Venturi MINI multi-function Car Kit FM Transmitter
Product Description
The Venturi Mini easily connects your mobile phone and MP3 players to your car audio system. Streaming your mobile music to the car speakers, the Venturi Mini also takes and makes calls in amazing quality and even charges your devices on the move.
The Venturi Mini is a new and unique product combining Bluetooth Music streaming with Hands-Free calling and USB style charging. The integrated FM RDS Transmitter streams stereo audio through the in-car sound system for music playback and hands-free. The Venturi Mini requires ZERO INSTALL and simply connects to the cigarette lighter socket in the vehicle making it easily transportable. The integrated OLED display and high performance microphone enables high quality crystal clear hands-free with the received audio coming through the in car speakers.
- Music Streaming
- Hands Free Bluetooth Audio and Phonebook
- Built In Charger
- FM Transmitter technology
The Venturi Mini is marketed as a multi-function device allowing a user to make use of the modern bluetooth profiles found in most new mobile phones.
This is coupled with an FM transmitter meaning the user is able to listen to calls and music through the car speakers via a spare frequency on FM.
In theory all this is perfect and indeed this is one of the mostly fully featured devices of this type. The OLED Display is very bright but thanks to the ambient light sensor the brightness is reduced at night, meaning you will not be blinded by the display.
It is possible to set up 4 different FM frequencies which is handy if you are driving from town to town etc.
The set up is a breeze and pairing to a bluetooth compatible phone is straight forward. Beware though Phone Book download can only be done via bluetooth but not all phones support this (not even my N95!).
The buttons have a good feel to them and a beep is heard whenever any button is pressed or if the scroll wheel is used.
With the use of RDS the Venturi Mini displays some information on the Car Radio display (e.g ‘IN-CALL’, ‘CALLING’ Etc).With some compatible phones (i.e. ones which allow the user to download the phonebook to the Ventrui) it is possible to have Caller ID on the cars Radio display.
The Venturi Mini allows the user to stream music from a compatible phone and offers the following controls: PLAY/PAUSE, STOP, Next Track and Previous Track. Music is automatically paused when a call is dialled or received.
I have sensed a slight hissing sound when playing audio through the FM transmitter. This is intermittent an I guess just an irritant more than a real problem.
The Venturi mini does not have its own speaker but it does have audio out meaning you can use it with headphones (bit risky in a car!) or if you have audio-in on your car stereo you can switch off the FM transmitter on the Ventrui mini and get even better sound through your car speakers with no FM ‘Hiss’.
The venturi Mini locks into the cars 12v socket meaning it feels sturdy when being used. It switches on when the car is started and pairs automatically with the last used phone. The Venturi mini looks great and feels well built – it is surprisingly smaller than what the pictures seem to suggest.
One thing to be aware of with this type of advice is the position of the 12v Socket. If it is too far away from you – no one will be able to hear you. A killer feature would have been the ability to add a microphone through a Microphone jack so that a user can place the mic in a better position. Also if the driver behind you happens to tune into the same frequency that you are using he/she will be able to listen to the person that you are talking to – AND your Music
Rating: 4 / 5
I love this product!! I was really unsure about how good it would be – i thought that the description of what the Venturi does was over-the-top, but it really does deliver.
It is a doddle to install & very easy to connect to the phone via Bluetooth. The sound quality is very good when playing music – there is only a small amount of interference on the frequency i have selected, and this is mostly inaudible when mixed in with the normal sounds of driving… even more so when driving at high speed.
Taking & making phone calls is also very simple. The sound comes through the car speakers very clearly & i have been told by my friends that they can hear me just as clearly, even though the Venturi is nearer the passenger side than the driver’s side, due to the positioning of my 12v socket.
This is the first review i have ever written about something i have bought online. I am just so chuffed that i can now listen to my music collection whilst on the move i wanted to let everyone else know!!
BUY THIS GADGET!! You’ll love it.
Rating: 5 / 5
This product is great. Call clarity at the other end is surprisingly perfectly good even though the unit isn’t near the speaker’s mouth. The FM transmition is very clear, much better than a couple of other transmitters I’ve had and calls come through very clearly without the usual buzzing of the phone in the speakers. There is occasional radio interference and you will get this if you’re driving across regions which will probably require selecting another frequency. Most amazing is the convenience – it automatically docks with my phone when enter the car, even with phone in pocket. In the same time you can play and control music on your phone with two clicks, phone still in pocket. There’s no battery to charge and you just fling it into the glove box when you park in a public place – when you plug it back in, it’s automatically back in action in 10secs – nothing to do. If you pause a track when you leave, you can just resume when you return! RDS display is useful too (better than voice prompts). Drawbacks – 500mA USB might be low to charge a phone while also in use. Also couldn’t download my phonebook – just got a message saying ‘error’ and yet to hear back from email to customer services.
Rating: 4 / 5
Excellent little piece of kit -simple even for the technophobe
Beware -you cannot pair two devices simultaneously and you must bear in mind the difficult locations car manufacturers provide for their 12v feeds -might even be worth getting an extension fitment
Otherwise audio fine and system very transportable from one car to another
Rating: 4 / 5
I bought the Venturi Mini mainly to reduce cables in the car and play audio via Bluetooth and FMrather than make phone calls which the Nokia CK-7W which I already had does rather well. The fact that the Venturi provides a USB Power Supply was very attractive since it will supply electricity to my Road Angel. Please bear in mind that any little problems I have run into may be down to the Venturi or the TYTN; I do not have the time to try another device with the Venturi! Firstly make sure the TYTN is not paired with any other device in the car by Bluetooth; if it is it may pair with the Venturi but it will not dock properly on subsequent occasions. If you would like it to dock and play music the best solution I have found is for the TYTN to have switched its screen off in power save mode! I think it docks every time like this. The trouble is, if you try to restore the screen manually on the TYTN to see the album art the music jumps. The best solution I have found is to press the white telephone button on the Venturi after docking and getting the music to play. Then press the green button indicating “Redial” as if to make a call and then the red as if to disconnect the call on the same unit. If you are lucky the screen will return to the media player on the TYTN after a short while and the music may not jump on occasion!
Other reviews that you might have read indicating that the strength of FM signal is a little weak are true. Nevertheless if you search your car radio you will find spaces of about 1.2 for 1.3 MHZ between stations and if you tune the Venturi appropriately the sound quality is perfectly acceptable. The new Parrot costs over twice as much and has no USB Power Supply but I am reading all the reviews!!
Mike Farnham.
P.S. Bluetooth TYTN 2 Venturi Mini synch sorted. This was not an issue with the Venturi. If you upgrade the TYTN 2 to Windows Mobile 6.1 all will be well. Warning, the HTC website advises data backup. I used Sprite but when restoring I got a “You have a new operating system and using this restore may corrupt it” message. Anyhow all my program files were OK, most importantly Tom Tom so if uyou go for this just drag and drop your important documents to your P.C. first. Also synch your contacts to Outlook as these go too!
Oh les beaux jours!
Rating: 4 / 5