Installation, Testing and Comparison
The iPod AV, Sync and Charging Dock functions like the standard iPod dock with some key additions. The rear dock connector is used in conjunction with the sync/power cable. When I tried to use the Apple brand sync/power cable, there was resistance in plugging it in. I then tried the spare cable from the iDock Video Dock and that seemed to fit without any trouble.
The dock itself has three removable dock adapters which fits, the 3rd, 4th and 5th generation iPods, including the iPod Photo and the iPod Video. The iPod Nano and Mini can be docked as well.
Removing the adapters involves sliding the locking tab forward and lifting the adapter out. I found that the adapters sat a little too snuggly against the dock and required a flat object like a flathead screwdriver to pry the edge upward.
The AV line out is a standard 3.5mm jack and the AV cable fits easily. Play back can be controlled with either the remote or on the iPod itself.
The video output uses an AV cable with the RCA connectors. Once again, the quality of the video output is dependent on the type of encoding used for the iPod video.
For testing, I will be hooking the iPod AV, Sync and Charging Dock with Remote to a 32-inch Samsung HDTV (720P/1080i) television via the RCA inputs. I will be using video that I encoded from DVD via Handbrake (http://handbrake.m0k.org/) which is available for both Mac and PC. I used the Mac version with the iPod preset using the two-pass option. This will set the video to a max resolution of 640×480 using the H.264 encoder.
The output showed no noticeable difference between the iDock and the current AV dock being tested. The remote functioned as advertised and had a range of about 5-10 feet with direct line of sight.