Apple's Lightning Digital AV Adapter is a Full-Fledged Computer

[pundit]

The lightning connector has advantages to the consumer and to Apple, but they seem more weighed to favor Apple.

A new connector allows for a more "friendly" plug. The user friendly plug part is just a good thing. The multi-purpose connector is something that already exists; there's effectively no current device class, that you might want to connect to with a mobile device, that you can't connect to with USB3... plus it does, in contrast, uncompressed display.

One of the big advantages for Apple is to allow for a thinner device. There are advantages to a thin device, but there gets to be a diminishing return on that advantage. Weight is more of an issue, but the weight advantage of lightning vs other connectors is less significant.

Apple controls the licensing of the lightning connector and that's entirely sided to benefit Apple. If they control it, they can appropriately monetize it.

Certainly they could have developed something that would have had sufficient bandwidth to display uncompressed HDMI... wherever that bottleneck, is, but it seems like they chose a "good enough" design (and if somehow the demonstration is showing artifacts due to a limitation elsewhere in the hardware chain, that limitation seems odd.)

It should surprise no-one that there might be a "good-enough" rather than optimal design choice here by Apple. Apple seems pretty content to design a lot of things that way in iOS. Its for a mass market consumer device, not a "professional" device.

As for the claims that we really don't know the bandwidth limitations.. that very well might be... but show me. Don't make unsubstantiated claims and call that proof when there is visual proof to the contrary.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

New expensive adapter, can't do 1080p and has video artifacts? ******

Older, cheaper adapter can do clear artifact-free 1080p, not ******.

Yeah, well tell that to the people arguing their arses off in another thread about how awesome Lightning is and how Mini-USB totally sucks and how Apple just could not manage to keep the 30-pin adapter despite many generations of iPhones that worked just fine with it and it had excellent analog output capability, but NO Apple wanted to save space (to benefit themselves not us) so THIS is the crap we get not to mention wiping out a decade's worth of 30-pin accessories (get your $40 adapters ready there too).

 

[CShort]

Arm do make a tiny computer that's about 70cents AU. But this isn't it.
This looks like a work around for a poorly designed plug. Maybe this sort of stuff could be pulled off in the future when the 70cent chip can do this sort of encoding well on the fly.
This has been done to reduce the number of pins on their connector - which I'm happy for the greater ruggedness of the connector, but I think only 3-4 more pins is required to do HDMI.

 

[Dorje Sylas]

The Question...

For same, no one has yet asked the question.

Can it play Doom?

 

[CQd44]

For same, no one has yet asked the question.

Can it play Doom?

Nono.

Can it run Crysis?

 

[repoman27]

Yeah, well tell that to the people arguing their arses off in another thread about how awesome Lightning is and how Mini-USB totally sucks and how Apple just could not manage to keep the 30-pin adapter despite many generations of iPhones that worked just fine with it and it had excellent analog output capability, but NO Apple wanted to save space (to benefit themselves not us) so THIS is the crap we get not to mention wiping out a decade's worth of 30-pin accessories (get your $40 adapters ready there too).

There you go again arguing for legacy interfaces... Now it's Mini USB you want to see brought back from the dead.

Who wiped out your 30-pin accessories? Mine still work just fine with the decade's worth of 30-pin devices that I bought them for.

And the adapter in question here is $49; that's $10 more than the 30-pin version that doesn't require the device to perform lossy encoding to do video mirroring. And since I was one of those people arguing that Lightning is cool in other threads, let me go on record saying I'm less than enchanted with this adapter.

I will say in its defense that the video out mode should work at 1080p30 as advertised without any additional encoding by the iOS device. The 1600x900 resolution and compression artifacts should only be an issue in mirroring mode. But as much as Apple might attempt to improve image quality by tweaking the software and codec, this adapter paired with any current Lightning device will simply never be able to output anything like uncompressed pixel data.

So I encourage all y'all who think the output quality of this adapter is unacceptable to chime in on the other threads where people argue to the death that USB display solutions are fine and just as good as DisplayPort / Thunderbolt.

 

[SAD*FACED*CLOWN]

Yet more proof that lightning is a junky and expensive connector. 2013 and can't output 1080p?

This is the year of the Android.

There's a lightning HDMI adapter as well

 

[haruhiko]

This explains the crazy prices of lightning accessories.

 

[pacalis]

The lightning adaptor is a complete waste of effort. Apple should have put in a unique wireless charging solution in the iphone 5, forced everything through iCloud, Airplay and bluethooth, and monetized that.

Instead they have an overpriced, low margin hardware nightmare that's DOA.

 

[macaddict06]

But I guess when you're busy propagating inaccurate rumors on a rumor site, why be bothered

Do me a solid and PM me your address so I can send you some coffee or Xanax or something.

Jesus. Chill, man. I did take some time to read through other parts of this thread and you need to seriously tone it down. Bullying people on a rumors site doesn't make you a superior being.

It makes you a, well, you get the idea.

 

[mrsir2009]

Apple should have put in a unique wireless charging solution in the iphone 5, forced everything through iCloud, Airplay and bluethooth, and monetized that.

I'm sure if Apple did that there'd be a LOT more complaining than there is now with the lightning adaptor. And I mean a LOT.

 

[derek4484]

As usual Apple is over priced and under performs

Amazon and eBay are flooded with Android TV sticks that run circles around this adapter at less money, $30. The Android TV sticks come equiped with dual core processors, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, integrated wifi, and an HDMI plug all for $30. They easily output excellent looking 1080p video. This Apple adapter is $49 and only has 256MB RAM and an underpowered ARM chip that has trouble outputting 1080p video without terrible artifacts.

Apple. Leaders of under-performing, overpriced crap.

 

[pacalis]

I'm sure if Apple did that there'd be a LOT more complaining than there is now with the lightning adaptor. And I mean a LOT.

Maybe, but they could have gone wireless and still kept the 30 pin for a generation or two until the bugs were worked out of the wireless solution. Kept a nice plug on the 30pin for those who wanted to go full wireless.

Nobody is better off with the lightening adapter. It's an overengineered solution to something that wasn't a problem.

 

[repoman27]

Do me a solid and PM me your address so I can send you some coffee or Xanax or something.

Jesus. Chill, man. I did take some time to read through other parts of this thread and you need to seriously tone it down. Bullying people on a rumors site doesn't make you a superior being.

It makes you a, well, you get the idea.

Apologies, seriously. I'll work on the tone.

Amazon and eBay are flooded with Android TV sticks that run circles around this adapter at less money, $30. The Android TV sticks come equiped with dual core processors, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, integrated wifi, and an HDMI plug all for $30. They easily output excellent looking 1080p video. This Apple adapter is $49 and only has 256MB RAM and an underpowered ARM chip that has trouble outputting 1080p video without terrible artifacts.

Apple. Leaders of under-performing, overpriced crap.

The compression artifacts are created when the iOS device encodes the frame buffer, not when the adapter decodes it. So how exactly is your comparison to Android TV sticks relevant here (besides the trolling value of course)?

Maybe, but they could have gone wireless and still kept the 30 pin for a generation or two until the bugs were worked out of the wireless solution. Kept a nice plug on the 30pin for those who wanted to go full wireless.

Nobody is better off with the lightening adapter. It's an overengineered solution to something that wasn't a problem.

It's very difficult to unbrick a device that has no physical ports if the wireless stack is not functioning properly. That's why the Apple TV has a USB port, for service and support.

The lightning adaptor is a complete waste of effort. Apple should have put in a unique wireless charging solution in the iphone 5, forced everything through iCloud, Airplay and bluethooth, and monetized that.

Instead they have an overpriced, low margin hardware nightmare that's DOA.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I'm not sure that I'd call the interface Apple has committed to for the current best-selling smartphones and tablets in the world, and the successor to one of the most popular proprietary interfaces in history, DOA.

 

[linuxcooldude]

Amazon and eBay are flooded with Android TV sticks that run circles around this adapter at less money, $30. The Android TV sticks come equiped with dual core processors, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, integrated wifi, and an HDMI plug all for $30. They easily output excellent looking 1080p video. This Apple adapter is $49 and only has 256MB RAM and an underpowered ARM chip that has trouble outputting 1080p video without terrible artifacts.

Apple. Leaders of under-performing, overpriced crap.

The ideai is to output your iOS device on an HDTV, not a third party solution that does none of that.

For the Android TV stick to work the HDTV must support the MHL HDMI standard which I'm not sure if many do right now that its still new.

Edit: Check your prices, they can fluctuate as much as $60.00. Besides, if you want to compare the Android TV specs over the iPad or iPhone, I choose iOS, the Lightning adapter is only used to convert the signal to HDMI.

 

[marsmissions]

I hope that I missed the sarcasm tags on that, because no serial cable would meet those requirements.

And I think that you have missed the obvious - a "full fledged computer" needs HID ability (keyboard/mouse/touch input, graphics output). Otherwise, it's just another semi-smart device with an embedded OS - just like the light-switches in my house.

You have cool light switches.... Mine just bridge a gap between two pieces of metal..

 

[brdeveloper]

Isn't this an apple fan site?!!! Why are you here instead enjoying the company of your brethren on an android site?

I'm a Mac user, but also an Android user on the mobile side, so it's really nice bashing these intrincated peripherals which doesn't do stuff an inexpensive Nokia or Android phone does almost for free, built-in, without needing any external circuits. Just copper, shielding and jacks.

 

[ulyssesric]

Amazon and eBay are flooded with Android TV sticks that run circles around this adapter at less money, $30.

Amazon are flooded with Android TV sticks at £30, not $30, while most of them cost £35 ~ £45, very close to Apple TV. And those low-price device does not support screencast.

 

[CQd44]

Amazon are flooded with Android TV sticks at £30, not $30, while most of them cost £35 ~ £45, very close to Apple TV. And those low-price device does not support screencast.

...Very close?

Well, okay.

 

[Siggen]

Pretty soon my wife will be finding my porn stash on my charger cable.

I have mine semi clearly marked in my user folder. I have never been in a relationship with a girl that has had problems with this. Its called H, but it has a clever icon, just like the standard icons, but with a silhouette of a woman posing on it instead.

 

[Hattig]

Maybe, but they could have gone wireless and still kept the 30 pin for a generation or two until the bugs were worked out of the wireless solution. Kept a nice plug on the 30pin for those who wanted to go full wireless.

Nobody is better off with the lightening adapter. It's an overengineered solution to something that wasn't a problem.

It's a ridiculous solution - did they realise that Lightning wouldn't be able to output data at the rate that HDMI demands at any point during its development?

It's ridiculous to have a solution that involves the phone's SoC to encode the video stream as H.264 so that it can be streamed over lightning to the adaptor's SoC that decodes it and outputs it on HDMI. Even if that SoC is a comparatively cheap control processor (ARM Cortex M4, for example) + dedicated decode hardware, HDMI interface, lightning interface, embedded flash (for the firmware) and memory controller + RAM. As an aside it's almost criminal that this chip needs 256MB of memory to operate.

OTOH it's probably not that much more expensive than a custom lightning->HDMI adaptor, even assuming lightning did have the bandwidth to stream unfutzed video. And the primary use case could be to stream video to a TV - and possibly the phone is clever enough to send the raw H.264 bitstream direct to the adaptor - and the 256MB of RAM is being used as a streaming buffer cache.

 

[Menneisyys2]

I'm a Mac user, but also an Android user on the mobile side, so it's really nice bashing these intrincated peripherals which doesn't do stuff an inexpensive Nokia or Android phone does almost for free, built-in, without needing any external circuits. Just copper, shielding and jacks.

+1. Apple's sticking with proprietary (and very expensive) technology isn't very customer-friendly. Particularly if this technology, quality-wise, is far inferior to other, much cheaper (e.g., micro HDMI in the Nokia 808) solutions.

BTW, I've just ordered the new HDMI adapter. Will soon publish a detailed, comparative review as soon as it arrives.

 

[till213]

Isn't this an apple fan site?!!!

Damn right it is!

Why are you here instead enjoying the company of your brethren on an android site?

If Apple ****s up then this is the place to say it!

 

[repoman27]

It's a ridiculous solution - did they realise that Lightning wouldn't be able to output data at the rate that HDMI demands at any point during its development?

It's ridiculous to have a solution that involves the phone's SoC to encode the video stream as H.264 so that it can be streamed over lightning to the adaptor's SoC that decodes it and outputs it on HDMI. Even if that SoC is a comparatively cheap control processor (ARM Cortex M4, for example) + dedicated decode hardware, HDMI interface, lightning interface, embedded flash (for the firmware) and memory controller + RAM. As an aside it's almost criminal that this chip needs 256MB of memory to operate.

OTOH it's probably not that much more expensive than a custom lightning->HDMI adaptor, even assuming lightning did have the bandwidth to stream unfutzed video. And the primary use case could be to stream video to a TV - and possibly the phone is clever enough to send the raw H.264 bitstream direct to the adaptor - and the 256MB of RAM is being used as a streaming buffer cache.

Well, they had to have realized that. I think the issue here is that there is no standalone Lightning host controller. There might be a switch to select different signaling modes, but basically what you can send over lightning is based on the I/O capability of the SoC in the device. The A5, and quite possibly the A6 and A6X, don't have any serial interfaces that can do 2.25 Gbit/s (or probably even 1.125 Gbit/s) which would be necessary to do uncompressed digital display output over 2 differential signaling pairs without some sort of additional multiplexing. Apple made the device simple, since they sell 100's of millions of those, and the adapter complex, since they sell not so many of those.

Why switch to Lightning before they had SoCs with faster serial interfaces that could provide a better user experience though? It makes very little sense. I have trouble imagining what compelled them to switch to Lightning in a holiday quarter when there was no SoC support to make it an obvious improvement compared to the alternatives or even its predecessor. Now I guess we have to sit back and wait for the A7 to see what an uncrippled version of Lightning might look like?

 

[ikir]

Amazon and eBay are flooded with Android TV sticks that run circles around this adapter at less money, $30. The Android TV sticks come equiped with dual core processors, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, integrated wifi, and an HDMI plug all for $30. They easily output excellent looking 1080p video. This Apple adapter is $49 and only has 256MB RAM and an underpowered ARM chip that has trouble outputting 1080p video without terrible artifacts.

Apple. Leaders of under-performing, overpriced crap.

i have a Android smartphone, and it is total crap especially software wise. If these things are the same... good luck.

Apple is leader of innovation but.. hey you're just trolling.