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AirPlay - fairly useless
- Thread starter owen-b
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HTPC*
Home Theater Personal Computer. Using HTC will get it confused with the company.
What would be cool if there was a wireless feature whether through air play or not to watch the abc app or Filmon.com (you can watch various tv shows here on the iPad as it's designed for it now) and wirelessly transmit the sin gal to the tv without having to have apple tv or having the ipad plugged in through the VGA cable.
Correct. Video will not stream. Sound probably will though.
ATV2 will never support those formats officially, ever, if Apple's history of approving those formats for its other iOS devices (and iTunes) is anything to go by.
That feature is pretty much exactly the feature we're all bemoaning the lack of - ability to Airplay other video apps than Apple's own.
EDIT: actually, re-reading, you basically want to Airplay to a telly without having an AppleTV and that's only going to happen if televisions start building Airplay receivers into their hardware. Unlikely at this stage, I'd say, but I feel like Apple might go in that direction in the future as hifi manufacturers are building audio Airplay receivers into some of their new products.
Seeing as the TV networks in the USA are banning GoogleTV's browser from accessing their own on-demand websites so that they can't be played on a regular TV (as opposed to laptop, computer, etc), I doubt Apple will ever allow its own MobileSafari browser to Airplay streaming net videos to an AppleTV unit. I suspect this reason may be partly behind the inability for developers to add Airplay to their own apps at the moment, too.
I wasn't saying I could Airplay Netflix. I was saying that when I first turned on my newly updated ATV where I usually have the ATV logo above Movies - Internet - Computer - Settings menus, I had movie posters advertising Netflix content, which puzzled me as I'm in the UK and we don't even have Netflix available to us (annoyingly!). I've just turned it on to check and I now have the ATV logo as normal. I think perhaps my freshly updated and not-connected-to-the-internet-yet ATV assumed I was in the USA and showed me the ads for that reason.
I said "I'd say". It's my experience. My opinion. Based on people I know. "I'd say" should effectively communicate that, and if it didn't I do apologise, but it's nice to internet snark is alive and well
On a less confrontational note, you wrote:
I've made the point that the marquee functionality it offers (streaming from iOS devices to AppleTV) is indeed fantastic, especially when taken to its logical conclusion, being able to stream ANYTHING that plays on those devices to the ATV> But it doesn't do that. Sadly, the video streaming side of things caters only for those who use iTunes entirely. My point is that in my own experience few people I know do that. People have *some* videos in there, sure, but I don't think nearly as many people use iTunes this way for video media as use iPhoto for organising their photos, for example (something else I avoid where possible but that's another story).
This entire thread is about how Airplay is a letdown, not about the experiences of those who buy all their movies and TV shows through iTunes, or painstakingly and timeconsumingly convert all their non-compatible videos into the right format. I appreciate some people do this, and for them Airplay must be effing wonderful. For everyone else, especially those who have been avidly enjoying the expandability of the iPad's video playback functionality through 3rd Party apps, it's a disappointment.
I did post questions to those for whom Airplay is ust fine the way it is, because I'm interested in how those people acquire, purchase and consume their video, because it's so very different to the way my friends and I acquire, purchase and consume video. I'm particularly interested in those people who will buy something, keep it on their Mac, copy it to their iPad, start to watch it on the iPad and then want to watch more on their TV. I can see very limited use cases for those (start watching on the train/plane, finish at home being one; start watching on iPad because other half wants to watch X Factor, finish watching on ATV when it's available being another) and I would like to know more about the habits of people for whom this describes their usage.
I also question the big WOW factor of picking up where you left off. I mean it's convenient, but it's a big fuss over a feature that is only moderately more convenient that just using the ATV to stream the movie from your Mac that you were watching on the iPad. Picking up where you left off appears to be the only advantage of Airplay here. Just seems a waste of potential.
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I said "I'd say". It's my experience. My opinion. Based on people I know. "I'd say" should effectively communicate that, and if it didn't I do apologise, but it's nice to internet snark is alive and well
You brought it on yourself. You could have titled the thread "Airplay - fairly uselss to me"
Obviously your particular use case is particular, too bad for you, but honestly there are lots of solutions such as Airfoil, fixing your airport express or buying an Apple TV2.
I'll try these.
1) I have a reasonable selection of music and often a couple of videos on them.
2) As above
3) Mainly ripped CD's/DVD's with a few iTunes purchases
4) I usually charge from my MacBook Pro daily and therefore sync most days.
5) This can depend. I can sometimes go a week or two without doing so, but then have a week where I do most days. I do use the content on my iPhone/iPad more when I'm away from home.
6) I haven't, but I have previously taken CD's/DVDs to peoples house to watch. If they had an Apple TV (big if I know) then I wouldn't now need to take the disk.
I have to say that since I upgraded by iPad to 4.2 a couple of weeks ago, I have used airplay a number of times to stream audio to my Apple TV. I have a smaller selection of music on my iPad than on our iMac, so if I shuffle from there then I get a rather more "refined" selection. I know that a playlist would do the job, but I don't need to set up that playlist now.
Last night, we had a guest round and we spent quite a fun half hour all finding our favourite YouTube clips on our phones and using Airplay to show them on the big screen. It was very handy that we weren't fighting over the keyboard. I'm not a big YouTube user, and I have to say seemed a really fun way of using it.
We will have to see what happens with third party Apps. Overall, I agree that at present Airplay is limited and only offers a few benefits. It's far too early to judge where it's going to end up though.