Alternative (wired?) to Apple TV for iPad and Touch?

[Maxinuk]

Hi all.

Sorry long intro!

I keep all my movies on iTunes including a load of home family videos. For my iPod Touch I have the brilliant old 30 pin official Apple component RGB cable (RGB + stereo phonos + USB) that for me anyway does a great job of outputting to our large screen LCD. My Mini has the Lightning connector of course and at present I have not shelled out for the specific Apple cable due to so many reported issues with it (quality/reliability etc).

But's it's a huge pain having to get up every few minutes to start the next short home video playing.

To cut a long story short I got the latest Apple TV last week but it really did not work out - buggy, slow, drop outs, constant buffering, crashes - hated it. It's gone back now.

I use home sharing on the iPad which works fine for the ripped films but not for the home videos which are HD and keep pausing/buffering.

Anyway, is there any way to have a wired connection to the iPad (Lightning) or iPod Touch (30 pin) that will extend the 4m or so required from the sofa to the TV.

I have found 30 pin 1m extension cables but I believe none of them are fully wired to give proper RGB with the older Apple Component AV cable.

Or is there an alternative to Apple TV for a wireless solution?

 

[waw74]

To cut a long story short I got the latest Apple TV last week but it really did not work out - buggy, slow, drop outs, constant buffering, crashes - hated it. It's gone back now.

sounds like it was probably poor wi-fi, might take a look at updating your router, or try a different channel. or go wired to the aTV.
or possibly not burying the aTV in a cabinet full of electronics and metal.
or you may have gotten a bad unit.

if you are going to extend, you'd be better off extending the video signal end.

 

[Maxinuk]

if you are going to extend, you'd be better off extending the video signal end.

Thanks, I guess you are right on the extension, would there be any signal loss issue with extending the phono leads for RGB?

Will be a right old jumble as there are 5 phonos incl stereo and then there is the USB for power.

With the ipad I would need to get the Apple official Lightning to HDMI and use a 5m HDMI cable! Again, is this likely to have signal loss issues?

 

[Mrbobb]

The tech savvy amongst us just optimize our WIFI and, look Ma no wires!

I've been WIFI mirroring HD to my big TV for a year now. No pause, no drop AND I don't use an expensive Airport router either, am using a Dlink 825 circa 2010, cost me $39 used.

 

[Elbon]

How about Ethernet?

If you are going to run a wire, how about connecting your Apple TV via Ethernet instead of wi-fi? I have two hard-wired ATVs and four hard-wired Airports (one Extreme and three Express) and I have never had any problem sending video from a iOS device to any of these units.

[edit - obviously I'm not sending video to the Airports, just the Apple TV. But I can stream audio to them just fine.]

 

[Maxinuk]

Thanks guys. I could run an ethernet cable from the ATV direct to the iTunes host laptop. However, going from the router to the laptop/ATV is not possible in our house at present. I am guessing any hardwiring would help?

 

[Cinephi1e]

At home I have wired Apple TV's so I have no problems. However, at work we often have to play content from iPads to projectors. If it is smaller files, such as slides or short videos, WiFi is not a problem. If it is a long HD video then wired is the way to go to avoid any hiccups. We use the Apple cable (either lightning or 30 pin to HDMI) with a long HDMI cable and it can handle anything you throw at it.

 

[Maxinuk]

Thanks. Another option suggested to me is to use those powerpoint adaptors that convert the home 240v electrical cabling system into a data network...