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4$ is a lot when considering the margins mfg are working under for the average consumer model (sub 1k). I just don't see why they don't give it away

so you work in the consumer electronics manufacturing industry? tell us more.
 
Thats a tough one...while a non-apple device will sell better with an airplay compatible badge, its hard to argue that the opposite will drive more sales of iPads. Sorry folks, pay the Apple.

this is a brilliant idea... but honestly, i would let competitors struggle for another 8 years before i let AIRPLAY on other devices...

b/c this could potentially generate interest in competitors... or it could allow apple to pull profits from competitors who will ultimately FAIL to generate enough interest

think about it... other competitors would probably get their devices integrated with itunes so that they can HOME SHARE AIRPLAY to their phones/tablets/etc..

apple will make a profit for just providing access to airplay.... the problem is if if the competitor becomes more popular or as popular as apple... would the competitor throw apple a bone?! i dont think so
 
Why don't they just use existing standards? RTSP, H.264/MPEG4 video and bonjour. There. No licensing required.

But no.

Apple pulls the "standards compliant" flag out of their asses only when it suits them. Boo.

if it was that simple, somebody else would be doing it. it isnt, and they arent.
 
If the goal of Apple software is to sell Apple hardware, wouldn't it make more sense to give the airplay licenses away rather than trying to sell them?


You are looking at this from a "buying new products" position. What about all of those people who already own Roku and Boxee set-top systems? Those boxes are fully updatable and capable of playing back the exact same content the AppleTV can play (MPEG4, AAC, MP3, H.264, etc).

And for people that already own those, NONE of them would switch to an AppleTV. Reason: Roku and Boxee have far more features, save one (AirPlay), and AirPlay alone is not worth $99 to most of those Roku and Boxee owners.

I own a Roku so I can connect it to not only my HDTV in my living room, but move it to my old CRT television in my bedroom (via Component/Composite cables) as well as to hotel TVs when I bring it with me on vacations or out-of-town trips. I would love for AirPlay video to be supported on it.
 
Apple is all for open standards...except when they are not.

A little like Microsoft. Embrace and extend...

:)

Of course, this isn't really about open standards. Last I checked, H264 video has no encryption associated with it per se. You have to add your own on top.

That's what everyone is doing, Netflix, Amazon, etc. Netflix licenses theirs already, Apple will do so too.
 
While they're at it, why don't they just integrate the whole Apple TV GUI into the TV and get rid of the crappy TV GUIs?

Motorola ROKR.


It's conceivable that they'd license AirPlay because, well, on the display end, it's simple and doesn't involve an interface. It's like plugging in a screen or speakers, only wireless. But there's no way in hell Apple is going to leave any aspect of the rest of the "Apple TV" user experience in another manufacturer's hands. Not again, and not when they can sell the Apple TV for only $100. If the interface shows an Apple logo and lets your browse your iTunes library, it's going to be a 100% Apple product.
 
5 years ago Apple was pushing open standards with no licensing require (ie, zeroconf) and no one would buy in. Now they offer a standard with a fraction of the capability and charge for it and everyone wants it.

There's a world of difference between extending basic Internet protocols and making a method for streaming videos to set-top devices that actually just works.

The former *has* to be open and license-free to gain any level of traction or standardization, and Apple has done a good job with it -- the drafts for mDNS and DNS-SD (which combine to make Bonjour) are both still active and standards-tracked at IETF. Expect them to become full RFC internet standards before long.

The latter generally means selling a chip (or licensing its design) to other manufacturers. There's both the expectation that this is how things are done, and likely a legal need to charge for it to cover patent licensing fees.
 
Why don't they just use existing standards? RTSP, H.264/MPEG4 video and bonjour. There. No licensing required.

But no.

Apple pulls the "standards compliant" flag out of their asses only when it suits them. Boo.

Umm. You almost did just describe AirPlay. It *is* based on Bonjour and H.264/MPEG4 video.

For control and transport they didn't go with RTSP+RTP -- which has limitations around firewalls, proxies, CDNs, and more importantly, encryption/DRM -- and instead used HTTP Live Streaming, which Apple openly submitted to the IETF a couple years ago, and has been undergoing standardization since.

And that's most of what there is to it. The only novel stuff is in the way Bonjour is used for this, and that was easily reverse engineered, which is how you now have software like AirPlayer (for OS X) and AirViewer (for iOS) which act as Apple TV-like AirPlay displays.

... But only for DRM-free videos. Anything that's wrapped in Fairplay (iTunes' DRM) can, as always, only be played back by official Apple-sanctioned software/devices.
 
I think it could be a real winner all round.

More and more TVs are being sold as "Internet Ready." The problem is, on most of them the implementation and user experience is horrible. Half of them require a CAT5 wired connection to your network. And the other half need optional Wi-Fi adapter. Most consumers have neither the time, skill, nor patience to buy, install, and configure them.

Then there is the issue of usability. It is awkward and time-consuming to try and navigate text boxes using most TV remotes.

Apple licensing AirPlay as a means of letting TVs show YouTube content, plus stream photos, music, and video content on your home pc or iPad/iPhone would be a tremendous feature for TV makers to sell.

The interesting question would be whether or not Apple licensed AirPlay to device makers of Android or Windows phones and tablets. This seems much less likely.
 
What I mean is that DLNA seems to be always used in the context of "I am here, and my media is over there". For example, I have music or movies stored on a remote server or a NAS, and I want to bring it into the device I'm currently sitting at (a TV, an iPod or iPad, a PS3, another computer).

Whereas AirPlay seems to be the opposite: "My media is here, but I want to play it over there". You use AirPlay to redirect the audio/video output from your iPhone or iPad or computer to a remote A/V device like your stereo receiver or Apple TV.

DLNA can actually work either way, depending on what device classes are supported. From Wikipedia:

Digital Media Server (DMS): These devices store content and make it available to networked digital media players (DMP) and digital media renderers (DMR). Examples include PCs and network attached storage (NAS) devices.

Digital Media Player (DMP): These devices find content on digital media servers (DMS) and provide playback and rendering capabilities. Examples include TVs, stereos and home theaters, wireless monitors and game consoles.

Digital Media Renderer (DMR): These devices play content received from a digital media controller (DMC), which will find content from a digital media server (DMS). Examples include TVs, audio/video receivers, video displays and remote speakers for music.

Digital Media Controller (DMC): These devices find content on digital media servers (DMS) and play it on digital media renderers (DMR). Examples include Internet tablets, Wi-Fi enabled digital cameras and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

So, in Apple terms:

DMS is like a shared iTunes library.

DMP is "pull", analogous to when an Apple TV is accessing your library via iTunes Home Sharing.

DMR is a target for "push", analogous to using an Apple TV as an AirPlay output.

DMC is like the Remote app, or what iTunes/iOS turn into when you switch on AirPlay.


(I have no clue how many TVs out there that act as a DMP can also be set to automatically work as a DMR.)
 
Bfd

So then they'd finally start catching up with Samsung? I can already stream content straight from my phone to my Samsung TV with AllShare. Not to mention, many of the top manufacturers have already adopted DLNA.

I still don't see the open FaceTime standard Jobs promised when he demoed it at the iPhone 4 media event.

I'm sure there will be plenty in the media who will want to sing Apple's praises over this sort of thing, but Cupertino is going to have to get their devices up to 1080p with open source streaming before I give a crap.

And STILL no wireless syncing of iTunes content to iOS devices. Lame.
 
This would greatly improve the usability of airplay, in my opinion.

Imagine you had your TV on some random channel, while surfing the internet on your iPad. If your TV supported AirPlay, then you could just click the Airplay button on your iPad, and the random channel would be changed to the Airplay content. You wouldn't have to change the tuners over to Apple TV. Much more convenient.

This.

I like Airplay, but the added step of having to change inputs to apple tv, while admittedly minimal, is still enough of an inconvenience to keep my wife from using it very often.

Also, I notice that airplay doesn't seem to work when I'm playing internet radio on my apple tv 2G. I have to stop the radio from playing and back out to the main menu on the apple tv before it will accept an airplayed photo from my iphone 4, for example. Anyone else notice this behavior?
 
I'd just like to be able to stream audio to my car using AirPlay instead of plugging my iPhone in every time.
 
Only 4 bucks?? Why don't all stereos have it already?? I would get an airplay enabled player even if i hadnt had any apple product in my house, just that my friends could use it from time to time... (too bad they dont sell ATVs in my country...)
 
This would greatly improve the usability of airplay, in my opinion.

Imagine you had your TV on some random channel, while surfing the internet on your iPad. If your TV supported AirPlay, then you could just click the Airplay button on your iPad, and the random channel would be changed to the Airplay content. You wouldn't have to change the tuners over to Apple TV. Much more convenient.

I absolutely agree with this. The funny thing though is ever since we got the new Apple TV, we always keep the input on the Apple TV. And that's all because of Airplay. The ability to stream any TV show, music, or movie on my computer at will is a very powerful and rewarding home entertainment experience. Even Air Video works with Airplay for formats that are not normally supported by the Apple TV.

My most recent favorite 3rd party Airplay app is Vevo. Music videos streamed to your TV over Airplay on demand. Just search for the one you want and even set up playlists. That is very cool.
 
You should check out Air Video (the iOS app). It's the best solution I've found and with iOS 4.3 it works great for streaming all the .avi and .mkv movies on my HD to my apple TV via my iPhone.

It goes (Air Video server on computer) -> iOS device -> Apple TV.

It was probably the best $2.99 I've ever spent.

Yep, this is an awesome app. You have to manually download the BETA version of Air Video Server for it to do Video Airplay though. The regular release does not support it.
 
Airplay works great!

For all you people saying airplay doesn't work, check the hdmi connection to your tv. I had the same problem saying something about not having a secure (different term though) connection to the tv. Solution: turn off the tv and apple tv, unplug and replug the connection, turn both on and it has worked ever since. And I may say, it works elegantly.
 
Airplay Screensharing?

Why can't Apple do WIFI screensharing using Airplay and AppleTV? They were boasting about how you can connect the iPad to the bigscreen using a cable...how cool would it be if you didn't need the cable (just use AppleTV or Airplay licensed device)? The technology obviously exists...there is already another company who makes such a device. It seems like Apple is very close they just need to make the next step.
 
DUI checkpoints are unreasonable searches lacking probable cause. Any push back is reasonable and any support of them should be criminally prosecuted. Too bad they never prosecute themselves. We have lost our "right to liberty". Period.

Rocketman

Wrong thread maybe? Or are people saying DLNA is the same as airplay drunk in your opinion?
 
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