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Have we been over stated AirPlay's usefulness

M

mic j

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
I have really been looking forward to streaming my mkv's to my aTV3 using AirPlay in Mountain Lion. The thought of using my uncompressed/higher bitrate mkv's instead of compressed/lower bitrate mp4's seemed like it would be a great thing to have. Then it occurred to me, AirPlay transcodes everything to h.264 on the fly for the aTV anyway. So are you really gaining anything over transcoding it yourself? In fact, might it not yield a lower quality transcode by having to do it on the fly rather than a High Profile Handbrake transcode?

The only advantage I see right now is not having to have 2 sets of movie files, mkv and mp4.

Am I off-base here?
 
G

Gotanks0407

macrumors newbie
Jun 11, 2012
9
0
mic j said:
I have really been looking forward to streaming my mkv's to my aTV3 using AirPlay in Mountain Lion. The thought of using my uncompressed/higher bitrate mkv's instead of compressed/lower bitrate mp4's seemed like it would be a great thing to have. Then it occurred to me, AirPlay transcodes everything to h.264 on the fly for the aTV anyway. So are you really gaining anything over transcoding it yourself? In fact, might it not yield a lower quality transcode by having to do it on the fly rather than a High Profile Handbrake transcode?

The only advantage I see right now is not having to have 2 sets of movie files, mkv and mp4.

Am I off-base here?
Click to expand...

your absolutle right. but AirPlay is more about screen sharing for Mountain Lion, as you can already share video to an AppleTV from your MacBook, with Lion.
 
tigres

tigres

macrumors 601
Aug 31, 2007
4,213
1,326
Land of the Free-Waiting for Term Limits
42" plasma in my office- no cable (I won't pay for Comcast) and an apple tv.

Enter AirPlay stream anything from my MBA while working, no wires, free, no ripping.

Not theater quality but I don't care. Now my problem- my MBA will not support it. So ordered a new maxed out
 
P

posnera

macrumors regular
Jun 13, 2010
136
2
tigres said:
42" plasma in my office- no cable (I won't pay for Comcast) and an apple tv.

Enter AirPlay stream anything from my MBA while working, no wires, free, no ripping.

Not theater quality but I don't care. Now my problem- my MBA will not support it. So ordered a new maxed out
Click to expand...

Is it really Airplay streaming, or is it just screen sharing? Will you be able to put a video on the TV and use the MBA for something else?
 
M

mic j

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
Gotanks0407 said:
your absolutle right. but AirPlay is more about screen sharing for Mountain Lion, as you can already share video to an AppleTV from your MacBook, with Lion.
Click to expand...

How can you share a non-h.264 video with Lion?
 
maturola

maturola

macrumors 68040
Oct 29, 2007
3,863
3
Atlanta, GA
posnera said:
Is it really Airplay streaming, or is it just screen sharing? Will you be able to put a video on the TV and use the MBA for something else?
Click to expand...

Mirroring... (Screen Sharing), I think the OP is a bit confuse of what it's really doing, the Airplay is NOT optimal to watch those MKVs, the audio is transmitted as stereo and the encoding will degrade the quality.

This feature is more targeted to Presentation, casual Youtube or home video sharing, not for high end HD video. For that Apple want you to use iTunes.

For those who don't like the Jail that Apple want us in, we use stuff like Plex, or XBMC for those HD Media
 
heisenberg123

heisenberg123

macrumors 603
Oct 31, 2010
6,496
9
Hamilton, Ontario
maturola said:
Mirroring... (Screen Sharing), I think the OP is a bit confuse of what it's really doing, the Airplay is NOT optimal to watch those MKVs, the audio is transmitted as stereo and the encoding will degrade the quality.

This feature is more targeted to Presentation, casual Youtube or home video sharing, not for high end HD video. For that Apple want you to use iTunes.

For those who don't like the Jail that Apple want us in, we use stuff like Plex, or XBMC for those HD Media
Click to expand...

this its called Airplay Mirroring as in Mirroring what you see on you mac on your TV
 
maturola

maturola

macrumors 68040
Oct 29, 2007
3,863
3
Atlanta, GA
iisforiphone said:
this its called Airplay Mirroring as in Mirroring what you see on you mac on your TV
Click to expand...

images


hmm... I know...i was answering Posnera Question...
 
D

dynaflash

macrumors 68020
Mar 27, 2003
2,119
8
maturola said:
Airplay is NOT optimal to watch those MKVs, the audio is transmitted as stereo and the encoding will degrade the quality.
Click to expand...
Completely agree. In comparison to ripping it in high profile the encoding from airplay is wickedly nerfed down since it requires encoding in real time to be smooth. hence a hi profile HB encode maybe taking twice the actual running time whereas Airplay needs to do it in real time.
 
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