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Bomberbill

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 3, 2012
5
0
First of all - my apologies in advance for what is probably a naive question with my very first post on this forum, but here goes...;)

I am trying to understand how mirroring works. I have an iPad 3 and am thinking about getting an ATV. I don't really want to leave my PC with iTunes on all the time and so what I was thinking was that I could use the iPad to pick up and stream films off our NAS (using the FileBrowser app) and then mirror the iPad display onto our Sony TV using the ATV.

Now...the iPad is 4:3, so if I'm playing a film on the iPad which is 16:9 will the ATV realise this and display it as 16:9 on the TV or will it appear as 4:3 a la iPad?

As I say - sorry if this is a daft question...but hope you can help me out :D
 

Starhawk

macrumors regular
Jul 9, 2008
103
17
If you use Mirroring, you would get your 16:9 movie inside of the iPad 4:3 screen inside of your TV's 16:9 screen ;), so it would be letterboxed and window boxed.

To do what you want to do, just use Airplay without Mirroring.
 

Bomberbill

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 3, 2012
5
0
Thanks for the reply :) So - just so I get this right - I would mirror the iPad display if I wanted to do something like web browsing or play a game using the TV as a display (in which case it will appear as a 4:3 box on the TV) - but for playing video's I would use Airplay where a film which was encoded as 16:9 will appear on the TV as 16:9 because I'm not trying to mirror the iPad display?

And, to ask another question whilst I'm here....what I'd also like to do is connect the ATV to some powered speakers in order to play music from iTunes Match. Would I be able to control the ATV from the iPad without having to have the TV turned on. Apologies again for the dumb questions ;-)
 
Last edited:

waw74

macrumors 601
May 27, 2008
4,659
937
it also depends on the app, if it supports video out, it will play full screen.
if the app doesn't support video out it will play it with black bars on the sides. and since it probably already has some black bar on the ipad screen, you'll just have bars all over the place. and a tiny little picture in the middle of it all.

you'll have to check each app on an app by app basis, but from what i seen then "major media" apps like ABC's player do not support video out, because if you're watching it on a TV, they want you to watch it from them.

and typically if an app supports video out, it will automatically switch to straight airplay if you're mirroring and start to play a video.
 

Bomberbill

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 3, 2012
5
0
Well, what I have is a series of MP4 video files on the NAS which, when I tap on them in Filebrowser just play as a video on the iPad - so, how would that translate to a TV screen?
 

lunaoso

macrumors 65816
Sep 22, 2012
1,332
54
Boston, MA
When playing the video, you would have an airplay button if the app was AirPlay compatible. Then you select your Apple TV and off it goes, playing on the TV as whatever the videos aspect ratio is.
 

Starhawk

macrumors regular
Jul 9, 2008
103
17
Thanks for the reply :) So - just so I get this right - I would mirror the iPad display if I wanted to do something like web browsing or play a game using the TV as a display (in which case it will appear as a 4:3 box on the TV) - but for playing video's I would use Airplay where a film which was encoded as 16:9 will appear on the TV as 16:9 because I'm not trying to mirror the iPad display?

And, to ask another question whilst I'm here....what I'd also like to do is connect the ATV to some powered speakers in order to play music from iTunes Match. Would I be able to control the ATV from the iPad without having to have the TV turned on. Apologies again for the dumb questions ;-)

Yes.

Yes. Use the Remote app from the App Store.
 

Bomberbill

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 3, 2012
5
0
When playing the video, you would have an airplay button if the app was AirPlay compatible. Then you select your Apple TV and off it goes, playing on the TV as whatever the videos aspect ratio is.

Thanks :) I'm not actually selecting an app to play the videos - they just appear to play in the same way as if I'd selected one from the 'Video' app that's part of the iPad standard setup. So - logically, that must be Airplay compatable - so my other video's should be too.
 

lunaoso

macrumors 65816
Sep 22, 2012
1,332
54
Boston, MA
Thanks :) I'm not actually selecting an app to play the videos - they just appear to play in the same way as if I'd selected one from the 'Video' app that's part of the iPad standard setup. So - logically, that must be Airplay compatable - so my other video's should be too.

Oh ok I thought you were using a seperate app. But the videos app that comes with the iPad does support airplay, so you should be good.
 

Bomberbill

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 3, 2012
5
0
Thanks again for all your help :)

I am using an app (Filebrowser) but all that is doing is allowing my iPad to see the NAS - the actual playimg of the video is (I assume) would be happening in the 'Video' app on the iPad.

So....looks like a purchase is in the offing. I must go and do some 'man maths' to illustrate to my better half how cheap it will be ;)
 
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