How to use an old iPod touch as an “Apple TV” for old TVs

Curious how to stream digital content to your old, standard definition TV? Since they don't have HDMI ports, Apple TV is out but if you have an old iPod touch (or even iPhone) you can McGyver together something almost as good. We'll show you how after the break!

The current Apple TV is a great, inexpensive way to stream content to your HDMI-equiped HD TV but if you have an older CRT TV with composite (RCA video/audio) plugs, you're going to have to get just a little more creative. (You can look for component to HDMI converters but they're expensive.) And if you have an old iPod touch lying around, why not put it to good use?

What you need

1. An old iPod touch
2. A set of Apple composite cables [$39 - Apple Store link]
3. A copy of the Air Video (or similar) app [$2.99 - iTunes link]

You could use an old iPhone or even a current iPod touch or iPad, though you probably don't want to leave them connected to an old TV. That's the reason I recommend an old iPod touch.

What you do

1. Setup your iPod touch as normal.
2. Plug your iPod touch into the dock connector on Apple's component cables
3. Plug the USB out into an AC adapter (that way you won't have to worry about charging)
4. Install Air Video's server client on your Mac or Windows PC [download link]
5. Launch Air Video server
6. Go into Preferences and share the libraries that contain your media (e.g. /music/iTunes)
7. Launch Air Video on your iPod touch
8. Add your Windows or Mac PC as a server
9. Navigate to what you want to watch or listen to
10. Hit play or play with live transcode and watch away!

Unlike an Apple TV, there's no remote for this setup which is a bit of a pain. However, Air Video can transcode non-Apple supported video formats like AVI and MKV on the fly so you don't have to worry about converting your collection before hand.

I've set this up for my mother using an iPod G3 and it works great. Whenever my sister or I visit we can stream things we want to show her almost as if she had an Apple TV.

If you have any questions or other tips on streaming media or getting more use out of old devices, let us know in comments!