I own a Philips portable media player that lets me play videos from my fifth-generation iPod whenever I dock my iPod into it, and now I want to buy an iPod classic to work with this media player. But when I called Philips to ask them about compatibility, they told me that I can’t use an iPod classic with this product. Is this correct?

Sadly, Philips is correct. With the latest generation of iPods released by Apple in September 2007 (iPod classic, iPod touch, and third-generation iPod nano), Apple has now locked the “TV out” feature of the iPod. The only way to unlock this feature is to connect your iPod to a device that has an Apple authentication chip built into it, which Apple is licensing to third-party developers. Apple’s own lineup of iPod accessories (such as the universal dock) already contain this authentication chip, so you won’t have a problem with Apple’s products.

But if you already own third-party accessories that you’ve been using to play video from your previous iPods, you’ll most likely have to reinvest in new accessories all over again. Even if you connected your iPod directly to a lowly TV set in the past, you will now have to spend a whopping $49 on either the Apple Composite AV Cable or the Apple Component AV Cable (www.apple.com) in order to watch video from your new iPod on your television screen.