iChat - [iOS 4.3 Advantages and Issues Review]Apple iOS 4.3--Pros an robotpav520 - Wed Mar 30, 2011 9:52 pm Post subject: [iOS 4.3 Advantages and Issues Review]Apple iOS 4.3--Pros an
[iOS 4.3 Advantages and Issues Review]Apple iOS 4.3--Pros and Cons
Apple iOS 4.3 - the latest operating system for Apple iPad, Apple iPhone and later version of the Apple iPod touch - extends the capabilities of such iOS devices in meaningful ways
You might describe iOS 4 as a long-term investment. While the initial version brought us the much-demanded multitasking, subsequent updates haven't been restricted to mere bug fixes. Instead, we've gotten a slew of noticeable, if not major, improvements: AirPlay, AirPrint, Game Center, and so on. The newly released Apple iOS 4.3 is no exception, bringing not only a couple of significant enhancements in the form of the Personal Hotspot feature and Home Sharing, but also some smaller niceties as well.
As with Apple iOS 4, the 4.3 update plays well with only certain models - and on top of iOS 4.0's limitations, 4.3 narrows the field even further. You'll need an Apple iPhone 4 or Apple iPhone 3GS, an Apple iPad or Apple iPad 2, or a third- or fourth-generation Apple iPod touch to take advantage of the update.
AirPlay debuted in iOS 4.2 and iTunes 10--- it's a blanket term for several technologies, one of which is replacing the old AirTunes feature that let you stream music from your Mac or PC's iTunes library to Apple TVs and AirPort Express devices. AirPlay extended that, however, by letting you stream audio to those aforementioned devices directly from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and even in some cases adding video-streaming support.
In iOS 4.3, AirPlay gets further beefed up with the ability to stream video from compatible Websites, third-party applications, and the Photos app. So if you want to watch iPad HD movies on HDTV thru AirPlay, you can stream it to your Apple TV with the tap of a button. Plus you can take advantage of all the slideshow transitions on the Apple TV; in order to do that, you'll need to hit the AirPlay button while viewing a photo and then hit the Play button to choose your slideshow transition from the Apple TV's list.
For those third-party apps that have implemented support (the only app I own that had updated as of this writing was Air Video), it works the same as with Apple's own built-in apps. When you start playing a video or a song, just tap the AirPlay control and select your Apple TV from the list. After a few seconds, the media should start playing there, but you'll be able to control it from your iOS device.
Apple iOS 4.3: Share and share alike
Introduced in iTunes 9, Home Sharing allows you to - among other things - play media from one computer on your local network on a different computer. In iOS 4.3, that feature gets extended to iOS devices as well. Once you've set up Home Sharing on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you'll be able to toggle back and forth between playing media from your local device and from Home Sharing-enabled computers on your network.
Performance in streaming is very good: music and short videos start playing almost immediately. Longer videos (or HD ones) can take some time to buffer before they start playing back. Quality is very good in all cases, with music nearly indistinguishable in quality from that on the local device and the video clear and easily watchable. Playback was smooth, even with multiple devices streaming from the same library, and I was able to scrub around in HD videos without having to wait for lengthy rebuffering times.
Among the few drawbacks, the Genius feature isn't available when you're accessing shared libraries and, since Home Sharing only supports content in your iTunes library, you can't stream photos stored on your computer. One missing feature, however, is the ability to stream content from an iOS device to either another iOS device or a Mac or PC. At the moment, iOS devices are limited to being Home Sharing clients, not servers; adding that server functionality would be handy for cases where you want to share music or videos from your iPhone or iPad with friends.
That said, if you have an Apple TV or AirPort Express, there is another option: AirPlay.
Apple iOS 4.3: Bits and bobs
Safari performance: As we've seen in our Apple iPad 2 review and elsewhere, iOS 4.3 significantly boosts the speed of Safari's JavaScript performance, thanks to the incorporation of the Nitro engine used in the Mac OS X version of Apple's Web browser. In the SunSpider test, both the iPhone 4 and the original iPad showed marked improvements, performing more than twice as quickly as the same devices under iOS 4.2.1.
Apple iOS 4.3: Goodbye to 5.1 sounds?
“I have a number of non-iTunes movies loaded on my iPad and iPhone 4, prior to the 4.3 update, I was able to play all of them. After iOS 4.3, only movies with 2-channel audio playback.” Many Apple fans have had issues with the sound of my backed up movies after the iOS 4.3 update. Movies bought from iTunes work just fine, but sound is completely gone from personal backed up movies. The problem is with iPad and Apple TV. This happens to movies with AAC and Dolby Digital 5.1 channels. Movies with Stereo AAC audio work just fine.
Maybe we can expect Apple to address this issue in the next upgrade but before that the only way to get sound back is down converting 5.1 surround sounds to stereo.
Tools you may need for solving 5.1 audio playing back issues with iOS 4.3:
1. Pavtube Video Converter, which is capable of converting MP4, MOV, M4V videos to Apple TV and iPad optimized videos and meanwhile degrade AAC/AC3 5.1 to AAC stereo.
2. Pavtube Blu-ray Ripper, an app that rips protected Blu-ray and DVD movies to Apple TV, iPad, and iPod Touch playable videos with AAC stereo audio by default. Also allows users to set AAC or AC3 5.1 audio.
With Apple iOS 4.3, enjoying movies becomes even easier —the wireless technology AirPlay lets you stream content (music, movies) from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your HDTV via Apple TV. So you can instantly share iPad 2 movies with everyone in the room. Have you managed to try AirPlay of the new iPad 2nd Gen? Follow this guide to rip Blu-ray and DVD movies to iPad 2 and then send iPad 2 videos to Airplay enabled Apple TV for sharing.
Part 1. Put Blu-ray/DVD movie to iPad 2 Movie library
You can download a trial of Pavtube Mac Blu-ray to iPad 2 Converter software for ripping Blu-ray movies to iPad 2 videos.
Step 1. Load Blu-ray movie to Blu-ray Ripper for Mac.
Hook up BD drive to your Mac, put Blu-ray Disc into the drive, and run the Mac Blu-ray to iPad 2 Converter. Click “BD/DVD” folder to load 1080p Blu-ray movie (or regular DVD).
Step 2. Set iPad 2 optimized video formats for conversion.
Click “Format” and follow “iPad” to select an iPad optimized format from the 3 preset video formats for iPad.
iPad HD Video (*.mp4)- iPad 720p video up to 4000kbps, the best video quality iPad plays
iPad Video H.264(*.mp4)- 768*576 video for iPad, medium quality
iPad Video MPEG-4(*.mp4)- 640*480 video, smallest file size for ripping Blu-ray movies to iPad friendly format.
Tip: to reduce file size/conversion time, just click “Settings” and set a smaller bitrate (e.g. 2000kbps) before the Blu-ray to iPad 2 video conversion starts.
Step 3. Convert Blu-ray movie to iPad 2 supported video format.
Click “Convert” button to start ripping Blu-ray to iPad 2 videos. The faster your Mac computer is, the shorter it takes to convert 1080p Blu-ray movie to iPad 2 videos. When the conversion is finished, you can click “Open” button to get the final output files with ease. Now you are ready to sync video files to iPad 2.
Part 2.Play iPad videos via AirPlay enabled Apple TV
To send video or audio to an AirPlay enabled Apple TV device, iPad and the AirPlay device must be connected to the same wireless network.
Step 1. Connect Apple TV with HDTV, and setup the Airplay enabled Apple TV for watching Blu-ray movies on HDTV thru Airplay.
Step 2. To send video an AirPlay device from iPad, just play videos from iPad 2 movie library, and press the “Airplay” button at the end of control bar of iPad 2 as it shows below. If you don’t see the button, iPad isn’t connected to the same Wi-Fi network as an AirPlay device, or the app you’re using doesn’t support AirPlay.
When iPad is streaming with AirPlay, it must remain connected to the Wi-Fi network. If you take iPad out of range, playback stops.
Have you already updated your Apple devices to iOS 4.3, but unfortunately found the sound in your video/movie could not be played anymore (video is fine, but audio is dead)? Actually, nearly all Apple devices (Apple TV 2, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch …) users who have updated to iOS 4.3 have encountered the same issues. It seems Apple has changed its audio processing method in iOS 4.3, or maybe it’s just a big bug. In order to solve this audio problem, Pavtube Studio has updated its products to create optimum videos for playback with Apple TV 2 without losing audio. Go to see a detailed guide on how to rip Blu-ray/DVD/video to ATV 2 playable format with best settings.
Software you need: Pavtube Blu-ray Video Converter Ultimate
Step 1: Free download Pavtube Blu-ray Video Converter Ultimate, install and launch it
Click “Add Video” icon to load your video sources, or click “Load BD/DVD” icon to load your Blu-ray or DVD movie files.
Step 2: Select output format for Apple TV 2
Click on the dropdown menu of “Format”, and the choose “Apple TV” > “Apple TV H.264 1280x720 (*.mp4)” as target format for your ATV 2.
Step 3: Set optimum settings for ATV 2
Click “Settings” button to adjust audio and video parameters to set best settings for Apple TV 2. Actually, the default settings will ensure you a perfect playback quality on your HDTV via ATV 2.
For your reference – the best settings for Apple TV 2:
Video
Codec: h264
Size: 1280*720
Biterate(kbps): 4,000
Frame raet(fps): 24
Step 4:Rip Blu-ray/DVD/video to ATV 2 with best settings
Click “Convert” button to start ripping Blu-ray/DVD/video to ATV 2 with optimum settings. After the conversion process is finished, you can click “Open” button to get the final output files with ease. Now you are ready to play Blu-ray/DVD/video with ATV 2 at excellent quality. Have fun. If you have a new iPad 2, and wanna send iPad 2 videos to HDTV for playback, you can see our guide on how to have Blu-ray movies on iPad 2 and send iPad 2 videos to Airplay enabled Apple TV
More Related Topics
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What is Apple’s AirPlay?
In case you haven’t been following along, AirPlay is the ability to wirelessly stream audio and video from a device like an iPad 2 to your 2nd generation Apple TV. The Apple’s AirPlay tech lets you stream music photos and video throughout your entire house wirelessly so you can enjoy your entire iTunes library in any room and anytime. It’s essentially and enhancement on the existing AirTunes feature that already let you stream audio from iTunes to an AirPort Express router so that you could pipe your tunes directly into a connected receiver. AirPlay wireless technology will be fully integrated into Apple devices, speaker docks, AV receivers, and stereo systems. AirPlay does more than just stream your music to external speakers. It streams information about your music, too. Song titles, artists, album names, elapsed and remaining time, and album artwork all appear on AirPlay-enabled speakers with graphical displays.
iPad with AirPlay
iPad can be more amazing with AirPlay tech. Apple iOS 4.3 includes upgrade of AirPlay for iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone and Apple TV devices. AirPlay now lets you stream media from an iPad to Apple TV so that you can watch iPad movies on HDTV and speakers wirelessly. All the great stuff on your iPad, video, audio and photos can be streamed to Apple TV 2 without a hitch. Suppose you have great HD videos on your iPad and some friends on your couch, or you’re in the middle of an epic action scene that could use a little more screen, just tap the AirPlay icon on your iPad and see it on your HDTV.
(Tip: Make sure your iPad and Apple TV are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, and the AirPlay icon appears automatically.)
Apple AirPlay Hands on-iPad video and music on HDTV
iOS 4.2 let me stream content from the iPad to the new Apple TV that was connected to a 55-inch TV. After connecting the Apple TV to a wireless network, I tapped the TV icon located in the upper-left portion of the iPad's iPod section, and selected Apple TV. I started Blondie's "Heart of Glass" and was surprised how quickly Apple TV recognized it. A second or two later, and the music was blaring through the TV's speakers. I was impressed with the simplicity of the process. Bringing up the on-screen media controls by double tapping the Home button let me access the aforementioned media controls.
I streamed TV episodes and home movies from the iPad to Apple TV without a hitch. My Blu-ray movie rip Toy Story 3 looked just fine on the big screen. For the techies out there, the file specs are: 1280×720 in .mp4 at 2000kbps with stereo sound (it seems 5.1 sounds are losing after upgrade to iOS 4.3, and I had to convert AC3 5.1 to stereo with Video Converter software to get the sound back). I also streamed photos to Apple TV; naturally those of higher resolution looked sharper and clearer on the large display.
The system is dead-easy. Just make sure that your i-device and your Apple TV are on the same wireless network. Then choose your app: iPod for video or music, the Photos app for, well, photos and the YouTube app for, uh, you get the idea. Once your media is playing or your photo is displayed, simply tap the little rectangle pierced with upwards-pointing triangle icon and choose “Apple TV” from the list that pops up.
As of right now, the only apps that can send video wirelessly via AirPlay to the Apple TV is the Video app on the iPad (iPod app on the iPhone/iPod Touch) and Apple’s own YouTube and Photos apps.
If you have content on your iPad or iPhone that you don’t have on your Mac/PC, then I suppose it’s handy to be able to stream that content to the Apple TV without the need of a middle-man device. And you may also rip Blu-ray movies to iPad for streaming to Apple TV via AirPlay.
