cropped airplay mirror

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Level 1

8 points

cropped airplay mirror

Is there any way to use the complete screen for an ipad airplay mirror?

The ipad has a 3:4 screen. When mirroring to appleTV, the appleTV projects the ipad screen in a 16:9 way, i.e. black borders are added on the left and the right. The even happens when the appleTV is connected (via hdmi-vga convertor) to a VGA screen or projector. In many classrooms the projectors don't support hdmi but only VGA. It would be ideal to project the 3:4 ipad screen on a 3:4 VGA projector without getting the distorted projection caused by the appleTV squeezing horizontally and adding black borders left and right.

The problem seems to be that the appleTV expects a 16:9 input and fits everything else into 16:9 by adding black borders. The problem would be solved if the appleTV could fit the received image into 16:9 by streching the image, or if the ipad could strech its screen into 16:9 before sending it to the appleTV.

I have found numerous posts in fora mentioning this and similar problems. Typically, answers refer to overscan or setting the appleTV to a 3:4 resolution, but I tried all possible combinations with overscan on/off and resolution set to HD or 3:4 and none gives the desired result. E.g. there is the thread

Problem using iPad mirroring with an Apple TV and 4:3 Projector which ended some 2 years ago without a satisfying solution. As we are now two years later, maybe a solution has appeared?

I can reproduce this with any combination of

- an older ipad-2 or new ipad-air-2

- an older appleTV 2nd generation or a new appleTV 3rd generation

- an (old) VGA screen or a classic classroom projector supporting VGA.

I use an uptodate ios 8.3

For powerpoint presentations I have a work-around as follows:

- export from a normal 3:4 powerpoint presentation to PDF

- use imagemagick to convert PDF in sufficiently high quality JPG pages

- make a 16:9 powerpoint presentation

- include all JPG pictures, one per slide, and strech horizontally until they fit the 16:9 page.

- everything now looks very wide.

- use the slideshark to project this 16:9 presentation

- the appleTV happily accepts the 16:9 input and squeezes it horizontally to the 3:4 output VGA

- the projection is as in the original 3:4 presentation.

Of course, this is not the most user-friendly procedure.

Moreover, this still doesn't allow to just mirror the ipad screen on a 3:4 screen.

Jan

iPad Air, iOS 8.3

Posted on May 28, 2015 7:32 AM

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Answer 1

May 28, 2015 12:41 PM in response to jan_ramon

The Apple TV is behaving as expected, nobody would really want their image to be stretched just to fill the screen with a ratio that is not intended.

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Answer 2

jan_ramon Author

Level 1

8 points

May 29, 2015 12:44 AM in response to Winston Churchill

The statement "nobody would really want their image to be stretched just to fill the screen with a ratio that is not intended." is only partly correct as it may hold standalone but does not apply to the situation I described.

The original image is 4:3 and the screen is 4:3, so the image is intended for 4:3.

Nobody likes his 4:3 image to be squeezed to NOT fit the screen where the screen has the ratio the image is intended for and the image I currently get is NOT the ratio I intend.

It may be true that appleTV *expects* 16:9 because it hopes that the screen is HD and 16:9, but this is not the case. Many projectors are 4:3.

I do want my original 4:3 image to be displayed in the ratio is intended for (and it seems many other people too). If you can confirm that is not possible with the standard appleTV setup, it would be nice to learn whether there are effective work-arounds for this feature (which is for my application of presenting my 4:3 presentation on a 4:3 projector a limitation of the appleTV).

Jan

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