Is there a way to disable tv-out on ipod touch?

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Is there a way to disable tv-out on ipod touch?

I just upgraded from a regular ipod classic to the new touch. I had one of those Peripheral ipod kits in the car, and my son likes to watch movies on our longer drives to the grandparents every weekend.

Anyway, got this new ipod touch, which blocks out video when it's plugged in. The screen says "plugged in - video is displayed on connected screen". Problem is, there is no connected screen. I just run this through my factory radio. With the ipod classic you can go into settings and enable/disable tv-out, so you can watch the screen while it's plugged in.

This new ipod touch doesn't have that option. It seems to automatically default to tv-out if anything is plugged in.

How do I defeat this? This was the reason I bought the touch and it would be pretty unfortunate if I could not have my son watch his videos in the car.

Thanks!

Ipod Touch 4g 64 Gb, Windows XP

Posted on Mar 23, 2011 1:15 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 23, 2011 4:04 PM in response to Avant

I'm not exactly sure what you are doing here...

What type of cable are you plugging into the car? Is this the correct cable for the iPod Touch?
Are you only playing the audio through the car and watching the movie on the iPod Touch?

What happens when you watch a movie on the iPod Touch and have the Apple earbuds plugged in?
You should be able to watch the movie and hear the audio through the earbuds...
Nothing to do with the car at this point so it should work...

Let us know a little more of what you have and where the video is being viewed....
Also what generation of iPod Touch you have and what version iOS it is running.

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Answer 2

Avant Author

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Mar 24, 2011 1:06 AM in response to Joseph Kriz

Oh, apologies for not giving enough information.

I have an ipod car kit that is hardwired to my factory radio (in lieu of the cd changer). The ipod stays in the center console and it is plugged in through a dock connector cable that powers the unit and sends the signal to the factory radio.

My ipod touch is a 4th gen 64 Gb running latest OS (brand new, top model).

It will play movies just fine with earbuds or nothing plugged in at all. The problem is when i plug in the dock connector cable in the car kit, the ipod thinks i'm trying to display signal on another screen - when in reality all i want is the audio to go through my factory radio. My factory radio doesn't have a screen.

On my ipod classic 30Gb, you can go into settings and turn TV OUT "off" so it force-displays video on the ipod even when you're plugged in to the dock connector. My issue is that the ipod touch (and my ipad, too) do not have this option to overide the TV OUT switch.

Long story short: when my car kit's connector cable is plugged into my ipod touch, i can't see video because the ipod thinks it's supposed to send video output elsewhere. My old ipod allowed me to turn that auto-switch off and force the ipod to display the video on the ipod, but the new ipod touch (and ipad) do not let you override that.

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Answer 3

Mar 24, 2011 12:05 PM in response to Avant

Avant,

That helps...

I am not sure what kind of cable you Car Kit has but it sounds like it is not compatible.

I use this kind of cable to use the iPod Touch in my 2008 vehicle.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/H2397VC/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0OQ&mco=MTkwNDIwNjA

My car radio/nav unit has the jack for that cable.
What kind of connection or cable does your Car Kit have?

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Answer 4

Avant Author

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Mar 24, 2011 12:23 PM in response to Joseph Kriz

Thanks for your replies, Joseph! 🙂

the kit I have is like this: http://www.amazon.com/Peripheral-Interface-General-vehicles-vehicle-specific/dp/ B0015D00QK

(not that exact one, but basically the same thing). I'm not using the 3.5mm headphone jack to connect it to the stereo as my car is a 2002 and didn't have that 3.5mm input jack. I'm plugging into the bottom of the ipod as this unit charges while it plays through my factory sound system. The unit is plugged in to where the cd changer used to be plugged in - this operates in lieu of the cd changer. When I press "changer" on my headunit, it goes to the ipod basically - but I still control the ipod from the ipod, not the car stereo.

I'll post screen shots of the two video setting menus of each device to show what I'm talking about. The older ipods let you disable that TV OUT, the new touches and ipads do not, for some reason. Can't imagine why you wouldn't want to override that - sometimes those charger cables make the ipod think there is a video output for some reason.

Message was edited by: Avant

Message was edited by: Avant

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Answer 5

Mar 24, 2011 12:49 PM in response to Avant

I am familiar with the TV Out settings as I did own a Classic model for several years.

The newer iPod Touch does not have that feature to turn it off...
When you plug your cable in, it does think it is a video cable.
You probably need to get a different cable or disable the one pin in that cable for video...
Not sure which pin it would be...

Let us know what you find out.

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Is there a way to *disable* tv-out on ipod touch?

Is there a way to disable tv-out on ipod touch?