Well it worked this time!

In a recent blog post I talked about the problem I had with my Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter.

I recently connected my iPhone to a Philips TV in a hotel room and attempted to play a TV show from Amazon Prime. The result was a stuttering video which was unwatchable.

I have an Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter. As well as using it for presentations, I also bought it so I could connect my iPhone to a TV so I can watch video from services such as Netflix, iPlayer, and Amazon Prime.

Lightning Digital AV Adapter

According to the description on the Apple website this is what it does.

Use the Lightning Digital AV Adapter with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with Lightning connector. The Lightning Digital AV Adapter supports mirroring of what is displayed on your device screen — including apps, presentations, websites, slideshows, and more — to your HDMI-equipped TV, display, projector, or other compatible display in up to 1080p HD.

Well for that purpose it does what it says on the tin.

The page also says.

It also outputs video content — movies, TV shows, captured video — to your big screen in up to 1080p HD. Simply attach the Lightning Digital AV Adapter to the Lightning connector on your device and then to your TV or projector via an HDMI cable.

Well yes, that is what it says, my experience is that this experience is less consistent.

So I was a little surprised when staying in a different hotel (same chain as it happens) and connected my iPhone to the Philips TV in the room and watched a programme on Disney+ and it worked just fine and as expected.

Checking back on my last experience, in the other hotel I was trying to play Amazon Prime, I wonder if that was the difference. I didn’t do any testing as I wanted to watch television. Next time I will do some testing.

Trying to work out why it doesn’t work

I have an Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter. As well as using it for presentations, I also bought it so I could connect my iPhone to a TV so I can watch video from services such as Netflix, iPlayer, and Amazon Prime.

According to the description on the Apple website this is what it does.

Use the Lightning Digital AV Adapter with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with Lightning connector. The Lightning Digital AV Adapter supports mirroring of what is displayed on your device screen — including apps, presentations, websites, slideshows, and more — to your HDMI-equipped TV, display, projector, or other compatible display in up to 1080p HD.

Well for that purpose it does what it says on the tin.

The page also says.

It also outputs video content — movies, TV shows, captured video — to your big screen in up to 1080p HD. Simply attach the Lightning Digital AV Adapter to the Lightning connector on your device and then to your TV or projector via an HDMI cable.

Well yes, that is what it says, my experience is that this experience is less consistent.

I recently connected my iPhone to a Philips TV in a hotel room and attempted to play a TV show from Amazon Prime. The result was a stuttering video which was unwatchable.

I remembered though that a few weeks back I had done something similar, but with a Sony TV and that had worked fine.

I did check online for a solution, others had experienced the same problem. The solution offered though was to use AirPlay. Great if you have that set up (which I do at home with an Apple TV). However I don’t have that setup when travelling to different hotels.

So the end result is, if it doesn’t work, I am watching video on the 6” screen on my iPhone rather than the 50” TV screen in the hotel room.

…still not working!

I mentioned a week or so back the problems I was having with connecting a Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000 HD video camera to a TV via HDMI so I could playback the videos I had taken with it on the big screen. I said I was going to try and use a different TV and see if that would make a difference.

Did it?

No it did not!

I even tried a different connection method, using component video, but that did not work either.

I still can’t work out why it would not work…

…but it should work!

Sometimes technology frustrates me no end.

I have been playing with a Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000 HD video camera and it comes with a docking station which has an HDMI connection.

Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000 HD video camera

I thought if I docked the camera and connected the docking station via HDMI to my TV I could watch the video and see the photographs I had taken on my TV.

Well that’s what I thought what would happen.

Well no it didn’t, even though the cables were connected, the playback was still on the camera and not on the TV.

I then thought, it might be because the dock was not connected to a power supply, I did that and still the TV remained blank, though this time the camera went blank too!

So I went to read the manual, which was to be honest no use at all. It gave no additional information, as according to it, what I was doing was what I should be doing. As for the troubleshooting guide, well that was not very insightful.

Even the Google failed me with finding a solution.

Going to try with a different TV and see if that helps. However it shouldn’t be this complicated and this challenging, it should just work!

Mac mini Entertainment Centre

I have managed to borrow a Mac mini, one of the new ones, and I have connected it up to my HD TV using an HDMI cable.

After realising that I needed to change the audio output from the built in speakers to the HDMI output I was very impressed with how well it looked and worked.

I haven’t put any content on the Mac mini so far, just streaming content from my home iMac across our 802.11n wireless network.

The first thing I tried was EyeTV, using EyeTV 3 on both computers I was easily able to stream recordings from the iMac to the Mac mini. I was quite impressed with the picture quality, even though it is SD television. There was no buffering or stuttering which impressed me.

I then tried Front Row and browsed my shared photographs, which looked lovely on the big 40″ HD TV.

I then was able to browse my iMac iTunes Library from the Mac mini and was again impressed, though it made me realise I need to be better at playlists. Then I tried to stream some HD iTunes content from my iMac to the TV and fingers crossed, was it going to work?

Yes, worked really well.

Very impressed.

I may have to get one for myself.

Apple rumored to be readying Mac mini with HDMI

Engadget reports that Apple may be ready to launch a new Mac mini with HDMI.

A Mac mini with HDMI. Makes sense, right? Well, it hasn’t to Apple so far, but it looks like it just might be ready to change its tune. That’s according to AppleInsider, at least, which has it from “two people familiar with the matter” that prototypes of a Mac mini with an HDMI port have been seen making the rounds in the usual inner circles.

Back in March 2008 (two years ago) there were rumours that Apple were going to kill the Mac mini. Back then I said:

I do like the Mac mini, it works well as a little Mac for testing and trying things out as well as introducing people to the Mac. I also have used it in the past as a server for various web services and for limited use it works really well – probably would not be too happy if it was a production server.

I did try it as a TV computer, in other words connected to my TV, but I never really used it, in the main as it was an old G4 PPC model and was rather slow for recording and capturing video from an EyeTV USB device. The newer Intel models have the advantage of remote control and faster processors and graphics better suited to video.

I am looking to get a new TV when the Freeview HD models become more widely available. At the time I did consider getting an Apple TV over putting a Mac mini under the TV; as the Apple TV did have HDMI and as well as buying HD TV shows from the UK iTunes Store, you could rent HD movies for use ONLY on the Apple TV. If there is a new Mac mini with HDMI and you can rent HD movies on the new Mac mini then I may get one over an Apple TV.