Problems with "New" Homedock Deluxe - Anyone else?

[keviha]

Hello - first time posting. Thought I'd reach out to the iLounge bretheren to see if anyone else placed a pre-order for the new DLO Homedock Deluxe's. This is the new Homedock Deluxe which now shows album art in the now playing bar as well as screen savers. The reason I ask is I just received mine tonight and I'm having serious problems with it. I know some people had problems with the first Homedock Deluxe but mine worked flawlessly from day 1.

My new one is having the following problems:

1. According to the user manual there should be an "album art" screen saver option which displays large floating album art. This option is missing from the screen savers options screen.
2. There are two other screen savers with album art available to choose (now playing and blank saver) which when selected turns off after 1 minute or so to a black screen. They both come back on once a new song comes on and then turns to a black screen once again. This has to be an issue because if I choose any of the other screen savers that do not include album art they come on according to the delay I've chosen and stay on.

I've already shot off an email to DLO's customer service as I'm sure they'll have to exchange, but I'm wondering if anyone else just received their's and if they're also having the same problems. DLO hasn't had the best reputation for quality control on previous docks, so I'm wondering if this is an isolated issue or a sign of bigger problems.

Kevin

[keviha]

Originally Posted by keviha

Hello - first time posting. Thought I'd reach out to the iLounge bretheren to see if anyone else placed a pre-order for the new DLO Homedock Deluxe's. This is the new Homedock Deluxe which now shows album art in the now playing bar as well as screen savers. The reason I ask is I just received mine tonight and I'm having serious problems with it. I know some people had problems with the first Homedock Deluxe but mine worked flawlessly from day 1.

My new one is having the following problems:

1. According to the user manual there should be an "album art" screen saver option which displays large floating album art. This option is missing from the screen savers options screen.
2. There are two other screen savers with album art available to choose (now playing and blank saver) which when selected turns off after 1 minute or so to a black screen. They both come back on once a new song comes on and then turns to a black screen once again. This has to be an issue because if I choose any of the other screen savers that do not include album art they come on according to the delay I've chosen and stay on.

I've already shot off an email to DLO's customer service as I'm sure they'll have to exchange, but I'm wondering if anyone else just received their's and if they're also having the same problems. DLO hasn't had the best reputation for quality control on previous docks, so I'm wondering if this is an isolated issue or a sign of bigger problems.

Kevin

Here's an update from DLO on the issue noted above......

Here's a follow-up to the problems I state above with the new Homedock Deluxe. A DLO CSR confirmed that the screen savers "status bar" and "blank saver" which both include album art are meant to turn off 1 minute into each song. This is to help prevent burn in. This is obviously a good thing, but it wasn't spelled out in the manual and functions differently than the other 10 screen savers, so I thought it wasn't working properly.

I also was surprised the DLO CSR said the large "floating album art" which does not include any track information and has been shown on their web site and is in the user manual is not functional at this time and they hope to replace the standard DLO logo screen saver with the album art screen saver with a future update. I've replied back as to whether those of us who've purchased the new one can expect to get a free update, but this stinks. If a free update is not available than this really smacks of a "bait and switch" tactic.

One last thing...on the positive side the new screens look nice, the unit seems to have better sound quality (at higher levels too) and accessing video through the remote works fine.

Kevin

[keviha]

Here's another update.....the new Homedock Deluxe's will be upgradeable (unlike the previous version) though the timing for the next upgrade to include the floating album art is not known at the moment. I have to say I've received quick responses from DLO and they are interested in hearing directly from users of the Homedock Deluxe. I plan on keeping the one I received for the time being as I put it through it's paces. Kevin

[netjrb]

Thinking of buying one of these, so the info is much appreciated.

Did they give you any idea how the upgrade would be achieved?
Would you have to send the unit in, or is there someway to flash the firmware?

Thanks.

[keviha]

Originally Posted by netjrb

Thinking of buying one of these, so the info is much appreciated.

Did they give you any idea how the upgrade would be achieved?
Would you have to send the unit in, or is there someway to flash the firmware?

Thanks.

Well, they said the likely way it will be upgraded is using the USB port on the back of the base. They alluded to another possibility for the owner to upgrade, but wouldn't speak to the details. I was told the upgrade definitely wouldn't involve the owner sending the dock in or anything like that.

By the way, I should clarify my comments regarding the quality of the screen backgrounds, screen colors, etc. I have mine hooked up with an S video cable and the quality is in line with the most recent version of the Homedock Deluxe. I would say the image is a bit soft, but the new screen backgrounds give you more flexibility in choosing a color you'll like. The remote is nearly identical to the old one with a few extra features.

I have to say the biggest thing I like about it at the moment is the sound level is much higher. I believe the highs and lows are more pronounced to my ears with much (not all) of the "muddy" sound gone. No one would ever say the sound output is an audiophile dream, but it's improved over the previous Homedock Deluxe.

Kevin

[netjrb]

Well, they said the likely way it will be upgraded is using the USB port on the back of the base. They alluded to another possibility for the owner to upgrade, but wouldn't speak to the details. I was told the upgrade definitely wouldn't involve the owner sending the dock in or anything like that.

By the way, I should clarify my comments regarding the quality of the screen backgrounds, screen colors, etc. I have mine hooked up with an S video cable and the quality is in line with the most recent version of the Homedock Deluxe. I would say the image is a bit soft, but the new screen backgrounds give you more flexibility in choosing a color you'll like. The remote is nearly identical to the old one with a few extra features.

I have to say the biggest thing I like about it at the moment is the sound level is much higher. I believe the highs and lows are more pronounced to my ears with much (not all) of the "muddy" sound gone. No one would ever say the sound output is an audiophile dream, but it's improved over the previous Homedock Deluxe.

It makes me feel a lot better knowing there is an upgrade path.
I would think the other upgrade path would be running some sort of update program on the iPod while it's connected to the homedock.

I've been looking thru as much information as I could find about this dock. Couple questions though that maybe you could help with. Does it allow you to view pictures(slide shows) on your TV? Also can you navigate into the actual settings menu for the iPod? And I assume it's still possible to control everything from the iPod directly while it's docked? Again thanks for the info! I'll probably push the purchase button tomorrow.

[keviha]

Originally Posted by netjrb

It makes me feel a lot better knowing there is an upgrade path.
I would think the other upgrade path would be running some sort of update program on the iPod while it's connected to the homedock.

I've been looking thru as much information as I could find about this dock. Couple questions though that maybe you could help with. Does it allow you to view pictures(slide shows) on your TV? Also can you navigate into the actual settings menu for the iPod? And I assume it's still possible to control everything from the iPod directly while it's docked? Again thanks for the info! I'll probably push the purchase button tomorrow.

According the user manual (pg 20) you can use photo compatible iPod's to view pictures on you tv. In any case, you're able to use the remote control while viewing on your tv and select and play a Slideshow from your iPod. By the way, according the the manual, iPod nano does not currently support external play-back of its internal photos. However, all music functions, including On-tv navigation work.

As far as settings, you can't actually view those through your tv. That is only available through the iPod itself. I know...that's a bummer.

If you're not in a big hurry maybe you'd want to wait for the new iLuv video dock? Another possibility is iTv...though it's twice the cost...but obviously has more functionality in other areas. Well, good luck! Kevin

[Pete_L_P]

a few questions for users of the new DLO homedock

- How well does music menu navigation work with large lists
-- Is it reliable?
-- Is it fast?
- Can you rate songs using the remote?
- Does it display album art with Nano's ?
- How good does the album art look?

Pete

[keviha]

Originally Posted by Pete_L_P

a few questions for users of the new DLO homedock

- How well does music menu navigation work with large lists
-- Is it reliable?
-- Is it fast?
- Can you rate songs using the remote?
- Does it display album art with Nano's ?
- How good does the album art look?

Pete

Pete - here are my impressions.

Large lists work pretty well. However, scrolling is no faster than the earlier version, which wasn't all that fast.
You can't rate songs using the remote. Album art is displayed with Nano's (I have both a
5G 60gb & 2gb Nano). Interesting thing is the album art resolution appears to be sharper with the nano.

[Pete_L_P]

Thanks for the info keviha

[Mutnat]

Finally got my pre-order delivered by UPS yesterday (I'm in Canada and it always takes a while to get things to here). Haven't hooked it up yet* but will this weekend and I'll post thoughts after.

* because they don't include the mini-8-to-rca adapter anymore, I now have to squeeze in behind my tv stand to replace the cable I have going to the amp, which was a mini-8 (apple universal dock) to rca cable with a straight rca-to-rca cable. I couldn't be bothered hassling with that last night.

[Mutnat]

So here's an important thing regarding the new features that they should have slipped a note about into the box:

You must have firmware 1.2 or 1.2.1 in order to get:
- artwork showing
- on-tv navigation of videos
- maybe other things? I'm not sure.

I was a bit baffled when I got it hooked up and fired it up and those features seemed to be missing. A bit later I remembered I was still on the 1.1.x firmware and decided to update (remembering that DLO and Griffin both blamed the lack of video browsing and other things on the apple firmware and hey maybe it's the new firmware that enabled that now, DUH!) and voila works as advertised.

Overall pretty decent, though I only played for a few minutes after I got everything up and running properly.

[mchinman]

how did you update the firmware?

[Mutnat]

Originally Posted by mchinman

how did you update the firmware?

Okay yeah I wasn'' very clear, sorry! Let me clarify:

You must have iPod firmware 1.2 or higher. And of course, you upgrade that using iTunes. My "new" home dock deluxe shows firmware version 2.0.0, the same as it was out of the box. Sorry for the confusion.

[Mutnat]

Here's a couple more observations:

- sound quality is very good, far better than the apple universal dock. With the apple dock, I always had to crank my stereo up VERY loud to get any volume while playing back form the iPod, just like if I were to plug the cable into the headphone jack instead of into the dock. And that was with the dock volume set to it's highest setting (using the apple remote). The DLO dock is far louder and sounds quite nice. I've got it set to about 2/3 volume and have the home receiver at a much more reasonable volume.

- the dock is much more friendly than the original home dock deluxe. Okay I only had the original model for a few days before I returned it to wait for this new version, so I'm going on memory here. But I seem to recall that if the dock wouldn't notice what you were playing before you docked the ipod, you'd have to start over; and vice-versa when you removed the pod from the dock, it would "forget" what you were just playing and you had to make a new selection. Not so with the "new" home dock deluxe--it handles both those situations perfectly. One caveat--I haven't hooked the dock up to a computer. I imagine if you did that, you'd probably loose the now playing info.