I love my Apple TV. I've jailbroken it, and I can play nearly every format with XBMC. The main reason I bought this was because of Airplay. For music, it's fantastic! For video though, not so much. Disclaimer: I realize that I may be doing something wrong, so my experience here is not an indicator of what may work for you.
The first couple days I had my ATV, I found it very strange that I was unable to easily 'send' a video on YouTube and other video sites from my MacBook to my ATV. Instead I had to grab a friend's iPod, navigate to a video on the YouTube app (which half the time it's not even there or ATV's YouTube section) and THEN Airplay the video.
In my Googling I've found a few potential things that were built to get over this problem, but in my experience all of them are broken/just don't work at all:
AirPlayer - This is the first thing I tried. This is an application you run from Terminal written in python. To get, for example, a YouTube video going you would enter this in the terminal:
After that it prompts you to select your Apple TV but in my experience this did not work at all. Upon selecting my ATV it would show an error on my TV. Note though, that I am running 4.4.4 and that I don't have experience with running terminal commands. I did follow the instructions listed, and it did not work for me, sadly. If anyone can give this a try let me know if this works for you.
ClickToPlugin Safari Extension - This thing was cool, but it's broken. Basically what it does is it disables Flash videos on certain sites like YouTube and Vimeo, opts for HTML5 and gives you the ability to just right click on the video and send it to your ATV. It works amazingly well - for about 30 seconds - and then cuts out. The FAQ on the website says this is a known issue:
This seems like the most seamless option and I may revert to 4.4.3 just to get this ability.
AirFlick - I haven't played with this too much, but it seems like it hasn't been touched by the developer in over a year and just didn't work when I gave it YouTube and Vimeo links.
Has anyone else found anything that works? Am I able to initiate a video via ssh in the terminal? I'm surprised no one has come forward with a chrome extension but then again I'm undermining the difficulty of making something like this. I just think it's strange that it's easier for me to start up a video with even my android phone than it is with my $1300 Apple laptop.
Any input appreciated!
The first couple days I had my ATV, I found it very strange that I was unable to easily 'send' a video on YouTube and other video sites from my MacBook to my ATV. Instead I had to grab a friend's iPod, navigate to a video on the YouTube app (which half the time it's not even there or ATV's YouTube section) and THEN Airplay the video.
In my Googling I've found a few potential things that were built to get over this problem, but in my experience all of them are broken/just don't work at all:
AirPlayer - This is the first thing I tried. This is an application you run from Terminal written in python. To get, for example, a YouTube video going you would enter this in the terminal:
Code:
python airplayer.py http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8To-6VIJZRE
ClickToPlugin Safari Extension - This thing was cool, but it's broken. Basically what it does is it disables Flash videos on certain sites like YouTube and Vimeo, opts for HTML5 and gives you the ability to just right click on the video and send it to your ATV. It works amazingly well - for about 30 seconds - and then cuts out. The FAQ on the website says this is a known issue:
“Whenever I send videos to my Apple TV, they stop playing automatically after a while!”
Apple TV software versions 4.4 and later are not compatible with the extension anymore. I’m hoping that this will be fixed in a future Apple TV software update, but in the meantime the only way to enjoy this feature is to downgrade the Apple TV software to version 4.3.
This seems like the most seamless option and I may revert to 4.4.3 just to get this ability.
AirFlick - I haven't played with this too much, but it seems like it hasn't been touched by the developer in over a year and just didn't work when I gave it YouTube and Vimeo links.
Has anyone else found anything that works? Am I able to initiate a video via ssh in the terminal? I'm surprised no one has come forward with a chrome extension but then again I'm undermining the difficulty of making something like this. I just think it's strange that it's easier for me to start up a video with even my android phone than it is with my $1300 Apple laptop.
Any input appreciated!
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