Full FeedHOW-TO: Cheaply watch iPod videos on your TV
Why would you fork out $19 bucks for the Apple iPod AV Cable when you don’t have to? We were looking around for cheaper solutions for getting video over to you TV and came across an article on O’Reilly’s MacDevCenter.com. By following simple steps, you can get any AV cable (with yellow/red/white outputs) to work with your iPod. Read on to find out how.
All you’re going to need for this is an iPod video (obviously), an iPod compatible video on your iPod, and any A/V cable with eigth-inch-to-RCA (yellow/red/white) camcorder cable (get it from ebay if you don’t have one).
- Set up your iPod video options
Go to Videos -> Video Settings from the main menu on your iPod. This screen offers three settings: TV Out, TV Signal and Widescreen. Adjust the selections to give the video playback options you need. We suggest you set the TV Out option to “Ask” so you always know it will play. If you live in the US, your TV Signal is NTSC. Make sure this is selected. If you’re outside the US, you might want to check which option to use.
- Plugging the AV cable into the TV You’re probably thinking that you don’t need help doing this one. Well let me tell you, you do. Since Apple wants you to buy their proprietary cable, they decided to be sneaky. They send the video over the Red RCA cable (usually yellow). Therefore, they send the audio over the white and yellow cables. Oh you’re so tricky Apple, whatever will we do? In easier words, do the following: Red RCA plug -> TV’s yellow RCA jack Yellow RCA plug -> TV’s white RCA jack White RCA plug -> TV’s red RCA jack
If you can believe it, that’s all you have to do. Pretty much the only tricky thing was switching the Red and Yellow RCA cables. If you have any problems, let us know and we’ll get our directions fixed. Enjoy.
UPDATE: We’ve been informed this method works for the iPhone as well. Just plug the RCA cable into your old school iPod dock, set your iPhone in the dock, and you should be golden. [Thanks, Nate]
Read [MacDevCenter]
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sounded great, but i can’t get video to work
on January 27, 2008 at 09:32 PM - LINKi can’t get video to work…..but the sound is great
on February 8, 2008 at 11:52 AM - LINKNathan and Andres - What generation iPods are you using?
on February 8, 2008 at 12:29 PM - LINKi did everything thid article said but all i see is a blank screen! Why??????
on February 21, 2008 at 01:20 PM - LINKhey, i bought an adaptor for a cord with the three plugs on each end to make it fit my ipod, and i followed your instructions from there, but i cant get it to work, i have an ipod classic, it should still work though shouldnt it?
can you tell me whats going wrong?
on April 30, 2008 at 12:30 AM - LINKi just purchased a universal av cable from inspire and i switch the cables and had my ipod set to the proper settings but i cant get it to work…any ideas? help is needed…i have an 80gb video ipod classic
on June 20, 2008 at 05:53 PM - LINKI’m in the same boat Joanna. I have the 80gb ipod classic and I’m having trouble. Is there a setting that the TV needs to be on?
on June 30, 2008 at 05:43 AM - LINKmy camcorder only has yellow and white and it doesn’t work.
on July 20, 2008 at 09:28 PM - LINKAMG IT SAYS Please Put In Device llalalalalalallala :( i have it all right
on July 28, 2008 at 04:50 PM - LINKi have a Iphone & i try it BUT it dosn’t work :S
only i have the audio but the video i cant get on the TV
on August 15, 2008 at 06:05 AM - LINKplease help me
becoz i buy the cable & still not working :S
Hi all,
I tried this. Got audio, but no video. I have an iPod nano 4th gen. Any suggestions?
on March 30, 2009 at 07:14 PM - LINKhi!
on May 24, 2009 at 12:53 AM - LINKi tried this method and it didn’t work!
i followed all the instructions and i checked that for my country (Uruguay, in South America) the TV signal is usualy PAL; anyway i tried with PAL and NTCS and had no results
i do everythiong you say and the screen on my iPod says: tv out enable, please conect video accesory
what should i do?
I followed all your instructions, but it didn’t work. My ipod tells me to insert a video accessory… Now what? If I tell it not to do video out, I can hear the sound okay, so I know the cable’s working, but the video isn’t working. I tried shuffling the red/yellow/white cables nto different spot, but that didn’t work either.
on August 11, 2009 at 02:53 PM - LINKnow i have a cable that does plug in my ipod but at the end of the cable it only has a red and white i can hear it on my tv but i cant see no video, and wen i try to click the video it says tv out enabled please connext video accessory arghh wat do i do
on November 16, 2009 at 02:40 PM - LINK