Logic3 Pro-Dock

The Logic3 Pro-Dock is an iPod dock that lets you stream video to a television using composite and component video out ports.

It has an interesting design and is quite small. The piano-black plastic casing has a gunmetal grey trim and the Logic3 logo on the front lights up when the dock is turned on. An extended base-plate gives the whole Logic3 Pro-Dock a little extra stability.

The Pro-Dock is light and therefore easy to bring along when travelling, but it requires external power to operate and charge connected iPods. It also has a mini-USB port that lets you connect to a computer for synchronising data.

The composite and component video out ports on the back of the iPod dock allow you to play movies and image slideshows stored on the iPod. Although it sounds like a simple premise, very few iPod docks are able to do this. The Cygnett Unison i-XT iPod dock offers S-Video out, but the ports offered by the Logic3 Pro-Dock are more common on many LCD and plasma TVs.

Unfortunately the iPod's inability to store movies with a resolution above 680x480 means that if you connect the iPod device and Logic3 Pro-Dock to a large screen television, the pixelation makes videos difficult to enjoy. You'll only be able to use this feature if you own an iPhone 3G, an iPod touch (Second Generation), an Apple iPod nano (fourth generation) / Apple iPod nano (3rd Generation), an Apple iPod classic or an Apple iPod (Updated 5th Generation).

The Logic3 Pro-Dock lacks speakers, so all sound comes through the television or speakers connected via the stereo analog RCA ports. The frequency response range is a disappointing 80Hz-16KHz, which cuts off a lot of the treble and lower range sound. We often found that treble sounded squashed and indistinct. The lack of a line-in for the dock also means that only iPods are compatible with the Pro-Dock.

This iPod dock is portable and versatile. Unfortunately, the quality of the audio and video output is less than impressive.