My goal is to have a music server connected to my Home Theatre system. I want to be able to put my CDs on the server and control it with my universal remote. It would be nice to be able to see what I'm doing on the TV as I use the remote. I don't want to spend a lot of money. I don't have a home network and don't really want a PC involved in my HT anyways.

Since I am already planning to buy an iPod anyways... here is my idea:

I buy an iPod (20 or 40 GB). I buy an iPhoto dock (has an S-video output). I buy an IR remote adapter for the iPod.

Yes, I could just buy the iPhoto, but I think they run $500-600. The 20 GB iPod is much cheaper. But, will the S-video out on the iPhoto dock work if I just plug a standard iPod into it?

I know it is a wacky idea. And most people on this forum are probably gung-ho on networks. I really want to keep it simple and not get into setting up a home network.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Sooke

No. Of course not. The iPod doesn't have any video capabilities. Only the new iPod Photo's have all that.

I guess it depends whether the video capabilities are built into the iPhoto or into its dock. I don't want to put pictures on an iPod, just navigate its menus. What gave me hope that this was possible is that I read somewhere there is a car stereo brand (Alpine?) that can be connected to a standard iPod via the dock connector and the menus are visible on the stereo's display. This would seem to indicate the display infomation is available (in some form) at the iPod's dock connector. Perhaps the iPhoto/iPhoto dock is a super set of this capability (adding the ability to pass image data from the iPhoto to the dock).

Sooke

Here we go:

http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publish/ind...ticle_650.shtml

" Alpine has engineered a unique interface box that takes advantage of the iPod Accessory Protocol allowing audio, track information, and control signals to be communicated over the Ai-NET system bus to the in-dash receiver."

So if the iPhoto dock makes use of the "iPod Accessory Protocol allowing audio, track information, and control signals" and generates the the S-video signals from them, it might work. If I were designing a battery operated device, I would generate the video in the dock, not the pod.

Maybe it won't work, but can anyone with an iPod and and iPhoto dock try this?

Thanks,

Sooke

Nope, sorry. The video capabilities are in the iPod Photo itself. Note that there is also a cable that you can plug into the iPod Photo to get video output for the TV. No dock required. That one plugs into the headphone jack, actually.

The docking pins at the bottom of the thing are almost entirely just wired to other things in the iPod. Two of the pins correspond to the audio pins, 3 or 4 of them correspond to the serial port.. They just used a few of the previously unused ones in the connector for the video port on the dock. The dock itself is mostly wiring, it contains no real intelligence.

The Apple Accessory Protocol is basically the protocol used to talk to the iPod's tty serial connector on the top of the unit or via a few pins at the bottom of the unit. It's been partially reverse engineered already.

What they did is they wired the composite video output to an extra ring pin in the headphone jack (same as the serial pins were on the 1G and 2G iPod's), then wired the two s-video output wires from the video chip to the dock connector. The video is generated in the iPod Photo itself. Sorry.

Thanks for all the info Otto. Guess I'm out of luck unless I buy a full iPhoto.

Unless someone knows of a 3rd party dock that displays track/menu info on a big LCD or generates video for a TV. Built in IR remote ability would be good too.

Sooke