4S 1080p & AirPlay

[brianus]

I've read elsewhere on this forum that 1080p videos taken by the iPhone 4S will play on the Apple TV 2 but will "be downgraded." That does not explain anything useful, however. Here are some questions that 4S/ATV2 owners could answer:

1. Is it streaming to the Apple TV and then being converted on the fly to 720p by the Apple TV's processor, or is the device it's originating from converting it first? Is there a delay?

2. Whichever it is, doesn't this imply that some device is going to be working hard consuming CPU cycles just doing the conversion, as happens with a lot of third party streaming apps that convert on the fly?

3. If you transfer a 1080p iPhone 4S video to iPhoto, will it still stream to ATV2 via Home Sharing, or will the ATV2 only play 1080p videos streamed directly from the iPhone 4S?

4. Suppose you sync your 1080p 4S video back to iPhoto. Can it then be synced to any other iOS device?

 

[calimed]

All good questions. May I add two more....

1) So I took a 1080p video with my iPhone...transfered it into iPhoto...now the same video won't sync back with my iPhone when placed in a certain event folder?? That makes no sense.

2) So Wi-fi sync will not sync new videos taken with the iPhone? It has to go through Photosync? And the only way to sync a video from the iPhone to your computer is with a direct connection?

I have been a long time advocator of apple and am pretty computer "savvy". But this is some confusing stuff....

 

[FreakinEurekan]

2) So Wi-fi sync will not sync new videos taken with the iPhone? It has to go through Photosync? And the only way to sync a video from the iPhone to your computer is with a direct connection?

Not having a 4S yet I can't comment on the 1080p issues, but this one I can help.

iTunes does not sync videos from an iPhone. This was true in iOS4 and is still true in iOS5. Video sync is done by allowing iPhoto (or whatever computer app) to see the video files directly in the DCIM folder, when the phone is plugged in via USB.

I have used a reasonably priced (<$5) and reasonably handy (not perfect but good) app called PhotoSync for some time to bring my photos and videos over to my computer via WiFi. I would very much like to see this function taken over by iTunes, but until that happens PhotoSync does the job OK.

 

[Jman13]

I'm not sure where the conversion is, but it takes quite a while to airplay a 1080p 4S movie to the AppleTV. I took a 2 minute clip and sent it to the TV, and it took about 3 minutes of buffering before the clip began to play. Of course, the output on the TV was 720p.

 

[RayK]

The video with be downgraded so it can stream AND because the AppleTV can only output 720p.

 

[brianus]

The video with be downgraded so it can stream AND because the AppleTV can only output 720p.

So then you're saying the conversion happens on the device itself, prior to streaming to the Apple TV? Where does this leave files that have been transferred from the 4S to iPhoto? Will iPhoto and/or iTunes Home Sharing do this same on the fly conversion that the 4S does?

 

[mackmgg]

So then you're saying the conversion happens on the device itself, prior to streaming to the Apple TV? Where does this leave files that have been transferred from the 4S to iPhoto? Will iPhoto and/or iTunes Home Sharing do this same on the fly conversion that the 4S does?

Considering your computer is probably much more powerful than the AppleTV, I'd guess that's where the conversion is done. Not positive though.