knowing belkin quality control I wouldn't be surprised if your tunecast was one of the frequent lemons - mine was by pure luck a working one.
I am going to buy the mmr60, can always get my money back if it's a no go. Though from reports I won't be holding my breath...
Posted by etaab
Well, the place i bought the Tunecast from (blueunplugged.com) tested it and said it was working properly, and refused to give me a refund (dont shop with them people). I'd have taken action against them, because under UK law they cannot refuse to refund but i just didnt have the time or effort to go into a dispute over something so small.
This is the third Belkin product ive ever owned, and they've all been crap. Ive decided never to buy anything from Belkin ever again.
Regarding the MMR-60, im still not going to take the risk, i'd rather just buy a new car stereo.
Posted by max_wedge
hehe
I completely understand, I'm just masochistic that way!! But it's not high on my priority, lot of other shit to buy first
And I'm pretty much in the "won't buy belkin" camp too. Have had two failures out of three products of theirs I've purchased (although they replaced one of those with a working version - the bt dongle)
Posted by etaab
Well, i bought a £3 extension cable for 3.5mm jacks, 1.5m in length today.
I'll give it a try later in my car with my Tunecast, and see how it fairs against the older 3 inch only cable.
Posted by max_wedge
That will be interesting. Though the 10 second thing sounds like some sort of interference - a longer aerial may amplify it!!
Good luck, hope you can get some sense out of that tunecast.
Posted by etaab
Well, it worked.
The reception was still crackly, and there was some background noise, but once the volume of the music was turned up it was quite good.
I even plugged in my PSP and played Pro Evo 5 soccer through my cars stereo speakers.
It looks a bit crap in the car however, having a phone / PSP, Tunecast, car adaptor, 1.5m cable and in the case of the phone, a 3.5mm adaptor - lots of wires everywhere !
Posted by max_wedge
somehow "wireless" never seems to be actually wire free
Still it's sort of good news. That gells more with my experience of the tunecast. Not brilliant, but works.
Posted by etaab
Exactly, wireless my bum.
Posted by batesie
to be honest though, this is based on an analogue system. its neever going to be as good as a digital transmission.
i look forward to the introduction of Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) technology into the next MMR-XX...
(wishful thinking)
Posted by etaab
I think even then it would suffer major reception issues.
Im no radio expert, but digital signals tend to be more unreliable if theres any sort of interferrence.
Posted by batesie
Digital radio is as good as the difference between digital and anologue TV
it would work over short distances better too.
Posted by etaab
When i had digital tv & radio installed in my home 3 years ago, the engineer told me digital signals need more power for the same reception as an analogue service, or you need to be closer to the transmitter.
Bah, who knows, its not like we'll see a digital MMR-60 anytime soon.
Posted by dgilmartin
I received my MMR-60 today. I'm actually very pleased as it works extremely well! I plugged it in to the fastport and after a second or two it lights up and says "MMR-60: Transmit on 107.9MHZ" which is a perfect as I get completely no radio station signals on that frequency. So I tuned in my car radio and perfect sound immediately, although if you move the phone there can be a little background noise, but surprisingly very little. One issue is that you have to have the volume on the media player set to the middle or less level as anything above this creates distorted sound. This isn't really a problem as it sounds as loud as a normal radio station, but of a higher quality. I haven't tested it from a distance of more than two metres from the aerial, but why would you need to have it further away anyway? The final issue is that it doesn't have the fastport connector on the bottom for charging, but doesn't seem to be a huge problem as i've been messing around with it for the past hour and the battery level hasn't been affected.
Well although this is a short and sweet review I'm glad to say its better than I expected and it works in my car so its a huge bonus.
Posted by max_wedge
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Digital does need more power, but when it has enough power the signal suffers very little degradation. On digital you see that as pixelation, which is not noise but signal loss that doesn't survive error correction.
I get it occasionaly on my SD set top box.
A digital mmr, with adequate power output, would provide static free audio. However probably so would a mmr-60 with adequate power output
But the advantage of a digital transmitter would be better quality audio (for example the frequency response of digital radio is greater than analog radio)
We won't see one anytime soon, since most people still use analog.
Posted by etaab
@ dgilmartin - so, you're in Dublin ?
Is your area pretty busy for radio traffic ? where i live, even the free channels have some background music or chat going on, its as if theres a station on almost every major frequency, so it doesnt help FM transmitters much.
I wish someone would lend me a MMR-60, before i buy - but as it stands im just not taking the risk.
Posted by max_wedge
etaab, I've definately found areas where the airwaves are quite full, in those instances range of the belkin is reduced and of the four available frequencies it's sometimes hard to find a perfect setting. A fully adjustable device like the mmr-60 should be more useful in that regard.
But when all the four postions are noisy, I find the belkin is noisy between songs, but when playing audio the noise recedes and is quite listenable. Listening to classical music, that has long periods of very quite music, would not be listenable however. Fortunantly I don't like classical music a great deal. In fact it drives me nuts if I listen to it too long - give me some doof doof or rock and roll anyday
WHEN the mmr-60's are reintroduced in Australia, I'm going to the store with a portable fm radio and I'm going to hammer the living christ out of the mmr-60 before I buy it. There is no way I'm going to buy it sight unseen.
One pleasing discovery I made, they are retailing in Oz for $69 (vodafone) which is about $50 US. I was expecting atleast AUD99 if not more.
Posted by dgilmartin
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There aren't many radio stations in my area so that could be a reason for the great reception. There are more in Dublin City, I'm going into town tomorrow so I'll let you know how I get on with interference. What you could do is buy the MMR-60 test it in your area and if you do experience a lot of interference, just put it back onto eBay and as they are still pretty rare and you'll definitely get your money back.
Posted by etaab
Possibly, im still weighing up whether to do so or not in my head.
