Dual USB iBook + AV cable + DVD Playback = Help!

I've had this issue before too (the dimming, that is), and used to own exactly the iBook you've got now. My current PB will occasionally exhibit the dimming too, and I'm pretty sure it's got to do with the sort of TV you connect to.

Older televisions seem particularly prone to the dimming effect, and I've noticed that connecting to the TV through a VCR also seems to cause this problem.

If it's any consolation, I've managed to connect to TVs that, for some reason, don't exhibit this behaviour!

The issue with the flickering is due to Apple's design for the A/V connector on the iBook. It's not the best design and often, the auto-sensing of the plug gets confused. On mine, I can usually get a staticky connection when I plug in headphones. My advice, mess around with the plug until you get a nice stable signal.

The second issue is due to Macrovision. Basically, all commercial DVDs are encoded with Macrovision protection. Just about all VCRs have Macrovision circuitry. When you hook up your iBook to a VCR, you'll get the behavior you described when playing DVDs. It's done to prevent unauthorized duplication of DVDs. So you'll need to plug the iBook in directly to the TV.

For a possible solution to the second problem (in the event your TV does not have AV plugs), try using VLC to play your DVDs. It's not as slick as Apple's DVD Player, but it bypasses a lot that copy protection stuff.

Ah... that makes sense, thanks for clearing that up!

When I mentioned connecting to "older TVs" in my post above, I was connecting through an A/V cable to coaxial box, then into the TV, since the TV lacked A/V cable input. I suppose the Macrovision protection was also embedded in that box.