DLO HomeDock Deluxe (version 1)

Summary: Their cables, my cables, Monster cables - tried every configuration - powerful music is distorted. The audio equivilent of blurred vision. Too bad, 'cause I sure do need this product.

Summary: Their cables, my cables, Monster cables - tried every configuration - powerful music is distorted. The audio equivilent of blurred vision. Too bad, 'cause I sure do need this product.

Summary: Where do I begin...

Originally I bought this as a solution to streaming music to my stereo system. I even liked it at first, but the more I used it

...

Read more

Summary: Where do I begin...

Originally I bought this as a solution to streaming music to my stereo system. I even liked it at first, but the more I used it and learned about it, the more I realized it was junk.

Not even three months into owning it, the left RCA (analog channel) has blown out completely on me, does not work. Piece is no good anymore.

The menus for the TV are terrible, not intutitve and not user friendly, don't buy it for that reason whatever you do.

The remote is awful, has to be pointed DIRECTLY (annoyingly so) at the unit or it won't work.

The iPod interface is clumsy and does not cradle it. and Having the remote docked is a useless feature since most of the time you will have it on a coffee table.

Bottom line is the quality control with this company is obviously not good, and the build quality of this unit is not even close to worth the money they are asking. This item is a complete joke, don't spend the money.

Show less

Summary: This iPod dock does a good job playing music and video while connected to a home theater system and TV.

The remote control works great for music with onscreen menus,

...

Read more

Summary: This iPod dock does a good job playing music and video while connected to a home theater system and TV.

The remote control works great for music with onscreen menus, however there is a delay before long menu lists such as "Artists - All" will display onscreen. A nice little floating screen-saver image on your TV displays the Artist, Album, and Song while you are playing music.

I find the sound quality to be somewhat better than using the headphone jack with an RCA cable, but as one would expect from an mp3 player it isn't quite CD quality.

There are no onscreen menus for chosing videos but the dock plays iPod videos well on a TV if you use your iPod's screen to navigate through them. Video resolution is just tolerable on a HD TV.

An RCA Video/Audio cable is supplied and works well. An S-Video port is present on the dock but the cable is not included.

Overall, I am very happy and think if you are buying mostly for music listening you will be too.

Show less

Summary: I had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this little toy and in theory it was the last piece of gadgetry to finish off my lads pad front room - ...

Read more

Summary: I had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this little toy and in theory it was the last piece of gadgetry to finish off my lads pad front room - but what a disappointment.

Ok to start with the remote's range is appalling. You have to sit pretty much square on to the dock to have any chance of a button press registering on the dock. The remote IS very stylish but the functionality is rubbish. You have to press repeatedly and wave your arm around to get the dock to respond.

Even though it is a very good idea to use the same navigation as the ipod, the lettering is that big when listing albums etc that you only see 9 lines of text! The font could have been a bit smaller, I mean it is very clear but unless they are designing for a nation of people with cataracts it is overkill.

There are 4 different colour schemes you can choose from, but don?t be fooled by the nicely finished off screens that they show on the cover of the box. The background colour is one plain colour, I set mine to blue and it is a very harsh blue - it could have done with a bit of styling or shading or something. Also - with the selection cursor on the photo on the box it has nicely rounded edges - but on the real thing it has very harsh squared off corners. It is obvious that it would look nicer designed like this otherwise they would not have put it on the front of the box - so why doesn?t the actual dock display as the photo shows!

When you have the dock displaying on the TV a truly AWFUL DLO logo appears on your ipod! I know that the album artwork cannot be displayed to the TV screen due to the Ipod's firmware but it should at least be able to be displayed on the ipod! I have a Denon dock for the car and you can either choose to display the Denon logo or keep the album artwork. No such option here.

There is also 5 second delay when displaying track names when a new track plays in a play list. When one song finishes and another starts, the previous songs information carries on being displayed for 5-6 seconds - I know this is minor but it is certainly not what I'd expect from top-end AV equipment.

The screensaver! Garbage! It is a jerky box that just jumps around the screen with the song information in! It should have been much more pleasing to the eye - a graphic equalizer perhaps which reacts to the music?

The power light on the front is so bright it could bring down planes!

Basically DLO have got this dock out before any of the competition and that is the only reason why you would buy it ? because there is very little competition. They have rushed the design of the screens and the interface. The idea is awesome but it just isn?t a very well finished product ? it just has the feeling of something you would buy off the market that has been made in South Korea.

The one good this about the dock is the sound quality. I?ve hooked it up to my AV amp and it does perform very well ? but a dock for half the price without the on screen navigation can do that.

Next stop ? eBay!

Show less

Summary: I was looking forward to getting this product, but after finally getting it I was extremely disappointed! The biggest disappointment was that there was no sound coming from unit. I ...

Read more

Summary: I was looking forward to getting this product, but after finally getting it I was extremely disappointed! The biggest disappointment was that there was no sound coming from unit. I had to double-check my stereo and iPod, and it was definitely this unit. Sounds fine when I connect my iPod directly from headphone jack to a RCA converter. Remote was so sluggish to react and you had to precisely point it at that beacon of light shining out of the thing. What is the purpose of that? Time to go stand in the return line at Best Buy! Wait until some better competing products come out!

Show less

Summary: Not bad, needs some help in the video/podcast area and would be nice just to see what is on the Ipod screen, not just a digitized menu of what ...

Read more

Summary: Not bad, needs some help in the video/podcast area and would be nice just to see what is on the Ipod screen, not just a digitized menu of what is on the ipod menu. Needs nicer backgrounds and themes if they cant just display the Ipod Screen.

Show less

Summary: On 4/7/08 I bought my first DLO Homedock Deluxe. On 4/12/08 it quit working. After 1 month my second dock quit working. My 3rd dock quit ...

Read more

Summary: On 4/7/08 I bought my first DLO Homedock Deluxe. On 4/12/08 it quit working. After 1 month my second dock quit working. My 3rd dock quit working after the companies 90 day warranty. My 4th and final dock lasted 3 weeks. My friend's on his 2nd dock in 4 months. I've talked to customer service and did all of the online updates to the system. Bottom line is this product has a 2 day to 4 month life expectancy according to my experiences.

Show less

Summary: The two main draw-backs to this product are that you cannot select videos from the on-screen menu and the remote control has to be the most frustrating piece of electronics ...

Read more

Summary: The two main draw-backs to this product are that you cannot select videos from the on-screen menu and the remote control has to be the most frustrating piece of electronics on the market. The on-screen menu only allows you to select music playlists, artists, songs, etc... to play on your home theater but you cannot select videos or pictures from this menu. In order to play the videos you must select the "Mode" feature on the remote and select the desired video from the iPod menu (which defeats the entire purpose of having a remote if you have to walk up to the iPod to view your selection). The instructions even detail that the firmware is not up to par to integrate the videos to the on-screen TV menu. The remote is tempermental, at best, at times (quite often actually) when you attempt raise or lower the volume it will fast forward or rewind. The same will happen if I attempt to pause the video. This is just a portion of the many flaws I have found with the remote.

I honestly feel that the quirks of this product should have been more than enough to keep it off the shelves. I feel that this the HomeDock Deluxe was rushed through production to offer the first and only means to transfer media from the iPod to your home theater. I have returned this product and now thinking about investing in the iTV by apple.

Show less

Summary: It does exactly what I wanted, which is being able to enjoy a remote operation witout the need to get up and look directly at the small iPod screen, so ...

Read more

Summary: It does exactly what I wanted, which is being able to enjoy a remote operation witout the need to get up and look directly at the small iPod screen, so I can select music from afar. Perfect. Also allows me to turn off the TV scren-dark- so is not anoying, distracting while listen music. Excellent!

Show less

Summary: Remote works great and the dock as a whole as a good quality feel to it.
Cords: I hooked my dock up to my TV which itself is hooked up
...

Read more

Summary: Remote works great and the dock as a whole as a good quality feel to it.
Cords: I hooked my dock up to my TV which itself is hooked up to a surround sound system (cord included in package). Alternatively, you could hook this up to your AV receiver. Also has S-video outputs.
Music: you can access all your playlists, the quirks of scrolling through was accurately described in the review but essentially, if you use this for parties, etc you can just start a playlist, set it to shuffle and let it ride. It's a pretty cool party piece since the screensaver displays the artist name/song title as it plays.
Videos/Photos: first of all, the CNET review neglected to mention that iPods ONLY give compressed videos, so you can ONLY get VCR-quality videos anyway. In any case, its more than acceptable quality.
Cons: Biggest drawback is Apple's inherently stupid policy of not allowing any 3rd party devices to export video/photo libraries. This means you have to manipulate the iPod by hand to access videos/photos. Annoying, but doesn't take away from the fact that you can still play it on your TV! The other drawback to this dock is the PRICE - you pay $100 more for the convenience of manipulating your iPod on your TV. I consider this worth it especially since it works well, but of course - it's up to you.

Show less