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mrcourt123

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 16, 2008
72
3
I recently got an iPad 2 and an Apple TV. I have been using AirPlay a little bit but have found it to have pretty limited utility so far. However, this morning I was playing various videos from YouTube and other websites through AirPlay and was also bouncing between the Watch ESPN app that only allows audio to stream to the TV. After watching a quick video on YouTube I clicked back over to the ESPN app and it streamed both the audio and video. I was pretty surprised that the video was streaming and I didn't touch anything because I wanted to see if it would keep going. Well, it did and I watched Sportscenter on my TV for a good 15 minutes. So, does anyone know how this might have happened? Is there a way to replicate this in the future?
 

Jordo5150

macrumors newbie
Mar 21, 2009
16
0
I recently got an iPad 2 and an Apple TV. I have been using AirPlay a little bit but have found it to have pretty limited utility so far. However, this morning I was playing various videos from YouTube and other websites through AirPlay and was also bouncing between the Watch ESPN app that only allows audio to stream to the TV. After watching a quick video on YouTube I clicked back over to the ESPN app and it streamed both the audio and video. I was pretty surprised that the video was streaming and I didn't touch anything because I wanted to see if it would keep going. Well, it did and I watched Sportscenter on my TV for a good 15 minutes. So, does anyone know how this might have happened? Is there a way to replicate this in the future?

Tried this out today and I was able to get ESPN2 streaming. I stopped it and tried again, and I have not been able to get it to work again, but I for sure had it working once.
 

mrcourt123

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 16, 2008
72
3
Thanks for the feedback. I see that one person has been able to replicate this. Has anyone else been able to do it with any consistency? Is there anything special that can be done other than just bouncing from YouTube to another AirPlay enabled app and getting lucky?
 

Jordo5150

macrumors newbie
Mar 21, 2009
16
0
Thanks for the feedback. I see that one person has been able to replicate this. Has anyone else been able to do it with any consistency? Is there anything special that can be done other than just bouncing from YouTube to another AirPlay enabled app and getting lucky?


I have been working at this today, and I am able to constantly reproduce it now, except for with ESPN3 Videos. For some reason ESPN3 is hit and miss.

I had my friend try with his ATV and WatchESPN app and he has had the same results. Able to reproduce it almost every time.

The process I use is to NOT have a the espn video running, start a youtube video, airplay the video, switch to the WatchESPN app, start a video, and it works almost every time.
 

eTip

macrumors 6502
Mar 12, 2009
443
26
I think there was a thread here a while back where someone discovered this with the MLB app....or maybe it was ESPN.
 

mrcourt123

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 16, 2008
72
3
I have been working at this today, and I am able to constantly reproduce it now, except for with ESPN3 Videos. For some reason ESPN3 is hit and miss.

I had my friend try with his ATV and WatchESPN app and he has had the same results. Able to reproduce it almost every time.

The process I use is to NOT have a the espn video running, start a youtube video, airplay the video, switch to the WatchESPN app, start a video, and it works almost every time.

This is good stuff. I got it working again this morning. Lets hope this doesn't get corrected with a "bug fix" in subsequent updates.
 

cjkeno

macrumors newbie
May 16, 2011
3
0
I wonder if anyone has tried this with HBO Go?

HBO Go is a no-go on this Airplay trick, it would make cable companies' On-Demand feature obsolete if it did work.

The same goes for ESPN 3 games. ESPN 3 is an internet-viewing only channel so they will not allow it to airplay to your TV. They are assuming you have already have ESPN and ESPN 2 on your cable so they could care less if you stream that over.

It's too bad they don't allow both to stream over though, would be real nice.
 

mrcourt123

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 16, 2008
72
3
HBO Go is a no-go on this Airplay trick, it would make cable companies' On-Demand feature obsolete if it did work.

The same goes for ESPN 3 games. ESPN 3 is an internet-viewing only channel so they will not allow it to airplay to your TV. They are assuming you have already have ESPN and ESPN 2 on your cable so they could care less if you stream that over.

It's too bad they don't allow both to stream over though, would be real nice.

Kind of silly reasoning though, right? I mean with all of the other available ways to watch ESPN 3 (or even HBO Go, I imagine) on your TV it's really just a convenience thing to have it stream to an AppleTV. Before I got my iPad and ATV I would hook my MBP up to my TV with a mini-DVI to HDMI to watch ESPN 3 or whatever else I wanted to stream over the internet. People are canceling cable left and right and getting all of their content through their computers. Why not just let it stream with AirPlay?

The thing is, they don't even technically let you stream ESPN or many of the other solid TV network apps, like the ABC player or apparently HBO Go. My thought is that the reasoning behind not allowing the cable network apps to stream is something like: if the consumer already has access to HBO or ESPN, they shouldn't have to stream it with AirPlay. It's the people who are getting access to the content through the ESPN and HBO apps that shouldn't have that access (using illegitimate means to access the content) that want to stream through AirPlay. To me, that's why it isn't allowed. Hopefully that changes, but only time will tell. Until then, it's nice to know there is a small work around for at least the ESPN app.
 
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