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iPad VGA Accessory Limitations

S

sesnir

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 21, 2008
373
411
I was hoping I could use the VGA cable accessory with the Netflix and ABC apps... but you can't :\ You're limited to the "Videos" app and the YouTube app it seems.

I wonder if third party developers can take advantage of this accessory or if it'll just be the first missed opportunity on the iPad I've encountered.

So just a heads up for other people who thought the cable would be a bit more useful.
 
sesnir said:
I was hoping I could use the VGA cable accessory with the Netflix and ABC apps... but you can't :\ You're limited to the "Videos" app and the YouTube app it seems.

I wonder if third party developers can take advantage of this accessory or if it'll just be the first missed opportunity on the iPad I've encountered.

So just a heads up for other people who thought the cable would be a bit more useful.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I was a bit curious to what limitations the thing had. Videos is good, and so is youtube, but the netflix one is a downer indeed. Have you tried it with pages, keynote, or numbers? curious about those too...
 
Keynote works also. Apple shows this on their iPad video demo

I'm looking for an answer to this also.

Can 3rd party devs take advantage of the video out? or no?
 
I tried Pages and Numbers and it didn't make use of the VGA cable... didn't buy Keynote. :)

I'm hoping Netflix just didn't have access to a physical iPad + VGA cable so they couldn't code/test it before today. Hopefully Apple lets them use it... in fact, I'm going to go check the dev documentation.
 
Fail... so I bought a Lost season 6 episode in HD and tried playing it on my monitor at home. It worked.

So I come to work, lunch time comes, I hook it up to the LCD we have here and got this error: "The connected display is not authorized to play protected movies"

So we had to watch it off of the iPad screen instead.

Also, none of the "digital copies" (that some bluray movies include) worked either.

So...

1) What's the point of preventing me from hooking the iPad up to *some* monitors but not others? Especially when I don't *need* the monitor to view videos?

2) Doesn't this kind of thing push people to piracy?

I'm going to try a Lost S6 episode in standard def and see if it works. If not, the VGA cable is going back to the store.
 
Sounds like to me it has something to do with the HDCP compliances and it not working over the VGA adapter.
 
sesnir said:
Fail... so I bought a Lost season 6 episode in HD and tried playing it on my monitor at home. It worked.

So I come to work, lunch time comes, I hook it up to the LCD we have here and got this error: "The connected display is not authorized to play protected movies"

So we had to watch it off of the iPad screen instead.

Also, none of the "digital copies" (that some bluray movies include) worked either.

So...

1) What's the point of preventing me from hooking the iPad up to *some* monitors but not others? Especially when I don't *need* the monitor to view videos?

2) Doesn't this kind of thing push people to piracy?

I'm going to try a Lost S6 episode in standard def and see if it works. If not, the VGA cable is going back to the store.
Click to expand...

The digital copies that come with dvds and blu-rays weren't encoded for playback on the iPad as it wasn't in the wild yet.

No doubt they will in the future
 
samcraig said:
The digital copies that come with dvds and blu-rays weren't encoded for playback on the iPad as it wasn't in the wild yet.

No doubt they will in the future
Click to expand...

They work when played off of the iPad screen directly - not sure if that's what you meant.
 
Wow, that sucks. I was hoping to use it with an external display for email and web.
 
Update: The Lost SD episode works fine with the VGA cable. It's definitely the HDCP compliance issue but still, it's just a pointless limitation.
 
sesnir said:
I was hoping I could use the VGA cable accessory with the Netflix and ABC apps... but you can't :\ You're limited to the "Videos" app and the YouTube app it seems.

I wonder if third party developers can take advantage of this accessory or if it'll just be the first missed opportunity on the iPad I've encountered.

So just a heads up for other people who thought the cable would be a bit more useful.
Click to expand...

Doesn't seem to work with an iPhone, either.
 
Everything I have read as a developer is that video out CAN work on any third party app as long as the developer has built in that functionality. So, hopefully that means in future that people can make some good third party apps for it.
 
Web demos via VGA?

So, I take it that it's not possible to display a web page from Safari on the iPad via the VGA connector? Major dealbreaker if a sales presentations involves a web demo.
 
Man, there should be a mode to simply mirror the screen.
 
iSee said:
Man, there should be a mode to simply mirror the screen.
Click to expand...

Agreed... for some reason they put the power of the VGA cable in the hands of developers rather than have some global guaranteed functionality.
 
sesnir said:
Update: The Lost SD episode works fine with the VGA cable. It's definitely the HDCP compliance issue but still, it's just a pointless limitation.
Click to expand...



Same thing with pc. HD media can only be played over encrypted connections
 
Any thoughts on why Safari can't use the VGA? Is it technical or does Apple have some business motivation, perhaps to not compete with Macbooks.
 
sesnir said:
Update: The Lost SD episode works fine with the VGA cable. It's definitely the HDCP compliance issue but still, it's just a pointless limitation.
Click to expand...

They do the hdcp so you can't hook up a product down stream that can record the HD content. Honestly I think it's stupid, but it's the media companies.
 
I talked with CSR and they said that all HD movies should play perfectly fine over any monitor that is hooked up with VGA Cable.
 
jeremyblevins said:
They do the hdcp so you can't hook up a product down stream that can record the HD content. Honestly I think it's stupid, but it's the media companies.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the explanation. If people want to copy HD content, they'll find a way :/


spiderguy84 said:
I talked with CSR and they said that all HD movies should play perfectly fine over any monitor that is hooked up with VGA Cable.
Click to expand...

I tried four fairly new monitors at work. Both Dell and HP. Google says it's also an issue that affects Apple TV and even other macs too. Maybe I'll contact Apple too and see what they say.
 
No Safari Over VGA?

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/04/09/real...ith-an-ipad-keynote-and-vga-connec/#continued

Tuaw has a nice article on making presentation via VGA. What I find disappointing is that Safari won't display. I've been planning to use Keynote and Safari for an orientation program. Looks like I'll stick with my MBP for that purpose and hope I can at least run my Mac via the iPad. Maybe that will be better as I won't be tethered to the A/V kiosk.
 
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