Just brought a NEW GENERATION IPOD CLASSIC? Got old AV accessories? Want to use TV-OUT? Bet they WON'T WORK thanks to APPLE's new SECURITY (extra money making) CHIP which is ONLY available in their leads (at a premium cost). That wasn't in the brochure or on the box was it?

Even though I did not purchase my new IPOD CLASSIC 80GB through EBAY, I have discovered a very annoying and potentially expensive problem if you want to use the TV-OUT feature. What APPLE won't tell you is that to use the TV-OUT functionality on the new IPOD CLASSIC, you need to do two things:

1. Make sure you've updated your IPOD software to enable the TV-OUT feature.

2. Purchase an OFFICIAL APPLE COMPOSITE AV CABLE, as they contain an authentication chip which allows for the TV-OUT feature. Almost all 3rd party cables WILL NOT WORK, even when they say they are compatible with the CLASSIC.

This for the most part is NOT the fault of the vendors selling 3rd party accessories, most are unaware of this issue and APPLE has done its best to keep this quiet for fear of impacting sales of the new generation IPOD. I have purchased several leads from people on E-Bay and found none to work, but as I said, this is not necessarily the fault of the vendor - even some APPLE RESELLER technicians were UNAWARE of this issue.

Even though the guidelines for E-Bay guides say to avoid links outside of E-Bay I feel I must give you the option of reading the same information I did before writing this guide as it is only fair for people to make up their own mind.

h**p://ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/apple-locks-tv-out-in-new-ipods-breaks-video-add-ons/  "Apple locks TV Out in new iPods"

h**p://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5399738&tstart=0 - "Apple's OWN forum posts regarding this issue"

If the situation changes (can't see it as APPLE will make MORE money at OUR expense if it stays the same), then I will revisit this guide.

Thank you for reading and I hope it helps.