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Inside Apple's iPad: VGA video output - Page 5

post #161 of 166
4/30/10 at 4:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ~ufo~ View Post

just a few days ago I was engineering sound in one of the country's top theaters.

Someone came in to do a lecture on a balcony type foyer and had brought her asus netbook.
The thing accidentally started doing updates, got unresponsive and neither her or my supervising engineer were able to get it to output video on its VGA output....

Thanks for the post.

Agreed. Windows tends to let me down when it counted the most (eg, I had to print several copies of a document within a few minutes; and that's when the laptop decided to slow down and take its time waking up. In all other times it wakes up ok. Figures.)
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post #162 of 166
4/30/10 at 6:15pm
I find it ironic, that Apple basically woke up, and supports the industry standard (VGA), for outputting to projectors, as I've never seen a projector that doesn't use a VGA connector, and most are 1024x768 to begin with, but they keep screwing around with Mini-DP, when even HDMI would be better (video + audio over the same cable), although that may have changed, but I've never seen a monitor or HDTV with DP at all.

Unfortunately, more projectors don't use HDMI.
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post #163 of 166
5/22/10 at 10:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post

Calling it XGA resolution is surprisingly common in the projector market, though I don't think projectors themselves call it out like that on their internal displays. VGA is the most common term for the connector style, though it is sometimes used to refer to a resolution, 640x480.

Using my MacBook Pro, I've done only a few Keynotes projected via my mini display port (mini-DVI?) to VGA adapter. I had one situation where the projector had only a male VGA input; fortunately, the facility had a F/F adapter cable. Wanting to be prepared should that happen again, I bought my own VGA F/F. I just noticed that it says "For projections up to 640x480."

I'm getting confused here. Elsewhere in this thread I read that VGA (VESA, SuperVGA, also XGA[?]) supports 1024x768.

I know my MBP supports 13 different resolutions at several different aspect ratios, and I understand the differences there. What I do NOT know is whether 640x480 will give the sharp images I need (and have had on all Keynote presentations so far).

I noticed that the store had a $13 six-ft cable and a $30 six-ft cable. The floor rep said there wasn't any difference other than the price (which didn't make sense, but...), so of course I went with the $13. Now I wonder if the $30 cable supports 1024x768.

But before going back to check on that, and maybe return it and pay $17 more, I'd like to know if 640x480 is the *typical* projection, suitable for large screens. Or will it look jaggy, comparable to what I hear about native iPhone apps doubled to fill the iPad screen? IF SO, then I'd much rather pay the $30.

Thanks for any clarification.

cb
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post #164 of 166
5/23/10 at 7:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by cb50dc View Post

I'm getting confused here. Elsewhere in this thread I read that VGA (VESA, SuperVGA, also XGA[?]) supports 1024x768.

I know my MBP supports 13 different resolutions at several different aspect ratios, and I understand the differences there. What I do NOT know is whether 640x480 will give the sharp images I need (and have had on all Keynote presentations so far).
Thanks for any clarification.

cb

VGA at this point describes a generic video port/connector standard. It's capable of supporting pretty much any resolution a monitor is capable of displaying. The VGA adaptor or cable have little on what resolution is displayed.

Your MacBook should be able drive any projector at whatever it's full (or native) resolution may be. It may be necessary to tinker with your System Preferences: Display preferences, if you're using video mirroring, to get it to look right, but that's about it.

My Sony HDTV has a VGA port (they call it PC port) and my MacBook Pro can drive it at the Full-HD resolution, 1920 x 1080. I've also used my MBP to connect to a high resolution Epson projector with similar results. I had an older Mitsubishi 22" CRT that was capable of being driven at over 2000 pixels (at 8 or 16-bit) across from the VGA ports, via a DVI to VGA adaptor from my PowerBook G4.

To stray a bit, I found a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adaptor that also handles audio through the HDMI port and cable for $35! The new MacBooks and MacBook Pros can now send audio through the Mini DisplayPort port! I should get it AND a new 15" MacBook Pro this week!

http://www.moshistore.com/hdmi-adapter-1.html


Macintosh: It just WORKS!
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post #165 of 166
5/23/10 at 7:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by guinness View Post

I find it ironic, that Apple basically woke up, and supports the industry standard (VGA), for outputting to projectors, as I've never seen a projector that doesn't use a VGA connector, and most are 1024x768 to begin with, but they keep screwing around with Mini-DP, when even HDMI would be better (video + audio over the same cable), although that may have changed, but I've never seen a monitor or HDTV with DP at all.

Unfortunately, more projectors don't use HDMI.

Apple has supported VGA connections since the 80s. My first modular Mac, a IIcx had a VGA port in the video card (SuperMac). All video cards used VGA ports, but to adjust for different screen resolutions, there were these nasty pass-through VGA adaptors with little dip switches that had to be set JUST right to get a monitor to display correctly. And WHAT a pain it was to get it right! Thank the Gods all that is handled internally now!

As far as connecting to external displays and projectors today, it's just a matter of getting the proper adaptor cable. Apple used to include DVI to VGA adaptors with DVI PowerBooks and MBPs, but no more! As far as Mini DP to HDMI w/audio, check my previous post for a link to the Moshi adaptor cable. All current MBPs support audio through Mini DP.

I could be wrong, but I don't think that HDMI is capable of displaying above 1920 x 1080 native Full-HD resolution.

Also, if you're connecting to different resolution monitors regularly, SwitchRes X does a great job of handling that. It can save settings for different monitors and situations. Great tool!
http://www.madrau.com/whatis/whatis.html

Yes, there are quite a few Full-HD (and in-between) projectors, painfully priced.


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post #166 of 166
6/14/10 at 12:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fernando View Post

Just wanted to relay a bit of information one of Apple's Systems Engineers gave to us during his monthly presentation at our school:

VGA output on the iPad is application specific.

It won't be the same as what Jobs and company showed on stage where seemingly everything was projected on screen (that was something custom for the stage as with other past products).

Each developer will need to [optionally] include a system call to output video for their specific app.

In the case of the iPad, Keynote is a video output ready app.


If you search the App Store using keywords like "vga adapter" or "vga", you will find several iPad apps that, like KeyNote, will help you with presentations, including output to the external display using the optional VGA adapter. Some of them (Infonet Presenter, Projector!, etc.) will have functionality like annotations, importing files from email attachments or iTunes shared files, etc.
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