However, there are some general charac-
teristics of both FM and AM radio signals
that can affect radio reception quality in a
moving vehicle, even when the finest
equipment is used. These characteristics
are completely normal in a given reception
area and do not indicate any malfunction
in your NISSAN radio system.
Reception conditions will constantly
change because of vehicle movement.
Buildings, terrain, signal distance and inter-
ference from other vehicles can work
against ideal reception. Described below
are some of the factors that can affect your
radio reception.
Some cellular phones or other devices may
cause interference or a buzzing noise to
come from the audio system speakers.
Storing the device in a different location
may reduce or eliminate the noise.
FM RADIO RECEPTION
Range: FM range is normally limited to 25 –
30 mi (40 – 48 km), with monaural (single
channel) FM having slightly more range
than stereo FM. External influences may
sometimes interfere with FM station re-
ception even if the FM station is within
25 mi (40 km). The strength of the FM signal
is directly related to the distance betweenthe transmitter and receiver. FM signals fol-
low a line-of-sight path, exhibiting many of
the same characteristics as light. For ex-
ample, they will reflect off objects.
Fade and drif t: As your vehicle moves away
from a station transmitter, the signals will
tend to fade and/or drif t.
Static and flutter: During signal interfer-
ence from buildings, large hills or due to
antenna position (usually in conjunction
with increased distance from the station
transmitter), static or flutter can be heard.
This can be reduced by adjusting the treble
control to reduce treble response.
Multipath reception: Because of the reflec-
tive characteristics of FM signals, direct and
reflected signals reach the receiver at the
same time. The signals may cancel each
other, resulting in momentary flutter or loss
of sound.AM RADIO RECEPTION
AM signals, because of their low frequency,
can bend around objects and skip along
the ground. In addition, the signals can be
bounced off the ionosphere and bent back
to earth. Because of these characteristics,
AM signals are also subject to interference
as they travel from transmitter to receiver.
Fading: Occurs while the vehicle is passing
through freeway underpasses or in areas
with many tall buildings. It can also occur
for several seconds during ionospheric tur-
bulence even in areas where no obstacles
exist.
Static: Caused by thunderstorms, electrical
power lines, electric signs and even traffic
lights.
AUDIO OPERATION PRECAUTIONS
MP3 or WMA terms
• MP3 — MP3 is short for Moving Pictures
Experts Group Audio Layer 3. MP3 is the
most well-known compressed digital au-
dio file format. This format allows for near
“CD quality” sound, but at a fraction of the
size of normal audio files. MP3 conversion
of an audio track from CD-ROM can re-
duce the file size by approximately a 10:1
ratio with virtually no perceptible loss in
quality. MP3 compression removes the
redundant and irrelevant parts of a
sound signal that the human ear doesn’t
hear.
4-44Monitor, climate, audio, phone and voice recognition systems
• WMA — Windows Media Audio (WMA)* is acompressed audio format created by Mi-
crosof t as an alternative to MP3. The WMA
codec offers greater file compression
than the MP3 codec, enabling storage of
more digital audio tracks in the same
amount of space when compared to
MP3s at the same level of quality.
• Bit rate — Bit rate denotes the number of bits per second used by a digital music
file. The size and quality of a compressed
digital audio file is determined by the bit
rate used when encoding the file.
• Sampling frequency — Sampling fre- quency is the rate at which the samples
of a signal are converted from analog to
digital (A/D conversion) per second.
• Multisession — Multisession is one of the methods for writing data to media. Writ-
ing data once to the media is called a
single session, and writing more than
once is called a multisession.
• ID3/WMA Tag — The ID3/WMA tag is the part of the encoded MP3 or WMA file that
contains information about the digital
music file such as song title, artist, encod-
ing bit rate, track time duration, etc. ID3
tag information is displayed on the Artist/
song title line on the display. * Windows® and Windows Media® are reg-
istered trademarks and trademarks in the
United States of America and other coun-
tries of Microsof t Corporation of the USA.
USB (Universal Serial Bus)
connection port
WARNING
Do not connect, disconnect or operate
the USB device while driving. Doing so
can be a distraction. If distracted you
could lose control of your vehicle and
cause an accident or serious injury.
CAUTION
• Do not force the USB device into the
USB port. Inserting the USB device
tilted or up-side-down into the port
may damage the port. Make sure
that the USB device is connected cor-
rectly into the USB port.
• Do not grab the USB port cover (if so
equipped) when pulling the USB de-
vice out of the port. This could dam-
age the port and the cover. •
Do not leave the USB cable in a place
where it can be pulled unintention-
ally. Pulling the cable may damage
the port.
The vehicle is not equipped with a USB de-
vice. USB devices should be purchased
separately as necessary.
This system cannot be used to format USB
devices. To format a USB device, use a per-
sonal computer.
In some jurisdictions, the USB device for the
front seats plays only sound without im-
ages for regulatory reasons, even when the
vehicle is parked.
This system supports various USB
memory devices, USB hard drives and
iPod® players. Some USB devices may not
be supported by this system.
• Partitioned USB devices may not play correctly.
• Some characters used in other lan- guages (Chinese, Japanese, etc.) may not
appear properly in the display. Using Eng-
lish language characters with a USB de-
vice is recommended.
Monitor, climate, audio, phone and voice recognition systems4-45
