Nick Bilton/The New York Times An iPad replaces an Apple TV with a $30 VGA cable.Last year in an effort to cancel my Time Warner cable, I bought an Apple TV. I came home with my new fancy sleek white packaging, tore open the box and plugged the Apple TV into my television. It took about 15 minutes before I went from excited to utterly frustrated.
The problem with the Apple TV is its extreme restrictions. Sure, it allows you to buy or rent iTunes video and to play YouTube content on your TV. It also enables music streaming from a home computer or Internet radio and photo viewing from Flickr or MobileMe. But its features come to a screeching halt right there. And it costs $230.
If you want a bittersweet alternative, a $30 cable and an iPad can do everything the Apple TV can, and more. But, be warned, it’s confusing and also a little frustrating to set up.
First, this isn’t a solution for anyone wishing to completely cancel their cable TV and there are plenty of limitations with the iPad video output too. But if you’re already planning to buy an iPad, you won’t be forced to buy a completely separate device to watch some online video on your television.
So before we dive in with a how-to, be warned: Using the iPad with an external screen isn’t exactly self-explanatory.
You will need an audio source; VGA only shares video. So check to see if your television has an audio input, or an old pair of computer speakers will work too.
You will also need a VGA cable input on your TV. These look like the inputs on a computer monitor; most modern TVs have them.
When you first plug the VGA cable into a television, don’t expect to see anything appear on the screen. The iPad sends out a video signal only when certain applications are running.
Video will play on a television through the built-in video application on the iPad, which syncs up to iTunes and through the YouTube application. You can also view photo slideshows, which will display images from the photo library or Apple’s presentation software Keynote.
But things might get confusing quickly. You can’t view third-party video applications on your television, including the downloadable Netflix and ABC Player apps. Strangely, you can watch video on any Web page with HTML5 video, including Vimeo, blip.tv and funnyordie. It’s a bit of a guessing game to see which Web sites work and which don’t.
The biggest disappointment with the video output from the iPad is the inability to view Web pages on any kind of external display. Navigate to google.com or nytimes.com and your television screen will remain blank.
Confused? Me too.
The ability to output video from the iPad isn’t a reason to buy one, but if you already own it or plan to buy one, this $30 cable can connect your television to the Internet — well, at least the parts of the Internet that Apple wants you to see.