"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.

[JGRE]

Originally Posted by ageorgios

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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Originally Posted by ghostshadow

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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Originally Posted by 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.

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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Originally Posted by 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.

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

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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Originally Posted by heisenberg123

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?

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Originally Posted by RealEyes

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.

[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]

Originally Posted by Beachguy

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.

[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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

[Richdmoore]

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

http://deals.macupdate.com/deal/1400...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]

Originally Posted by 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?

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.

[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

Beamer store link

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.