Sony Digital Media Port Cradle for iPod (Black, TDM-iP50)

by Sony

Product Details

• Item Weight: 11.7 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001JEOS4U
• Item model number: TDM-iP50
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)

Product Description

Connects with compatible Sony home theater systems and receivers with DIGITAL MEDIA PORT Input : Allows you to play your music and videos through your home Audio system and even control some features from your home theater remote

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LOVE THIS!, August 12, 2009

By 

Nicole Kravanis "Die Hard Duranie!" (Mission Viejo, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony Digital Media Port Cradle for iPod (Black, TDM-iP50) (Electronics)

I love this little gadget! I was buying the Sony Sound Bar for my Sonia Bravia TV and happened to see this accessory so I ordered it. I have an I-pod Touch (1st Gen) and got this particular one because it said you could watch your videos on the tv. Well this arrived yesterday (my sound bar is supposed to arrive today) and I hooked it directly to my tv and it worked perfectly! It took about 2 seconds and all I had to do was change the input on my tv to the Digital Media Port and it was good to go. I have a few videos that I purchased from I-Tunes that I had never seen any bigger than the screen of my I-pod but they were perfect on the 46" screen. I can't wait to hook up the sound bar tonight and see how my videos look and sound then!

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works good on iPod nano, video's ok, February 7, 2010

By 

Lorin Boyack (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony Digital Media Port Cradle for iPod (Black, TDM-iP50) (Electronics)

I finally broke down and bought an iPod... Besides the gadget factor it seemed like a good method of moving music between the Sony STR-DH500 AV Receiver upstairs in the den and the Onkyo TX-SR576 AV Receiver in the living room, rather than hand-fulls of CDs, and, though I've set up my LG BD players for movie file sharing from a server, I've not done this with music with much success. A lot of the information in this review is provided because I have the ability to compare behavior between this Sony TDM-IP50 Dock and the Onkyo DS-A3 dock. Any references I make to "iPod" or "nano" are to the iPod nano 5th generation that I recently acquired, I have no experience with any other Apple product or other manufacture's MP3 players.

The IP50 dock is plastic and has a flat-black appearance and a mild amount of heft (weight) to it. I'll come to that later when I talk about connecting/disconnecting the iPod with the dock. There is one cable pre-attached to the center-back of the dock, it's about 3' in length and the other end has a DMP (Digital Media Port) connector for the Sony Receiver. Offset from that, in the back, is a connection for a provided cable. The dock end of the 6' or so cable looks like a headphone jack, the other end is an RCA jack for composite video.

The dock comes with a set of glossy black plastic inserts, which don't look too bad, one of which is supposed to fit the nano or other phone/music player. The electrical/mechanical connection is in the base, the plastic insert is supposed to act as a supporting cradle. The insert '13' which the document said was for the iPod nano 3rd gen was too snug at the base and I had trouble getting a secure electrical connection and electronic handshake with the receiver. I experimented and settled on insert '9' which the doc shows for the iPod clsassic and iPod 5th gen (video), I'm not sure if they're still talking about the classic or the nano, but it's the one I picked. It's a little roomy around the base, so if you have a case or sleeve around the iPod it may accommodate it well. I did try a clear, hard-plastic case that protruded too far beyond the base of the nano for me to get a good connection with either dock (I may pull out a grinder for the $4 plastic case, but that's a different story).

The iPod sits in the dock canted back about ten or fifteen degrees, which makes for easy viewing and access if you place the base above waist level. The IP50 dock has no back-rest for support of the player so it sits in a rather vulnerable position, with only the base dock connector and gravity physically holding it to the dock. With children around, placing the dock at adult shoulder-level would be highly recommended. To remove the player from the dock, one hand must be placed on the dock and the other hand used to carefully and straightly remove the iPod from the dock. If the dock were a bit heavier, it might be easier to remove the nano one-handed in a safe manner.

If you opt for no video, you can connect the DMP cable to the Sony receiver and you're good to go. That interface provides power as well as getting the audio and providing the electrical information needed for the docked Apple product. You can turn on the receiver, select DMPORT, plug in the iPod and use it to select an album or a playlist or whatever. You can also be docked without video and use the receiver's remote to navigate the iPod menu (point remote at the receiver and watch the nano's display), rather than pushing on the nano's buttons while in the docked position.

If you have video stored on the iPod that you want to display, the DMPORT connection will not do that. If you connect the video cable to a composite input on your AV receiver, TV or, in my case, a second monitor (I have Samsung 'picture-by-a-picture' LCD sets). When you power up the Sony receiver after plugging the DMP cable in, you'll see an orange light on the front of the dock. After plugging in the iPod it remains orange and is charging, you can select DMPORT on the receiver's remote then the receiver will play music output from the iPod (selecting music as described above). If you push the button on the front of the dock, the orange light will turn green and the iPod goes into OSD (On Screen Display) mode. At that point, a rather crude menu will apear, in a (kinda cool) "retro-80's" look referred to by other reviewers and you can use your receiver's remote control to navigate. This is the same menu that you would see on your iPod (music, video, etc.) and under music: artists, albums, songs, genres, etc. From comparison with the Onkyo dock downstairs, I feel comfortable saying that this is from the Apple player, not Sony or Onkyo. Fairly basic information and no album art. Also, toggling between the OSD and the iPod display resets whatever was going on at the time. If you were playing a song while in OSD mode, if you turn off OSD mode the music will cease and the iPod interface will show the main menu. Also, if you do not shut off the iPod and remove it from the dock (or don't remove it straight), you might hang the nano, requiring Apple's version of a "3 finger salute", (hold switch-then-menu-while-center) to restart the nano.

From the docked interface besides, obviously, the stereo sound, it appears that the only information provided by the nano is the artist, the album, the song, length of song and time currently played in song. So the IP50 composite output provides a blue multi-toned screen with this information and a blocky 'slide-bar' indicator at the bottom to show how far into the song you are, as well as the length of the song. It's not that bad, the Onkyo dock uses a series of ">" symbols to show progress in song. But both of these video outputs seem based on the limited amount of information that is provided via the iPod's docking interface. The only way to see the album art is to disable the OSD and use the iPod to navigate (which isn't too bad a choice). The Sony dock also has a nice feature, in the OSD mode, where the display goes into a screen saver mode after a few minutes, while still playing music, pressing any button restores the display. In screen saver, the screen goes black and the words "Digital Media Port" in grey pop around the display very unobtrusively.

Playing video from iPod nano (5th gen): If you have video connected to your dock, you can use the menu selections to go to videos or movies and pick a saved video. To test this, I downloaded an MP4 copy of a video I'd made in 720p HD from youtube to iTunes and hence to the iPod. Playback, as expected, is in basic NTSC composite mode (i.e., like you'd get from basic cable stations). Unless you were using this video to keep up with your latest soaps or low-res podcasts, I would not rely too heavily on this feature, due to the video quality limitations, though it may be the best option vs. watching on the nano's display.

Overall impressions: Pretty Satisfied. I went with the Sony docking product rather than a generic so that I could use the DMPORT feature for the remote, as well as inputting audio (the back of my receiver was getting pretty crowded). Setup is quite straightforward if using no video or if connecting the composite video to a open input on your TV or alternate monitor or whatever. I've not tried routing the composite video through the AV system, as it's the only composite video I have in this AV stack. I'm not real pleased with the sturdiness of the physical mating between the iPod and the dock, but I have similar concerns with the other dock I'm reviewing separately. I would recommend this product to a friend with a compatible Sony receiver (DMPORT capable).

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't seem to work with iphone 3GS or iPhone 4, September 14, 2010

By 

devon - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sony Digital Media Port Cradle for iPod (Black, TDM-iP50) (Electronics)

Some internet postings suggest the opposite but, in my recent experience,
even after a suggested firmware/OS upgrade to 4.1, this doesn't seem to work with the iPhone 3GS
or iPhone 4. Hoping that Sony has a fix for this, or I'm returning it ...
Any suggestions?