Connecting iPod Classic to a DVD player?

All the old ipods can use cheap video cables except the Classic. The Classic ipod will only output video when you use an Apple cable, thats why they cost a fortune in comparison. If you have a classic ipod you have to buy an apple cable! What video inputs does your DVD player have?

As for the Apple leads, there are two;

Composite (red/white/yellow) is a more vastly common type of connection. You can even get a very inexpensive SCART adapter which will allow you to plug into a scart socket on your TV. I got mine years ago with a PS2.

Component is a better connection for quality, however is usually only available on more expensive HDTV's. But before you get excited, remember that your ipod can only play movies no bigger than 640x480 (essentially 480p) so even on a 1080p TV you'll still only be watching 480p

Hi,

I use a composite cable (mainly because it is a more common connection) on a 42" LCD and the quality is great, this TV does have component connection and the quality would be better using a component cable, but not all my tv's have component connectivity, so decided against it!

As for the video, well, it gets quite complicated the more you read into it. Basically, 640x480 refers is the maximum resolution of the video that your ipod can handle, not the size of video it will display. Your ipod will display full screen on your TV regardless of the resolution of the video, it just enlarges the video by stretching the image to fit the screen. Obviously the smaller the resolution of the video, the more your ipod needs to stretch the video to display it full screen, increasing blur. So if you intend to watch your movies from your ipod on a big TV, then go for the biggest resolution you can (640x480). If you only intend to watch movies on your ipod, then you need go no bigger than 320x240, the size of the actual ipod screen.

Just for information, the resolution of video that is stored on standard DVDs is usually 720x480, but the effective (displayed) resolution is slightly different depending on the aspect ratio of the movie and the display your using... the more information you look for on things like resolution and aspect ratio, the more complex it gets. I don't understand it all!

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To convert any other type of movie, such as avi's then i use iSquint (Mac) or Videora (Windows) with pretty much the same settings. Videora is free, so it has some advertising incorporated, but don't let that put you off. It uses ffmpeg to encode, which IMO is the best encoder available.

Please also note that encoding video is a very CPU intensive task, and it take a while. If i'm encoding a dvd or video then i disconnect from the internet and stop all running programs. On a PC that would include spyware detection, virus guard and firewalls (you don't really need them if your not on the net). This will make 100% of your CPU available, which will be used for the duration of the task.

Hopefully this is a fairly understandable crash course to videos on your ipod.

Note: Obviously this information is only for making legitimate copies of media that you either own or that is free of copyright. 😉

Ha ha, thats funny. I didn't know they sole ipods to anyone over 50.... 😉 honestly tho, it is good that your keeping up with the times, my gran is still confused by CDs!!

Your right to be using 640x480, one thing to bear in mind tho is the bitrate. This is measured in kbps (kilobit per second) and refers to the amount of information (or quality) of the video file. The larger the bitrate, the better the quality, but the bigger the file size. I have the 160Gb ipod, so i encode my videos at around 1000kbps. I find this gives a good quality video for my TV.

One thing about encoding videos is that everyone has their own preference on software, and settings to use. Noone is any more right or wrong than the next person. Feel free to experiment with different programs or settings of the encoding program that you use.

As for the AV cable, your almost there. The composite cable is made of 3 connectors (called RCA), one is yellow (video), and the other two are red and white (audio). A Component connection will give you better video in general, but i'm honestly not sure how much better it will be cos i've never used one. It is not HDMI, HDMI is different. A component cable is still made of RCA connectors, but it has 5, (red and white for audio) 3 for video that are named Y, Pb, Pr. It looks like this, http://www.theistore.com/images/super/AppleComponent_AV_CableSCREEN.jpg To know more about component look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video