Q: Does the video out stuff work for the YouTube application, or, more importantly I think, with Safari, if the Safari QuickTime player is playing a movie? I’ve discovered I never need to sync any movies to my iPhone as I can watch movies on the iPhone through the Safari web browser from an Apache web server (so long as I have wifi connection).
– Anonymous
A: Actually, yes.
This is one area in which the iPhone’s video-out capabilities exceed normal expectations, although the video accessories that will permit this are limited at this point. The only accessories presently available to enable video output on the iPhone are the Apple Component AV Cable (iLounge rating: C+) or the Apple Composite AV Cable (iLounge rating: C), although hopefully additional third-party accessories will begin showing up in the near future.
To make this work, simply connect a compatible video output accessory, and the iPhone will prompt you as to whether you want to send the output to TV whenever you start a video in the iPod, YouTube, or even the Safari browser:
The browser can be used to play any QuickTime compatible video format, including any DRM-protected content that the iPhone is already authorized to play (ie, from the same iTunes library).
Note as well that as an alternative to serving up your content via a plain Apache directory page, you can use a tool such as DOT.TUNES (http://www.dottunes.net, free for basic version, iPhone plug-in $20), which will read your iTunes library database and generate dynamic, iPhone browser-optimized web pages listing all of the content in your iTunes library, including both music and video content.
