Meridian MV-D1 iPod dock outputs 1080p content to your HDTV

You know what they say, if Apple won't provide a way, blaze your own trail anyway. Granted, the vernacular might be a bit off, but apparently Meridian gets the gist of it, as it showcased the MV-D1 iPod video dock at CES as a means of getting a "real HD video experience" out of that yet-to-be-widescreened 5.5G rendition. The primarily glossy red device casually holds your iPod video, and provides a Source, Format, and Connect button to go along with the volume keys, and houses Marvell's 88DE2710 digital video format converter to handle the upscaling. Reportedly, the dock can take any stored SD / HD media and output it via HDMI, cleaning up the noise and artifacts in the process. Moreover, the unit can be powered by either USB or your average AC plug, and even includes digital audio out for a (somewhat) "true" high definition experience. While pricing and availability information wasn't readily available, we're sure Meridian won't keep us iPod-toting HD freaks waiting for too much longer. Click on through for a closeup.

[Pinionist @ Jan 13th 2007 5:09AM]

PSP version please :)

[pyro @ Jan 12th 2007 8:48PM]

I think this is the first useful ipod dock I've ever seen.

[mark @ Jan 12th 2007 9:39PM]

And this has proper SPDIF digital audio out ? Isn't this the only dock that has that capability for any ipod (I know there's the $2000 dock, but that needs your ipod to have surgery) ? Sign me up.

[Zach @ Jan 12th 2007 11:31PM]

Sounds cool, Meridian is a company that doesn't slouch on quality, but their prices certainly are made to match. This is one of those HiFi stereo companies that makes BIG money equipment. Like CD players that cost more than your Mini Cooper.

[v_dogg @ Jan 13th 2007 1:35AM]

how do yo have a HD video on your ipod, i thought it was like 480x320 or something

[Jeff @ Jan 13th 2007 2:03AM]

"how do yo have a HD video on your ipod, i thought it was like 480x320 or something"

The iPod is just a portable hard drive, and can be used as such. Whatever's left unused from your officially sync'd music and video is just general storage space.

[dioscaido @ Jan 13th 2007 3:41AM]

I don't get it... in order to make a video viewable on the ipod it has to be shrunk to 320x240.

[Intrepid @ Jan 13th 2007 8:17AM]

And even the videos you download from Apple are 640*480 max... sounds like more "reality distortion" to me. Maybe it upscales, but it'd be crap.

[erac3rx @ Jan 13th 2007 9:13AM]

Guys, guys... This thing can easily do what's promised as Jeff mentioned. You set up your ipod to also be usable as a usb hard drive (in the iTunes options). Copy super high res video files onto it via usb (NOT through iTunes) and then this device can access it easily by mounting the disk the same way. It can see and use files, in whatever format it uses, at whatever res it uses.

A very intelligent idea, as obviously watching 640x480 scaled up would look horrible. This I might actually use. Of course we need to wait for the $99 knockoff of this with the same functionality, because Meridian will charge 10 times that.

[bl0nde @ Jan 13th 2007 9:08AM]

This is a case of RTFA and using some common sense....of course this dock doesn't take your iTunes videos at 320x240/640x480 (ie the ones that can be *watched* on your iPod) and transmogrify them to 1080p, it will take HD content you've simply stored on the device, as a hard drive (which obviously *can't* show up or be watched directly on the iPod) and allow you to watch the full res glory on a big TV.

[Clint @ Jan 13th 2007 11:00AM]

So this is essentially the same thing as the USB unputs for hard dirves/flash drives on the already available media servers (such as Zensonic) but instead of USB, it has an iPod dock connector. Wow this thing should go for $500 more than one of those media server just so we can set our iPod down rather than connect via USB. Why is it red in the "display model" when everything in the picture is black or silver?

[Andy @ Jan 13th 2007 12:21PM]

I expect more than $1000 for this, it has a 1080p upscaler, iPod dock, HDMI out, digital audio out. To use most of its features it would have to have its own video processor and its own codecs, since the iPod can't process HD video.

And it's a freaking MERIDIAN device.

[Keyth Halloween @ Jan 14th 2007 1:54PM]

Seems pointless in the face of Apple TV.

Why would I upscale my iTunes videos? They'll look crappy.
Why would waste space on my iPod for presumably pirated videos in HD?

Dumb product. Apple TV will stream and output via HDMI too. If this isn't significantly less than $300 it will be worthless.

[macona @ Jan 15th 2007 3:45PM]

I cant see why watching 640x480 upscale would be any worse then watching an upscaled DVD. Same vertical res.