Prepare 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.
Set up your iPod opinions
FSM EXCLUSIVE DEAL Open iPod settings, choose Videos and then 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.
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.
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.
Connect the iPod to 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 eas.
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.
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.
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.
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.
