Q: 80 GB iPod won't play video on TV - will play audio

Because I haven't had enough problems with my laptop and iPod this past week, I just got another. The video out isn't working on my 80 GB iPod (classic). But it works sometimes.

I hooked it up to my TV (and yes, the right cable goes to the right place and yes, TV out is on) with the red/white/yellow cable that I have and I get audio, but no video. I tried two more cables and two more TVs, even bought another cable just to be sure. I have this Sonic Impact portable iPod video player that docks through the bottom. It's working just fine and I can play my iPod on it. The player has an AV out, so I plugged in the AV cable with the iPod docked and again, I got sound but no video on the TV.

Finally, I looked in the jack on top and noticed one of the little gold pins was pushed in and (most likely) not connecting to the plug. I was able to (gently) coax it back into the proper position and lo! I had audio and video and had a nice time watching a show. I figured that was the problem so I forgot about it.

Half an hour ago, I tried to watch another video on my TV, but again I got audio and no video. Again, I hooked up my portable player and it plays fine on the player, but not the TV through the player. I thought about getting the AV composite cable (with the dock cable end instead of the jack end), but from what I can tell, it's not necessarily the iPod's jack. If that's all it was, then it would play the video through the portable player.

Yes, I've done all the Rs. In fact, I had to restart it a couple times the other day and had just restored it on Monday (after the whole thing failed and splorted away my library). Before it had to be restored, I never had problems with playing videos on the TV.

Okay, I just tried my iLuv player. If you haven't seen it, it's a combination radio and iPod dock that has an AV out jack. It's working fine and playing a video from the iPod to the TV through the iLuv.

But again, I've never had problems with playing video on the TV with a basic red/white/yellow cable with the headphone-sized plug. And why wouldn't the portable player work if the iPod's headphone jack wasn't being used? My iLuv player is kept in another room and I really don't want to have to haul it out every time I want to watch TV. That's the whole reason I got the Sonic Impact player. When travelling, I'd rather not have to haul it around; I like the portability of just the cable.

Anyone have ideas? I'm just sort of...tired now. And not surprised when I lose more functionality. Thanks.