3 ms·

The form factor of Lightning is top notch - all of the USB-variants seem terribly designed after using it. Too bad Lighting isn't free-to-license like Firewire

by czhiddy 14y ago

The form factor of Lightning is top notch - all of the USB-variants seem terribly designed after using it. Too bad Lighting isn't free-to-license like Firewire was. That said, the design for this AV adapter is puzzling. I wonder what the hardware limitation was that prevented straight digital video out. (# of pins?)

DannyBee 14y ago
There are definitely not enough pins to do straight pin for pin HDMI through lightning. Of course, if you are going to go to the trouble to do what they did, you may as well bitstream it through the adapter, ...
- beedogs 14y ago
  The current design prevents users from accessing the actual 1080p video stream from the device, too. The cynic in me says this is an end-run around any DRM issues giving access to that 1080p bitstream could introduce: instead let's just output a degraded, upscaled stream and call it HD.
- moreati 14y ago
  According to Wikipedia MHL allows proprietary connectors, and MHL-through-microUSB is most often done with 5 pins. Lightning is 8 pins + shield, so it would have been possible for Apple to put HDMI signalling inside the devices, and get native 1080p/60 out. However, MHL-through-Lightning might have prevented the AV adaptor having a daisy chained lightning socket of it's own. Maybe that's why Apple jumped through these hoops.
  - makomk 14y ago
    Reading the reviews on the Apple site, the passthrough Lightning connector on the adapter is apparently charging-only, which you can do just fine with MHL-through-microUSB IIRC.
- nirvana 14y ago
  The answer is that lightening is a general purpose next generation serial format. This allows them to support different formats in the future, for instance, say when HDMI isn't popular. The 30 pin connector didn't have HDMI on it at the time it was created and they have repurposed pins over the years regularly. Here they can have a much less complicated solution-- a standardised serial bus over which they can stream any future protocol they want to support. It's a lot more future proof.
  - DannyBee 14y ago
    This isn't an answer, and in fact, supports the opposite of your point :) It would have been just as easy to use micro-usb 3.0, which had plenty of bandwidth, and do the exact same pin or format conversions. Standardized serial buses that are less complicated already existed. What exactly do you think USB 3.0 is? If the only reason for lighting was "a general purpose next generation serial format", then it is definitely a horrible idea. Of course, none of this (except DRM concerns) answers why they'd not bitstream the format and convert it to HDMI signaling instead of doing the weird crap they did here.

by czhiddy 14y ago

DannyBee 14y ago

There are definitely not enough pins to do straight pin for pin HDMI through lightning. Of course, if you are going to go to the trouble to do what they did, you may as well bitstream it through the adapter, ...

beedogs 14y ago
The current design prevents users from accessing the actual 1080p video stream from the device, too. The cynic in me says this is an end-run around any DRM issues giving access to that 1080p bitstream could introduce: instead let's just output a degraded, upscaled stream and call it HD.
moreati 14y ago
According to Wikipedia MHL allows proprietary connectors, and MHL-through-microUSB is most often done with 5 pins. Lightning is 8 pins + shield, so it would have been possible for Apple to put HDMI signalling inside the devices, and get native 1080p/60 out. However, MHL-through-Lightning might have prevented the AV adaptor having a daisy chained lightning socket of it's own. Maybe that's why Apple jumped through these hoops.
- makomk 14y ago
  Reading the reviews on the Apple site, the passthrough Lightning connector on the adapter is apparently charging-only, which you can do just fine with MHL-through-microUSB IIRC.
nirvana 14y ago
The answer is that lightening is a general purpose next generation serial format. This allows them to support different formats in the future, for instance, say when HDMI isn't popular. The 30 pin connector didn't have HDMI on it at the time it was created and they have repurposed pins over the years regularly. Here they can have a much less complicated solution-- a standardised serial bus over which they can stream any future protocol they want to support. It's a lot more future proof.
- DannyBee 14y ago
  This isn't an answer, and in fact, supports the opposite of your point :) It would have been just as easy to use micro-usb 3.0, which had plenty of bandwidth, and do the exact same pin or format conversions. Standardized serial buses that are less complicated already existed. What exactly do you think USB 3.0 is? If the only reason for lighting was "a general purpose next generation serial format", then it is definitely a horrible idea. Of course, none of this (except DRM concerns) answers why they'd not bitstream the format and convert it to HDMI signaling instead of doing the weird crap they did here.