Apple iPod Universal Dock (Black) including Remote Control

I use this dock to play my 60GB video ipod through my home stereo system and can't fault it. All the features work; including the extra ones with the remote (shuffle, repeat, next album...). Represents much better value than the Apple universal dock and IR remote and does more. Highly recommended!

...it doesn't do what it says on the tin! I have an Ipod video, which according to the manual should operate all of the 'extended' functions. It doesn't. I've tried upgrading my Itunes and Ipod software, as suggested by the Logic technical support, but this has no effect.

So the 'change album' feature doesn't work. Big deal! I have so many albums loaded that I can really see why I'd want to use this anyway. This is why I've only rated it as 4 star.

The unit is much more solid that it looks on the picture - quite heavy in fact - not sure what they've put inside (maybe a piece of lead?), so this is not going to be knocked off the top of my HI-Fi cabinet easily!

The remote is really slim, but simple enough to give me the most important functions without too much trouble - i.e. change track, pause/play and of course volume. Also worth noting that the range of the remote is quite impressive. I have a huge living room, and even half-way up it, 25 feet from the ipod, the remote works. Will also work at quite an oblique angle.

I haven't used playlists much in the past, but the change playlist function may be quite useful.

There are lots of ipod-docking 'hifis' on the market these days, but I have a very good 'traditional' component set - this is a great way of using it with the Ipod. Recommended.

Well this is the third iPod dock I've tried for my 5th generation iPod 30GB, and it's by far the best value one.

The package I received came with: the dock (about W10xL12xH3 cm), the remote (about W4xL10xH0.5 cm) with battery, 4 dock adapters (for the mini, nano, 5G30gb/4G20gb, and 5G80gb/4G60gb), a power brick (this is pretty big), and a US and UK plug for the power brick.

The dock itself is made from a shiny black plastic with the logic3 logo on the front right, the IR sensor is concealed behind a blue transparent plastic window which also holds a LED which lights up blue when the unit is connected to power. The grate on the top is also just for show, there aren't really any holes there, and it certainly doesn't contain a speaker as some reviewer here seemed to expect. The outlets on the back (from left to right) are: DC in, s-video out, 13-pin dock connector, composite-video out, line (3.5mm jack) out. Allowing connection to power, a TV (for video and audio), a hi-fi (for audio), and your computer for syncing.

The remote is compact and neat, allowing you to control the basic functions of the iPod, it doesn't however let you navigate through any menus. From left-to-right, top-to-bottom the remote buttons are: next album, shuffle, next playlist, prev album, repeat, prev playlist, skip back, play/pause, skip right, vol-, vol+. The remote is very simple, almost easy to lose!

The only problem I've had with this is the change playlist and change album functions, which seem to be a bit temperamental (then again i don't use playlists a lot). The remote does have some lag on it, as with any IR remote, but this is about 1/3 second, not really a problem. The remote volume changes the unit volume, not the iPod volume, and if you hold down the play/pause button on the remote - as with the iPod - the iPod will go to sleep.

I use this to play all my music through my hi-fi, and sometimes play video through the tv, it keeps my iPod charged up and I simply plonk it in when I get home and take it out when I leave. This is a great value dock and beats the official apple one on features, especially if you have a black iPod!