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Only a couple of days ago, iPhone developer Erica Sadun managed to get the hang of these TV-out performances, and also made useful observations for all users interested. As you will come to realize from the following paragraphs, these TV exporting capabilities come with some, probably undesirable catches, and make the usage pretty complicated, at least for now.

To get started, we must first point out that this feature is possible thanks to the updated media player framework. Through the MPTVOut Windows class, your iPhone, should it be connected to a TV, can send its video content to that specific connection and not necessarily to the built-in screen. This is done by creating a video feed, which is then sent through the iPhone's connector port. Naturally, a video data cable, or perhaps a video adapter is required in order for this unpublished class feature to work properly.

Still, if you choose to use this exporting technology, you must know that, once you have connected the iPhone to any TV device, the touchscreen features become useless, simply because they are disabled when sending video data to any kind of receiving device. This involves using alternative means of playing and managing your iPhone and, therefore, of watching the video in question.

Another so-called catch is the fact that this feature was created, as Erica Sadun suspects, mostly for landscape use, thus not having the capabilities that many of us would have liked the most. Having to deal with these limitations when using the feature can become pretty annoying at some point. Other than that, the only downside left is that this technology cannot be used for live demonstrations using programs such as SprinBoard, for example, since the touch commands will be nonresponsive.

Even though the focus in this brief presentation has fallen on the few problems this technology has brought to our attention, once you get passed them, the result may be more than you might have expected. Just think what it would be like to watch a movie or any other type of video not on the few-inches-wide display screen, but on your own widescreen TV. Doesn't sound so bad now, does it?

Moreover, there are other such technologies in development, so you can rest assured that those to come will be much improved as compared with this basic, a little primitive version.

Labels: Iphone

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