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Safari 5, AirPlay and AppleTV (oh my!)

F

Fofer

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 24, 2002
684
114
If you have Safari installed (on MacOS or Windows) and you have an 2nd gen AppleTV installed in your home, I heartily suggest that you install the just-released ClickToFlash 2.5.2 and MediaCenter 1.0.

In addition to providing lots more control over when/how Flash loads, these two extensions make it super easy to be able to send embedded web videos right from Safari's browser window via Airplay, for playback on your AppleTV. This works very well on nearly all video sites I've come across. This combination of software has certainly changed the way I check out videos online... so much nicer being able to flick them immediately for playback to the big screen TV in the room I'm sitting in....



Some notes:

You need to first enable the Airplay features via the extensions' preferences. Pull them up with a control click on any webpage. (There's a contextual menu item titled "ClickToFlash Preferences...") You identify your AppleTV (via IP address or hostname, in the General tab) and you enable the command to send via Airplay in the Media Player tab and/or the Shortcut Menu tab. Once set up, the new commands are available with a hover-click (left hand corner of the video) or a right-click to get the contextual menu.

The preferences for Media Center are simply in Safari -> Preferences -> Extensions tab. Media Center also enables a "Stop" button in your Safari toolbar, so you can easily stop playback of the video you've sent to the AppleTV.

Lastly... if it's not working with YouTube videos, make sure you're not in YouTube's "HTML5 Trial." Because that uses YouTube's HTM5 code and not Flash, so ClickToFlash doesn't kick in and MediaCenter doesn't replace the player UI. With YouTube using its default (Flash) config these extensions block the Flash, optionally replacing it with their own code, and an HTML5 media player that is Airplay-able.

Once set up, it all just works so seamlessly and feels like a dream. Living room convergence at its finest!
 
A

AirPlayJ

macrumors newbie
Sep 5, 2011
2
0
Why doesn't Apple include AirPlay support inside Safari? I was hoping they would with the release of OS X Lion... *sigh*
 
D

dgalvan123

macrumors 6502a
Feb 16, 2008
684
22
Does this work with network TV show websites? IE: could I use this to watch an ABC or TBS show from those network websites on my apple tv? Conan on TBS, for example?
 
N

newagemac

macrumors 68020
Mar 31, 2010
2,091
23
In iOS5, all videos in Safari are Airplay enabled by default. Even before iOS5 you could make them all enabled with a little bookmarklet. This is the first I've heard of enabling it in Safari on a computer though. Cool.
 
D

dgalvan123

macrumors 6502a
Feb 16, 2008
684
22
Ok so I tried this out tonight and I can confirm that it works with videos on break.com and facebook (and probably others I didn't try). You just have to right-click on the video and select "send via Airplay" and it will magically start playing on your apple tv. It's pretty neat, since once there you can use the ATV2 remote to control playback.

However, as suggested by peterjcat, it doesn't work on sites like TBS.com, nbc.com, etc. I tested with an episode of Conan. I was able to get the "send via Airplay" contextual menu to appear, and when I selected it, my appleTV appeared to start loading the video (spinning circle), but then I got the "An error occurrred loading this content" message on the ATV. Same thing with other network TV show sites.

In the Click2Flash preferences, there are several specific "Flash to HTML5" conversion scripts listed:
killers/YouTube.js
killers/Vimeo.js
killers/Dailymotion.js
killers/Facebook.js
killers/Break.js
killers/Blip.js
killers/Metacafe.js
killers/TED.js
killers/Tumblr.js
killers/Flash.js

I'm not sure, but I think this means that the specific sites listed have slightly different implementations of Flash, and when you visit those sites and select "send via Airplay", the appropriate javascript for that site converts the flash to HTML5, which can be airplayed. If you're visiting a flash site that is not listed, presumably, this won't work. (Anyone find an example of a flash video site not listed here that DOES work?)

So, while this doesn't let you watch TV Shows from network websites on your ATV, I do still find it pretty nifty. In reality, the only time I could see myself using this (given the limited number of sites it seems to work on) will be for facebook videos that friends post.
 
F

Fofer

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 24, 2002
684
114
There are some other Flash-heavy sites that work with this extension if you go to the Develop menu and choose User Agent -> iPad. Then the HTML5 version loads (if there is one) and then you can use the Send to Airplay menu item, and it works. (This is handled by the MediaCenter extension.)

A good example of a site this works with is theonion.com. Some other more (ahem) adult sites too.
 
Last edited:
F

Fofer

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 24, 2002
684
114
dgalvan123 said:
Ok so I tried this out tonight and I can confirm that it works with videos on break.com and facebook (and probably others I didn't try). You just have to right-click on the video and select "send via Airplay" and it will magically start playing on your apple tv.
Click to expand...

You can also hover over to the left of the media placeholder to bring up the "Source Selector" UI, and assuming you've enabled these options in the prefs for the extension, you can invoke them from there:

videos-20111003-110842.jpg


----------

That this works with YouTube covers a large majority of the video I find online.

Hopefully one day soon it will work with Vimeo too… lots of great content there. In the meantime what I do for Vimeo videos is, as I come across them online, I mark them as "Watch Later" and then I navigate to the Vimeo app on AppleTV, and pull up the "Watch Later" playlist and invoke it from there.

Also, I am finding some really great video aggregator sites out there, with plenty of embedded video, all which play pretty fantastically using this workflow. I find it much easier to scroll, browse and select videos to watch on the computer, and then send them to the TV to enjoy… as opposed to trying to do the same from my iPad.

So here are some well-done, somewhat-intelligently curated sites that I'm enjoying this way… if you know of others, please share!

http://devour.com/
http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/
http://stellar.io/interesting
 
D

darster

Suspended
Aug 25, 2011
1,703
1
I tried to set my imac up per instructions and it still doesn't give the option of airplay in the youtube videos or any other videos. I have tried to identify my apple tv by ip, and by hostname apple-tv.local and still nothing. I have no password for airplay on my apple tv and airplay is on. I have my apple tv connected to my airport extreme via ethernet.
 
F

Fofer

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 24, 2002
684
114
darster said:
I tried to set my imac up per instructions and it still doesn't give the option of airplay in the youtube videos or any other videos. I have tried to identify my apple tv by ip, and by hostname apple-tv.local and still nothing. I have no password for airplay on my apple tv and airplay is on. I have my apple tv connected to my airport extreme via ethernet.
Click to expand...

You also have to configure the ClickToFlash preferences. Control-click on any browser window and pull them up… enter the AppleTV hostname there too… and also enable the AirPlay options in the Media Player tab as well as the Shortcut Menu tab.
 
F

Fofer

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 24, 2002
684
114
If it's not showing the menu commands at all then you haven't enabled them. Refresh the page in question after doing so. Make your ClickToFlash is actually working. Be sure that you're not in YouTube's HTML5 Trial as I detailed in the first post.

Beyond that? Sorry, don't know what to tell ya then. It's worked fine for me and many systems I've installed it on...

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darster said:
Finally got it to work. apple-tv.local had to be changed to Apple-tv.local
Click to expand...

That would only prevent the "send to airplay" command from actually working; it wouldn't prevent the commands from displaying in the first place.

Glad you figured it out though.
 
D

darster

Suspended
Aug 25, 2011
1,703
1
Fofer said:
If it's not showing the menu commands at all then you haven't enabled them. Refresh the page in question after doing so. Make your ClickToFlash is actually working. Be sure that you're not in YouTube's HTML5 Trial as I detailed in the first post.

Beyond that? Sorry, don't know what to tell ya then. It's worked fine for me and many systems I've installed it on...

----------



That would only prevent the "send to airplay" command from actually working; it wouldn't prevent the commands from displaying in the first place.

Glad you figured it out though.
Click to expand...
Finally figured it out. Thanks for your help!
 
F

Fofer

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 24, 2002
684
114
jackapple said:
deleted
Click to expand...

You'd asked about live Ustream videos. Not sure why you deleted the question.

In any case, I am watching these on my AppleTV using this extension… the trick is to go to the Develop menu and choose User Agent -> iPad beforehand. Then the HTML5 version loads and then you can use the Send to Airplay contextual menu item, and it works. (This is handled by the MediaCenter extension.)
 
F

Fofer

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 24, 2002
684
114
shandyman said:
no-one got any solution for the 1 minute playing problem? :(
Click to expand...

Nope, that's weird, I've tested it successfully with videos that are 15, 30, 45 minutes long…


Are you able to do normal AirPlay (from iTunes) for more than a minute? How about streaming from video podcasts on the AppleTV itself?
 
D

dpierre

macrumors regular
Sep 6, 2007
115
0
Somewhere is the US
Does this work for anything other than you tube? I am trying mega video and other flash video sites and it is not working for me. It works fine for you tube, but that comes with the apple tv.
 
F

Fofer

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 24, 2002
684
114
dpierre said:
Does this work for anything other than you tube? I am trying mega video and other flash video sites and it is not working for me. It works fine for you tube, but that comes with the apple tv.
Click to expand...

Yes I have used this on many, many other sites, not just YouTube. It works on Facebook and Break.com and metacafe.com and Blip.com and and Ted.com and many more…

I have also gotten it to work with theonion.com and collegehumor.com and many other adult sites too.
(the simple trick with these is you have to go to the Develop menu and choose User Agent -> iPad beforehand. Then the HTML5 version loads and then you can use the Send to Airplay contextual menu item, and it works. This is handled by the MediaCenter extension.)

There are "killers" you can install for some other sites that do Flash/HTML5 replacements in their own way. Yes, there's a killer already being shared for Megavideo:
http://hoyois.github.com/safariextensions/clicktoplugin/killers.xhtml#database


Lastly, just because YouTube "comes with the AppleTV" that doesn't make this extensions' utility any less interesting. It's much easier to invoke playback from the computer browser where I come across videos… as opposed to having to search for it on the AppleTV itself, or mark it as a favorite and fish for it later.
 
D

dpierre

macrumors regular
Sep 6, 2007
115
0
Somewhere is the US
Fofer said:
Yes I have used this on many, many other sites, not just YouTube. It works on Facebook and Break.com and metacafe.com and Blip.com and and Ted.com and many more…

I have also gotten it to work with theonion.com and collegehumor.com and many other adult sites too.
(the simple trick with these is you have to go to the Develop menu and choose User Agent -> iPad beforehand. Then the HTML5 version loads and then you can use the Send to Airplay contextual menu item, and it works. This is handled by the MediaCenter extension.)

There are "killers" you can install for some other sites that do Flash/HTML5 replacements in their own way. Yes, there's a killer already being shared for Megavideo:
http://hoyois.github.com/safariextensions/clicktoplugin/killers.xhtml#database


Lastly, just because YouTube "comes with the AppleTV" that doesn't make this extensions' utility any less interesting. It's much easier to invoke playback from the computer browser where I come across videos… as opposed to having to search for it on the AppleTV itself, or mark it as a favorite and fish for it later.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I got it to work for The Onion using the iPad user agent method, but I still can't get Megavideo links or a lot of other flash vids to work, but I'll try the killer in the morning. I'm not sure if this is the problem for me. Thanks for the help. Also I wasn't taking anything away from this by saying YouTube comes with the AppleTV, I was just thinking it would be worthless to me if it didn't work with any other sites. I've been waiting for something like this because xbmc is just way too slow..
 
S

shandyman

Suspended
Apr 24, 2010
6,458
397
Dublin, Ireland
Fofer said:
Nope, that's weird, I've tested it successfully with videos that are 15, 30, 45 minutes long…


Are you able to do normal AirPlay (from iTunes) for more than a minute? How about streaming from video podcasts on the AppleTV itself?
Click to expand...

Normal airplay works fine as does streaming video on apple tv. Might try uninstalling and reinstalling it all
 
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