Customer Reviews

DLO HomeDock for iPod

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

 

 

While the concept of this device is good, its problems are:

1) you need the remote control to turn the unit on. If the battery dies or the remote control is out of reach you cannot turn the unit on manually.

2) my unit stopped working after four months and when I looked at the warranty it's only for 3 months... and the warranty isn't in effect unless you registered the item 30 days from purchase.

I wouldn't recommend this item. I'm sure there has to be something better out there.

I got this because one of my favorite features on my 30 Gig Video Ipod is downloading televison series. I recently discovered the series LOST and would have been completely so if not for I-tunes and was able to catch up. But that much viewing on a small screen is not always pleasurable so with the DLO 009-9764 HomeDock for iPod I can view these shows right on my television. I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because the sound does leave room for improvement and the instruction book included is not really very helpful. For anyone like me who might be a little slow on the iPod gadgets without instructions - you must go into your iPod's Videos menu and choose Video Settings and then choose TV OUT to on to get it to play on your television. they do not provide this information in the instruction book however. One must either A. call DLO for assistance, B. be an iPod expert or C. Pray for devine intervention to obtain this information. Other than that glitch I think it is a great product.

I bought this docking station because of its remote and because I wanted to stream music into my stereo.

When I first set it up, I recognized immediately that the sound quality wasn't what I was used to. I looked up the specifications on the box and realized that the docking unit was delivering an analog signal to my stereo. I'm not a techno geek and I'm sure someone will dish me for the pros/cons of analog vs. digital signals...but I didn't like the sound. I couldn't get it to play in stereo let alone allow my Denon receiver to do its digital magic (5 speaker surround).

Seeing that I spent near $90 bucks on it, I figured I'd just live with it. I would Sacrifice sound quality for convenience. (Especially since it was my bad for not reading the fine print).

Well, after 1.5 months the damn thing broke. I wasn't too worried since the box said it had a warranty. Unfortunately as I read, the warrantee only works if you register in within 30 days of purchase.

So I'm out $90 dollars. I will steer clear of all DLO products in the future and I recommend looking elsewhere for a stereo docking station. DOWN WITH DLO PRODUCTS!!!!

I bought the DLO Homedock for use with an older 15gb iPod. While I was relatively pleased with the look of the thing, I found upon close inspection that the construction was actually pretty cheap and shoddy, particularly for equipment of this price.

Upon use, I found the following:

Pros:

Playlist switching remote buttons. For some reason many iPod docks lack this obvious feature.

Cons:

Three of the buttons (shuffle on/off, backlight on/off, repeat on/off) simply do not work. Perhaps this is because I am using it with an older iPod, but that still seems pretty lame.

Sound quality is mediocre, provided cables are of poor quality.

Dock does not seem to turn the iPod off when powered down.

Video out supports photo or movie viewing but does not support a browsing interface while listening to music.


Overall, I am not impressed with this product and will be returning it for something that works better.

The HomeDock is nice looking, but there are fundamental flaws that make it unacceptable for most entertainment systems. These are:
- Unresponsive remote. The remote works of you aim it just right. But if you're off by a few degrees or don't push the buttons just so, then nothing happens.
- Menu missing the navigation capability of the iPod. If you want to do anything more than jump to the next song/picture, you have do this directly with the iPod.
- Menu not visible on the screen. Given that you can't do much with the remote, this isn't such a big deal. But this would be a necessary ingredient to what is really needed to include the iPod in an entertainment system.

I'm still looking for a piece of equipment that solves the problem that the HomeDock is suppose to solve. It seems pretty obvious: a docking station that allows users to use the iPod audio and video features remotely as if controlling the iPod directly. I have not found such a thing yet; hopefully someone is working on it..

I connected this dock with a Ipod Video to a Marantz Receiver with B&W speakers. The sound is distorted and with static sound that is present even with the Ipod paused; I tried everything from change the outlet connector to degauss the dock but nothing worked.

It looks nice but when you have it in your hand you can feel how cheap the construction is, confirmed by the static sound. Do not buy this unit, look for other docks, specially from HiFi manufactures like Marantz, Denon, Onkyo, Harman Kardon etc.

I bought this as an after thought when I purchased the dlo iboom, and I haven't been sorry. It took less than five minutes to hook up to my surround sound/dvd player and it really sounds great with all kinds of music at any volume I can stand. The remote is small and can get lost easy, but everything works great. I definately recommend this homedock for ipod.

I bought this product and really enjoyed it for a month. Then it stopped working. The reason why? The battery in the remote died. And there's no way to turn on the unit without the remote. This is an inexcusable design flaw. Worse still, changing the battery in the remote is not simple. And the manual (as well as the on-line PDF manual) say nothing about changing the batter. I paid almost $100.00 for this piece of junk. Stay away.

Thought this would be great. It is NOT! For instance: you can't turn the unit on without the remote. And the remote WILL stop working. Don't bother with a new battery. Just expect to fork out $10 for a replacement (unless you make it in the first 90 days). Ok, let's say you get it turned on now. Now is where the next wave of dissappointment settles in. Inferior sound and I can't get any video (from a 5g iPod) or pictures to display on the TV. I regret to say that we wasted $100 on this product. I usually am a much smarter shopper. As DLO came out with a newer "Deluxe" model immediately after this one perhaps they eliminated the bugs. Personally I would not buy another product from DLO.

The battery died on my remote. You cannot turn the stupid thing on when the remote doesn't work. I remembered struggling to get the battery in the remote when I first got it, but nothing compared to now. I have been trying to pry it open with a screwdriver and still cannot get it open. I will likely just have to break it. The remote is a piece of junk.

Otherwise, I was fairly happy with it.