6 thoughts on “How to get video out of your iPod”

1. Sikker på dette ikke er fordi fordelingen av polene på minijacken må være annerledes på ipod (enn på f.eks. videokameraer) fordi kontakten også skal passe til vanlige hodetelefoner?

   Eller for å snu det litt: Vil du få rett stereolyd hvis du plugger hodetelefoner i av-minijacken på et videokamera?

   Admin note:
   This comment translated

   Are you sure this isn’t because the connections on the mini jack has to be different on the iPod (compared to video cameras). Simply because the iPod jack also has to fit regular stereo headphones?

   Would you get correct stereo sound if you plug your headphones into the AV connection on a video camera?

   January 10, 2006 at 10:49 am Reply

2. Tor Erik is right. A typical video camera will not work with headphones plugged into the 3,5 mm minijack.

   Apple has decided to use the same port for headphones and line out (which is a good decision for a small device), and this faces them with two alternatives:

   1. Use standard headphones and non-standard(*) A/V cable
   2. Use a standard(*) A/V cable and non-standard headphones.

   I guess we all are glad that they did not choose the second alternative. Being limited to only use Apple headphones (or carrying an adapter) would not be acceptable.

   So Erik, you have a wonderful blog but on this post I have to disagree.

   PS. I bougt the Apple A/V cable with my iPod 5G as well. Expensive, allright, but it deffinately oozes with quality.

   (*) What I (and Erik) refer to as standard is actually not a standard. According to what I’ve read on the net, different brands of videocameras use different cables from 3.5 mm jack to RCA.

   January 10, 2006 at 11:02 am Reply

3. And this one is from the comments over at the guide that I link to in this post:

   An Engineer’s Thoughts…
   2005-12-20 19:20:10 iPod_Brett [Reply | View]

   Honestly, everyone is saying apple F’d us on purpose to make more money. And while I don’t doubt that they love to make money off of accessories, I don’t believe they did this on purpose.

   As an engineer of portable devices, I can honestly say I probably would have done the same thing as Apple.

   Here’s why:

   If you look first at the IPOD AUDIO vs STANDARD AUDIO, you’ll notice the LEFT and RIGHT channels are reversed. I’m not sure why they did that but it’s bunk. Something to keep in mind when using any standard audio cable as well.

   Now look at the difference between STANDARD A/V and STANDARD AUDIO. LEFT and GROUND stay put on the same pin, but for some bizarro reason the standard is to put VIDEO where the RIGHT channel would be, and move the RIGHT channel to the new 4th pin.

   Now what Apple did, is they said.. hey, we have to make our iPod work with standard headphones and audio cables, but since we have to make our own custom A/V cables.. let’s just put the VIDEO output on the 4th pin. This makes it’s easy for them because they don’t need any extra circuitry to switch the VIDEO and LEFT signals. In fact, it’s not a cheap or space saving solution to have to switch those signals.

   So in my opinion, Apple just tried to save some money and PCB space and give us audio and video from the same jack.

   If you look at standard a/v and audio cables, they are not interchangeable with each other. The reason why when you put headphones into a camcorder’s A/V jack you only hear the LEFT channel, and you may get some static on the RIGHT channel because it’s actually a VIDEO signal.

   If Apple wanted to totally screw us, they would have swapped the GROUND and LEFT signals in their jack on the iPOD. This would render a standard cable useless, and require you to cut the wires and reconnect them in the proper order. However, this would also make all standard headphones and audio cables not work.. I think if they messed with it too much people would really look down on them with disgust.

   It could be viewed as them just tweaking it to trap the average joe into purchasing their A/V cable, but honestly I think they just took the easy path in engineering the iPOD output circuitry.

   Hope that was enlightening 😉
   -Brett

   Yes, that was enlightening. And just made my ramblings even more stupid. Oh, well…

   January 10, 2006 at 2:20 pm Reply

4. Hey Brett, it sounds like you know plenty in wiring!!! I know nothing, but I like to know if you can tell me how to re-connect my Monster cable to my (i.EEE 1394) digital interface. Or may be make a connection to a USB cable end. ??? Do you understand me? I am not too good at this but I am very persistant at trying to figure things up.!
   I have a Sony camcorder with an av mini rc jack output, and I’d like to connect it to my Sony Laptop that has the firewire connection. Can you show me how to do it? I guess it’s a matter of knowing what wire goes where?
   Please help, or if you have any comments please do so.
   Yours Truly: Hector

   October 23, 2006 at 10:13 pm Reply

5. Hector, I doubt you’ll get in contact with Brett through this web page. I have just quoted what he commented on the original article about the video cable wiring. Chances that you’ll get hold of him over there is better:
   http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/user/view/cs_msg/76989

   His nick is iPod_Brett

   October 23, 2006 at 10:43 pm Reply

6. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

   April 17, 2007 at 9:58 pm Reply