[sszablya]

I bought the Dynex DX-IPDR2 from Best Buy a few days ago. I have an iPhone 3G 3.0 (still incarcerated). I was looking for a charging dock with video and audio out through the dock connector. I searched everywhere and came up with nothing... Until I stopped by BB and tried a $50 experiment.

This product is plug-n-play: set the phone in the dock, select "No" to the airplane mode message, and go! The composite cables included don't output HD of course, but they do output video! Now I can watch video podcasts, play audio tracks watch slideshows (*while audio plays in the background, even) all from the dock.

The most exciting function however, isn't the video out; once the iPhone is in iPod mode (i.e., the iPod app is running in the foreground), all the buttons on the remote are fully functional. They're not especially intuitive, requiring "Menu" to switch between some of the top and sub menus, and "Enter" to play, but that's a small learning bump to overcome. Once playing audio or video, they remote works exactly as expected (including the volume control), even when the user returns to the Home screen, or another app. When in slideshow mode, the remote functions by moving between pictures and play/pausing. I've only had this work in 'slideshow' mode though- started from the Gallery's Thumbnail Overview screen.

The only drawback I can find at this point, is that the volume output isn't impressive. Not to say the sound is inaudible- I just found the volume level for the selected input on the TV or Stereo must be turned up far beyond normal amplification levels from other signal sources.

Because of the audio issue, I can't recommend this product to watch movies on and I wouldn't rely on it for the basis of my entertainment center. But as long as that's not your intent, I thoroughly recommend this model.

Update: YouTube also plays through the video out.

[ALL DAY]

Great review! I've been trying to decide on a dock and I'll definitely have to check this one out now... Price?

[sszablya]

Originally Posted by ALL DAY

Great review! I've been trying to decide on a dock and I'll definitely have to check this one out now... Price?

$54.99 at Bestbuy, but I've found them for less on eBay. I don't know if there are any minor hardware revisions, so I'm buying an eBay unit to test it out too. I hope no one snipes my bid!

There are TWO different major revisions, the DX-IPDR and DX-IPDR2. The model tested was the DX-IPDR2.

[ALL DAY]

Wow, I was expecting a lot more. I've been tempted recently to just buy the video output cables, but I'm not sure how the quality will be. Everything looks good coming out of this resolution-wise?

[sszablya]

Well, that depends on what you need from the resolution. I don't have the (optional) component cables. The included composite cables output at what appears to be 480i. The quality of the picture from a podcast, formatted for the iPhone resolution, looks like- well, a what one would expect the broadcast to look like.. A bit grainy, but certainly watchable. Youtube is also watchable, but streaming over the phone it is a bit blocky (like fullscreen mode on a computer).

Take my description with a grain of salt- My normal video sources are blu-ray and MPEG-4 service from Dish Network, so my 'grainy' description is probably biased a bit more than someone who has SD TV on a CRT, for instance.

I will go move the dock around to some other TV's (currently using an old Toshiba 32" CRT behemoth) and report back.

Also tonight I'll slap a converted movie onto the iPhone and post the result tomorrow.

[ALL DAY]

Okay, thanks a lot. I was more curious about the video-quality from the iPod app and such, so I'll look forward to your findings.

Thanks for all the answers, man.

[sszablya]

Well, I dropped the ball las night and jailbroke my phone instead of transferring a video. I'll do it tonight... lol

[ALL DAY]

^Haha, no problem. First things first, of course.

[sszablya]

Well, I loaded a video onto the phone last night. The video loaded was a DVD rip,in 16:9 format. The picture coming out is.. well, it's decent. Keep in mind that I don't have the Component cables, and the limit of my resolution is 480i. That being said, the resolution compares to that of a standard-def TV signal.

The Wide/Standard output toggle in the iphone basically crops whatever dimension source image into 4:3, and I had some issues getting this to look right while switching between LCD and CRT TV's, with the cropping and TV zoom settings, etc.

Bottom line: This is a pretty cool little gadget for not much green. It works well and is useful, and given the limited options for iPhone AV Docks, it's a pretty good option.

[babyblue_pimp]

has anyone tried this dock with an incase slider? does it fit without sliding the bottom half off?

[sszablya]

The dock has several inserts with it... None of them seemed especially fitting to the iPhone, so I left the cradle inserts out and just docked my phone without it. I don't have the invade slider, but it works with the griffin case I have on my phone.

[ronblade]

I was just trying to decide for dock and your post helped me giving me all kinds of information about it. So, what are you up to now? Are you finally into it? Let me know.

[sszablya]

Update: I bought an eBay version for $15 and it works too. Not only that, but it appears to work with Orb Media Player(if your into that sort of thing). The orb streaming looks like crap on the tv out, but it works.

[robertmdwill]

I got an Ipod dock/out-put that came with my samsung tv and it works great for video and audio whilst charging and I don't know how yet but I can transfer pictures from my amp/reciever to my iphone...

[sszablya]

Had one issue with the dock today, I got some error that said, "This accessory is not compatible with iPhone. [Okay]" Restarted the phone and it works again. FYI.