Level 1

50 points

iPhone 3G + Composite AV cable = no video

So I bought this Apple AV Composite Cable on eBay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=2502 68585597

It was new, still in the box, and it claims on the box to be compatible with iPod Classic, iPod Nano (video), IPod Touch, and iPhone. It plugs into the main connector on the bottom of the iPhone 3G. Since I looked on the Apple Store website and didn't find any new AV cables specifically for the iPhone 3G, I assumed that the composite AV cable for the iPhone would work for the iPhone 3G as well.

I got the cable today and plugged it into my TV. Audio comes through but no video; just a black TV screen with audio coming through the speakers. Also, a message pops up on the iPhone 3G screen: "This accessory was not made to work with iPhone. Would you like to turn on Airplane mode to reduce interference ? " And I can choose yes or no. Choosing either one doesn't give me video.

What is the deal here? I looked around on the apple store website and could not find any new AV cable that was specifically meant to output video to TV from the iPhone 3G. Also, the iPhone 3G user guide specifically says:

"+You can connect iPhone to your TV and watch your videos on the larger screen. Use+
+the Apple Component AV Cable, Apple Composite AV Cable, or other authorized+
+iPhone compatible cable. You can also use these cables with the Apple Universal Dock+
+to connect iPhone to your TV. (The Apple Universal Dock includes a remote, which+
+allows you to control playback from a distance.) Apple cables and docks are available+
+for purchase separately at www.apple.com/ipodstore.+ "

I notice that none of the cables on the apple store, nor that paragraph from the iPhone 3G user guide (which also is meant to discuss original iPHone) specifically states that the cables will work with the 3G. Has apple really screwed us over on this, and there is no way to output video to the TV?

Has anyone got this working for them?

Al Powerbook G4 1.67 GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Jul 21, 2008 9:51 PM

78 replies

Aug 6, 2008 9:54 PM in response to Irwin Pang

I mean I disconnect, (leaving the car) and when I return and plug the phone back in it resumes where the movie left off - it will not show video again until the phone has been rebooted.

Of course the phone won't show video when it's unplugged - it's a bit obvious as to why.

Bottom line, the APPLE cable should not read that the accessory was not designed for iPhone and should work as designed.

Aug 6, 2008 10:07 PM in response to teknics41

There might be an issue with the car charger adaptor causing this to happen.

I cant use my former car charger on this iphone 3G it will show the not compatible and will not charge.

But for TVs it seemed to be ok so far.

This has been a real pain. I have actually tried looking for a Component to composite conversion as well but no luck.

The only good thing is they are having cheap sale for the cables here. Pity that I dont need component cables or I would grab one now.

Aug 7, 2008 3:13 AM in response to Irwin Pang

I am not using an adapter, the radio has two USB ports and the phone charges just fine. Music will always work no matter what, it's just that if I stop watching a movie and disconnect the phone, then come back later and plug it back it - I have to reboot the phone in order to get video back.

Aug 8, 2008 1:18 PM in response to bss18974

Even the AV Component Cable has many problem.. because i can not watch the slide show on my TV, i can only listen to music.
Other thing when i am watching a video on youtube or dailymotion.COM, after number of time, it will cut or disconnect and return to the homepage and sometime it will reboot by itself :S ... i don't know if someone has the same problem. if not, my cable is defect or there is any problem with my iphone which i hope not

I was reading other discussions, a guy said that composite and component have problem with new iphone 3g, so apple is developing a new type of cable that can work.

i don't know if that is true but i hope so.

dgalvan123 Author

Level 1

50 points

Aug 22, 2008 12:35 PM in response to dgalvan123

Hey all, I've been following this product on deal extreme, which originally appeared to be a dud, but there are numerous reports on the site from buyers now claiming it works fine with the latest iPhone firmware on the 3G iphone.

$10 + free shipping AV COMPOSITE cable that appears to be working fine!
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14395

Someone there posted a video of it working (it was on a jailbroken iPhone 3G), and several other people posted that the cable works fine with their iPhone 3G's (they don't mention if their phones are jailbroken or not, but I would bet that they aren't all).

I think I'm going to order one!

See some of the comments by buyers here:
http://www.dealextreme.com/forums/Default.dx/sku.14395~threadid.163580

Message was edited by: dgalvan123

Aug 22, 2008 8:42 PM in response to dgalvan123

Worth a try then. I am happy with my current Apple cable. Only because I got it cheap. The only down side of that cable is that you be draining your battery of your iphone.

Whereas the Apple one charge your iphone 3G at the same time.

From my last test I used without charging playing Starwars III and I left 20% battery life.

Divaq

Level 1

0 points

Aug 30, 2008 4:32 PM in response to bss18974

I have tried the following:

iPhone 3G
Apple branded COMPOSITE cable (the one with 3 colored ends and 2 sound ends and USB)
Universal Dock
Sylvania TV (old style, but digital)

Upon docking:
25% - audio but no video.
50% - This device is not designed to work with the iPhone 3G. Would you like to turn on Airplane mode?"
25% - it works!

I haven't been able to figure out yet which factors make it work/not work. It seems I have better success when docking the phone cold, then booting it in the dock. I have removed the dock from the system with no change in results, and tried another TV so this is a cable-phone issue. Nice that the Apple store has an internal link that implies that it does work with 3G (I failed to notice the absence of the 3G endorsement on the listing - my fault.) I expect this sort of dodgy behavior from $3 eBay accessories, not overpriced Apple endorsed ones. It gets to be so much of a struggle sometimes that I end up just watching video on the microscreen.

I have heard that it is a pin issue. The millions of car chargers I have for iPods don't work for the iPhone either, nor do the millions of firewire and USB iPod cables. But the iPhone 2G cord from the other phone works fine with my 3G, and also with my 3G firewire iPod. I don't understand why it's not all standard.

Argyron

Level 1

65 points

Aug 31, 2008 4:23 AM in response to kg1660

kg1660 wrote:
I am having problems synching my (personal) movies to the new 3G. They all are in the iTunes Library and were on the classic iPhone

Plug in your iphone.
Two things to try...

On the iphone summary page, on the video tab, mark the checkboxes so that your movies are marked to be synced

If that didn't work...
Make a playlist, not a smart playlist - just a normal playlist.
Specifically move the movies you want into that playlist.
On the Music tab of the iphone's summary page, mark the boxes to ensure that playlist will be synced.

If you get an error about video not syncing because it isn't formatted correctly, find the offending video in your itunes library.
Right click the wrongly-formatted video.
Choose "convers selection for ipod/iphone"

Good luck. Now if there were a method to get dvds I own onto the iphone, that would be awesome.

Argyron

Level 1

65 points

Aug 31, 2008 4:43 AM in response to Nafcom

Nafcom wrote:
They gave an answer to me. The composite cable doesn't work for the iPhone 3G as the pinout is totally different. Therefor, all cables have to be checked for compatibility by Apple first and then getting redesigned. When the Composite TV cable for the iPhone3G will come they don't know.

I have to go and deny that.
I picked up a composite cable from the lehigh valley store and it most definitely DOES work.

No, it does not say compatible with iphone 3g. It does say
"Compatible with ipod with color display, ipod with video, ipod classic, ipod nano (video), ipod touch, and iphone."

Someone gave you a wrong answer.

dgalvan123 Author

Level 1

50 points

Sep 5, 2008 11:26 PM in response to Irwin Pang

Just an update. I received my cable from Hong Kong, having ordered off dealextreme:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14395

It works great! At $9.22, it's a much better deal than apple's $50 cable. The only con is that the one I got does not allow you to charge at the same time. But since I'll mainly just be using this to do picture slideshows when i visit my relatives, that's not an issue for me.

No shutting off after 30 seconds. . . no "this device was not made for iphone" message. It just works. Tested with photos, video podcasts, tv shows, and youtube. All worked flawlessly.

Argyron

Level 1

65 points

Sep 7, 2008 9:06 AM in response to dgalvan123

The other day I got one of those "does not work with iphone" messages with my apple-built composite cable.

Know what the problem was? The connector wasn't completely pushed in.

Amazing. All those people posting that it doesn't work just because they didn't make sure all connections were secure.

And just to mention it again, my cables are - not - marked for iphone 3G. Plain old iphone is all they've got mentioned.

Nafcom

Level 1

0 points

Sep 8, 2008 11:19 AM in response to Argyron

Argyron wrote:

Nafcom wrote:
They gave an answer to me. The composite cable doesn't work for the iPhone 3G as the pinout is totally different. Therefor, all cables have to be checked for compatibility by Apple first and then getting redesigned. When the Composite TV cable for the iPhone3G will come they don't know.

I have to go and deny that.
I picked up a composite cable from the lehigh valley store and it most definitely DOES work.

No, it does not say compatible with iphone 3g. It does say
"Compatible with ipod with color display, ipod with video, ipod classic, ipod nano (video), ipod touch, and iphone."

Someone gave you a wrong answer.

No no, wrong wrong. I was in a Gravis store - That's Apple's official stores for Mac and co in Germany. Wanted to buy a TV composite cable. The man behind the service desk said: "For an Ipod?" - I replied: "No for my iphone". - "Won't work with the iPhone 3g. We are still waiting for the cables, maybe in 6 months. Same with the docking stations.

Argyron wrote:
The other day I got one of those "does not work with iphone" messages with my apple-built composite cable.

Know what the problem was? The connector wasn't completely pushed in.

Amazing. All those people posting that it doesn't work just because they didn't make sure all connections were secure.

And just to mention it again, my cables are - not - marked for iphone 3G. Plain old iphone is all they've got mentioned.

Oh come on, there are not thousands of people not knowing how to plugin a cable. Something must be different with the phone's connector or the software, otherwise Apple would rush and sell it to everybody instead of keeping people away from the purchase!

Argyron

Level 1

65 points

Sep 8, 2008 12:08 PM in response to Nafcom

Nafcom wrote:

Argyron wrote:
The other day I got one of those "does not work with iphone" messages with my apple-built composite cable.

Know what the problem was? The connector wasn't completely pushed in.

Amazing. All those people posting that it doesn't work just because they didn't make sure all connections were secure.

And just to mention it again, my cables are - not - marked for iphone 3G. Plain old iphone is all they've got mentioned.

Oh come on, there are not thousands of people not knowing how to plugin a cable. Something must be different with the phone's connector or the software, otherwise Apple would rush and sell it to everybody instead of keeping people away from the purchase!

Where do you get "thousands"? What's your source for that number? There have only been a very few who have come on here talking about the apple-designed apple-sold cable not correctly functioning - and it is entirely possible that 10 of the many many purchasers managed to plug their connector in and then it worked loose.
Because that's what happened to me. I plugged the cable in, started playback, and when I set the iphone down one edge of the cable shifted loose. I don't feel it's unreasonable to suspect that was the underlying issue for the other less-than-10 that complained in this thread.

Nafcom wrote:

Argyron wrote:

Nafcom wrote:
They gave an answer to me. The composite cable doesn't work for the iPhone 3G as the pinout is totally different. Therefor, all cables have to be checked for compatibility by Apple first and then getting redesigned. When the Composite TV cable for the iPhone3G will come they don't know.

I have to go and deny that.
I picked up a composite cable from the lehigh valley store and it most definitely DOES work.

No, it does not say compatible with iphone 3g. It does say
"Compatible with ipod with color display, ipod with video, ipod classic, ipod nano (video), ipod touch, and iphone."

Someone gave you a wrong answer.

No no, wrong wrong. I was in a Gravis store - That's Apple's official stores for Mac and co in Germany. Wanted to buy a TV composite cable. The man behind the service desk said: "For an Ipod?" - I replied: "No for my iphone". - "Won't work with the iPhone 3g. We are still waiting for the cables, maybe in 6 months. Same with the docking stations.

And yet, the cable that is compatible with several iPods does, in fact, work with the iphone 3g.

Literally printed on the side of this box are the words
+Compatible with *iPod with color display, iPod with video, iPod classic, iPod nano (video), iPod touch*, and iPhone.+
And that cable also works with the 3G, simply unmentioned on the box.

I am beginning to think that either...
You don't want to go back and question the employee - possibly test out this supposed incompatible cable - for some reason I don't know
or
You are getting information about a non-apple cable in an apple store.

Because if there's one thing I know for true, it is that apple-branded composite cable does work with the 3G model, even though it is not listed on the box or the website.

And, just to be completely sure you know of which cable I am speaking, it is this one specifically.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB129LL/A

slam430

Level 1

0 points

Sep 9, 2008 8:58 AM in response to Irwin Pang

Here is my situation:
.
.

*iPhone 2G - firmware 1.1.4*

_Apple Composite AV cable_ - 100% work (but NOT work with the original iPhone Dock)

_3rd party iPod/iPhone Composite AV cable with USB_ - 100% work (but NOT work with the original iPhone Dock)

.
.

Using the same iPhone with firmware updated.......

.

*iPhone 2G - firmware 2.0.1*

_Apple Composite AV cable_ - have not tested yet since I am out of town now. I will try later this week.

_3rd party iPod/iPhone Composite AV cable with USB_ - NOT work! Same "not made to work with iPhone" error message. Sometime it will play for a minute only.

.
.

I am guessing it should NOT be the pinout problem since it will play for a minute sometimes. And the problem was only happened when I updated my iPhone like some other people mentioned here. It should be the software issue.

I have contacted the manufacturer of my 3rd party cable and they said that they just have a new cable that work with iPhone 3G now. They will let me exchange my old one. I will update you all once I get the new cable.

Besides, can anyone get the original iPhone dock to work with the AV cable???
I cannot even make it works before the update using the Apple AV cable. iPhone will not recognize the AV cable at all when it connected to the dock.

Nafcom

Level 1

0 points

Sep 9, 2008 2:26 PM in response to dgalvan123

dgalvan123 wrote:
Hey all, I've been following this product on deal extreme, which originally appeared to be a dud, but there are numerous reports on the site from buyers now claiming it works fine with the latest iPhone firmware on the 3G iphone.

$10 + free shipping AV COMPOSITE cable that appears to be working fine!
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14395

Someone there posted a video of it working (it was on a jailbroken iPhone 3G), and several other people posted that the cable works fine with their iPhone 3G's (they don't mention if their phones are jailbroken or not, but I would bet that they aren't all).

I think I'm going to order one!

See some of the comments by buyers here:
http://www.dealextreme.com/forums/Default.dx/sku.14395~threadid.163580

Message was edited by: dgalvan123

Thanks, I have ordered one now! Wish me luck 🙂

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iPhone 3G + Composite AV cable = no video