Belkin TuneCommand AV review

The one area we were a little disappointed with was the remote's limited functionality, though this downfall is more Apple's fault than Belkin's. You can control five basic functions: play/pause, next/previous track, volume up/down, song shuffle, and repeat. Unfortunately, however, you can't navigate through your iPod's menus on your TV--an Apple restriction, present on every dock we've seen to date--so to select a new movie, play a new song, or launch a new slide show, you have to step up to your iPod, and queue up everything by pressing the buttons on the iPod itself. It's also worth mentioning that if you lose the wireless connection between the remote and the dock, you have to unplug the power cord from the dock, then plug it back in to reestablish a connection. (By way of comparison, the remote in Apple's A/V Connection Kit uses IR, or infrared, which requires line of sight to the device, but not any sort of pairing.)

Apart from those gripes we didn't have any major complaints. Yes, it would've been nice if there'd also been a USB pass-through port so that you could connect the dock (and your iPod) to your computer for syncing. While Apple's iPod A/V Connection Kit includes this feature, it's not that big a deal because we suspect most folks will keep the TuneCommand connected to their home stereo and TV.

In the final analysis, $70 is still a bit pricey for this type of accessory--Apple takes a licensing fee on all iPod accessories that manufacturers pass on to consumers--but it's a good deal less expensive than Apple's similarly featured iPod AV Connection Kit. And that makes it a pretty good deal for anybody who's watching a lot of iPod videos on their TV.