I was wondering if anyone has tried using their iBook on a TV with the adapter that you have to buy <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" /> .
Those are complex questions. You can run at 800x600, and 1024x768, and sometimes you can trick 640x480 or other resolutions out of it. OpenGL seems to handle whatever you throw at it, though I've not tried very arcane choices. Everything gets filtered down to NTSC, which is at most "something"x525 interlaced ("something" depends very heavily on TV quality and signal frequency), so generally running at a lower resolution makes the screen resemble the TV display more closely. It's an excellent circuit, though. Very little dot-crawl. Little bit of an over-scan problem, since there are no adjustment controls. Text is not readable unless it is quite large. Some TVs, especially older or smaller ones, don't even show all 525 lines, but that's the TV's problem.
Plugging and unplugging the adapter is about the only thing I know that can really toast OS X on a regular basis. The operating system still runs fine, but the iBook can forget that any displays are connected at all, including the built-in one. Seems to be connected to having Classic open. I suppose both operating systems get the signal to change display at the same time and there's a mix-up.
DVDs are fine. They definitely do NOT compare to a commercial player using the Apple DVD player, because the black and white points are set wrong. There isn't enough contrast. Black is just a dark grey, not very dark at that. The decoding is a little blocky.
VLC is better. I originally said a few things prematurely about VLC. It had run fine in all my tests, now it's stuttering. I'm not sure the iBook can really handle it.
I'm testing the TV out to confirm all these observations as I write this. The display is rock-solid on my 52" no dot crawl, no flicker from the interlacing, and I have Dune paused in a window, also rock-solid. Small fonts are illegible, but that's just NTSC for you.
Strange note: when I boot my computer with a DVD in the drive the DVD plays in the Apple player on boot. What the heck is up with that?
My conclusion: The TV adapter is worth the cash. It isn't that much, and once you have it there are all sorts of fun things you can do.
Edit: I changed what I had to say about VLC. I may have been premature.
Gah. Should have tried some movies after 1985... <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" /> VLC's sound isn't quite up to snuff on some of my discs.
Make up your own mind on the player issue. Play with the options. Probably be flexible and choose on a per-disc basis.
Video LAN Client. <a href="http://www.videolan.org."; target="_blank">www.videolan.org.</a> Designed as a general purpose MPEG-2 player for streaming media (hence the LAN) but once the streaming MPEG-2 decoder was programmed it was natural to extend that capability to play files from a DVD drive.
Comments
Plugging and unplugging the adapter is about the only thing I know that can really toast OS X on a regular basis. The operating system still runs fine, but the iBook can forget that any displays are connected at all, including the built-in one. Seems to be connected to having Classic open. I suppose both operating systems get the signal to change display at the same time and there's a mix-up.
DVDs are fine. They definitely do NOT compare to a commercial player using the Apple DVD player, because the black and white points are set wrong. There isn't enough contrast. Black is just a dark grey, not very dark at that. The decoding is a little blocky.
VLC is better. I originally said a few things prematurely about VLC. It had run fine in all my tests, now it's stuttering. I'm not sure the iBook can really handle it.
I'm testing the TV out to confirm all these observations as I write this. The display is rock-solid on my 52" no dot crawl, no flicker from the interlacing, and I have Dune paused in a window, also rock-solid. Small fonts are illegible, but that's just NTSC for you.
Strange note: when I boot my computer with a DVD in the drive the DVD plays in the Apple player on boot. What the heck is up with that?
My conclusion: The TV adapter is worth the cash. It isn't that much, and once you have it there are all sorts of fun things you can do.
Edit: I changed what I had to say about VLC. I may have been premature.
[ 07-08-2002: Message edited by: AllenChristopher ]</p>
Make up your own mind on the player issue. Play with the options. Probably be flexible and choose on a per-disc basis.
[ 07-08-2002: Message edited by: AllenChristopher ]</p>