5 ms·

Apple lightning to HDMI adapter is a computer

27 points by zakki 7y ago

agumonkey 7y ago
similarly your hdd controller was a computer technically, these days, anything larger than a usb wire can be a computer smalltalk crossed the physical barrier
- wlesieutre 7y ago
  >technically, these days, anything larger than a usb wire can be a computer USB wires too: https://twitter.com/kevinmitnick/status/1031662197422710784?lang=en https://twitter.com/kevinmitnick/status/1031662197422710784?...
  - jedimastert 7y ago
    You know, I've wondered about this exact attack. Also from wallwarts that plug into USB-C ports. shudders
goda90 7y ago
What are the motivations for putting things like Apple Secure Boot in there? It makes me wonder if they someday want to be able to say "this dongle is not Apple approved".
- slindz 7y ago
  That would not surprise me at all. I've experienced several third party charging cables that somehow stop working so reliably immediately after an iOS update. Apple definitely wants as much of the pie as they can get.
  - joezydeco 7y ago
    Or maybe Apple doesn't want to pay warranty claims (or, worse, lawsuits) on stuff that's burned up by cheap third-party power supplies and cables that are millimeters away from a fire at any given moment. http://www.righto.com/2016/09/why-you-shouldnt-use-cheap-macbook.html http://www.righto.com/2016/09/why-you-shouldnt-use-cheap-mac... http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-quality.html http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-... http://www.righto.com/2012/03/inside-cheap-phone-charger-and-why-you.html http://www.righto.com/2012/03/inside-cheap-phone-charger-and...
- jhthenerd 7y ago
  Don't they already do that? Apple used a chip in official and licensed lightning cables, and ones that didn't have the chip would prompt iDevices to say that the cable isn't Mfi certified.
zakki 7y ago
Priced at $50 it has terrible quality.
mzkply 7y ago
So... any idea why it's so bad?
- rythie 7y ago
  The main reason is probably that 1080p30 is 1580 MBits and USB2 is only 480 MBits, so it has to do decompression.
  - mzkply 7y ago
    Can you explain why you mention USB? It's Lightning to HDMI...
- LASR 7y ago
  It’s just bad. As a product, it’s bad. Terrible quality, compression artifacts etc. From a design approach perspective it’s bad because, lightning has USB 2.0 bandwidth only. So they had to build an airplay server on the dongle that decodes a compressed H.264 and outputs an HDMI signal. There are better ways of doing that. One way is to actually have enough pins on the standard to support uncompressed HDMI output like USB-C
saagarjha 7y ago
Discussion from two days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20544564 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20544564
dpflan 7y ago
I think the title needs an edit: "lighting" should be "lightning".
- skykooler 7y ago
  Thanks, I was wondering if Apple was making a competitor to Hue bulbs.
  - dpflan 7y ago
    Agreed, I was initially confused too.
- sctb 7y ago
  Updated. Thanks!
0x0 7y ago
This was also noted in 2013 - https://panic.com/blog/the-lightning-digital-av-adapter-surprise/ https://panic.com/blog/the-lightning-digital-av-adapter-surp... The anonymous comment is very interesting: https://www.panic.com/blog/2013/03/the-lightning-digital-av-adapter-surprise/#comment-16841 https://www.panic.com/blog/2013/03/the-lightning-digital-av-...
pg_is_a_butt 7y ago
Every HDMI adapter that isn't a computer is going to severely degrade performance.

27 points by zakki 7y ago

similarly your hdd controller was a computer technically, these days, anything larger than a usb wire can be a computer smalltalk crossed the physical barrier

wlesieutre 7y ago
>technically, these days, anything larger than a usb wire can be a computer USB wires too: https://twitter.com/kevinmitnick/status/1031662197422710784?lang=en https://twitter.com/kevinmitnick/status/1031662197422710784?...
- jedimastert 7y ago
  You know, I've wondered about this exact attack. Also from wallwarts that plug into USB-C ports. shudders

goda90 7y ago

What are the motivations for putting things like Apple Secure Boot in there? It makes me wonder if they someday want to be able to say "this dongle is not Apple approved".

slindz 7y ago
That would not surprise me at all. I've experienced several third party charging cables that somehow stop working so reliably immediately after an iOS update. Apple definitely wants as much of the pie as they can get.
- joezydeco 7y ago
  Or maybe Apple doesn't want to pay warranty claims (or, worse, lawsuits) on stuff that's burned up by cheap third-party power supplies and cables that are millimeters away from a fire at any given moment. http://www.righto.com/2016/09/why-you-shouldnt-use-cheap-macbook.html http://www.righto.com/2016/09/why-you-shouldnt-use-cheap-mac... http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-quality.html http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-... http://www.righto.com/2012/03/inside-cheap-phone-charger-and-why-you.html http://www.righto.com/2012/03/inside-cheap-phone-charger-and...
jhthenerd 7y ago
Don't they already do that? Apple used a chip in official and licensed lightning cables, and ones that didn't have the chip would prompt iDevices to say that the cable isn't Mfi certified.

zakki 7y ago

Priced at $50 it has terrible quality.

mzkply 7y ago

So... any idea why it's so bad?

rythie 7y ago
The main reason is probably that 1080p30 is 1580 MBits and USB2 is only 480 MBits, so it has to do decompression.
- mzkply 7y ago
  Can you explain why you mention USB? It's Lightning to HDMI...
LASR 7y ago
It’s just bad. As a product, it’s bad. Terrible quality, compression artifacts etc. From a design approach perspective it’s bad because, lightning has USB 2.0 bandwidth only. So they had to build an airplay server on the dongle that decodes a compressed H.264 and outputs an HDMI signal. There are better ways of doing that. One way is to actually have enough pins on the standard to support uncompressed HDMI output like USB-C

saagarjha 7y ago

Discussion from two days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20544564 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20544564

dpflan 7y ago

I think the title needs an edit: "lighting" should be "lightning".

skykooler 7y ago
Thanks, I was wondering if Apple was making a competitor to Hue bulbs.
- dpflan 7y ago
  Agreed, I was initially confused too.
sctb 7y ago
Updated. Thanks!

0x0 7y ago

This was also noted in 2013 - https://panic.com/blog/the-lightning-digital-av-adapter-surprise/ https://panic.com/blog/the-lightning-digital-av-adapter-surp... The anonymous comment is very interesting: https://www.panic.com/blog/2013/03/the-lightning-digital-av-adapter-surprise/#comment-16841 https://www.panic.com/blog/2013/03/the-lightning-digital-av-...

pg_is_a_butt 7y ago

Every HDMI adapter that isn't a computer is going to severely degrade performance.