DLO TransDock

"Beware MLMUG Tinkerors"

This site has many more reviews, all written by MLMUG members.
View all our book reviews. Or, view our
Software, hardware, and game reviews.

A Hardware Review
by Steve Evans
Review Date: August 2007

Product: DLO TransDock

Company: Digital Lifestyle Outfitters
URL: http://dlo.com/products/TDock_Prod.tpl?

Price: $99

MinimumSystem Requirements: N/A

Test System: N/A

Reviewer's Rating: 3 out of 5 Apples

The DLO (Digital Lifestyle Outfitters) TransDock is an iPod charger/FM transmitter designed for use with 3G, 4G & 5G iPods as well as 1G & 2G iPod nanos and iPod minis. Its most striking feature is the curving sloped rear of the glossy black charging cradle, which is more reminiscent of some futuristic Jetsons device than a fancy audio accessory. Dig a little deeper and you see that the TransDock includes an AUX IN port, a USB power port and most interesting to me, an A/V OUT port.

The TransDock comes with a two included interchangeable faceplates which surround its large blue backlit LCD display. Plastic inserts slide over the dock connector to accommodate 1G & 2G nano sizes. Neoprene stickers of 2 different thicknesses are also included in the box to fit your size iPod. As a bonus, 12 issues of Rolling Stone Magazine are included with your purchase, via a business reply card in the box. Finally, both a Mounting Arm and an Extender Arm are also provided. Only one of these arms was necessary for my use of the TransDock, but I can imagine SUV or minivan owners needing them both.

The flexibility associated with those articulated arms may also turn out to be an unfortunate weakness, however. Once the DLO product is plugged into the 12V power source, it's stuck in one location in the car, relative to your radio's antenna. So if reception there is bad, it's not easy to relocate.

Broadcasting from the TransDock in the upper range of the FM spectrum (106.5-107.7 FM), I would often get spurious electronic static or bleeps and bloops while driving in the suburbs and the city. In the lower range (88.5-89.9 FM), my car's antenna could not pick up TransDock's signal. Occasionally, my iPod's audio signal seemed over-modulated and fuzzy while at other times it seemed too weak to overcome surrounding radio interference. The TransDock includes a 3-position "level" adjustment, but the user manual is vague as to its proper use.

Of course, it can charge your iPod, but so can a $5 cable from Five Below. If these two functions were all the TransDock were designed to do and I'd paid $99 for it I'd be very disappointed! Fortunately, it is useful in other ways

The product's strongest feature for me is the A/V OUT port, which allows me (with some extra cabling) to send video from the iPod to two portable LCD screens mounted on the rear of the front seat headrests. Now all three of our kids can watch any video content I have stored on the iPod. No more swapping DVDs or lugging all those DVDs around with us! No cable clutter around the iPod since all of the cables for power, video & audio are handled through the dock connection. And the TransDock's articulating arms make it easy to orient your iPod almost anywhere you want it.

If you are going to connect video, be aware that Apple uses non-standard video and audio wiring connections for its iPod video jack. (See http://www.eirikso.com/2006/01/10/how-to-get-video-out-of-your-ipod/).

I haven't been able to test the AUX IN port or the USB power port.

Overall, I like the TransDock, but because of the above reception deficiency, the product falls short. The articulating arms are a plus and can be used in a variety of applications & positions. Tying the product to the power port may limit its ability to broadcast cleanly to rear-mounted antennas, as was the case for me, and this will frustrate many users. Lack of an effective signal strength adjustment only highlights this weakness. The Rolling Stone Magazine subscription is nice, but I won't be using it. Documentation is extensive, but not complete.

Steve Evans
Reviewer: Steve Evans

Steve never owned a computer growing up (unless an Atari counts). The closest he got was playing with the Commodore 64 owned by his college sweetheart.

In college, he used his first Mac Plus and was hooked. It took 7 more years to for Steve to actually buy a Mac, a Quadra 660av. That was 7 Macs and about 8 operating systems ago. He's never looked back.

This site has many more reviews, all written by MLMUG members.
View all our book reviews. Or, view our
Software, hardware, and game reviews.