Onkyo UP-A1 user reviews (digital player docking station)

Pros Works for playing audio.
Can see iPod menu on TV screen.

Cons Playing video is cumbersome and the quality isn't good.

Summary In my opinion this is a very poor choice of ways to spend ones money.

Will it play music over an amp? Yes, but unless you want the dock just because it makes your iPod stand up and look pretty, you can play music over an amp with a $5 wire y-connection from Radio Shack. If you have a compatible TV, can you see the iPod MENU for audio on the screen in an ancient looking font style? Yes...so what? The signal delay from the remote is considerable, and therefore navigation is faster using the iPod itself.

Can it play video? Yes, but the way you have to do it is so cumbersome why not just use a $34 iPod cable...again from Radio Shack? I personally don't even need a cable or an iPod for video (or music, or photos) because the Samsung Blu-ray wireless player I have shares files with my PC and the video quality is WAY better doing it that way.

In order to play videos from my iPod through my Onkyo HT-S330 system, you have to push the 'Port' button on the remote; then hold down the 'Display' button until you get a blue screen; then push 'Display' again to get a blue screen; then navigate to the movie you want using the iPod.

Can it play photos? NO!!!!..what the heck????... Why??... No reason I can think of, exceopt Onkyo decided it wasn't necessary??

Is Onkyo customer support helpful? A BIG, BIG NO! Their phone support is closed on weekends and only open Eastern standard hours on the weekdays which is not very handy if one lives in Hawaii. They also have a 'callback' service if you don't want to hold. That's nice, but the system doesn't call you back every time! I imagine the reason I wasn't called back was there was a que calls and they couldn't all be handled that day. Great...didn't make me too happy.

The website is worse than useless as you have to spend a lot of time just to find out they don't have any information for you.

Finally, the 'owner's manual' sucks. It is no help at all. It only gives very bare-bones information in 50 different languages. The way I finally found out how to do what I've listed above was to Google it up on the Internet.

I'd say don't buy one if you want to save some money. Still...my iPod looks nice standing there in a little black box I paid $100 for. (Me rolling my eyes!!!) :-)