Meridian Audio has announced a new iPod dock called the Meridian iRIS capable of upconverting video from the iPod to 1080p. The iRIS Universal Dock for the iPod will be available starting in November for an MSRP of $379. Features of the Meridian iRIS include:

• 30 pin dock connector accepting any current or recent 3G iPod or iPod video model
• HDMI, component, and standard definition S-Video and composite video outputs
• Coaxial and optical digital audio
• Headphones and line-level analog audio outputs
• HDMI input to connect other non-iPod sources such as a DVD player or game console
• Simple source-select button to switch between docked iPod and external source
• Simple iRIS button to select video format/aspect-ratio screen
• Third button to synchronize iPod with computer connected via USB

While it’s certainly a novel idea to upscale video output from an iPod to your high def television set, will it really make a difference? Truth be told – the picture quality is still going to be rather crummy on a 1080p display even with the video upscaling in place. But perhaps it’ll be good enough for most users out there. Sorry – no pictures as of yet.

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