Great, with a single criticism
Even so, it boggles my mind that it supports the smallest and latest iPad, but not the largest and latest iPhone. Place two of said iPhones side by side and you essentially have the same screen real estate as the iPad Mini. As trivial of a feature it may be to hope for iPhone support someday, I do think it would be at the very least useful for testing HDMI output on various devices. There are other UVC viewers that support iPhone, but nothing supports Genki Shadowcast as seamlessly as this App does.
I understand that generally speaking this app was made with heavy consideration for the Nintendo Switch (it all started with Genki Audio on Kickstarter… proud supporter!), but I will say for the sake of iPad Mini users out there:
Yes, the iPad mini’s screen is barely bigger than that of the Switch. But Genki was on to something with Apple displays. Relatively same size or not, Nintendo Switch looks crisper (in handheld mode, Switch only does 720p; 1080p is only via HDMI out) and the iPad mini’s speakers are louder. So it’s worthwhile to try for Switch, but I personally wanted to use this app for other game consoles without built in screens. This does great for those too. I’ve never had an HDMI device I’ve tested not work with the Shadowcast, which is their official hardware.
As a final note, I think it’s pretty cool that they allow for any UVC device, but I don’t think all UVC devices are created equal. I’ve used a 3rd party UVC device on PC with the Genki Arcade app, and it was nowhere near as clean. It did work, but there was a huge black border I don’t get with Shadowcast. I hope they continue to make the Shadowcast! The space saving design is so convenient.
Genki Studio is a must have for UVC. I really hope they decide to either add support for iPhone or introduce a separate app. I’d rather install something from Human Things than some random shady looking app.
If you have a Shadowcast, get it! You won’t be disappointed
Response from developer
Thank you for writing such a detailed review of our Genki Studio app. We have heard the call for support on iPhone. The limitation is that the related APIs to connect to external UVC devices are only available on iPadOS. It is more up to Apple to release the same support for iPhone before we can easily port this app to iPhone users. As developing custom solutions otherwise would not be up to the standard in terms of image latency and quality. We developed this app to support all kinds of UVC devices. We have heard from people around the world like doctors and researchers paired this app with some unique UVC devices that we have never heard of. It is truly an unprecedented app and a valuable tool for these people, which allowed them to utilize the powerful ability of iPads with features like Apple Pencil Markup and AirPlay video mirroring in their daily work. We hope you enjoyed the app. Please let us know if you have any more questions or suggestions when using the app by emailing us at ipad@humanthings.co. Thank you for supporting Genki.
Best experience I’ve had with my capture card
Almost perfect
Can’t make calls when using this app
Response from developer
Hello robinink! Thanks for leaving a review for this app. Image delay is heavily dependent on the capture device you are using. And for some capture device that only supports 1080P 30fps, they reports to the iPad that it supports 1080P 60fps, this could also cause delays and image lags. We recommend you to try another higher quality capture device. If you need more help, send us a email at ipad@humanthings.co
