iPod New iPod Video TV Interface?

no one has mentioned anything about the video out option yet, it'd would've been the first thing I tried...

The TV out just mirrors the iPod's display onto a TV. There's no interface other than the iPod software.

Why would it be any different?

joshuawaire said:

Do you own an iPod video? Or are you just stating that? How are you supposed to use a remote with the universal dock if you can't see what your selecting? I hardly find a remote useful if you have to be near the iPod's screen.

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The remote is labeled. Obviously, the menu button would be of little use unless you could see the screen or memorized the interface, but it's really just for skipping tracks in playlists and pausing, like the other iPod remotes. Other people find remotes plenty useful without the iPod screen, this one just lets you go across the room.

If you plug the iPod into a TV, then you can use the remote more effectively for video and slide shows. But it'll still just be a copy of what's on the screen, that looks exactly like a big copy of the iPod's own screen. iPods lack the ability to do anything else, at least for now.

EDIT: Apple says, "iPod Universal Dock has a Line Out port which can be used to view photos or video on your TV (with some iPod models)," which clearly means that the TV output hasn't been expanded, except to include videos as well. Source: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300277.

matticus008 said:

EDIT: Apple says, "iPod Universal Dock has a Line Out port which can be used to view photos or video on your TV (with some iPod models)," which clearly means that the TV output hasn't been expanded, except to include videos as well. Source: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300277.

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We are all just grasping at straws... the video output is completly dependant on the iPod unit itself and we have no way to know until someone tries it.

snowmoon said:

We are all just grasping at straws... the video output is completly dependant on the iPod unit itself and we have no way to know until someone tries it.

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It's not going to do anything different than any other iPod with TV out, aside from playing videos in addition to slideshows. Nothing else was demonstrated or documented. It's just an iPod with a bigger screen and a video decoder. In order to display even the menu interface on the screen, the iPod OS has to support video mirroring, and it currently does not.

I should be recieving my vpod tomorow (wednesday Oct 19th) and will stop by tekserve (apple supply store in NYC) after work and pick up an av cable. by then I hope i'm not the first one to put these two together, but if so I will post my results......

joshuawaire said:

Apple would not sell the same remote for both the iMac and iPod if the iPod video and Front Row interfaces were not at least similar. The new iPod has to support some type of video mirroring in order for someone to sit across the room and control it. I presume it is going to project a large iPod interface on my television screen similar to Job's presentation, however no one knows as of yet.

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The iMac remote control is not really all that different from the existing (wired) iPod remote control. The only reason to get the iPod remote is to have cordless control of your iPod while it is docked. There is no video interface, or it would have been shown off and it would be displayed on Apple's website. The TV out, as Apple's website clearly states, works for displaying slideshows and videos on a TV. That's it.

I just received my iPod w/ video along with an A/V cable.

When you go into the videos menu, there is another menu called "Video Settings." Under that menu are a number of options, including one that says "TV Out." You can set that to On, Off, or Ask. It is set to Off by default.

When set to on, the iPod uses the TV output only when a video is played, not for the menu. When set to ask, every time you play a video, it asks whether you would like it to go through TV out or not. Of course, when set to off, video only plays on the iPod screen.

When playing video out to the TV, the signal is not mirrored on the iPod screen. Instead, a menu is displayed similar to that of a playing song, with cover art, the title/album info, and a playhead that shows where you are in the video. Similar to songs, turning the click wheel adjusts the volume, while pressing the center button and then turning the click wheel scrubs through the video.

As for the signal playing from the TV out, it is scaled to full NTSC resolution. Doing tests (albeit on a 14" television) with an episode of Lost and a couple of music videos, the quality was comparable to watching a low- to medium- quality TiVo recording. The audio sounded great.

As people here have speculated, there is no "Front Row"-style interface. Jobs' presentation seems to have been some type of proprietary connection.

LVRyan02 said:

I just received my iPod w/ video along with an A/V cable.

When you go into the videos menu, there is another menu called "Video Settings." Under that menu are a number of options, including one that says "TV Out." You can set that to On, Off, or Ask. It is set to Off by default.

When set to on, the iPod uses the TV output only when a video is played, not for the menu. When set to ask, every time you play a video, it asks whether you would like it to go through TV out or not. Of course, when set to off, video only plays on the iPod screen.

When playing video out to the TV, the signal is not mirrored on the iPod screen. Instead, a menu is displayed similar to that of a playing song, with cover art, the title/album info, and a playhead that shows where you are in the video. Similar to songs, turning the click wheel adjusts the volume, while pressing the center button and then turning the click wheel scrubs through the video.

As for the signal playing from the TV out, it is scaled to full NTSC resolution. Doing tests (albeit on a 14" television) with an episode of Lost and a couple of music videos, the quality was comparable to watching a low- to medium- quality TiVo recording. The audio sounded great.

As people here have speculated, there is no "Front Row"-style interface. Jobs' presentation seems to have been some type of proprietary connection.

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What was your compression settings and codec for the tv play?
was this a purchased video from ITMS or ripped by you?

The settings are what Apple is encoding the TV shows and music videos in (I bought them from the Music Store), which is H.264 500 kbps/AAC Audio 128 kbps.

I've used HandBrake to encode part of a DVD into similar settings, but for some reason iTunes won't let me copy them onto my iPod, saying that they are not compatible. The same also occurred when I used Apple's Compressor to encode part of a television show I work on into the same format.

The only way I've had success in getting my own videos onto the iPod is to use Apple's default QuickTime Pro 7.0.3 setting to convert to video for iPod. This is less than desirable, however, because that setting is completely uncustomizable...

Good thing I have my copy of Final Cut Pro to export to whatever I please.

i don't know what a tivo recording would look like...
How comparable is it to normal tv?

Jopling said:

Good thing I have my copy of Final Cut Pro to export to whatever I please.

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As do I, but the only thing that has worked for me so far has been to use the default iPod export setting.

Sky Blue said:

i don't know what a tivo recording would look like...
How comparable is it to normal tv?

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It's kind of hard to equate to normal analog TV. It can't compare to high quality broadcast or cable television, perhaps it's closer to an EP or LP VHS tape.

I heard that the stereo minijack on the top of the ipod will allow video playback with the AV cables. I would assume you've tried that already so I guess that wasn't true...

whalesalad said:

I heard that the stereo minijack on the top of the ipod will allow video playback with the AV cables. I would assume you've tried that already so I guess that wasn't true...

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On the contrary, that's exactly what was done. The Apple iPod AV cable was used. The dock would work the same way, running the signal through the dock connector instead. Note that standard (generic) AV cables do not, it seems, work.

Got my pod, got my av cable, here's my review.....

so i finally got my equipment hooked it up and so...
out of the six compression versions I did of the same spongebob episode only 3 were accepted. all six of the compressions were exported from handbrake.
none of the H.264 versions were accepted including versions true to apples specs (perhaps this is a handbrake issue?) all three of the versions that were accepted were mp4 compressions and were set as followed;

A-320x240 at 1000kbps, audio 160kbps 48 khz (22min at 187.5mb)
B-same as above but at 2500kbps (22min at 233.2mb)
C-480x368 at 1000kbps, audio 160kbps 48 khz (22min at 187.5mb)
they all looked fantastic on the ipod screen.

didnt take;
D-mp4 480x360 at 2500kbps, audio 160kbps 48 khz (22min at 429.4mb) this is apples stated max for an mp4.
the other two were h.264 versions. both whithin apples specs.

so now for the tv broadcast quality;
all three were surprisingly not bad. the 480x360 was the sharpest and at times showed some "blocking" but for the most part played at about basic broadcast quality and somewhat short of dvd quality. the other two were similar but a bit more "fuzzed" which I actually preferred because it "fuzzed" the occasional blocking to the point where you didnt notice it. but the fuzzing certainly dropped the quality down a notch to about broadcast quality and certainly less than dvd quality.

seeing that the C version was the sharpest and came in with the smallest size this is what Im going with. im curious to see why the h.264 wasnt working because the image quality was comparable or better and was coming in at sizes around 87mb. if anyone can make these work please let us know.