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Provides: View iPod videos and photos and listen to iPod music on your TV

Developer: Digital Lifestyle Outfitters

Minimum Requirements: dockable, click wheel iPods (including 1G and 2G iPod nano, 4G and 5G iPod, and iPod mini)

Retail Price: $149.99

Availability: Out now

Before Apple sits down at the table this Thanksgiving for food and festivities, they better give thanks to Digital Lifestyle Outfitters (DLO). Actually, there are many companies to whom they should give thanks, and they should give thanks to me, too, just because I'm a good guy, but they should specifically give thanks to DLO for extending the usefulness of the iPod. For example:

I recently downloaded season one of The State from the iTunes Music Store. I was a huge fan of The State in the 90s, and I've been a huge fan of nearly everything they've done since. My wife has never seen The State, but she loves Wet Hot American Summer and Reno! 911, and she has a bit of a crush on Michael Ian Black. More power to her, I say. It takes the kind of girl who would have a crush on Michael Ian Black to be willing to marry a guy like me.

And yet, she's not willing to watch Michael and the rest of The State on my computer. Not on the iPod, either, which wouldn't be any fun, anyway, as we couldn't watch it together. So, what to do? Get DLO's HomeDock Deluxe to watch iPod videos and photos on the TV. Problem solved. The State watched. Laugher shared.

The HomeDock Deluxe easily connects your iPod to your television via an AV or S-video cable. Unfortunately, the S-video cable is not included. Considering that the videos compressed for your iPod are a bit below the digital cable and DVD standards you've come to expect, you'll want to get an S-video cable to get as much quality out of your videos as possible (especially now that Apple is giving them to you at a 640x480 dpi).

The benefit of the HomeDock Deluxe over most other iPod to TV devices is that the HomeDock actually displays the iPod information on your TV. Kind of. This feature works with music only, and it doesn't simply display the iPod screen on the TV. It has its own interface and navigation, which you can control with the included remote. The interface is set up to closely mimic the iPod's behavior, but it does lose information such as album art, star ratings and lyrics. Not sure you'd need them on your TV screen, but it would be kind of cool to have. It does, however, retain all of your playlists, and, just like with the iPod, you can navigate by artists, albums and songs, and you can set the HomeDock Deluxe to shuffle.

Video, however, is a bit more cumbersome to deal with. The HomeDock Deluxe works in two modes. On-Screen Navigation Mode is used for listening to your music, and you'll need to switch to iPod Mode to view videos. When you're in iPod Mode, the TV screen goes black, so you'll need to be up by the HomeDock to make your selections. Even before that, you'll need to set your iPod's TV Out feature to either TV On or Ask. If you go TV On, you shouldn't need to worry about this every time you watch a video with the HomeDock Deluxe. If you go with Ask, you'll just need to select TV On when prompted by the iPod. This all works the same way with viewing photo slideshows.

Once the video/slideshow has started, you can control the playback remotely just like you can a DVD or videotape: Pause, fast forward, skip to next video, etc. There's even a button that will temporarily turn the iPod's backlight on, although I was never able to find a good use for it. Even if I did need to see what the iPod was doing, it was too far from my couch for me to read it. The remote features are especially handy for photo slideshows, as I could use it to control when I wanted to advance to the next photo, as opposed to having the iPod automatically move it along every five seconds or so. If your photo slideshows are set to music in the iPod, the HomeDock Deluxe will play that music through your TV speakers.

The HomeDock Deluxe is a fairly good looking unit that fits in well amongst the design of most modern home entertainment equipment. It's shape is very much like that of the Mac mini, but smaller and with a darker metallic finish. The top holds the iPod and has a cut-out to hold the remote, as well, and all of the cable ports are located in the back. The docking port bears more discussion, as it's designed not only to accommodate all click wheel iPods, but to do so while they're still in their case, in some instances. In many docks, the iPod has to be inserted into a divot to sit over the dock port. This means you have to remove your iPod from its case in order for it to slide in. With the HomeDock Deluxe, the dock port rises above the unit, so plugging your iPod into it is as simple as plugging in a docking cable. An adjustable brace rises up to support the back of the iPod, and it can be easily moved to accommodate your case, as well. This is a great feature, as I hate having to constantly remove my iPod from its case in order to connect it to third party devices. I'm not saying it'll work with all cases, but chances are good that if you don't have to remove your case to plug in a docking cable, you want have to do so to connect the HomeDock Deluxe. For instance, of the six in my recent review of 5G iPod cases, one required me to remove the iPod completely (the STM 5G iPod Cocoon), two required that I remove or unstrap a piece (iFrogz and Belkin Kickstand), and the other three hooked right up.

A couple other features worth mentioning include the HomeDock Deluxe's support for both NTSC and PAL video, and its built-in screen saver that displays your iPod's current status, song name and album information on a moving graphic. Again, this is where it would be cool if the HomeDock Deluxe could pull in album artwork, but regardless, there's no need to worry about screen burn-in when you're letting your iPod and the HomeDock Deluxe handle the DJ duties at your party.

Apple has announced they're working on a wireless device that'll play your iPod and computer movies/videos on your TV. That'll be pretty cool. But, if you want to do this now, and if you want to do it for cheaper than what Apple's product will undoubtedly cost, the HomeDock Deluxe is the way to go. And for that, my wife and I and Michael Ian Black are most thankful.