New iPods Don’t Play Nice With Video Add-Ons

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Though Apple’s big iPod announcements last week promise to make video playback the new status quo in digital media players, one minor detail got lost amid the excitement. Though the new video nanos, iPod classics, iPod Touches and iPhones are capable of 480p output via a new Component video connection kit, they won’t be capable of working with third-party video accessories released over the last two years, such as those cool portable DVD player lookalikes that were all the rage a few months ago.

According to b, the new iPods’ TV-out feature requires an authentication chip found almost exclusively in Apple accessories, such as the (now-dead) iPod HiFi and the Universal Dock. Otherwise, the menu item is locked out. There is no apparent technical reason for this, just a monetary one. Pretty skeevy of Apple. anyone feeling burned right now?

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4 responses to “New iPods Don’t Play Nice With Video Add-Ons”

  1. Adam Belanger says:

    Another point (and I’ll preface this by saying I don’t have an iPhone, Touch or AppleTV), why can’t you wirelessly send video content from your iPhone or Touch to your AppleTV? They’ve all got wi-fi and they all have video content. This should be a no-brainer.

  2. 01 says:

    Doesn’t this happen a lot with gen shifts of iPods? Not that this makes it any less annoying, but for tech, anything released over “the last two years” should probably expect to be obsolete by now… At least this gives people something to pick up with that $100 burning a hole in their pocket :-)