iTrip Falls Flat On Face

I've been very pleased with my purchase of a video ipod. They've finally got the form factor right, especially versus those enormous bricks that were the previous generations. What a ball and chain! Sure my RCA mp3 player was huge but it was also 40Gb and a lot cheaper than the much smaller capacity and portly ipod available at the time. Anyway, the video ipod has met all expectations despite being an Apple product. I still think the nano is the perfect size for such a player but you can't get away with that size AND play video so the video ipod is a good compromise. After listening to it for a week at work and sometimes at home, I wanted to listen to it in the car. The head unit in the car has an auxiliary input (thoughtfully placed on the *back* inside the dash) but that is presently taken by my ham radio (which I admit doesn't see much use). Rather than running a splitter from behind the dash to the glovebox or maybe up through the center console, a quick and dirty solution was to pick up the Griffin iTrip FM transmitter. You can get them at just about any store that has a stinking heap of Apple accessories. Just follow your nose. I came across it at CompUSA and IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL, I HAD TO BUY IT!

I tried it out this afternoon in the car. By default it comes in LX mode, which is only described as stereo mode on the iTrip packaging. I thought, "Great! I'll plug this in and turn to 88.1 FM and be on my way!". I ended up searching through dozens of channels trying to find one I could actually hear the music on. When I finally found one that worked, I had to turn the volume up to TWICE the normal "loud" volume just to get the static whispers of a human voice out of the speakers. I was ready to return the device, especially after reading the Amazon reviews of it, but went back out to try DX mode, which is mono. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, that mode works decently enough in the car that I will keep the device. Stereo sound doesn't matter so much with the road noise and the volume needed to be turned up only two hairs past normal. All in all, I think it will work fine for trips, in rental cars, etc. However it is not a permanent solution for ipod listening in the car. Off comes the dash again!