Apple TV 2 Mirroring Poor Quality.........

I think my issues lies with Hulu plus

two things:

one, no HD for ipads, no sneaking around by using Safari

two, since I was watching old tv Angel, Night Gallery,

I suspect my cable system (macbook cabled to sony tv) was only giving 4:3 too

I have to check to be sure.

so an element of pilot error involved.

ok the experiment is over

macbook cabled to sony tv: display resolution set to 1080 p

hulu plus via safari

tv old: night gallery - top to bottom 4" on either side

tv new: new girl - top to bottom, side to side

movie 1972 ruling class: top to bottom 1" on either side

apple tv setting tv: resolution to automatic

hulu plus ipad application

tv old: night gallery - top to bottom 4" on either side

tv new: new girl - as above

movie 1972 ruling class: - as above

hulu plus via Safari

as above - top to bottom 4" on either side

did not bother with setting to 720p

apple tv needs a 1080 resolution setting

my wife disputes my experiment

1080 and 720 are resolution measures

16:9 and 4:3 are different measures

I obviously do not know why the ipad only outputs 4:3

Pat Schaefer wrote:

I obviously do not know why the ipad only outputs 4:3

Because that's the AR of its screen

neither I or google knows what AR is

but I am guessing you will say the AR of a macbook is 16:9

AR is aspect ratio, the ratio of the horizontal resolution or dimension compared to the vertical.

A widescreen TV set has an AR of 16:9. (for both resolution and dimension)

The iPad has an AR of 4:3 (for both resolution and dimension)

A macbook (or any other modern mac for that matter) has an AR of 16:10 dimensionally, most people would use a resolution AR of 16:10 on a mac, but it has other AR's it can use.

Does the iPhone 4S put out the same resolution, that the iPad 2 does? Also, what did you do, to maximize the performance? Hooked up via N network, or Ethernet straight to AppleTV2? I'm trying to get better a picture quality. I have hooked the Ethernet cable to my ATV, but which helped with lag. But, have not tried a N network... Someone said that the iPhones do not use N networks, which I think he's wrong. A bit confused about this whole thing...

Thanks, Matt.

I thought an iPad had a 16:9 ratio... It can play movies in letterbox, and even use Netflix to stream video in 16:9, Right? So, 1280x768 is not a 16:9 format? That's strange... Also, would the iPhone 4S put out a smaller 4:3, because of its 960x640 AR?

The iPhone has a resolution of 3:2 (which is 16:10.67 to put it into perspective.

sounds good but it can't be the whole story can it.

how does this explain

my cable system (macbook to sony tv)

hulu plus via safari

showing new tv as 16:9

and old tv as 4:3

and yes I know (or think I know) old tv was captured as 4:3.

the "source" has to have something to do with it, no?

hulu plus gives the ipad a new tv 16:9 file

and the ipad converts it to 4:3?

thanks for your time.

BeersYourFriend wrote:

I thought an iPad had a 16:9 ratio... It can play movies in letterbox, and even use Netflix to stream video in 16:9, Right?

It plays movies letterboxed because is isn't 16:9. It needs to add black bars top and bottom to fill the screen. The movie can be zoomed to fill the screen but then all you are doing is cutting off the edges.

1280x768 is not a 16:9 format? That's strange... Also, would the iPhone 4S put out a smaller 4:3, because of its 960x640 AR?

1280 x 768 isn't 16:9, but actually the iPad is1280 x 768, it's 1024 x 768 and that's not 16:9 either.

Do the math, 1024 / 16 X 9 is not 768, but 1024 / 4 X 3 is.

I don't have an iPhone 4s, but assuming it mirrors it's screen at it's native resolution it will morror at 3:2

(960 / 3 X 2 = 640)

Huh... Yeah, forgot the iPad screen is 1024x768. That really *****, that the iPhone 4S, would mirror a 3:2. That really doesn't give you much to view, although it is quite a bit bigger. Really wish Apple could use the AR, to mirror at a better dimention. I thought that the new 1080p camera could be viewed on TV, at full 1080p. So, are you saying that the iPhone would mirror a 1080p picture, but only in 3:2 ratio? That's a bummer....

Sorry Pat I haven't been following the thread, I usually don't get involved once a thread goes over a few entries, so I'm not 100% sure of everything you mention, but I'll try to answer your points.

Your cable system. I assume you mean you connect your macbook to the TV with a cable. The TV is 16:9, your macbook is 16:10 so assuming you use a 16:10 AR for your macbook it doesn't quite fill the screen properly. Without checking I'm not sure whether the Macbook has a 16:9 setting but if it does it will fill your TV screen but everything will be slightly squashed.

Hulu plus via safari. Again don't know anything about Hulu, but when the iPad Airplays the video from a web page it only sends the video which is 16:9 not the whole screen which is not and hence it fills the TV screen.

Newer tv shows and movies are provided in 16:9 and fill the TV screen (occasionally some aren't they use another AR which is used on the big screen at the cinema, this results in black bars top and bottom)

Old TV shows and movies are in 4:3, they don't fill the screen.

hulu plus gives the ipad a new tv 16:9 file

and the ipad converts it to 4:3?

Sorry I'm not sure what you are asking.

BeersYourFriend wrote:

.....Really wish Apple could use the AR, to mirror at a better dimention.....

You can't change AR or else you squash the picture in some way, the only choices are to use black bands or lose the edges of a picture.

I thought that the new 1080p camera could be viewed on TV, at full 1080p. So, are you saying that the iPhone would mirror a 1080p picture, but only in 3:2 ratio? That's a bummer....

The iPhone 4S takes video at 1080p and pictures at 3264x2448. Video at 1080p cannot be shown on the Apple TV since it only does 720p. I don't have an iPhone 4S, so I'm not exactly sure if it just can't be played or not. However if it can be resampled on the fly and maintain its AR it will be 16:9 because that's what 1080p and 720p are, so if it's sent as a video via Airplay it will fill the screen, if it's sent as a mirror, it will send the screen not just the video and it will not fill the TV screen.

Photos are 3264x2448 which is 6:4, so they won't fill the screen if sent via Airplay, if the iPhone screen is sent (mirroring) that won't fill the screen either because the iPhone screen is 3:2