Customer Reviews

Apple Universal Dock for iPod (White)(OLD VERSION)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

For those of you who know me, I'm a BIG TIME Apple fanboi. I have 3 Macs (my wife has two), 2 iPods (my wife has one), and I'm running Mac OS X Leopard on all my computers using the family pack. I love Apple.

Until this product.

Does it do what it says? Technically, yes. It allows you to "dock" your iPod and control music from the remote and play video using the appropriate video cable (I have an iPod Classic 80GB which requires a different video cable from previous iPods).

What it does not do is allow you to control your iPod as you would expect. For example, the remote control is the standard Apple remote that comes with modern (read: Intel-based) Macs. It features a "menu" button. This button is completely NON-FUNCTIONAL with the Apple Universal Dock. It does not work like the menu button on the iPod. (This is stated in the manual.)

If you have your iPod attached to the TV and you move the selection using the wheel to one of your TV shows and press Play (the center button) on the remote, MUSIC starts playing. Huh?! This is completely different than the functionality on the front panel of the iPod.

If you start playing a video using the iPod's controls, pressing the next button >>| on the remote does NOT skip to the next video. Again, pressing Menu does nothing. Pressing the previous button |<< does return the video to the beginning and holding the next and previous buttons does fast-forward the video, but if you cannot skip to the next video, what's the purpose?

If you intend to use this dock for video purposes as I was, save your money. Get the appropriate video cable and be done with it. The Apple Universal Dock adds nothing for you.

If you are going to use the Apple Universal Dock to control music, then it should work for you, except that the Menu button doesn't perform any functions, so you can't switch playlists.

It's obvious to me why Apple disabled comments and voting on this product on their website.

First of all, I love everything Apple except for this product. The menu button on the remote has no function, what's that about? I purchased the conponent A/V cable which enables me to watch and hear my music and music videos on my HD TV. It works GREAT! The remote that comes with this docking station does not permit me to select the next music video after finishing playing one, totally unacceptable since that's why I purchased this unit in the first place. Save your money!!!

I understood the dock+remote would allow me to connect my iPod to the audio/video inputs of my equipment and control my iPod remotely. Well, it depends on what you consider "control the iPod remotely" to be. It does allow me to play/pause/skip, but it doesn't allow me to navigate the iPod menu. So, if you want to browse your songs/videos/photos, or if you want to switch from watching a video to listen a song, you need to reach for your iPod and use it. That restricts *a lot* the usefulness of the remote. (I don't understand how the other 2 reviews could be positive at all...)

I bought this in hopes that I wouldn't have to cross the room every time I wanted to change the video on my ipod classic 80gb connected to my television by a $50 component a/v cable I also bought from Apple. Instead, the only functions available via remote are pause/play (and I have to cross the room to press play in the first place), volume control, and fast forward/rewind. Oh and I can skip to the next song if I'm on a music playlist. The menu button on the included Apple Remote is useless.

I agree with the above reviewer (Aaron) for the most part, with the exception of his statement that the product does what the description says. It does what the Amazon description says, but the Apple website claims that the product allows you to watch videos through your TV if you have composite or component AV cables. It does not. If you want to use it to watch videos you have to have a set of apple's AV cables, which work fine on their own. All that can be said about this dock as far as video is concerned is that it does not disallow video out. A lousy waste of money.

Don't waste your money. I bought this for my 16 gig Ipod touch and was expecting it to come with the video cable. After ripping apart the pretty box it comes in to get at the cable, I found it does not come with one. So all those $$ just went out the window and I would need to spend another $60 to get the cable. That would have been all I needed to send video to my TV. I also now understand the remote does not work the way you would expect.

Apple should be more clear on what comes with it and what it does.
They get you going with the base product and then sucker you into having to buy all their products.

Save your money and just buy the AV cable if you want to watch video on your TV. Otherwise just buy a Belkin docking station for half the cost.


BTW, You must buy the "Apple" cable if you want to display video. There is some sort of chip in the cable so you can't just use any cable.

I bought this for my older 3rd generation iPod (15gb). I'm sorry to say it did not work.

With my iPod in the dock, and using either the firewire power cable or a new USB power cable, this dock does not charge my iPod. The volume control was the only thing that worked on the remote. It also locked up the controls on the iPod, rendering it useless until I take it off the dock. The product description on Apple's web site says it works with "all iPod models that have a dock connector." I had to return mine.

It does not come with any cables, so even if you have a newer iPod, plan on buying the USB power adaptor (~$40 with cable), and a headphone jack to RCA connector cable ($14 - $30) if you want to hook it up to your stereo inputs. An expensive solution even if it works for your iPod.

I wish I had read the reviews on this site before I made my purchase of the Universal Dock. I only use my iPod for simple music playback, and this product is completely unsatisfactory.

The biggest problem is the the menu button on the remote does not function when the iPod is hooked up to an audio system (apparently it only works when the iPod is hooked up to the computer), so you need to switch playlists by using the jog wheel, which is very cumbersome when the iPod is attached to the dock.

The second problem is that there is are no cables, so not only do you need to purchase a cable to hook up the dock to the audio system, you need to buy an extra iPod - USB cable (unless you want to unplug the cable every time you want to hook up your iPod to your computer or take the cable with you). Finally, you also need to purchase a USB wall socket plug-in unit.

I am not happy that the Apple Store clerk recommended me to buy this useless product for my audio in the first place, and I am even more unhappy because the Apple Website does not make these points very clear. This product and the way that Apple sells it makes a huge disservice to the Company and the Brand.

As most of the reviews state, the remote doesn't work the way you would expect (i.e., like it would on Front Row). This takes away most of the reasons to buy the dock. For the price, I would also think that Apple could have thrown in some kind of power supply. So, it's basically an iPod stand with a mostly dysfunctional remote. Bummer...

The previous version of this product had an S-Video output. This has none. You have to buy a $50 cable from Apple to connect it to a composite video source. Therefore, you have to choose between playing video or having the iPod connected to power. And switch between. S-Video is superior to composite, although modern LCD screens will appear much the same. IMHO, this is a complete step backwards that cost 50 bucks more. That's one bad Apple.