How to Watch iPod Video on 2006 Honda Odyssey Touring

I know what you're thinking.  How is this a green topic?  Well, consider never buying another DVD or CD.  No more plastic boxes or plastic wrap.  No more disks that get scratched and thrown away.  That makes the iPod a good piece of green technology.

One thing that has long frustrated me was my inability to easily hook my iPod into the DVD system in my car.  There are no jacks in the dash, nor are there any near the screen.  Well, turns out that that's actually not the case.  In the third row, there is a storage area beneath the left arm rest.  In there, there are AV plugs that must be for gaming systems.  Two analog audio jacks and one composite video jack. There is also a power outlet.  So I pondered this, along with the AUX/DVD button on the dash.  Hmm.

I went to Best Buy and bought a "Composite A/V for iPod" cord, made by a company called rocketfish (you can find various brands various places - just don't buy the Apple version - it's far more expensive).  It has the proper A/V plugs, a USB plug for power and an iPod connector.  You need to supply the power plug adapter for the USB plug.

Connecting it was easy.  I ejected the DVD I had in the player, switched it to AUX and cued up the desired program on the iPod and my kids were immediately viewing SpongeBob from my iPod on the Honda's DVD screen.   The added bonus is that the kids can now control what they watch from the back seat.  No more "I don't like this one, Mom, change it!" while I'm trying to drive.