iOS HDMI Out and WD My Cloud App

I have the EX2 NAS with the idea that while away from home I can stream to my iOS devices.

I just purchased the Lightning AV Adapter so I can play files through the TV rather than on my ipad or iphone. I tried to play a video with the My Cloud App and the video is not full screen, like the Videos app. The app is like any other which mirrors to the tv instead of using the correct Apple SDK for full screen video.

My solution is to email a link of the file to myself from within the app and run the file in a browser but this isn’t ideal.

I am interested in the WD Wireless drive but if a) the app won’t output full screen to HDMI and b) there is no option for emailing a link then it will be useless to me.

Is there any plan to update the APP to support the AV output and will the WD Wireless work in the same way as the NAS where I can email a link of the file?

Any help appreciated.

The drive doesn’t require ONLY using the WD My Cloud app.

Any number of other apps will work just fine with it.   If you have any apps which DO display in full screen, then chances are it will work with the WiFi drive as long as it can do SMB (windows shares), DLNA or FTP connections.

At the worst, you can use the built-in web-based media browser (Twonky Server) and display your videos that way since it uses the native browser.

There is no E-Mail Link function – there’s isn’t a need for one since you take the drive with you wherever you might need it.

I am having the same issue. I want to use my Ipad and Iphone to stream video from Mycloud to hdmi Tv sets. I can’[t do it. All I see is the video playing INSIDE a window on the tv’d display of the  'phone" or “ipad”. As this was a major incentive to get the Ex2 and set up Mycloud I am very dissapointed. Does anyone know if/when WD will address this is a future version of the IOS app?

Thanks

I think I see what you and the first person are complaining about, because I just streamed (and played) a video to my iPad using the My Cloud app, and tapped off the iPad (using the iPad A/V adapter) and into my TV’s HDMI input port.  No problems whatsoever.   

What I think the issue is is an incomplete understanding of using the My Cloud app on an iPad or iPhone. Yes, you will see a “video playing INSIDE a window” when it starts playing on the iPad/iPhone (and therefore on to the TV) unless you adjust the app for full screen and also eliminate the top and bottom white control bars.  Here is what to do (and the app looks differently on the two iThings):

1.  Start a video playing on an iThing.

2.  Look for the full screen icon (it shows two arrows pointing outward) so tap it. (Only on iPad; next step makes iPhone full screen),

3.  Now that you have full screen, remove the top and bottom bars on screen by tapping the iThings movie screen in the middle of the of screen or somewhere close.

4.  You should now have a complete, full size movie frame with no clutter showing.  If you want to get to the bottom controls again, tap the screen again, and of course, tap it again to remove the white bars.

5.  When finished watching movie, make the reverse moves to get to control bars, and then tap the full screen view off again.

You can do any of the above steps whether the iThing is connected to the TV or not, since the iThing and TV display exactly the same thing.

BTW, using the overpriced Apple A/V adapter is “so yesterday” if one has set up his home network to be accessible to all devices and apps and has hardware and apps to stream media directly to devices - wirelessly.  I never use the Apple A/V adapter anymore – I just pull out the iThing, start up the appropriate app, and stream (or beam) the movie (stored on some networked hard drive of mine) directly to a device (e.g. a WDTV media player or Roku, Chromecast, etc.) that can grab the file from the network and start playing it.  More detail would require a separate discussion, so I will stop here, other than to say:  find the free MediaPlay app at Apple app store, install it, and see if you can get it working for you and your equipment so you can beam videos wirelessly.  Requires a solid and fast wireless network for best results.

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Actually, mike, the OP’s are correct – the app doesn’t call the Video API in such a way as to enable full-screen.

The iPad Air 2, for example, outputs video at 1600x900 resolution, not 1920x1080, when in “Screen Mirroring” mode, but it sets the HDMI output mode to 1920x1080 (or whatever the display supports) and downscales the video to 1600x900 within that resolution.

But apps like NetFlix, Infuse Player, Buzz Player HD, etc and the Safari Browser video playback do output full screen.   The video playback goes to the HDMI port, and the main display of the iDevice says “Video Output to TV”

This helps explain it – I’m using an old HDMI monitor at work (which is not 1920x1080; it’s 1900x1050 or something like that)

WD’s app, even in “Full Screen” mode:

Note that the video is playing on BOTH displays – “Full Screen” on the iPad (but with letterboxes because iPad display is not 16:9), but not even close to it on the monitor – large pillar & letterboxes all around as shown with the red line.

Note also that this CANNOT be overcome by using most “Zoom” modes on most TVs, as the output *is* 1920x1080 with everything appearing in a 1600x900 virtual box.  And even if the TV’s will ZOOM (deliberate overscan, basically), it’s not complete.

Other apps, same file (this is the Infuse app, but other apps are similar if not identical):

No video display (only controls) on the Ipad, and full-screen playback on the monitor with NO pillars (only letterboxes because of the odd non-16:9 aspect of the monitor).

 BTW, using the overpriced Apple A/V adapter is “so yesterday” if one has set up his home network…

… yeah, but not in any other place – I travel a lot, and my HDMI adapter is Required Packing.   I put my iPad on the hotel nightstand and run a 20-30 foot HDMI to the TV to watch movies from my WiFi drive – works almost every time (unless the hotel TV lacks working HDMI or “locked” HDMI).

No need to pack any other gizmos.

Simply put, WD’s app is overlooking the use of a built-in iOS feature (which has been there since iOS 6…) to do video playback; relying instead on using screen mirroring which doesn’t work well.

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Thank you Mike and Tony.

I use my Iphone as a media server on the road and connect it, like Tony, to hotel room Tv sets.  I am experimenting with the Infuse Player which works OK in my home but will require more work on my part to make MyCloud content available to it when I am on the road. I think WD should upgrade its app to work with IOS to give us the codec compatibility of WD devices and the HDMI output abilities of the native IOS video player.

Thanks

stewards wrote:

I am experimenting with the Infuse Player which works OK in my home but will require more work on my part to make MyCloud content available to it when I am on the road. 

If you can get ANY app to work remotely at a hotel, you’re in awesome conditions.

I’ve never been in a hotel in the last 10+ years where bandwidth available via WiFi was more than maybe 200-300kbps.   That’s why I pack my WiFi drive with me.  :)   So, while I can connect to my cloud from pretty much anywhere, the network isn’t fast enough to support video streaming.

Well, once again Tony helps to set me straight.  Obviously, I used the expression “full screen” a bit too loosely, although I was referring to a maximum screen display without any visual clutter and not precisely.  Anyway, hope what I had to say is useful info.

The very best info I got from Tony’s comments was his mention of Infuse.  Never heard of it, but if Tony is using it, that’s a good recommendation.  So, a little while ago I installed the free version on my iPad and have been testing it out.  It just might be the best video-playing app I have used, in part, because unlike most apps that let me choose between either servers or shares, (but not both) Infuse shows everything connected to my network. Using Infuse, I can pl ay videos on my iPad from either My Passport Wireless, or my GoFlex Satellite (a server only) as both drives are wirelessly connected to my network.  Before Infuse, I would need separate apps to access one or the other.  Coupled with my new mini jambox BT speaker, the sound is downright awesome for such a small “system”.

Some questions about Infuse:

1.  Tony, is this the best video app you have found?

2.  The free version seems sufficient for me and the iThings, since I don’t need the higher-tech audio formats, but is there some other important reasons why I would want to pay $9.99 for the Pro version of the app?

3.  A few of my network devices show up twice in the “Available Shares” list .  For example, as  My Passport (SMB) and My Passport (UPnP).  What is the difference, and why use one or the other?  (Is SMB a share, and UPnP a server?)

Thanks for answers.

FYI, I figured out the diff between SMP and UPnP by seeing my PC in the WDTV display where it is listed as both.  SMB is a network share, and UPnP/DLNA is a media server condition.

  1. from an Eye-candy point of view, absolutely. But it has issues with large collections. Even though it’s caching metadata, it still seems not to remember from session to session.

  2. I’m using the free version. As far as I can tell, the paid version adds more video and audio codec support plus AirPlay, none of which I need.

Tony,

  1. Yes, the UI is attractive and easy to follow.  I am presuming it has it’s own video player and not using the iOS built-in.

2.  Don’t need Airplay either, but I tried to play an mkv to see if it would, and was invited to upgrade it.  Don’t need it though since my videos have been converted for tablet and phone use.

Edit:

I eventually saw the eye-candy you mentioned with the “movie poster” and other metadata for each movie with brief story summary.  Two had incorrect metadata (wrong movie with same titles) but their website told how to correct it, and I did.  Quite slick, (especially for my Handbrake-made m4v files).  Kind of slow to browse thru movies this this way;  I prefer plain “laundry lists” as they are quicker to browse, so I may not use the eye-candy approach often.  Cool, thou.

mike27oct wrote:

 I prefer plain “laundry lists” as they are quicker to browse, so I may not use the eye-candy approach often.  Cool, thou.

In the SETTINGS section, you can turn on “List View” and it does it more that way.

Got it. Thanks again, Tony.

Infuse app:

It uses up a lot of storage capacity on the IPad and iPhone for it’s eye-candy (i.e. metadata display).  Worse yet, it recreates the metadata for each device I connect to even though the same videos are on each drive.  I have selected five devices on my network to stream from, including PC, WDTV hard drive, two wireless drives and Pogoplug drives.  Based up Infuse using 32MB for just a few of the videos on my MPW drive; multipled times five drives is way too much iThing storage devoted to unnecessary graphics.

So, I have deleted all metadata and turned off fetching it.  Nevertheless, even if fetching is turned off, Infuse still creates a graphic from a frame of the video!  The only way I have found to prevent all this is when Infuse app is turned on, I go directly to the + (plus) symbol command and use the plain vanilla directory of shared devices and never go into the graphic part again unless I need to make any changes in its Settings.  Hopefully, this will enable my using Infuse to view videos without adding graphics anymore.  If not, I will have to delete the app from my iDevices.