[geeks] iPad - NOT a 'Miss' for me I'm afraid

[gsm at mendelson.com]

On Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 10:24:36AM -0600, Michael Parson wrote:

>Their claim is that it can play full HD video.  The screen on it can
>'only' display up to 720p, but there is a VGA out cable available for
>it.  Given that it uses the same connector as every other iPod out
>there, it might even be able to make use of the component video-out
>cable that you can get.  It would be ridiculous for them to sell a
>device that can't even play the videos they sell/rent off the ITMS.

Why? They would just downgrade the ones on the ITMS or have special 
for iPad videos. After all the full HD videos won't play on a iPod touch
or an iPhone. 

There is also a question of what is HD video. 1080i is not the same as
1080p. There also is a question of bitrate/frame rate. What amounts to
15 or even 12 FPS is quite watchable for normal videos, especialy on a 
tablet held at arm's length, but it won't do for fast motion video.

We still don't know what's on the chip anyway. It could have a direct to
video memory h.264 decoder which will make up for what the CPU lacks.
That may also be the reason why there is no flash decoder, if you have to 
decode video via the CPU, it can't even get up to 320p. 

Bear in mind that flash is a container and can contain video streams
encoded with many different video codecs. Apple can only do a few. 
There does not seem to be many codecs out there that one really needs to
support, MPEG-1 is obosolete, MPEG-2 is standard for DVD's, and older 
digital TV. MPEG-4 (and its H.264 variant) is the new Digitial TV standard
and is used for a lot of web videos. 

 From what I understand the MPEG-4 encoders are different, but they all can be
decoded with the same decoding software. The results may not be 100% perfect,
but no one will notice. 


>Like I mentioned above, it will have a VGA out adopter available at
>launch, they did specifically mention that you would be able to plug it
>into projectors for running presentations.  It doesn't run PowerPoint,
>but it will run Apple's presentation software, Keynote.

Keynote will do fine if you display it on your iPad, but if you are asked
to leave the PowerPoint or show it on their equipment, you are out of luck.
PowerPoint is the defacto standard for a "pitch".
>I don't see myself getting on any time soon.  The biggest use I'd have
>for one is to use as a portable movie player for my kiddo for long trips
>in the car, but I can get a similar sized LCD screen with a built-in
>DVD player and A/V inputs for much cheaper, which, when paired with the
>iPod I've already got, gives me that functionality already.  Yes, I'm
>skipping over all of the other features of the device, but none of those
>features solve any problems that *I* have.
>

Last week Home Center (Israel) was selling a 7 inch widescreen DVD player 
for 100. It had 3 USB ports, and could play MP4/H.264 video files AND 
had a TV tuner. I assume that if they sell here for that, Sam's club has
them for $50. 

>I might take another look when it gets jailbroken and/or someone manages
>to get another OS loaded on it.

I'm sure there will be a Linux port for it, but it will not perform well.
Not only is the operating system tailored for the device, but the feature
set is limited to things it does well.

Geoff

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. 
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.