AirFlick Offers Video Streaming from Mac to Apple TV over AirPlay

[morespce54]

I still am having some trouble understanding this whole AirPlay thing. So does this mean I can't stream movies taken from my iPhone since it wasn't purchased from the store?

As mentioned above, you can play anything that is in your iTunes (or iPhoto) library (purchased or not - so no, not directly from your iPhone/iPod... yet). If your movies (pictures, music, etc.) don't come from the iTMS, you'll likely have to convert them first (into a iTunes compatible format) to get them into your iTunes library...

 

[Westside guy]

I'm confused...i thought Macs can already stream to Apple TV (even 1st gen ATVs) via iTunes? What's the big news here - other than streaming from non-local sources?

iTunes is a bloated pig - having to keep it running just to send videos to the AppleTV is silly. And, as others have noted, you could theoretically have this as part of a program that'd also offer transcoding, a la pyTivo and streambaby (for Tivo) or MediaLink (for PS3).

 

[ferrous]

Use your Xbox or PS3 and you'll be surprised

NullRiver MediaLink both for Xbox and PS3 will stream your media files from your computer. And a bonus, you don't need to have the media in iTunes, just store them in a folder or anywhere.

Apple TV is not impressive at all

 

[qrayg]

I've never once had a need to stream from my Mac to the TV. If it's on my Mac it's probably already on my TV.

What I really want is to stream movies FROM my TV or Mac TO my iPhone. It'd be great to save spacing on my iOS device and just stream the content when I need it.

 

[manu chao]

Now, if AirFlick indeed transcoded non-H.264 video into compatible format and streamed it via AirPlay - that would actually be useful.

What I really want is to stream movies FROM my TV or Mac TO my iPhone. It'd be great to save spacing on my iOS device and just stream the content when I need it.

There already is an app that transcodes video live and streams it to iOS devices which can run a companion app (ie, iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad):
http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/index.html
Combining this with AirFlick should not be too difficult from a programming point of view.

 

[thetaylor13]

I'm sorry but Apple TV is a retarded product, my PS3 has been streaming videos, photos, etc. to my TV for years now. I'm very confused what Apple TV is for. I can rent, stream videos from Netflix, or even my Satellite provider, too... It's nothing but a waste of money.

A PS3 is $299 correct? And works on one television correct? Or you could provide the content to 3 TV's for $297 with AppleTVs.

I see that as an advantage, no?

 

[mcdermd]

IWhat I really want is to stream movies FROM my TV or Mac TO my iPhone.

^ This.

I want Home Sharing on my iPad to play iTunes media from my iMac without syncing. This is the way I use my first generation TVs currently. No local storage is used. This is the way the second generation TV works. Bring it to iPhone, iPod and iPad already.

 

[mdwsta4]

but no .avi files, right? bah, that's all i want to be able to do with my ATV! whether it's directly from my mac, an external hard drive, or my ipad/iphone. let me stream .avi video files!

 

[leukotriene]

I did it! Here's how to hook up AirVideo server with AirFlick

Ok, by doing this hack, you can stream ANY video format sitting on your Mac to your AppleTV. I'm testing out an mkv file right now, and it works like a charm!

Download the unofficial Mac AirVideo client here:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6713110/MacAirVideoClient/Site/Download.html

Start playback of a video using live conversion from within this unofficial client, it should hand off the streaming video to Quicktime X.

Inspect the stream by viewing the Movie Inspector (check the "Window" menu for Quicktime). Write down that url.

Paste that url into Erica Sadun's Airflick app and boom now your AppleTV can basically play any video you throw at it! Looking forward to someone streamlining the process into a neat little app.

I'm considering reposting this in the TUAW comments in case anyone else finds it handy.

OPTIONAL
One extra little note: you don't have to necessarily download the unofficial Mac AirVideo client above. You can instead begin playback of a video from within the AirVideo iphone app, then go to the mac serving up the stream, and type "ps ax | grep ffmpeg", and grab the alphanumeric string following the --conversion-id flag.

Then paste into AirFlick the following:
http://[YOUR-SERVER'S-IP-ADDRESS]:45631/live-playback-2.4.0/index_[CONVERSION-ID].m3u8

 

[Bregalad]

No it doesn't - according to the article, only ATV-compatible H.264 video is supported. Now, if AirFlick indeed transcoded non-H.264 video into compatible format and streamed it via AirPlay - that would actually be useful.

And there is the key fact. Apple will never open the Apple TV to non approved formats.

Apple likes to have little walled gardens especially when they believe the number of people willing to live in the garden exceed the number who want freedom.

They're probably right about the numbers, but it sure annoys the people who don't want to live in the garden all the time.

I don't understand why you need a video processor in your streaming box if your content is coming from a computer. The computer should do all the hard work of decoding the video. Your TV box should act like a second display plugged into your computer, only with a wireless connection in place of an HDMI cable. Does anyone sell such a thing?

 

[fpnc]

...What I really want is to stream movies FROM my TV or Mac TO my iPhone. It'd be great to save spacing on my iOS device and just stream the content when I need it.

You can already stream from a Mac to the iPhone -- just use Mac OS X's built-in Web Sharing. Details here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=11573992&#post11573992

A second option is to use a PogoPlug which also allows you to stream over the internet (using an iPad/iPhone on 3G or with a remote WiFi hotspot). I just recently purchased a PogoPlug and I'm still experimenting with that device (prices range from $70 to $100 U.S. -- mine is the so-called "Pro" model at $99). The PogoPlug seems to work fairly well using its web interface, but I can't get the PogoPlug iPhone/iPad app to work as both of those apps just crash as soon as I try to access any of the content that is stored on the hard drive that is attached to the PogoPlug. The only real problem with the web interface is that it can be a little slow or clunky when trying to browse your content. However, once I start the video it seems to work fine on my iPad.

I've successfully streamed video content out over my slow DSL uplink (measured 420Kbps) and viewed same on my iPad's 3G connection. I also viewed video that was stored back at my home on the PogoPlug while I was using a WiFi connection in another city. Of course, for remote or 3G viewing the video needs to be compressed down below you ISP's uplink limit (a bit of an issue on my slow 420Kbps uplink, but if you have a fast uplink connection to the internet it shouldn't be a problem). In any case, while on my local network -- in the home -- there is no such limit to the data rate of the videos (for rapid access they only need to be iOS compatible, even 720p works). PogoPlug even offers a built-in video translation feature but I think it only works for data rate conversion (and it's slow).

As yet, because of some bugs and stability issues, I can't whole-heartedly recommend a PogoPlug but it is an interesting device. Its ability to stream to the iPad/iPhone is just icing on a cake that seems to be a little bit uncooked at this time (by "uncooked" I'm referring to the PogoPlug software/firmware).

 

[Bregalad]

I've never once had a need to stream from my Mac to the TV. If it's on my Mac it's probably already on my TV.

What I really want is to stream movies FROM my TV or Mac TO my iPhone. It'd be great to save spacing on my iOS device and just stream the content when I need it.

To each his own. I can't imagine wanting to watch anything on a 3.5" screen when the alternatives are a 21.5" computer display or big screen TV.

I also cannot understand your concern about using up space on your iPhone when the alternative is using gigs of bandwidth every month. It'll cost you a lot less in the long run to get an iPhone with more storage than to pay AT&T for all that bandwidth.

Finally I cannot understand how you can possibly have content on your TV. The current model has no storage capability.

 

[The General]

It's good news because it means that AirPlay has been reverse engineered and we are one step closer to AirPlay being in the video devices menu in VLC.

On-the-fly transcoding of any media to AirPlay format and beaming from Mac to the AppleTV is going to be the ****.

 

[Bevz]

Brilliant stuff! Now apple, all is ask is allow iPhone to act as an airplay client and let me stream BBC iplayer via apple tv and you've got a sale... Until then I'll stick to my first gen ATV.

 

[fpnc]

...I don't understand why you need a video processor in your streaming box if your content is coming from a computer. The computer should do all the hard work of decoding the video. Your TV box should act like a second display plugged into your computer, only with a wireless connection in place of an HDMI cable. Does anyone sell such a thing?

Surely you jest, as it would be a little difficult to stream fully uncompressed video over a standard WiFi connection. However, wireless HDMI is being developed and currently marketed ( http://www.amazon.com/Gefen-EXT-WHD...BPPM/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1292891494&sr=8-6 ), but YMMV as to its cost and usability. There is also Intel's WiDi but the adapter box for WiDi (that thing you connect to the TV) is just about as expensive as the new Apple TV (and I'm pretty certain that WiDi makes heavy use of compression, so it doesn't fit your decoding model). There are also devices that will re-transmit analog video wirelessly to a receiver box on your TV, Radio Shack use to sell one for not very much money and the quality was okay (for analog SD content).

 

[fpnc]

Brilliant stuff! Now apple, all is ask is allow iPhone to act as an airplay client and let me stream BBC iplayer via apple tv and you've got a sale... Until then I'll stick to my first gen ATV.

First you need to convince the BBC to allow that, then maybe Apple can support it. I suspect that the content producers and the content rights are the major roadblock to the future of AirPlay. Just look at what happened to the Google TV, I believe that every major network (except perhaps one) has blocked content from the Google TV. If Apple tried something similar with AirPlay I would expect similar results (at least as it stands today, we can only hope that eventually the media companies will change their antiquated and customer-unfriendly ways).

 

[sighlent]

I'm going to stick with my WDTV Live Plus. Works great, plays everything I want from my file server over 802.11n, streams Netflix. The interface isn't as great as the ATV but definitely good enough.

 

[mrial]

It's good news because it means that AirPlay has been reverse engineered and we are one step closer to AirPlay being in the video devices menu in VLC.

On-the-fly transcoding of any media to AirPlay format and beaming from Mac to the AppleTV is going to be the ****.

I agree. This thing is a diamond in the rough! No more manually converting (in the future) and no more importing into iTunes ... just drag and drop and hit play.

 

[Jeremy1026]

Dear Erica,

Thanks for being awesome, but...please rotate your phone before shooting a video.

 

[pruppert]

Ok, by doing this hack, you can stream ANY video format sitting on your Mac to your AppleTV. I'm testing out an mkv file right now, and it works like a charm!

Download the unofficial Mac AirVideo client here:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6713110/MacAirVideoClient/Site/Download.html

Start playback of a video using live conversion from within this unofficial client, it should hand off the streaming video to Quicktime X.

Inspect the stream by viewing the Movie Inspector (check the "Window" menu for Quicktime). Write down that url.

Paste that url into Erica Sadun's Airflick app and boom now your AppleTV can basically play any video you throw at it! Looking forward to someone streamlining the process into a neat little app.

I'm considering reposting this in the TUAW comments in case anyone else finds it handy.

OPTIONAL
One extra little note: you don't have to necessarily download the unofficial Mac AirVideo client above. You can instead begin playback of a video from within the AirVideo iphone app, then go to the mac serving up the stream, and type "ps ax | grep ffmpeg", and grab the alphanumeric string following the --conversion-id flag.

Then paste into AirFlick the following:
http://[YOUR-SERVER'S-IP-ADDRESS]:45631/live-playback-2.4.0/index_[CONVERSION-ID].m3u8

Dude. Thanks. Here's hoping to having this rolled into Erica's app.

 

[pruppert]

I've never used the Mac air video client before. Do I need to set up a server or something? I am not able to play a video with the app.

 

[fpnc]

I've never used the Mac air video client before. Do I need to set up a server or something? I am not able to play a video with the app.

You need the AirVideo server that can be downloaded from their website. Given that (running on your Mac/PC) and the AirVideo client app you should be able to stream video to your iPhone/iPad or try the AirFlick hack.

 

[pruppert]

I have the server. What do I type into the unofficial client app to get it to play the video? Or if I'm streaming to the iPhone app per the second method, just where exactly on the Mac do I type "ps ax | grep ffmpeg"? In safari, spotlight (sarcasm)? I guess I'm a noob.

 

[ten-oak-druid]

Maybe they can get Gilbert Gottfried to play a duck yelling "Airflick"!

 

[leukotriene]

I have the server. What do I type into the unofficial client app to get it to play the video? Or if I'm streaming to the iPhone app per the second method, just where exactly on the Mac do I type "ps ax | grep ffmpeg"? In safari, spotlight (sarcasm)? I guess I'm a noob.

Sorry bro, I wasn't very specific. You type in ps ax | grep ffmpeg into terminal, running on the Mac that is serving up the stream. The pain with that method is that you have to initiate streaming on the iPhone app.

That unofficial client I linked to is nice because it can initiate the streaming without ever having to open (or even install) the iPhone app. Just click the button that says "servers", and add your server (if you generated a Server PIN from within the AirVideo Server's preferences, it'll make it easier to retrieve your server's credentials--just type the PIN into the box asking for the PIN and click "Retrieve"). After adding your server, click "Connect" in the main window, and select a video. In the application slide-out drawer, click "Play with Live Conversion"...this will open the video in QuickTime X. Then get the url of that stream by clicking Window-->Show Movie Properties. Type that url into Erica Sadun's app and you're good to go.