"Beamer" App - anyone seen this yet?

[Chiefo]

I downloaded the "trial" version and it works amazingly well. Has anyone tried this out yet? If so - opinions?

http://beamer-app.com/

[Chiefo]

455 views and no one has an opinion?!

It worked really well as a trial...but the checkout page looked a little fishy. I was wondering if someone could weigh in about whether they thought it was a scam or not.

[wrinkster22]

That looks pretty cool... like airplay for mac!

[weemanpow3]

Just gave it a try. 720p mkv video. The quality is not great. It uses the computer to convert and stream at the same time.

[warvanov]

What looks "fishy" about the checkout site? Just pay with PayPal if you're concerned. If the software works then they'll probably just be sending you a code to unlock the trial version once they receive payment.

[ageorgios]

the app looks promising, but there are no updates to functionality for long time (a.k.a subtitles not working)

[PsychicAnomaly]

IMHO this App is fundamentally Awesome and handily solves a major frustration in establishing an elegant Apple based media center on a home network (i.e. the inability to play most formats of digital video media).

In my setup I have an old MacBook Pro Core 2 duo with a 750 GB HDD running OSX 10.7 connected with a LAN cable to a Time Capsule (equally Airport Extreme or other Wifi router) A Mac Mini would be superior but this machine was spare following the purchase of a top of the line MBP. On this machine I have set Beamer as the default app for .AVI and .MKV and set up the free Team Viewer app (from the App Store) on this machine and the iPhone 4.

Now all I have to do is hit the Team Viewer App on the iPhone (from anywhere on the LAN or internet), pick the movie file i want to display and double click it - now it's on TV in superb quality via my Apple TV 3, voila c'est manifique! Better yet, once the movie is loaded on the Apple TV, the Apple remote works to pause/resume, FF and RW so no clumsy messing with gadgets interferes with the enjoyment of home cinema.

No jailbreak required (even were it available for the Apple TV 3 which it isn't at the time of writing) and no more hours of tedious re-encoding and moving of GBs of data just to get a video you already have into iTunes.

This is one of the few pieces of software I have ever come across where I would have actively sought out a way to financially contribute to the developer even if it was free. At EUR 7 or equivalent to license all of my machines it is super value and purchase was simple, with license key delivered instantly by link and email.

I can easily imagine this Beamer App is not on the App store because it is too useful in terms of sidestepping frustrating limitations imposed by Apple (and hence clearly off Apple's roadmap). I would say: grab it quick before the developers get hired by Apple and the whole thing disappears.

In the mean time I am excited to see what these guys do to build on this platform in terms of surround sound and subtitles.

5* superb.

[DocNYz]

This concept is great, please let me know if someone that has purchased this has gotten subtitles to work because most mkv files I have are foreign films for which I really need to have them working and timed right, etc.

[heisenberg123]

id rather just convert files to MP4 and hve them in my itunes library

[biggitoker]

I purchased the app. It works fine on "normal" files, but when an mkv file goes over a certain size, it will randomly lag. Sometimes it works fine for 16-120 minutes (in HD) but other times it will lag every 20 seconds or so.

Other than that, a fine application for your normal wear and tear .avi downloads when I cba to convert/add to iTunes library. 3.5/5 stars

[Beachguy]

I think I'll stick with VLC and airplay. I don't see an advantage to this.

[RealEyes]

I think I'll stick with VLC and airplay. I don't see an advantage to this.

VLC and Airplay to my Apple TV has been lagging so bad!

[RealEyes]

Been using Beamer for a couple days now and it's so much better than AirPlaying movies to my Apple TV. For me, it's exactly what I wanted AirPlay to be, and more!

With this app, I can put the screensaver on my display or turn the display off while watching a movie. With AirPlay, I couldn't do that. This app is pretty cool. Works great.

[testeri]

I bought ATV3 so I could watch movies wirelessly from my iMac. Well that didn't work because mirroring results in jerky/jittery play, making the movie watching experience intolerable.

So I tried Beamer. As somebody said, it works just as mirroring SHOULD work. No frames skipped. As for encoding, I can't see any difference in quality. I don't think it does any...

[Mr.Bullitt]

Depeding where I look - some places say Beamer only support stereo, other places says it supports surround - but both DTS and DD????

How is this app different than say PS3 Media Server?

[cfcboy]

Just get AirVideo, it kicks the sh/t out of this. Plays any movie file instantly.. converts on the fly to instant play, can even do it remote. Been using it all weekend and its the best app ive got to accompany ATV3. Do it..

[Mr.Bullitt]

Just get AirVideo, it kicks the sh/t out of this. Plays any movie file instantly.. converts on the fly to instant play, can even do it remote. Been using it all weekend and its the best app ive got to accompany ATV3. Do it..


Hmm. Does it work with my July 2009 MBP? I just found out that Apple's own desktop mirroring does not work with it :-(

I would also need support for Dolby Digital - DTS not required, but nice to have.

The site does not seem to claim that it works with Apple TV - just iphone, ipad...

[cfcboy]

Hmm. Does it work with my July 2009 MBP? I just found out that Apple's own desktop mirroring does not work with it :-(

I would also need support for Dolby Digital - DTS not required, but nice to have.

The site does not seem to claim that it works with Apple TV - just iphone, ipad...

Ive got my APTV hooked up to my sound system via optical and it seems to playing DD though need to check that when i get home.

It works perfect with apple tv, I can put some screen vidcaps if you like?
All you do is play the video and click the airplay icon on the screen, cant get more simpler

[Mr.Bullitt]

Ive got my APTV hooked up to my sound system via optical and it seems to playing DD though need to check that when i get home.

It works perfect with apple tv, I can put some screen vidcaps if you like?
All you do is play the video and click the airplay icon on the screen, cant get more simpler

That would be great - maybe also some screenshots of the app settings - I have PS3 media server and it have tons of settings to customize - I just wish that there was some official support for Apple Tv - seems a lot of other units are supported though :-(

[JGRE]

Bought it this week after trying the demo and must say that I was impressed with the ease of use, the video quality but less with the audio. One big MKV file wouldn't run, the rest were fine. Today updated to version 1.51, but haven't tried it. If they fix the audio to run codecs like DD 5.1 and DTS there is no need to jail break the ATV as far as I can see now. The only draw back is that it does't have library to store you files in, it has a simple drop box. On the other hand, this simplicity is also the charm.

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id rather just convert files to MP4 and hve them in my itunes library

For the movies you would like to see more often, I agree, but for one time view movies this is great (better) solution.

[mic j]

Well, I was skeptical, after trying out AirParrot, which was a totally worthless due to the lack of smooth video. So after so many posts about Beamer, I just had to give it a go. Unfortunately, it was marginally ok. Works fine, wirelessly for mkv's made from dvd (small 3-4GB file size and low nitrate) but continually buffered on mkv's from BR (30-40GB file size and high nitrate). When it does play, the video appeared to be smooth but the continual buffering makes it unusable. It also does not broadcast DD 5.1, only PCM stereo. Wired connections would probably help things out, but might as well use VLC if your wiring you aTV/computer/router all together.

It is usable if you are watching mkv's made from dvd's and sound is through the tv not an AVR. So there is a niche for it.

[balcis]

this is the only missing part for me under windows to buy an apple tv. i don't want to use air video via my ipad or iphone and consume their power for this while also my pc is converting videos. hope similar software comes for windows, too.

[PaulKemp]

Works wery well with smaller files. I had some issues with my biggest movie, that's around 12 gbs. Other than that I'm really happy, beats airplay mirroring! No frames skipped.

I'm using only wireless though. So could be better with cabled network

[Skoopman]

Beamer doesn't mirror the video, it just uses AirPlay to stream audio and video, clever little app, I use it, too.

[Richdmoore]

App works well on my 2011 iMac.

I use handbrake to convert my blurays and dvd's, and import into iTunes for permanent storage.

I use Beemer for those Avi and MKv videos that I receive that I just want to watch once and delete.

[Ace1024]

how is this any different to airflick?http://macupdate.com/app/mac/36512/airflick

It's been doing mostly the same thing for a while now (besides streaming incompatible files). There's also another advantage... it's free.

[ghostshadow]

how is this any different to airflick?http://macupdate.com/app/mac/36512/airflick

It's been doing mostly the same thing for a while now (besides streaming incompatible files). There's also another advantage... it's free.

In my experience, Beamer has worked nearly flawlessly. Unlike AirFlick. Erica hasn't kept Airflick up or improved it for several years. The FFMPEG that it uses is out of date, even freshly compiled 64bit ffmpeg doesn't improve anything. I rarely get Airflick to work well, it also seems to be a lot more taxing on the system than Beamer is too.

The only downside to Beamer is the price, it is a bit pricy for what you get, but it does do the job better than most other solutions thus far.

[JGRE]

the app looks promising, but there are no updates to functionality for long time (a.k.a subtitles not working)

That is incorrect, they updated from 1.5.2 to 1.5.3 and just at the and of January to 1.5.4. Next to this they released 1.6 beta with surround sound support. I have no problem adding a SRT subtitle file to the movie, works fine for me.

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In my experience, Beamer has worked nearly flawlessly. Unlike AirFlick. Erica hasn't kept Airflick up or improved it for several years. The FFMPEG that it uses is out of date, even freshly compiled 64bit ffmpeg doesn't improve anything. I rarely get Airflick to work well, it also seems to be a lot more taxing on the system than Beamer is too.

The only downside to Beamer is the price, it is a bit pricy for what you get, but it does do the job better than most other solutions thus far.

Pricy? Really, it cost USD 15........

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Well, I was skeptical, after trying out AirParrot, which was a totally worthless due to the lack of smooth video. So after so many posts about Beamer, I just had to give it a go. Unfortunately, it was marginally ok. Works fine, wirelessly for mkv's made from dvd (small 3-4GB file size and low nitrate) but continually buffered on mkv's from BR (30-40GB file size and high nitrate). When it does play, the video appeared to be smooth but the continual buffering makes it unusable. It also does not broadcast DD 5.1, only PCM stereo. Wired connections would probably help things out, but might as well use VLC if your wiring you aTV/computer/router all together.

It is usable if you are watching mkv's made from dvd's and sound is through the tv not an AVR. So there is a niche for it.

Have you tried the 1.6 Beta with DD 5.1 support? It also runs much smoother, however it still has buffering issues with large files.

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IMHO this App is fundamentally Awesome and handily solves a major frustration in establishing an elegant Apple based media center on a home network (i.e. the inability to play most formats of digital video media).

In my setup I have an old MacBook Pro Core 2 duo with a 750 GB HDD running OSX 10.7 connected with a LAN cable to a Time Capsule (equally Airport Extreme or other Wifi router) A Mac Mini would be superior but this machine was spare following the purchase of a top of the line MBP. On this machine I have set Beamer as the default app for .AVI and .MKV and set up the free Team Viewer app (from the App Store) on this machine and the iPhone 4.

Now all I have to do is hit the Team Viewer App on the iPhone (from anywhere on the LAN or internet), pick the movie file i want to display and double click it - now it's on TV in superb quality via my Apple TV 3, voila c'est manifique! Better yet, once the movie is loaded on the Apple TV, the Apple remote works to pause/resume, FF and RW so no clumsy messing with gadgets interferes with the enjoyment of home cinema.

No jailbreak required (even were it available for the Apple TV 3 which it isn't at the time of writing) and no more hours of tedious re-encoding and moving of GBs of data just to get a video you already have into iTunes.

This is one of the few pieces of software I have ever come across where I would have actively sought out a way to financially contribute to the developer even if it was free. At EUR 7 or equivalent to license all of my machines it is super value and purchase was simple, with license key delivered instantly by link and email.

I can easily imagine this Beamer App is not on the App store because it is too useful in terms of sidestepping frustrating limitations imposed by Apple (and hence clearly off Apple's roadmap). I would say: grab it quick before the developers get hired by Apple and the whole thing disappears.

In the mean time I am excited to see what these guys do to build on this platform in terms of surround sound and subtitles.

5* superb.

Surround sound is available in the 1.6 Beta available on their website!

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This concept is great, please let me know if someone that has purchased this has gotten subtitles to work because most mkv files I have are foreign films for which I really need to have them working and timed right, etc.

Yes it works, just drop the SRT file into the Beamer app and voila!
The only downside with SRT files is synchronization, so I put forward a feature request to Beamer to make a time correction to the SRT file for synchronisation.

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id rather just convert files to MP4 and hve them in my itunes library

Only for keepers, you really want to remux for ages just to find out that the movie sucks?

----------

VLC and Airplay to my Apple TV has been lagging so bad!

The picture quality of airplay is not meant to watch movies is a very low quality (less then 480p).

[ELMNT925]

LOVE beamer, the higher quality the movie, the higher quality it plays.
definitely money well spent!
way better than air parrot or any other crappy streaming app.

[CaptTCS]

I would rather just convert everything to M4V & add it to my iTunes library. Then I use ATV the way it was intended.

[shadow puppet]

FYI, for this weekend only, Beamer is on sale for just under $10.

From their twitter page:
"To celebrate the launch of Beamer 1.6, we’re giving a $5.1 “surround sound” discount. Only this weekend!"

Beamer app link (http://beamer-app.com)

Beamer store link (https://sites.fastspring.com/tupil/instant/beamer?coupon=SURROUND-RELEASE-PROMO)

I'm thinking I'm going to give this a go. I have an older MBP and the price is right.

[blairh]

Can somebody recommend a Beamer alternative? I simply cannot get this app to work properly with HD movie files. It always buffers usually after 30 seconds or a minute. SD movies are no issue but HD does not work for me. I have a 2011 MBA, ATV 3, latest OS on both and Beamer, I average 50 mbps down on my connection. It's the app. I need an alternative. I'm giving up on Beamer being able to play my HD movies. Thanks.

[mic j]

Can somebody recommend a Beamer alternative? I simply cannot get this app to work properly with HD movie files. It always buffers usually after 30 seconds or a minute. SD movies are no issue but HD does not work for me. I have a 2011 MBA, ATV 3, latest OS on both and Beamer, I average 50 mbps down on my connection. It's the app. I need an alternative. I'm giving up on Beamer being able to play my HD movies. Thanks.
I think your MBA is underpowered to do this "on-the-fly" transcoding, whether it be with beamer, airparrot, air video, etc. And it doesn't do Airplay, right? The beauty of the MB models that airplay is that they have a dedicated chip to do that, so your CPU is not impacted and the dedicated chip has enough horsepower to do it on its own. I personally don't think there is a software solution to this unless you have a fast multi-core processor and even then it could be iffy.

[blairh]

I think your MBA is underpowered to do this "on-the-fly" transcoding, whether it be with beamer, airparrot, air video, etc. And it doesn't do Airplay, right? The beauty of the MB models that airplay is that they have a dedicated chip to do that, so your CPU is not impacted and the dedicated chip has enough horsepower to do it on its own. I personally don't think there is a software solution to this unless you have a fast multi-core processor and even then it could be iffy.

AirPlay does work for me but not all my movies are compatible with what iTunes requires for formats. I'd rather watch my movie on my MBA then be bothered to reformat it to work within iTunes/AirPlay.

Maybe it is the MBA but I'm not so sure. I've read a lot of reviews for Beamer (official and comments on sites) and I don't recall that the MBA is an issue. You could of course be right though. I don't know. It's pretty frustrating. It has to be the file itself because my SD content is a non-issue with Beamer.

[mic j]

AirPlay does work for me but not all my movies are compatible with what iTunes requires for formats. I'd rather watch my movie on my MBA then be bothered to reformat it to work within iTunes/AirPlay.

Maybe it is the MBA but I'm not so sure. I've read a lot of reviews for Beamer (official and comments on sites) and I don't recall that the MBA is an issue. You could of course be right though. I don't know. It's pretty frustrating. It has to be the file itself because my SD content is a non-issue with Beamer.
If you have Airplay ability, how about using PLEX?

[blairh]

If you have Airplay ability, how about using PLEX?

AirPlay isn't a solution for me. Like I said before, most of my movies aren't formated to play through iTunes. Plus I don't like PLEX or anything like it. I just want to be able to fire up a movie on my MBA and stream it wirelessly to my ATV3. Beamer had the potential to be exactly what I was looking for but it fails me.

[mashny]

Anybody knows how this compares to Air Parrot? I have that and am pretty happy with it, but would consider switching if Beamer performs better.

[spyguy10709]

I downloaded the "trial" version and it works amazingly well. Has anyone tried this out yet? If so - opinions?

http://beamer-app.com/

It's amazing, I love it. SO worth the $!!!

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Anybody knows how this compares to Air Parrot? I have that and am pretty happy with it, but would consider switching if Beamer performs better.

I thought air parrot worked well. This works 10 times better!

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AirPlay isn't a solution for me. Like I said before, most of my movies aren't formated to play through iTunes. Plus I don't like PLEX or anything like it. I just want to be able to fire up a movie on my MBA and stream it wirelessly to my ATV3. Beamer had the potential to be exactly what I was looking for but it fails me.
Maybe just get a Mini Display Port to HDMI cable?

I know it's not a real solution, but it works lol.

Beamer does choke on HD video on the ULV processors that's in the Macbook Air, but there's nothing you can do about that, other than reencode your movies to MP4/x264.

[extradryny]

FYI - there is a 15-minute free trial available now for Beamer.

I've had lots of issues with jerkiness (in Airplay Mirroring) and lagging (in conversion to MP4 via Handbrake), and Beamer seems to have overcome them all, at least in the 15-minute trial.

An added bonus is the removal of the black bars on the side of the video I get when streaming via Airplay Mirroring. Beamer gives you proper size as if you're streaming via iTunes.

YMMV, of course

[blairh]

Beamer does choke on HD video on the ULV processors that's in the Macbook Air, but there's nothing you can do about that, other than reencode your movies to MP4/x264.

Can you explain why exactly it has so much of an issue with my MBA?

[spyguy10709]

Can you explain why exactly it has so much of an issue with my MBA?

It's clocked at ~1.6 GHz. The slowest MBP you can buy now is 2.5GHz.

[rocknblogger]

I'm so glad you guys revived this thread. Just bought it and it works flawlessly. As someone before me said, this is how AirPlay should work. Absolutely awesome!!!

[blairh]

It's clocked at ~1.6 GHz. The slowest MBP you can buy now is 2.5GHz.

Would a MBP definitely allow for smooth HD playback with Beamer?

Is anyone here watching HD content with Beamer using their MBA + ATV?

[steve-p]

Another satisfied Beamer user here. It's a simple app that only does one thing, but it does it extremely well.

[cosmicjoke]

well, i dunno i had a 15gb mkv file of samsara i watched yesterday in 1080p that i beamed over wifi and it played through great, seemed to have a bit of a buffer lead (like where you ff you can see some there's some head room)- maybe because it was h264?

then today i tried a 7gb 720p avi file of the life of pi and it played for about 40mins and then started having buffering spinning cogwheel issues and i had to finish it on my plex htpc in other room...

not sure what the problem was, my '12 mac mini server having issues transcoding on the fly or wifi not keeping up or what... the .avi file didn't have a buffer lead like the mkv though.. possibly because of different codec?

regardless, the quality of both looked phenomenal and it seems like a great app when you're not in the mood to transcode or even remux...

am getting MoCA adapters in mail on monday so if it was wifi bandwith issue today hopefully that will solve it.

[rocknblogger]

I should add that I've used Beamer on my Hackintosh with i7 2700K and 16GB's of RAM and dual GTX480 video cards. Next week I will be testing it out on a brand new 2012/13 cMBP i7 2.6GHz, 1GB VRAM and 16GB's RAM. I'll report back with my experiences.

[Richdmoore]

FYI, app is on sale for $10 today and most of tomorrow.

http://deals.macupdate.com/deal/14006/12336/beamer?utm_source=MacUpdate+Announcements&utm_campaign=99ad22f104-UA-158337-2&utm_medium=email&mc_cid=99ad22f104&mc_eid=7607b7bf07

[blairh]

Sorry to ask this again but I would like to know if any MR members are watching HD content with Beamer using their MBA + ATV?

[Skoopman]

Sorry to ask this again but I would like to know if any MR members are watching HD content with Beamer using their MBA + ATV?

Yes, but files bigger than 4 GB have problems, they buffer quite a lot. It's not related to the hardware, but the app as it seems.

[blairh]

Yes, but files bigger than 4 GB have problems, they buffer quite a lot. It's not related to the hardware, but the app as it seems.

So the issue isn't my MBA but rather Beamer. Well, that really sucks.

Also I don't think 4 GB is the limit. I've had trouble playing HD files smaller than that.

[cosmicjoke]

So the issue isn't my MBA but rather Beamer. Well, that really sucks.

Also I don't think 4 GB is the limit. I've had trouble playing HD files smaller than that.

probably video codec related is my guess, the ones that are h264 but you simply haven't taken the few minutes to remux them to mp4 always play just fine....

xvid seems like it can be more iffy

[tekboi]

A must have app if you want any real use out of your ATV

[blairh]

probably video codec related is my guess, the ones that are h264 but you simply haven't taken the few minutes to remux them to mp4 always play just fine....

xvid seems like it can be more iffy

I have the issue with mp4's too. Why would you just assume such a thing? Don't be so dismissive for no reason.

[Skoopman]

Well, 720p content works fine, 1080p does not, it buffers quite a lot. Could also be a network problem? Maybe you can give us some info about your setup.

[blairh]

Well, 720p content works fine, 1080p does not, it buffers quite a lot. Could also be a network problem? Maybe you can give us some info about your setup.

MBA 2011 w/ML. ATV 3. Both updated to latest OS. Beamer is latest update too.

Not sure if my internet matters but I doubt that's the issue. I average 55 mbps down. Router is AirPort Extreme 5th gen.

No matter the size of the file, HD content does not work. It buffers give or take every 30 seconds for roughy 10 seconds at a time. Completely unwatchable. SD content is smooth.

[Binarymix]

MBA 2011 w/ML. ATV 3. Both updated to latest OS. Beamer is latest update too.

Not sure if my internet matters but I doubt that's the issue. I average 55 mbps down. Router is AirPort Extreme 5th gen.

No matter the size of the file, HD content does not work. It buffers give or take every 30 seconds for roughy 10 seconds at a time. Completely unwatchable. SD content is smooth.

Have you tried using a different channel on your Airport Extreme? And 5Ghz?

Airplay can be finicky, and drop out/lag if there is interference I've found.

Was happening a lot with audio from iTunes to an airplay speaker, but seems to have resolved after changing to a channel that's not being used around my house. Use a wifi scanner to see what channels might be clogged.

[blairh]

Have you tried using a different channel on your Airport Extreme? And 5Ghz?

Airplay can be finicky, and drop out/lag if there is interference I've found.

Was happening a lot with audio from iTunes to an airplay speaker, but seems to have resolved after changing to a channel that's not being used around my house. Use a wifi scanner to see what channels might be clogged.

I have not touched any of my AirPort settings since setting up the router from day one.

I can play HD content with AirPlay with no issues. It's just that not all my movies are in a format that are compatible with AirPlay. I don't think interference is the issue.

[rocknblogger]

Okay, so I got a brand new Retina MBP i7 2.7GHz, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. I've tried five different videos in the following formats; mkv, avi, MP4 and one other I forgot. The size of the files ranged from 1GB to 9.94GB and each and every one played perfectly.

Obviously my rMBP is connected via wifi to my AirPort Extreme. The AirPort Extreme is connected vie Ethernet to my network. Also while the movies were playing I tried using different apps just to see if it had any effect on the playback. There was none.

In my experience Beamer is a fantastic app that works perfectly. It does one thing only but it does it extremely well.

[cosmicjoke]

I have the issue with mp4's too. Why would you just assume such a thing? Don't be so dismissive for no reason.

i'm not assuming anything as there are myriads of reasons that the problem can occur, transcoding issues, network issues if streaming over wifi, and just the app doing a bad job with certain codecs (mp4 is just a container, not a codec) --- what i do know is that some of the files i play with beamer accumulate a bit of a buffer lead, like when you pause the movie on the apple tv and some of the progress bar is white, indicating there's a bit of room where it's downloaded in advance kind of like youtube does...... those tend to be h264 movies... whereas some xvid avi files i've used beamer with show nothing in advance... so if wifi was to say drop below an acceptable level for a fraction of a second, i think that would be enough to trigger a buffer cogwheel

[spacepower7]

well, i dunno i had a 15gb mkv file of samsara i watched yesterday in 1080p that i beamed over wifi and it played through great, seemed to have a bit of a buffer lead (like where you ff you can see some there's some head room)- maybe because it was h264?

then today i tried a 7gb 720p avi file of the life of pi and it played for about 40mins and then started having buffering spinning cogwheel issues and i had to finish it on my plex htpc in other room...

not sure what the problem was, my '12 mac mini server having issues transcoding on the fly or wifi not keeping up or what... the .avi file didn't have a buffer lead like the mkv though.. possibly because of different codec?

regardless, the quality of both looked phenomenal and it seems like a great app when you're not in the mood to transcode or even remux...

am getting MoCA adapters in mail on monday so if it was wifi bandwith issue today hopefully that will solve it.

Hmm. What is the video codec in the AVI file? If it's h.264, it should be in an mp4/m4v or MKV. H.264 in an AVI file is nothing but trouble. A lot of hardware and software won't play it correctly.

Or is it Divx or Xvid 720? I've never seen a 7GB AVI file outside of PC video editing software and that was SD not 720p.

There are many more complex issues that could be discussed but use a mediainfo app to determine what your file contains.

[cosmicjoke]

Hmm. What is the video codec in the AVI file? If it's h.264, it should be in an mp4/m4v or MKV. H.264 in an AVI file is nothing but trouble. A lot of hardware and software won't play it correctly.



it's xvid/ac3 avi, it played fine for about 40mins with beamer and then afterwards started buffering every few mins... i've since switched my atv3 off wifi (to dual band AEBS) and onto MoCA, which gets a very consistent 11.4MB/s transfer rate to it (limited by 100mbps ethernet).... will have to try again and see what happens, but i don't really feel like watching the life of pi again lol

[hdean]

I have recently brought Apple TV 3, and i am using Windows 7 PC, is there any alternative apps (like beemer app) available for windows computers

[blairh]

i'm not assuming anything as there are myriads of reasons that the problem can occur, transcoding issues, network issues if streaming over wifi, and just the app doing a bad job with certain codecs (mp4 is just a container, not a codec) --- what i do know is that some of the files i play with beamer accumulate a bit of a buffer lead, like when you pause the movie on the apple tv and some of the progress bar is white, indicating there's a bit of room where it's downloaded in advance kind of like youtube does...... those tend to be h264 movies... whereas some xvid avi files i've used beamer with show nothing in advance... so if wifi was to say drop below an acceptable level for a fraction of a second, i think that would be enough to trigger a buffer cogwheel

Well actually you did assume I didn't try converting to mp4 and did so in a dissmissive manner.

Anyways, playing the file and then hitting pausing with hopes that it will allow time to create a 'buffer lead' doesn't work for me. Like I said before, SD content has no problem with Beamer. It's my HD content. I don't think the issue is my wi-fi or router. It's either my MBA not being powerful enough or more likely, it's Beamer itself.

This is a pretty common issue with Beamer too. Take a look at the replies their Twitter page gets. I think it's wrong of them to not address this in a general way.

[cosmicjoke]

Well actually you did assume I didn't try converting to mp4 and did so in a dissmissive manner.

Anyways, playing the file and then hitting pausing with hopes that it will allow time to create a 'buffer lead' doesn't work for me. Like I said before, SD content has no problem with Beamer. It's my HD content. I don't think the issue is my wi-fi or router. It's either my MBA not being powerful enough or more likely, it's Beamer itself.

This is a pretty common issue with Beamer too. Take a look at the replies their Twitter page gets. I think it's wrong of them to not address this in a general way.

no, you're projecting dismissiveness on me lol, i'm here trying to figure things out with you, no?.... you're dismissing me if you're not willing to try a variety of video codecs with beamer and see if there's a difference between some and others, but alas.

anyways, i think it's specific video codecs that seem to do the buffer lead for me where others did not (xvid in avi container).. i'm def having issues with buffering and beamer too on some videos, but the problem is i have a 15gb 1080p version of Samsara that beamer played just fine.... where an xvid 720p started buffering every few mins after playing fine for about 40mins...

[Calvinator666]

Just get AirVideo, it kicks the sh/t out of this. Plays any movie file instantly.. converts on the fly to instant play, can even do it remote. Been using it all weekend and its the best app ive got to accompany ATV3. Do it..


Totally agree with this. Air Video is fantastic and probably the most straightforward app ever. Plays and streams immediately, and in some case, it requires a conversion from within. But the conversion is really no big deal, it is basically the same as just clicking on it and the video plays right off the bat.

Another app which I am increasingly fond of these days would be the QuikIO app.

[rocknblogger]

Totally agree with this. Air Video is fantastic and probably the most straightforward app ever. Plays and streams immediately, and in some case, it requires a conversion from within. But the conversion is really no big deal, it is basically the same as just clicking on it and the video plays right off the bat.

Another app which I am increasingly fond of these days would be the QuikIO app.
I checked out Air Video website but I don't see anywhere that it works with Apple TV. The site only mentions iPhone, iPod and iPad. If that's the case then these are two completely different apps.

[institute]

You use an iOS app on your idevice and the server app on your computer. You play the film on the idevice app and then airplay it to the Apple TV.

[rocknblogger]

You use an iOS app on your idevice and the server app on your computer. You play the film on the idevice app and then airplay it to the Apple TV.

That's an unnecessary step when you have an app like Beamer. I just tried Air Video because I was looking for something like that to use on my iPad, but to stream to my Apple TV I'll just keep using Beamer. So far it has worked flawlessly on my rMBP.

[JGRE]

no, you're projecting dismissiveness on me lol, i'm here trying to figure things out with you, no?.... you're dismissing me if you're not willing to try a variety of video codecs with beamer and see if there's a difference between some and others, but alas.

anyways, i think it's specific video codecs that seem to do the buffer lead for me where others did not (xvid in avi container).. i'm def having issues with buffering and beamer too on some videos, but the problem is i have a 15gb 1080p version of Samsara that beamer played just fine.... where an xvid 720p started buffering every few mins after playing fine for about 40mins...

They (Beamer) told me that it was the WiFi not being able to transfer big files (using a cable it should totally disappear; haven't tried this yet). The strange thing is that when I watched Skyfall (12GB), the fist 5 minuted it went flawless and then it started buffering every minute. If it was the WiFi, this should have started from the first second. I also noticed improvements with respect to the buffering issue in new versions, so I think there is a software issue somewhere.....

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That's an unnecessary step when you have an app like Beamer. I just tried Air Video because I was looking for something like that to use on my iPad, but to stream to my Apple TV I'll just keep using Beamer. So far it has worked flawlessly on my rMBP.

Really? Does Air Video stream 1080p, and when I say "stream1080p" I mean receiving 1080p on your TV?

[rocknblogger]

Really? Does Air Video stream 1080p, and when I say "stream1080p" I mean receiving 1080p on your TV?

I just tried for you and there's no actually setting to say whether you want 1080p or 720p or whatever. I played a 1080p version of Prometheus mp4 and it was beautiful You have an option of "Play with live conversion" or just "Play". I tried both and it played perfectly.

The only two settings it has is two sliders more max width and max height. I set them both to max which is 1280x720 (iPad 2) and like I said it was perfect. Not to say it doesn't have any other settings but in regards to resolution it looks like it plays the videos in whatever resolution they are encoded to.

I hope that answers your question.

[mic j]

I just tried for you and there's no actually setting to say whether you want 1080p or 720p or whatever. I played a 1080p version of Prometheus mp4 and it was beautiful You have an option of "Play with live conversion" or just "Play". I tried both and it played perfectly.

The only two settings it has is two sliders more max width and max height. I set them both to max which is 1280x720 (iPad 2) and like I said it was perfect. Not to say it doesn't have any other settings but in regards to resolution it looks like it plays the videos in whatever resolution they are encoded to.

I hope that answers your question.
If your max height is 720, how could it be playing the 1080p file at full resolution?

[rocknblogger]

If your max height is 720, how could it be playing the 1080p file at full resolution?

Well proportionately it has to fit the screen right? So to me it looks wide screen 1080 with black bars at the top and bottom. The bottom line is that the picture quality is as good on my iPad as it is watching the same blu-ray disk on my TV. I don't know if the screenshots will do it any justice for you but I'll attach them anyway.

EDIT: On my iPad there are no black bars on the sides. Only top and bottom.

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[mic j]

They (Beamer) told me that it was the WiFi not being able to transfer big files (using a cable it should totally disappear; haven't tried this yet). The strange thing is that when I watched Skyfall (12GB), the fist 5 minuted it went flawless and then it started buffering every minute. If it was the WiFi, this should have started from the first second. I also noticed improvements with respect to the buffering issue in new versions, so I think there is a software issue somewhere.....[COLOR="#808080"]

Of course, having your Mac connected by cable in order to not have buffer issues on big files, kind of defeats the purpose of having beamer doesn't it?

Also, in looking around at some reviews on the app, it seems that one of the most frequent complaints is its choking on mkv files over 4GB.

[Richdmoore]

I found that an issue I had was (auto racing recording) was resolved by converting the audio format from 5.1 AC6 to 2 channel AAC. I don't know why, except that maybe it was making beamer or the apple tv 3 work too hard. (Multi channel audio was a recent addition to the app, there may be a bug or two as well still.)

If it matters, both the apple tv3, and the 2011 imac were both hard wired with ethernet.

Overall, the app works great, and it is money well spent for me.

[adnbek]

Beamer is fantastic. Tried it out for about 15mn, bought it immediately.

[StoneJack]

Never mind,
it just works :)
some MKV seems a bit hard for it

[Mikebuzzsaw]

Use beamer almost everyday to watch videos since I cut cable. Works with everything I've thrown at it.

[grayskyz]

I like beamer, works well. I do wish it had the ability to create a playlist for tv shows.

[blairh]

Use beamer almost everyday to watch videos since I cut cable. Works with everything I've thrown at it.

What Mac are you using?

I've sold my MBA. Does anybody know of Beamer-like apps that run on Windows 8 in conjunction with an Apple TV? I'd be curious to try out a cheap Windows 8 laptop with a Beamer-like application. Or maybe just concede and use an HDMI cable.