ATV can stream your movies, why can't anything else?

Well, it is just the way that it is. I wonder myself too.

like anything else., it is all about money.

Content providers don't want you to do that, they want you at the TV. it's a licensing issue, I am sure Apple is working on it, we shall see soon.

It make no sense to me either, I can't wait for all those old crazy people holding the keys to pass the torch to younger generation that actually understands technology

If you have a copy on your home network you can stream to any device. If you don't want arbitrary limitations on how you can use your media stay off apple's servers.

Alternatively you could use plex and learn how to port forward.

I've been able to stream my home movies to my ipads and iphones for over 2 years.

Mad Mac Maniac said:

By anything else I mean iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

If streaming is allowed on the ATV why can't we stream movies from the cloud on our other devices? I don't have enough room on my iPhone or iPad to store an entire Movie!

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I agree. They should let us stream without downloading on the iOS devices, for both movies/TV shows and music (including iTunes Match).

It should also be possible to buy content that is available in the cloud without forcing you to download it to your computer the next time you start iTunes ...

sim667 said:

Alternatively you could use plex and learn how to port forward.

I've been able to stream my home movies to my ipads and iphones for over 2 years.

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If the OP is looking to stream from the cloud than he's speaking of iTunes purchased movies which unfortunately cannot be played via PLEX.

Take a look at Airvideo. You can stream movies and TV shows to your iPad and iPhone. I use it on my LAN, you can also stream across the web but thatbisnin beta right now.

davids8477 said:

Take a look at Airvideo. You can stream movies and TV shows to your iPad and iPhone. I use it on my LAN, you can also stream across the web but thatbisnin beta right now.

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Airvideo is very good (and presumably can stream across the web but success is largely dependent on your bandwidth). But within your own network homesharing does stream to iOS devices by accessing iTunes content under the "shared" tab in the video/music app (unless using non-standard containers/formats).

Sedulous said:

Airvideo is very good (and presumably can stream across the web but success is largely dependent on your bandwidth). But within your own network homesharing does stream to iOS devices by accessing iTunes content under the "shared" tab in the video/music app (unless using non-standard containers/formats).

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A tech at the Genius bar said air video is one of those little gems all ATV owners should look at.

davids8477 said:

Take a look at Airvideo. You can stream movies and TV shows to your iPad and iPhone. I use it on my LAN, you can also stream across the web but thatbisnin beta right now.

Click to expand...

Ginginca said:

A tech at the Genius bar said air video is one of those little gems all ATV owners should look at.

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Air Video, like PLEX, is a great app IF you're not dealing with iTunes purchased video (as suggested in OP), otherwise it's useless.

Ginginca said:

A tech at the Genius bar said air video is one of those little gems all ATV owners should look at.

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As the above post noted, Air Video is a great app (along with its host service that must be installed on a computer). I think the best thing about it is that it does on the fly conversion of just about any format (mp4, avi, wmv, flv, etc).

What it does not do is organize media in any way. It simply displays a thumbnail and file name of videos located in folders on the host computer. The ATV2 does have a much nicer interface.

Both approaches allow streaming to an iOS device so it is just a question of what formats are on hand. Usually if I already have an mp4/v I throw it into iTunes and stream it to iOS devices, otherwise I tend to use Air Video.