As title really

I sometimes use the TVout feature on the N900 but the last 2 times I have tried to use it it wouldnt work

The only setting really is in the settings to switch between NTSC or PAL, this didnt make any difference and plugging the cable in resulted in media player still playing on the screen and the speakers still active on the phone

Normally the internal speakers turn off but didnt

did you plug in the composites correctly?

Yellow to Yellow => Yellow = Video output
White to White => White = left Audio output
Red to Red => Red = Right Audio output.

Otherwise try a different video cable. There is a chance that your cable is broken.

Some TV has the shared video input for 5-pin input and this yellow input.
Check you have no 5-pin used.

Thanks

I was trying it on some projector systems we installed yesterday, I do have a spare cable (not tried it yet though) and I did try wiggling them about and nothing

The last time it didnt work it suddenly started working again

I didnt try turning the phone off and on again though, perhaps I should as I think that is what I did last time

There have been several threads about this already. My general experience is that the N900's TV out does not work with about 1/3rd of all the TVs, projectors, etc. on which I have tried it and is pretty fussy on some of the remaining devices. I've tried all the devices in my home and try it on every hotel room TV I encounter when traveling. Make sure to plug the cable into the TV first and then into the N900. That seems to help a bit.

I really dislike the combined headphone+tv out port as the auto-sense circuitry does not do a good job of discriminating what you have plugged in. It would be nice if there were a way to manually specify what cable you are plugging in, as on the N95. There is plenty of bezel space on the left side of the n900 for a dedicated port. You could almost fit a full sized HDMI port in that space.Lastly, composite video should be consigned to its own special circle of hell.