Getting an Apple TV to work with an old TV

Before Christmas, I had this great idea that I would help a friend with an old fashioned plasma TV get an Apple TV working. You know the kind, it has a VGA input, an S-VHS input, a set of component video RCA inputs, and a composite RCA input. The big problem was that there was a distinct lack of an HDMI input port. This problem was quickly resolved with one of these HDMI to composite video converters.

Unfortunately my friend is not that technically minded so even though, I gave him an Apple TV, the converter, the cables and the following diagram, he did not attempt to connect things up. Recently I visited him and connected it all up.

The video worked pretty well, except for the fact that the Apple TV showed a purplish hue to the picture.  This issue was resolved by going into the Apple TV menu and changing the Video Output setting to Digital RGB High and then normal colour was displayed.

The other problem that we had was that the Arcam AR200 AV amplifier did not like the outage voltage produced by the RCA outputs of the HDMI to composite converter. This essentially meant that there was no sound. This problem was resolved by purchasing an optical TOSlink fibre optic cable and a TOSlink to Digital RCA adapter box. The TOSlink was connected to the back of the Apple TV and the Digital SPDIF RCA output went to the Arcam AR200 AV amplifier digital input. Once this was connected up we had sound and video.

All these components can be found on ebay for less than ~£20 total. The still picture quality is not brilliant, but the moving picture quality looks fantastic. Just one way to get from A to B.