Watch iPod video on Your TV

[Samary]

What You'll Need

In order to get your iPod connected properly to your TV, you'll need the following items on hand:
• A video-capable iPod. Any color will do.
• An iPod-compatible video. Load it onto your iPod through iTunes.
• An A/V cable. If you don't already have an eighth-inch-to-RCA cable, you can pick one up on eBay for five or six bucks shipped. Search for "camcorder A/V cable." Remember, you want a three-plug yellow/red/white RCA connection at one end and a three-banded eighth-inch (3.5mm) A/V plug at the other.

Figure 1. A camcorder A/V cable has a three-plug RCA connection at one end and a three-banded 1/8" plug at the other

Setting Up Your iPod Video Options

Setting up your iPod video options lets you control how you export video. The iPod Video Options screen selects how your iPod handles video file playback.

To open these settings, choose Videos -> Video Settings from your main iPod menu. This screen offers three settings: TV Out, TV Signal and Widescreen. Adjust to produce the video playback style you need.

Figure 2. Videos -> Video Settings controls the way your iPod plays back video files

TV Out
Whenever you play a video file, your iPod must make a choice. Video iPods either play video on the built-in screen or they transmit a video signal out of the microphone jack. They don't do both. The TV Out option controls which behavior occurs.

Use this setting to choose from:
• No. Playback remains on the iPod itself.
• Yes. A TV signal is produced.
• Ask. The iPod prompts you whenever you play a video file.
I always use the Ask option. Yes, it does add an extra step whenever I play a video file, but it gives me the flexibility to choose playback behavior on a case-by-case basis. I like that.

TV Signal
European and Australian television sets use a different signal standard than those used in America and Japan. If you live in the U.S., your TV works with the NTSC standard. European countries mostly use PAL. Make sure you've selected the correct signal for your country.

Widescreen
iPods can play back widescreen video, if only on exported video. The built-in screen uses a traditional 4:3 screen ratio, rather than widescreen's 16:9 proportions. Choose Yes to produce a widescreen signal, or No to export the traditional TV output.

Connecting the iPod to Your TV
It takes a few steps to connect your iPod to your TV. Start by inserting the A/V cord's eighth-inch plug into your iPod's earphone jack. In it goes, schnickt. Couldn't be easier.

Here's where it gets a little tricky. In order to make your TV play back the iPod signal, you've got to redirect the outputs. You can't just plug the yellow RCA plug into the yellow RCA jack and the red into the red or the white into the white. No. Those geniuses at Apple send the video signal over the red RCA output. (Normally it arrives on yellow.) The sound comes through the white and yellow plugs.

I ended up going to an Apple store and testing this on iPod after iPod. They all have this quirk. It was intentional. But hey, it's proprietary. Woohoo. So here's what you have to do:
• Plug the red RCA plug into your TV's yellow RCA jack.
• Plug the yellow RCA plug into your TV's white RCA jack.
• Plug the white RCA plug into your TV's red RCA jack.

Figure 3. Left: TV jacks, unplugged; right: TV jacks, plugged with A/V cable

After making all of these connections, you're physically ready to begin playback.

Playing Your Video

On your iPod, navigate to the movie you want to watch and select it. Your iPod prompts you to choose whether to play the video with TV Off or TV On. (You set the TV Out option to "Ask," remember?) Choose TV On.

Figure 4. Choose TV On to redirect the video through the earphone jack

As your video starts, a status screen appears on your iPod and the video plays back on your television. The status screen tracks playback progress, just as it would in iTunes.

Figure 5. The iPod video status screen shows playback progress.

Leave the television volume control at normal levels and use the iPod volume control to adjust the audio. The audio and video should both sound and look excellent.

Figure 6. Success! The video plays back on the TV

Final Thoughts

Don't feel pressured to buy Apple-branded add-ons, particularly when there are workarounds like the one shown in this article. Here, you've seen how to use a cheap off-the-shelf product to bypass that whole high-priced white-colored gear thing. Shiny and white doesn't necessarily make it right.

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[Jack&Water]

Nice little guide there, thanks. I expect to get my cable today or tomorrow. I try to only use eBay when absolutely necessary, so I ended up getting it from Amazon.

[DianeHelen]

GREAT!

This WORKS So Awesome!

I just used the cable from my camcorder, my mini plug to RCA Y/R/W plugs and swapped the red and yellow, and VOILA! iPOd on my TV!

The video as as smooth as broadcast, quality may be a tad less, but it as certainly watchable, and I was even able to use my Stereo REceiver to re direct the audio.


Very cool, but ohhhh those B$%^#$% at Apple!

Good thing we are cleverer than them!

HA!

[enutz]

Does this work with newer ipod classic? I was told the video no longer goes through the headphone jacks.

[mtfireflyer]

I have an ipod classic 5th 160 GB and when I tried this video cable trick I get the message "TV Out Enabled: Please Connect Video Accessory" and will not let me go any farther. Is that because it is a newer iPod model and your trick will not work any more or am I missing something still in the settings?

[Ai Haibara]

Probably. The newer iPods have changed the way they handle TV Out, I've heard. Does the manual have any references for it?

BTW, the OP isn't likely to respond, having been banned for spamming.

[guns1inger]

The last two generations of classic require a special chip on the TV out device, or the (expensive) cables from Apple to work. You can no longer use cheap generic cables for video out.

[rumplestiltskin]

[s:03d0396664]The original 5G iPod's video cable isn't the same config as, let's say, a Canon ZR video cable even though the connectors are identical. You just have to figure out which connector is really the video and then swap the other two until you get the correct audio channels coming out of the correct speakers.[/s:03d0396664]

Oops; this was covered in the original post.