Playing video out to TV from iPhone

By Jesse Hollington @jhollington ● Friday, March 13, 2009

Q: How can I watch the videos on my iPhone on TV? I have an iPod video and I use a A/V cable to watch those videos on my TV, but when I use the same cable on the iPhone, nothing happens.

- Fernando

A: Unfortunately, the video cables and other accessories made for the fifth-generation iPod with video are not compatible with any of the newer iPod models, or the iPhone itself. Firstly, none of the newer iPod models support any video output capabilities through the headphone jack, so you will need to use a cable that connects to the Dock Connector.

More importantly, however, newer iPod models and the iPhone now require specific video cables manufactured by authorized Apple partners with an authentication chip inside to enable the video output. If this authentication chip is not detected, the iPhone and iPod touch will simply ignore the cable entirely and not send video out through it.

This basically means that if you want to watch video from your iPhone on your TV or another video output device, you are going to need to buy new cables. Apple sells their own Composite AV Cable and Component AV Cable for approximately $50 USD, and third-party cables are available from companies such as Griffin Technology. For more information see our article, Apple locks TV Out in new iPods, breaks video add-ons published shortly after the release of the 2007 iPod models.