I started a thread connected to this..."Wireless Mirroring of iPad 2 in iOS 5"
Hi All,
I have been reading this thread with interest as it is connected to another thread I started..."
Wireless Mirroring of iPad 2 in iOS 5" I am a teacher and was eagerly looking forward to iOS 5 and it full bore ability to mirror using the iPad 2 and Apple TV2. Using an iPad unencumbered by cables in the classroom would be huge...IMHO. As everyone in this thread knows the Apple TV 2 only outputs an HDMI signal (and a optical digital signal). Unfortunately, most projectors used in classrooms do NOT have HDMI inputs. Sadly, many do not have component inputs for video either. So, the converter suggestions in this thread, to date, don't solve the dilemma many teachers are facing who want to use their iPad 2 in the classroom wirelessly. For example, I teach Astronomy and Physics. There are so many great planetarium apps for the iPad. To use many of these apps you need to move the iPad around to track the sky. With cables attached to the iPad this activity almost becomes comical at times. More importantly, eventually the connector will pull out of the iPad due to the strain of all these gyrations! So, using the iPad 2 wirelessly with the Apple TV 2, for teachers, can make or break the effective use of many educational apps. I was thinking it might make sense to merge my thread with this...however they have slightly different angles of interest. I am really looking for a HDMI to VGA converter that will work with the iPad 2 and Apple TV with classroom projectors that only accept VGA. As you can imagine, I don't have the budget to buy converter after converter hoping to eventually find one that works in my setup. So, if anyone know of a converter that works, I and other teachers would be your friend for life! The folks who installed my projector over this summer did included a converter, but they didn't have an iPad to check if it worked. The converter they used, sadly, does not work with my iPad 2. It does not display video. It does output sound. Close is only good in horseshoes in this case.
Update: I have found these two converters that "strip" the DRM HDCP so that you can play HDMI sources using displays that only support VGA. The HD Fury 3 has a shift adjustment to deal with an occasional complaint that the picture is moved to the left or right causing some loss of image.
Link to HD Fury3:
http://dme.ghost2.net/hdfury/hdfury-iii/specs-iii/
LInk to Altinex Converter:
http://www.altinexace.com/products.cfm/VP500-100
Since iOS 5 is not out yet I have no way of knowing if either of these will allow the use of the Apple TV 2 and iPad 2 to achieve wireless mirroring. I have just bought the Fury 3 and will try to remember to update this post with information as to whether it allows the iPad 2 to display its contents using Apple's HDMI dongle. This is a hard wired approach, but if it works it would show that there is a way to output from the iPad 2 via HDMI and input to a display/projector via VGA with success.
Update: The HD Fury 3, by itself, will not work. But, the Fury (or something else that deals with the HDCP encrypted signal coming out of the Apple TV 2) is one of two necessary components. You also need a scalar to match the resolution of your VGA only projector. So, here's the setup. Apple TV 2 to your scalar input via an HDMI cable. HDMI cable out from your scaler via it's output. That HDMI cable goes into the Fury's HDMI input. Fury then outputs a non encrypted VGA signal to you projector's VGA input. The Fury does not do any scaling. That's why it will not work by itself. In another forum on MacRumors there is a post stating that if the Fury is used to only regain the ability to play HDMI sources on non-HDMI input devices its use is legal. If true, this setup is legal and works. Good luck.