iPad Apple AV HDMI connector produces a washed out, light picture in video playback

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domitron

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I recently got an iPad Apple AV HDMI connector. It shows an image, but there is definitely something very wrong with the gamma and/or contrast/brightness of the output DURING VIDEO PLAYBACK (the mirror stuff looked reasonably fine to me, although I really didn't look at it very much yet). Basically the picture during video playback looks very light and washed out, with blacks that are more like dark greys. It is amazing to me that no one is complaining more about this given the very high price tag on this cable and that so many Apple people are supposedly artistic or use their iPads for video editing.

And this problem is across the board of apps I have tried. I have played movies on Netflix, movies directly from the iPad's memory, movies through the Air Video server, and movies through the ServeToMe server, and while all of them support the HDMI, they all show this problem on both my 40" Samsung HDTV as well as my Mitsubishi HD projector. I hope the problem is fixed soon.

PS - Until this obvious bug is worked out, I was able to get a decent picture by setting my LCD and projector brightness way down and the contrast way up to sort of compensate for the washed out image. I guess this will work until Apple gets a fix.
 

kornchild2002

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I don't have an iPad 2 yet (it is coming next month) but the first thing I would check is to make sure your HDTV and projector are properly calibrated. Don't take this as an insult, it is just something that needs to be checked as we/I have no idea what is going on in your end. I can tell you that I didn't have any issues outputting video through the VGA cable on my iPad 1 and that everything looked fine.

I wouldn't be surprised if the iPad 2 is producing a washed out image though as this is the first time any non-computer Apple device has supported 1080p output. It is also the first iDevice to have HDMI output (unless you count the AppleTV as being an iDevice) so they should be working out the kinks. It makes me wonder if other tablets are having the same issue in that they too are producing images that are more washed out through their HDMI outputs.
 

domitron

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Yeah, my initial reaction was that maybe I had not set up the secondary HDMI inputs the way I had set up the primary one, which in both cases is specific and was calibrated with a series of tests and this home theater blu-ray. That wasn't it, though. The image was still washed out even with the calibration, and no matter how I fiddle with the controls, it doesn't look quite right. A good movie to test this sort of problem is the movie the Fountain because there are a lot of very dark scenes that show it, and that is what I am using. Unfortunately, I don't think this is just the HDMI AV issue now either because after I played around some more I noticed that video even on the iPad display shows the same lightness, but the iPad display is so extremely contrasty that it hardly matters and is a lot less noticeable. Again, this only affects video. Pictures seem okay.

I'll contact my Apple store and see what they say. Given Apple is so keen on video editing, I am sure there must be some explanation.
 

domitron

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Okay, I just did a google search on this. I guess a lot of people have noticed it. I am guessing this is just a software bug on the iPad 2 with respect to video playback (probably gamma related). It is not apparently on the iPad 1. Hopefully they'll fix it soon because it is really not acceptable performance. You can see others talking about it on the Apple discussions forum:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3028327?start=0&tstart=0
 

kornchild2002

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You should know that the quality of video output on the iPad has absolutely nothing to do with Apple's ability to program Final Cut Pro. The iPad 2 may also have iMovie but it definitely isn't for serious editing and nobody is going to fully edit movies on an iPad 2 anyway. iMovie is there for a few reasons. One is likely do to Apple's ability to put it on there. In other words, they released iMovie for the iPad because they could. A second probable reason is that Apple is expanding the functionality of the iPad 2. I can tell you that nobody in their right mind is going to do anything other than simple video editing tasks on an iPad 2.
 

domitron

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kornchild2002, I completely agree. The iPad 2 is not meant for serious video editing. However, it is meant to play video without it looking washed out. There is an OS bug now that washes out video. It isn't as glaringly obvious on the ridiculously contrasty screen that comes with the iPad 2 (although it is apparent if you look), but it is very obvious and a deal-breaker on well-calibrated home theater setups. I hope they fix it very soon. I suspect it'll be fixed in the next iOS release.
 

brandkb

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I was bummed to see that this is becoming an issue, especially since I plan to watch a lot of movies on mine (ships on Monday!). Thankfully, it sounds like a software issue and not a defect with the display.
 

domitron

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I was bummed to see that this is becoming an issue, especially since I plan to watch a lot of movies on mine (ships on Monday!). Thankfully, it sounds like a software issue and not a defect with the display.
Yeah, it is almost definitely not a screen issue. I see the same thing on the HDMI AV output as well. And pictures do not show any gamma shift issue.
 

kornchild2002

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Well, this is only the third time that Apple has officially supported HDMI output and the first time they added HDMI output to one of their portable devices. It might be a hardware issue with the A5 processor (with its digital audio/video output) or an iOS issue (again, only with digital audio/video output). Since the HDMI adapter is new, I imagine the kinks still need to be ironed out. That is the way tech companies work today: they release a beta product and patch any issues later with online updates. Apple definitely isn't the one company doing this as Microsoft, Google, Sony, pretty much every game developer and publisher, etc. all do it. Companies are so focused on getting the product out the door as soon as possible so they often overlook bugs in their products. Games are particularly bad about this as I can often buy an Xbox 360 or PS3 game at a midnight launch (and I am in EST), take it home, plop it in my console, and there will be a ~20MB game update already.
 

domitron

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Well, this is only the third time that Apple has officially supported HDMI output and the first time they added HDMI output to one of their portable devices. It might be a hardware issue with the A5 processor (with its digital audio/video output) or an iOS issue (again, only with digital audio/video output). Since the HDMI adapter is new, I imagine the kinks still need to be ironed out. That is the way tech companies work today: they release a beta product and patch any issues later with online updates. Apple definitely isn't the one company doing this as Microsoft, Google, Sony, pretty much every game developer and publisher, etc. all do it. Companies are so focused on getting the product out the door as soon as possible so they often overlook bugs in their products. Games are particularly bad about this as I can often buy an Xbox 360 or PS3 game at a midnight launch (and I am in EST), take it home, plop it in my console, and there will be a ~20MB game update already.
Man you guys really know how to present good-looking articles! That article was beautiful! The pictures look great. Well, I hope they can make it all work. Being prior to the iPad only an iPod owner (who isn't), this iPad with accessories move is the deepest down the Apple hole I've dared venture, and I'd like to be able to say that it was just a little worm hole and not a rotten apple in the end.
 
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domitron

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Just to update this, I bought an iPhone 4 and it does not have the video playback bug that the iPad 2 does. The video has the proper gamma as expected and looks fine. For those of your still suffering from this ridiculous bug somehow managed to get past Apple's QA--amazing given how bad it is--I assume an iPad 2 video playback fix is either out or on the way in an iOS release, but as I took back my iPad 2 in favor of the iPhone 4, I wouldn't know.
 
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