Apple Now Approving iOS 4.3-Compatible AirPlay Apps

[fpnc]

can't wait for AirPlay in Safari!

Yes, that could be great. Unfortunately, it will require that the websites specifically enable AirPlay support which I suspect won't happen in many cases. Some will block it through an intentional omission of the AirPlay code and others will just fail to enable it out of pure neglect. I suspect that very little of the so-called premium content on the internet will work because it will either be in the wrong format (must be HTML5/H.264) or it will be blocked by the content owners. It fact, it will probably be difficult to find any websites that will work, at least initially.

 

[Jimmy James]

You can already stream video to iOS with Air Video.

 

[pmz]

Sorry I don't understand. I have a HTPC which plays everything available on my local network server. I don't follow what this is going to fix or do for me. Thanks.

Try doing 5 minutes of reading. And losing the sarcastic attitude.

Airplay has a lot more to it than streaming from iOS. It's also streaming from a Mac. It's getting anything onto your TV, wirelessly.

Whatever disjointed setup you have that accomplishes some streaming, congratulations. You and millions of others.

 

[pmz]

That's an interesting observation (is it really true?) since you can find a good number of posts from Apple TV users who claim that the Apple TV can't even display 720p reliably (that is, without the TV experiencing random stutters). No doubt, the Apple TV 2 will accept 1080p sources right now (just as on my iPad) but I've read a number of reports from users who say that while 1080p will decode it won't play flawlessly.

Frankly, I don't expect support for 1080p playback on the Apple TV until next year, and that will require upgraded hardware (i.e. Apple TV 3, using a dual-core ARM9 CPU/GPU). That is probably when Apple will finally get serious about apps on the Apple TV -- right now I think they are too busy with the iPad and iPhone to be worried about the Apple TV. However, with just about every other TV platform supporting apps I think Apple will eventually be forced to do the same. Although AirPlay will become a great feature as soon as the content providers begin to support it (or more correctly, if they decide to support it -- not all will enable AirPlay because of licensing restrictions), I really believe that apps will need to come directly to the Apple TV. If apps don't come within the next year then I'd say that the Apple TV is going to fall prey to the smart TVs.

Why don't you buy one and find out? Using Apple support forums to gauge a product is worthless. It works fine with anything thrown at it. Zero issues.

Nothing can be done for morons who don't plug their hdmi cable in properly.

 

[pmz]

Yes, that could be great. Unfortunately, it will require that the websites specifically enable AirPlay support which I suspect won't happen in many cases. Some will block it through an intentional omission of the AirPlay code and others will just fail to enable it out of pure neglect. I suspect that very little of the so-called premium content on the internet will work because it will either be in the wrong format (must be HTML5/H.264) or it will be blocked by the content owners. It fact, it will probably be difficult to find any websites that will work, at least initially.

Oh really? Oddly enough I've been using it for weeks. With every streamable video I can find. No big deal at all. Jailbreak > install tweak.

If you actually want to use the product you own, find out how. Otherwise you're just whining for others to do it for you.

 

[ipedro]

Yes, that could be great. Unfortunately, it will require that the websites specifically enable AirPlay support which I suspect won't happen in many cases. Some will block it through an intentional omission of the AirPlay code and others will just fail to enable it out of pure neglect. I suspect that very little of the so-called premium content on the internet will work because it will either be in the wrong format (must be HTML5/H.264) or it will be blocked by the content owners. It fact, it will probably be difficult to find any websites that will work, at least initially.

You don't seem to know how AirPlay works. Apple only needs to enable AirPlay in Quicktime for it to work for any video played on your Mac or iOS device. As long as websites have video that plays in Quicktime, they have no say whether or not AirPlay works with their site.

 

[fpnc]

Why don't you buy one and find out? Using Apple support forums to gauge a product is worthless. It works fine with anything thrown at it. Zero issues.

Nothing can be done for morons who don't plug their hdmi cable in properly.

Oh really? Oddly enough I've been using it for weeks. With every streamable video I can find. No big deal at all. Jailbreak > install tweak.

If you actually want to use the product you own, find out how. Otherwise you're just whining for others to do it for you.

Where did I say that I don't own an Apple TV? In fact, I own three, I purchased a first generation Apple TV during the first week of availability in 2007 and got my second generation Apple TV on the first day of availability this past October, and as you could have noticed I've recently posted that I've seen no problem with 720p playback on my Apple TV 2. I guess you're just having a bad day, otherwise, I can find no excuse for your rude and somewhat childish posts.

As far as how AirPlay will work, I haven't jailbroken any of my iOS devices, haven't seen any good reason to do so since you can pretty much accomplish anything of true value just by knowing your way around the Mac and your iOS devices. However, suggesting jailbreaking as a general guide for just any user to make use of a feature really doesn't count in my playbook. Right now I can only go by what Apple has said about the AirPlay implementation in the beta release of iOS 4.3, to quote an iOS developer (my emphasis on the section that supports my previous post):

In any case, despite having support for AirPlay directly in Mobile Safari, web sites must explicitly turn it on for each video since it is off by default. A special option in both the Quicktime plugin element, and the HTML5 <video> tag controls whether or not AirPlay will be allowed:

Quicktime: <embed src="sample.mov" width="160" height="144" airplay="allow"></embed>
HTML5: <video src="sample.mov" width="160" height="144" x-webkit-airplay="allow"></video>

This of course means that a lot of the bigger websites may simply never opt-in to AirPlay streaming, however it’s quite likely that jailbreakers will be able to turn on AirPlay even for sites that specifically disable it.

Wow, I think pmz has just been pwned. And for iPedro, thanks for your input but as you can see from above I was correct in my original post.

 

[fpnc]

You can already stream video to iOS with Air Video.

Well, actually it can be even easier than that (for those who don't mind executing a few very simple terminal commands). Mac OS X's Web Sharing feature allows you to stream video (even iTunes protected content) from any Mac to any of the iOS devices that run Safari (no hacks, jailbreaks, or third-party apps or utilities required). The user interface isn't that great since you must select from a simple list of files but it works very well during playback (full screen and with the standard playback controls). It also has practically no impact on the host Mac, nothing to install, just enable Apple's own Web Sharing feature. Furthermore, the overhead during streaming is practically non-existant on the Mac and I've even been able to run multiple, concurrent video streams from a single PowerPC Mac mini (the latter is my general-purpose, always-on iTunes server).

I wouldn't suggest this technique as your only means of streaming video, but it's free, it works (on a Mac, sorry PC users), and it's been the only way that I've been able to stream my iTunes protected content to my iPhone and iPad for the last year.

 

[diamond.g]

Sorry but you are wrong. Apple introduced the Airport Express with Airtunes in 2004. There were no DLNA products until after Apple introduced Airtunes. DLNA certainly was a response to Airtunes. Also, one of the worst things about the DLNA "spec" is that it really isn't a spec because with so many manufacturers involved they couldn't agree on many things and so left the spec rather open. The result is that there are many different implementations of DLNA and they are fully not compatible with each other which defeats the whole purpose. That's why a device that is supposed to "support" DLNA from one company often doesn't work well with a device that "supports" DLNA from another company. And often they won't even work at all.

There are far more issues with using DLNA compared to Airplay for this very reason. Common sense will tell you that one manufacturer controlling the spec, the software, and the hardware can easily produce an implementation that works better and more reliably. And streaming is one of those instances where Apple's model really works out far better.

Have you even tried out Airplay and compared it to DLNA? Have you compared the playback controls? Have tested to see how fast the videos start up? How well the fast forwarding and rewinding work? How well slow motion works or skipping forward and backward deep into the stream?

I am almost certain you haven't because these are all things that make it very clear to see that Airplay is superior to DLNA.

According to Wiki that isn't true either. DLNA (was called Digital Home Working Group) was released June of 2003. A full year before AirTunes debuted. What could be seen as correct is that Sony changed the name of DHWG to DLNA in June of 2004.