Pros: High-quality, gold-tipped AV cables for color 4G and 5G iPods, featuring your choice of composite or S-Video outputs and either top- or bottom-connecting iPod plugs. Dock Connector and S-Video combo provides best quality AV experience possible from your iPod; Dock Connector and composite combo similarly solid. Cables’ tips can be unscrewed for custom installations.
Cons: Dock Connector cable versions preclude simultaneous iPod viewing and charging, a dilemma especially for those who hope to play battery-draining video on their iPods. When shipping is factored in, top competitive option from Marware offers greater cable length for the dollar.
This series of three new audio/video cables for color 4G and 5G iPods has a few unique twists. All three are designed to output your iPod’s audio and video to a television set, using RCA-style stereo audio plugs, a video connector, and roughly six feet of thick rubber cabling, but from there, they differ.
First, they’re the first we’ve seen in Dock Connector versions – two of the three cables connect to your iPod’s bottom rather than its top. Second, two of the cables use a composite/RCA-style video output, but the third uses an S-Video plug instead, which typically yields superior picture quality than standard composite video cables. Third, they tout the unlockability of their metal AV connectors if you’re interested in splicing open the cables for some novel custom installation.
Known mostly for its cases and iPod charging cables, Capdase has recently released three new audio/video cables for color 4G and 5G iPods, each designed to output your iPod’s audio and video to a television set. In concept, each cable in the Come Home series does pretty much the same thing, using RCA-style stereo audio plugs, a video connector, and roughly six feet of thick rubber cabling to connect iPod to a television set or monitor of your choice.
But from there, they differ.
The cheapest of the three cables ($14) connects to the iPod with a gold-plated stereo plug, using the iPod’s top headphone port and outputting to composite-style video and audio plugs. Two other cables are the first we’ve seen in Dock Connector versions, connecting to your iPod’s bottom rather than its top. One of the Dock Connector cables ($18) uses a composite/RCA-style video output, just like the top-connecting, cheaper version, but the third and final cable ($23) uses an S-Video plug instead, which is generally capable of yielding superior picture quality than standard composite video cables. All three cables tout the unlockability of their metal AV connectors, allowing you to splice open their cables for any novel custom installation you have planned.
In short, we were impressed by both the build quality of the cables and their audio-video output, which we tested under a number of conditions – including in-home use, and as the iPod integration element for a premium car installation. Not surprisingly, the cables performed ably, with the Dock Connector versions permitting especially impressive audio and video quality, particularly the S-Video version.
