Menn, trying to digest alot of your posts, thanks. Did you have an ipad 4 with hdmi? I'm actually most curious about ipad 3 hdmi vs ipad 4 hdmi, now that you have the newer 30 pin hdmi controller. Can you do a post of some games, maybe 3 (one fast game like after burner, maybe one mid speed game like real racing 3, and some other game of your choosing)? That would be kinda cool cause that is cause we could use those vids later when the ipad 5 comes out too. And maybe could you put on of my ipad 3 vids on your youtube and also put it in the same post, so I can see how my ipad 3 hdmi looks compared to yours? Thanks. Asphalt 7 is free today, and has airplay support, but as we all mentioned here, it is very disappointing cause of the really low resolution. But makes a great Gameloft duo gamer joystick game with dual analog sticks!!! Ascii shooter on hdmi
Yup, will shoot the same tests (rr2/rr3/ab/glb2.7 (if it works, that is - last time it just stopped mirroring)/the new "sphere" benchmark) with the iPad 4 too. Just working on a more demanding version of today's Moon / Sphere benchmark - one that has open source, frame number display etc., unlike GLBenchmark. Then, the OpenGL performance differences between these adapters will be more pronounced and the bechmarks much more comparable than with "just" shooting games. Will definitely link to your videos in my next articles too. I still haven't annotated my YT videos; will only annotate them when the dedicated articles get ready so that I can also link to those from the videos. Will also link to your posts / videos.
Interesting GamePop video http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/05/bluestacks-gamepop/ http://www.joystiq.com/2013/05/09/gamepop-console-offers-unlimited-mobile-games-on-your-tv-for-7/ http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/05/gamepop-console-offers-netflix-style-subscription-for-mobile-games-on-the-tv/
Reprint from Plasma Sky Sale Thread Hoggy! If you look here, you will see my Gameloft Duo Gamer Joystick Setup. Also, you will see my usual ihome tripod that I use. The Gameloft joystick comes with a tripod that says Gameloft on it. This tripod, I don't really use all that much, but it is useful for games that are in portrait orientation like Plasma Sky when taking pictures of it. Since the hdmi connector and power are on the bottom, it won't fit on my tripod, so I use the Gameloft tripod cause it has an internal crevice, so that it can fit the cable in there without showing. But usually Plasma sky, I usually just play with my icade on my new ipad. Portrait games don't really play all that well on hdmi tv cause it only uses a fraction of the screen. Landscape games, I can zoom to fit my tv screen, so that is cool. With icade, I play about half on hdmi tv, half just with the icade. Three beautiful games on a big tv with icade used as a remote bluetooth joystick are Metal Slug X, Blazing Star, and Tabletop Racing. Plasma Sky looks pretty good on tv, but actually the vector graphics look better on my retina ipad screen. This is unusual, cause almost all my games look far better on tv, but this is one rare game, where it plays much better on my new ipads screen. So Dirty Harry is right. Edit: and if you look here, you can also see my Soundfreaq bluetooth speaker which I can also use with icade, my hybrid stylus (with hybrid metal grill tip), and my Targus sleeve.
My new article EDIT: as it'd be very hard for me to update my article on both MR and TA (just posted a sizable update - see sections 1.4 - 1.7), I've chosen to do this on MR only. Please read my article at http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=17256350 (Note that MR is TA's sister site; this is why I'm providing an external link to my article. Will only post announcements here when the article is updated at MR.)
Guys, while i'm working on my new article (The Encyclopedia of Games with Native TV Out Support), two new videos featuring AirPlay under ideal circumstances (wired ATV3 and iPad3 close to AP): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31mO2KTW3cE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V44lHzFVTJ4
Could you post the title of these videos as I much prefer to watch Youtube on my Tv using the Youtube app on my Apple TV? That way I can search for them on my Youtube app on Apple TV. Because the image is bigger, clearer and more importantly, the sound is much louder compared to my iPad, which is important as some videos have very low audio levels and cupping the speaker gets tiring quickly.
OK, you convinced me to use idevice + iCade Core + HDMI out as game station I have an iPhone 4 (ready to JB to support video mirroring), should I buy an iPad 2 to do that instead? Let me explain my question. An HD TV has a big screen, so I wonder if iPad versions of games are "better" than iPhone versions because of different zoom. So my seconday question is: do iPad versions and iPhone versions of games have different zoom degrees to "optimize" the same game for bigger and smaller device screen?
The iPhone 4's mirrored image will be somewhat more pixelizated than that of the iPad 2. The latter, being A5-based, will also be somewhat faster in some games. In well-optimized games like RR3, you won't really see any speed difference as, to speed the game up on less powerful HW, less OpenGL ES features are used (mirroring etc.) I've quickly shot a demo video of my playing RR3 on my iPt 4G (CPU / GPU-wise almost the same as the iPhone 4; with hacked N81AP.plist file to enable mirroring via HDMI / VGA, of course). The mirroring is extra smooth (shot via the 2nd-gen HDMI adapter in 720p60). Feel free to compare it, pixelization-wise, to that of my iPad 2 shots. iPt4: http://youtu.be/RrQjBIqq_qM iPad 2: http://youtu.be/ORsLo54_igA I've also made two framegrabs of exactly the same scene so that you can see the difference on stills as well: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81986513/052013/mirroring/ipt4g%20-%20mirror%20-%20rr3.jpeg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81986513/052013/mirroring/ipad2%20-%20mirror%20-%20rr3.jpeg Note that this shot also shows that A5-based platforms have more visual goodies in RR3: the fence, the mirrored environment on the car's door etc. A clear advantage of iPhones is that, in mirrored mode, the pillarboxing is less annoying (the pillars are less wide on the left/right), as they're 3:2 and not 4:3, unlike iPads. This can also be seen in the above screenshots. This ALL refers to mirrored mode only. The very few games with native TV out support, generally, use the same resolution on the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2. Unforttunately, RR2 doesn't support native TV out on A4-based iDevices; this is why I needed to shoot a mirrored (and not native) comparison involving RR3 instead.
So like mobile games without the mobility? If I have time to actually sit down at a TV, I'll just go play on my PC.
Sadly an iphone 4 does not have hdmi mirroring support, so you can not use it to game with really on hdmi. I would actually recommend buying an ipad 3 (you maybe able to find one dirt cheap since it is neglected somewhat), since the resolution is far better for mirrored games. You will be using almost all mirrored mode cause there are very few airplay games. It's debateable, but the ipad 3 may well be the best for hdmi cause the new lightning connector has delay and not true hdmi issues, but menn would know about this the best in his past posts. I did a writeup on different resolutions, it's in the toc (first page) regarding resolution differences. I don't know the current price differences on an ipad 2 vs 3, but they would probably be pretty close in price. You should be able to find a good old ipad 3 for dirt cheap I would figure somewhere. http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=2677262&postcount=105 I have an ipad 3, and for the most part games play great. A large ipad is better for icade too when you are just playing with an icade no hdmi. One thing I might suggest, is go ahead and get the icade core joystick for $30. Play with it with your iphone for awhile. If you get the urge to get an ipad, try to get an ipad 3 for cheap, if not ipad 2. Don't buy an ipad 4, wait for an ipad 5 or 6. http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=2792715&postcount=254 If you got any other questions, just ask me or menn or others here, but look at the toc on the first page, and try to read the first 10 pages or so of this thread.
You can easily enable it by just adding a new value to a plist file. Works just great on other A4-based iDevices (iPad 1, iPt4G) too. The RR3 video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrQjBIqq_qM ) I've linked to above has also been shot in this mode. (BTW, I'll soon upload another iPt4G RR3 video, shot with the 1st-gen HDMI adapter.) I'd say racing games are playable over Lightning. It's only games like pinball where timing is absolutely critical that are frustrating on Lightning. If you don't play those games, Lightning is OK - FAR-FAR better than wireless AirPlay via ATV. The latter is useless for racing titles too. Image quality, sadly, IS an issue with Lightning if you use your iDevice for, say, presentations. However, in a game you won't notice much difference. The Lightning adapter doesn't seem to have OpenGL game mirroring speed issues - it's about equally fast as the 2nd-gen 30-pin HDMI adapter and much faster than the 1st-gen 30-pin HDMI and the 30-pin VGA adapter.
Here it is: http://youtu.be/-07aJhD6tHg - with full quality (I have the bandwidth now to quickly upload original-quality videos, unlike last night). The framerate fluctuates between 15 and 30 fps, while, with the 2nd-gen adapter, it's between 30 and 45 fps. That is, it's the 2nd-gen adapter that you'll need to use for mirrored gaming, even with the "lowly" iPt4G.
I did: http://www.amazon.it/Cavo-Adattatore-Apple-iPad3-iPad2-iPhone/dp/B0080EDRHQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368726309&sr=8-1&keywords=iphone+hdmi Is the above a 1st-gen or a 2nd-gen adaptor? It depends. If you like a game for PC platform then you're right. If you like an iOS game then... iDevice + HDMI out (+ iCade) is the best choise. Maybe PC is the best for FPS (better than consoles too) because of mouse + keyboard controls. I see the big difference. @Connector you could update you FAQ including above info. OK, I'll do so. Thanks for suggestion. Anyway, where can i buy iCade core for $30? On italian Amazon is EUR 60,57 Sure, I'm doing that. Those differences are very clear in your videos, thanks for effort. Good point. We could say that iPhone 5 is the best iDevice for HDMI gaming, right?
It's a third-party adapter. I wouldn't bother myself - it costs almost as much as Apple's own adapters. Stay away - purchase the 2nd gen adapter directly from Apple. It's great, apart from the lower-IQ problem when not mirroring.
For mirroring without just stretching the screen from 4:3 / 3:2 to 16:9, yes. Of course, Lightning is laggy but the lag is acceptable in most cases, even with racing games. (Not so with superfast action games. With them, use old, 30-pin iDevices.)
Masvil, Don't buy any third party adapter for hdmi. Hdmi is way too complicated and is in itself a little mini computer. I too do not recommend trying to save a little money on hdmi connectors, you really probably only save a couple of bucks, and more than likely you will have problems with bad resolution or with the infamous not compatible with this ipad errors (though it still may work ok). Syntheticvoid had a bad experience buying one from China as documented here... http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=173262&page=12 Check out his screenshots, they look like a snes system in terms of quality. It's not worth the risk. I highly recommend to get the apple hdm connector.
Now that I've thoroughly compared the mirroring speed of the two HDMI adapters on the iPt4G too, I've cleaned up and rewritten the "2. Which One to Go For?" section in my "The Definitive Comparison: The Two 30-pin HDMI Adapters" article. http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=17256350&postcount=2