Filed under: iPod Family, Multimedia, How-tos
How To: Convert an iBook AV Cable to an iPod AV Cable
If you happen to have an old iBook AV cable laying around, you can put it to good use as an iPod AV cable by swapping the video and video ground (sleeve and ring closest to the sleeve respectively). Flickr member Mark Question has made a diagram and posted it to help illustrate the conversion.
There are two methods to modding your cable:
- Mod the iBook AV cable by cutting it open and swapping the video and the video ground.
- Alternatively, you can preserve the iBook-ness of the cable and make an adapter out of an RCA extension cable. Make a crossover cable where you swap the two wires in the middle of the RCA cable.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Robert Knight said 4:05PM on 11-01-2005
Leave it to Apple to pull something like switching the video and ground areas on a plug just so folks will have to buy ANOTHER cable.
What a waste, shame on Apple.
If there is a good reason why this was done, I'd like to hear it.
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Metryq said 4:40PM on 11-01-2005
The new cable matches industry standard -- this sort of cable is used on many camcorders for analog output. However, the standard has the video on the first ring and the right channel audio on the last. (If you used an industry standard cable on the iPod, you'd use the red plug as your video and the yellow as your right channel.)
The iBook cable actually makes sense, despite the fact that it is not the industry standard, at least for 4-contact video cables. Putting the ground on the last ring dovetails with the fact that that part of the jack (on the device itself) touches the body of the device.
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Eliot Phillips said 5:08PM on 11-01-2005
I'm using an AV cable from a JVC miniDV cam so like Metryq says I have to swap the video and right channel RCA plugs. I also agree that putting the ground on tha last ring makes more sense.
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BD said 5:17PM on 11-01-2005
It seems a bit easier to just use a generic AV cable, of the sort with a minijack on one end and yellow, red, and white jacks on the other. Just swap the yellow and red jacks when plugging it into your TV, and it works fine, no hacking necessary.
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Mark Question said 6:02PM on 11-01-2005
I agree, it would be easier if you already have a cable that you can just switch the inputs, however, if you don't want to buy a cable and have this lying around, or feel like rolling your own because you have tons of extra rca junk around (as I did), then this is the cheap/free way to go.
Also, if your av cable isn't "industry standard" as Metryq said, but instead has the ground on the sleeve, as the iBook cable does, as did another camcorder cable I tested out, it won't work. You will have to either hack the cable, or, as I did, make an external adapter so your iBook cable remains intact.
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Henri said 5:56AM on 11-18-2005
I just checked my SONY AV cable, it's the same as the JVC so just swapping the right and the video plug does the trick! Great!
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