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tiptopp

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 15, 2008
232
2
Norwich, UK
I have, and love, Air Video, and use it all the time to watch video on my iPad from my Lion iMac. (I'm currently part way through Season 4 of Breaking Bad - it's brilliant!).

But when I want to Airplay the video to my Apple TV, it starts to go wrong.

I am assuming that Air Video streams the video from my iMac to my iPad2 and then my iPad streams it to my Apple TV. Which means that I'm having to go from A (iMac) to B (iPad) to C (ATV) using WiFi. With big files (fairly HD films), this often results in stuttering to the TV, although it doesn't to the iPad when I'm watching it on there.

So what I want to know is whether there's a way of streaming directly from A to C, while controlling it with B. As A and C are wired (through Homeplugs), this should be much better.

I know that I could convert for iTunes and use built-in functionality, but I haven't been patient enough for that. And I suppose that I'd consider Jailbreaking (if that's possible with the latest iOS). But is there an app that works as well as Air Video but allows direct streaming?

It may be, of course, that I've got it wrong, and Air Video does stream directly, in which case I have to go for conversion. But if not, please help!

Thanks,

Tiptopp
 

Pyromonkey83

macrumors 6502
May 24, 2009
325
0
You are correct, it goes A->B->C with AirVideo. The only way to do this without converting for iTunes is to jailbreak (cant jailbreak ATV3) and install XBMC.

Another slightly possible choice is to install Mountain Lion and use AirPlay mirroring to mirror your iMac's screen to your Apple TV, but this will only transfer stereo audio (not surround) and will probably end up looking a little funny.
 
Last edited:

tiptopp

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 15, 2008
232
2
Norwich, UK
You are correct, it goes A->B->C with AirVideo. The only way to do this without converting for iTunes is to jailbreak (cant jailbreak ATV3) and install XBMC.

Another slightly possible choice is to install Mountain Lion and use AirPlay mirroring to mirror your iMac's screen to your Apple TV, but this will only transfer stereo audio (not surround) and will probably end up looking a little funny.

Thanks Pyromonkey. Unfortunately my iMac won't take Mountain Lion (too old!) so that's not an option. Think I'm going to have to look at the JB route...

Thanks,
Tiptopp
 

nick_elt

macrumors 68000
Oct 28, 2011
1,578
0
I have, and love, Air Video, and use it all the time to watch video on my iPad from my Lion iMac. (I'm currently part way through Season 4 of Breaking Bad - it's brilliant!).

But when I want to Airplay the video to my Apple TV, it starts to go wrong.

I am assuming that Air Video streams the video from my iMac to my iPad2 and then my iPad streams it to my Apple TV. Which means that I'm having to go from A (iMac) to B (iPad) to C (ATV) using WiFi. With big files (fairly HD films), this often results in stuttering to the TV, although it doesn't to the iPad when I'm watching it on there.

So what I want to know is whether there's a way of streaming directly from A to C, while controlling it with B. As A and C are wired (through Homeplugs), this should be much better.

I know that I could convert for iTunes and use built-in functionality, but I haven't been patient enough for that. And I suppose that I'd consider Jailbreaking (if that's possible with the latest iOS). But is there an app that works as well as Air Video but allows direct streaming?

It may be, of course, that I've got it wrong, and Air Video does stream directly, in which case I have to go for conversion. But if not, please help!

Thanks,

Tiptopp

Why dont you just airplay straight from itunes? You dont need mountain lion i do this from my macbook early 2008 straight to my apple tv. Im I reading this wrong? Is it just the control that you also want from the ipad?

edit. re-read your post about 5 times and i get it now.... yeh i convert the vids but its not quick.
 

smiley311

macrumors newbie
Jun 23, 2010
5
0
use airparrot on your imac. it allows you to airplay your imac onto your apple tv. i have friends with Windows PCs that use it just fine also. Not sure of the exact specs needed but even with an older imac it should work i would think!
 

blueroom

macrumors 603
Feb 15, 2009
6,381
26
Toronto, Canada
Or get Netflix on your ATV3 and unblock-us.com as Breaking Bad S1-4 is available in the US.

PS Netflix can be paid via your iTunes cards.
 

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
use airparrot on your imac. it allows you to airplay your imac onto your apple tv. i have friends with Windows PCs that use it just fine also. Not sure of the exact specs needed but even with an older imac it should work i would think!
You think, wrong. Sorry.

It is actually an on-the-fly transcoder (converts whatever is on screen to h.264) which, to operate smoothly, requires a lot of CPU. New Mac models do better with it than earlier models (core duo, in particular). It's fine for just view something simple, like your desktop or youtubes. Get into movies or flash video (which is also CPU intensive) and you will see stuttering. Oh, and did I mention your home network bandwidth/speed requirements? I think you get the picture.

There is a reason Airplay is cool. They actually perform the same transcoding but with a dedicated high-speed chip so your CPU is not involved.
 

tiptopp

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 15, 2008
232
2
Norwich, UK
Thanks

Thank you all for your input to this. I think I'm going to have a go at the jailbreak route this weekend to see if I get on with XBMC or Plex. Seems to make more sense - and I hope that Apple eventually release SDKs for the ATV so that we can do this without the JB in future.

Cheers,

Tiptopp
 
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