Rocketfish - 6' A/V Cable Cable, Connector for Select Apple iPod Models
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- Brand: Apple
- Compatible Devices: Apple iPod
- Type: Cable, Connector
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Shaving some cash off of the "Apple Tax", a third-party cable
Pros
Less expensive than Apple cable unless you need an AC adapter
Cons
A little heavy and inflexible
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
If you already own the iPod AC charger but need to replace the A/V cable, this is an excellent option. If you need both, buy the set from Apple.
I recently replaced my 60GB 5th generation iPod with an 80GB iPod classic. It was a smooth transition, but what I did not realize at the time was that I would lose the ability to use a large number of my accessories. It turns out that the iPod classic (along with the iPhone and iPod touch from what I understand) has some specific power requirements for its docks and cables that some of the older accessories do not provide. As a result, I couldn't use my old A/V karaoke dock to display video from the iPod on my home display or use the older 3.5mm A/V cable for audio and video out. When I went out shopping for a replacement cable, I noticed that the cable price is pretty high, $50 for the either the component or composite cable from Apple. I also noticed that the cable came with an Apple AC charger, a product I already owned. When I saw the rockfish version of the cable further down the aisle and noticed that it was $15 less, I decided to give it a try. The main reason the rocketfish cable is less is probably due to the lack of an AC adapter, so keep that in mind with your purchase. I'll divide the review into two areas: connection and usage.
Connection-
Connecting your iPod to a display or audio device is very easy, even with all of the dangling cables. The USB end connects to the AC adapter, while the red/blue/green/ composite cables go to your video inputs on the display while the red/white cables run into your audio input. If you are just connecting it to a stereo, you wouldn't need to worry about the video cables, just the two audio jacks. Plug your iPod into the dock connector at the other end of the cable and you're ready to go!
The cable is pretty long, but what is more important are the lengths of the cable at the main junction point (where the cables spreads out into USB/Audio/Video jacks). That split is at about the 3 foot mark, which gives you a little room to manuever (say you have a display but also use a receiver and you need the audio to go through the receiver). That is also important for the USB portion of the cable, since your power outlets and the A/V jacks are likely to be far apart (in fact, I have to use a 3 foot USB extender cable to use the rocketfish cable with my A/V setup). In a way, it would be nice if more of that cable length was made up of the split out cables instead of the bundled dock-connector cable, but then you end up with a bigger mess of cables. Sometimes there just has to be a compromise:-).
The color coding on the cables is a bit tricky, as the whole tip of the cable isn't colored, just a thin ring around the top of the connector. It isn't an issue most of the time during installation, but if you aren't in a well-lit area and need to swap a cable, you may not be able to tell one end from the other.
Lastly, the cable is pretty thick, so it feels a lot more solid when you are working with it. That has pros and cons; the heavy cable should make it pretty durable over time, but because it is heavy, it can be hard to place (it's going to pull itself down and depending on the placement of your iPod, it could pull your iPod off of a shelf). Most of that weight though comes from the many enclosed cables, not from additional shielding, but with all those cables so close together, I assume everything is pretty well shielded.
Final verdict: a good cable that is easy to use if you have ever connected a device using component or composite video cables (DVD player, XBox, Playstation, etc.). The cable is a bit heavy and the lengths can be a problem, but it does the job as well as any other cable could, including the Apple version of the cable. Grade - B+
Usage-
Once you get the cable in place, there isn't much else for you to do. You can watch/ listen to your ipod through your display or stereo. If you encode your audio at a high enough quality, you probably will not notice any difference between audio from your iPod versus audio from your CD player. On the video side of things, again, it depends on the video source and your equipment. You basically have two types of video that your iPod can produce, 320x280 video and 640x480 video. 320x280 is watchable, with quality similar to a YouTube video, while 640x480 video looks much better and is similar in quality to a VCR recording (so a step or two below over-the-air standard definition television). Occasionally there are videos that aren't quite scaled right for viewing on my display, but again that's due to the source, not the iPod itself or the cable. For the most part then, if you have high quality video for the iPod and pump it out to a display using this cable, you'll get watchable results; just don't compare it to the video from your DVD player or (heaven forbid) a high definition signal.
Lastly, this cable is stated to be compatible with the iPod classic, touch, and 3rd generation nano. If you have a different device, compatibility may be a problem.
Final verdict- Good video and audio assuming you have good starting material. The quality of your equipment also impacts the quality of the audio/ video signal. Overall though, is adequate for getting video out to a display so that you don't have to bring a stack of DVDs with you on every trip. Grade - B
Overall verdict-
If Apple made this cable alone for $35, I would have purchased it from them. They don't, so I went with rocketfish. If you are about to purchase an AC adapter for your iPod though (which runs about $20) and you don't already have a cable like this, save yourself some time and money and purchase the bundled cable and adapter from Apple.
The cable is easy to install and use and does exactly what it says it will do. Other than a few minor tweaks here and there, there is nothing else that I could ask for.
Final grade: B+
Connection-
Connecting your iPod to a display or audio device is very easy, even with all of the dangling cables. The USB end connects to the AC adapter, while the red/blue/green/ composite cables go to your video inputs on the display while the red/white cables run into your audio input. If you are just connecting it to a stereo, you wouldn't need to worry about the video cables, just the two audio jacks. Plug your iPod into the dock connector at the other end of the cable and you're ready to go!
The cable is pretty long, but what is more important are the lengths of the cable at the main junction point (where the cables spreads out into USB/Audio/Video jacks). That split is at about the 3 foot mark, which gives you a little room to manuever (say you have a display but also use a receiver and you need the audio to go through the receiver). That is also important for the USB portion of the cable, since your power outlets and the A/V jacks are likely to be far apart (in fact, I have to use a 3 foot USB extender cable to use the rocketfish cable with my A/V setup). In a way, it would be nice if more of that cable length was made up of the split out cables instead of the bundled dock-connector cable, but then you end up with a bigger mess of cables. Sometimes there just has to be a compromise:-).
The color coding on the cables is a bit tricky, as the whole tip of the cable isn't colored, just a thin ring around the top of the connector. It isn't an issue most of the time during installation, but if you aren't in a well-lit area and need to swap a cable, you may not be able to tell one end from the other.
Lastly, the cable is pretty thick, so it feels a lot more solid when you are working with it. That has pros and cons; the heavy cable should make it pretty durable over time, but because it is heavy, it can be hard to place (it's going to pull itself down and depending on the placement of your iPod, it could pull your iPod off of a shelf). Most of that weight though comes from the many enclosed cables, not from additional shielding, but with all those cables so close together, I assume everything is pretty well shielded.
Final verdict: a good cable that is easy to use if you have ever connected a device using component or composite video cables (DVD player, XBox, Playstation, etc.). The cable is a bit heavy and the lengths can be a problem, but it does the job as well as any other cable could, including the Apple version of the cable. Grade - B+
Usage-
Once you get the cable in place, there isn't much else for you to do. You can watch/ listen to your ipod through your display or stereo. If you encode your audio at a high enough quality, you probably will not notice any difference between audio from your iPod versus audio from your CD player. On the video side of things, again, it depends on the video source and your equipment. You basically have two types of video that your iPod can produce, 320x280 video and 640x480 video. 320x280 is watchable, with quality similar to a YouTube video, while 640x480 video looks much better and is similar in quality to a VCR recording (so a step or two below over-the-air standard definition television). Occasionally there are videos that aren't quite scaled right for viewing on my display, but again that's due to the source, not the iPod itself or the cable. For the most part then, if you have high quality video for the iPod and pump it out to a display using this cable, you'll get watchable results; just don't compare it to the video from your DVD player or (heaven forbid) a high definition signal.
Lastly, this cable is stated to be compatible with the iPod classic, touch, and 3rd generation nano. If you have a different device, compatibility may be a problem.
Final verdict- Good video and audio assuming you have good starting material. The quality of your equipment also impacts the quality of the audio/ video signal. Overall though, is adequate for getting video out to a display so that you don't have to bring a stack of DVDs with you on every trip. Grade - B
Overall verdict-
If Apple made this cable alone for $35, I would have purchased it from them. They don't, so I went with rocketfish. If you are about to purchase an AC adapter for your iPod though (which runs about $20) and you don't already have a cable like this, save yourself some time and money and purchase the bundled cable and adapter from Apple.
The cable is easy to install and use and does exactly what it says it will do. Other than a few minor tweaks here and there, there is nothing else that I could ask for.
Final grade: B+
