probably video codec related is my guess, the ones that are h264 but you simply haven't taken the few minutes to remux them to mp4 always play just fine....
xvid seems like it can be more iffy
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"Beamer" App - anyone seen this yet?
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probably video codec related is my guess, the ones that are h264 but you simply haven't taken the few minutes to remux them to mp4 always play just fine....
xvid seems like it can be more iffy
I have the issue with mp4's too. Why would you just assume such a thing? Don't be so dismissive for no reason.
MBA 2011 w/ML. ATV 3. Both updated to latest OS. Beamer is latest update too.
Not sure if my internet matters but I doubt that's the issue. I average 55 mbps down. Router is AirPort Extreme 5th gen.
No matter the size of the file, HD content does not work. It buffers give or take every 30 seconds for roughy 10 seconds at a time. Completely unwatchable. SD content is smooth.
Have you tried using a different channel on your Airport Extreme? And 5Ghz?
Airplay can be finicky, and drop out/lag if there is interference I've found.
Was happening a lot with audio from iTunes to an airplay speaker, but seems to have resolved after changing to a channel that's not being used around my house. Use a wifi scanner to see what channels might be clogged.
I have not touched any of my AirPort settings since setting up the router from day one.
I can play HD content with AirPlay with no issues. It's just that not all my movies are in a format that are compatible with AirPlay. I don't think interference is the issue.
Okay, so I got a brand new Retina MBP i7 2.7GHz, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. I've tried five different videos in the following formats; mkv, avi, MP4 and one other I forgot. The size of the files ranged from 1GB to 9.94GB and each and every one played perfectly.
Obviously my rMBP is connected via wifi to my AirPort Extreme. The AirPort Extreme is connected vie Ethernet to my network. Also while the movies were playing I tried using different apps just to see if it had any effect on the playback. There was none.
In my experience Beamer is a fantastic app that works perfectly. It does one thing only but it does it extremely well.
Obviously my rMBP is connected via wifi to my AirPort Extreme. The AirPort Extreme is connected vie Ethernet to my network. Also while the movies were playing I tried using different apps just to see if it had any effect on the playback. There was none.
In my experience Beamer is a fantastic app that works perfectly. It does one thing only but it does it extremely well.
i'm not assuming anything as there are myriads of reasons that the problem can occur, transcoding issues, network issues if streaming over wifi, and just the app doing a bad job with certain codecs (mp4 is just a container, not a codec) --- what i do know is that some of the files i play with beamer accumulate a bit of a buffer lead, like when you pause the movie on the apple tv and some of the progress bar is white, indicating there's a bit of room where it's downloaded in advance kind of like youtube does...... those tend to be h264 movies... whereas some xvid avi files i've used beamer with show nothing in advance... so if wifi was to say drop below an acceptable level for a fraction of a second, i think that would be enough to trigger a buffer cogwheel
Hmm. What is the video codec in the AVI file? If it's h.264, it should be in an mp4/m4v or MKV. H.264 in an AVI file is nothing but trouble. A lot of hardware and software won't play it correctly.
Or is it Divx or Xvid 720? I've never seen a 7GB AVI file outside of PC video editing software and that was SD not 720p.
There are many more complex issues that could be discussed but use a mediainfo app to determine what your file contains.
it's xvid/ac3 avi, it played fine for about 40mins with beamer and then afterwards started buffering every few mins... i've since switched my atv3 off wifi (to dual band AEBS) and onto MoCA, which gets a very consistent 11.4MB/s transfer rate to it (limited by 100mbps ethernet).... will have to try again and see what happens, but i don't really feel like watching the life of pi again lol
Well actually you did assume I didn't try converting to mp4 and did so in a dissmissive manner.
Anyways, playing the file and then hitting pausing with hopes that it will allow time to create a 'buffer lead' doesn't work for me. Like I said before, SD content has no problem with Beamer. It's my HD content. I don't think the issue is my wi-fi or router. It's either my MBA not being powerful enough or more likely, it's Beamer itself.
This is a pretty common issue with Beamer too. Take a look at the replies their Twitter page gets. I think it's wrong of them to not address this in a general way.
no, you're projecting dismissiveness on me lol, i'm here trying to figure things out with you, no?.... you're dismissing me if you're not willing to try a variety of video codecs with beamer and see if there's a difference between some and others, but alas.
anyways, i think it's specific video codecs that seem to do the buffer lead for me where others did not (xvid in avi container).. i'm def having issues with buffering and beamer too on some videos, but the problem is i have a 15gb 1080p version of Samsara that beamer played just fine.... where an xvid 720p started buffering every few mins after playing fine for about 40mins...
Totally agree with this. Air Video is fantastic and probably the most straightforward app ever. Plays and streams immediately, and in some case, it requires a conversion from within. But the conversion is really no big deal, it is basically the same as just clicking on it and the video plays right off the bat.
Another app which I am increasingly fond of these days would be the QuikIO app.
I checked out Air Video website but I don't see anywhere that it works with Apple TV. The site only mentions iPhone, iPod and iPad. If that's the case then these are two completely different apps.
That's an unnecessary step when you have an app like Beamer. I just tried Air Video because I was looking for something like that to use on my iPad, but to stream to my Apple TV I'll just keep using Beamer. So far it has worked flawlessly on my rMBP.
They (Beamer) told me that it was the WiFi not being able to transfer big files (using a cable it should totally disappear; haven't tried this yet). The strange thing is that when I watched Skyfall (12GB), the fist 5 minuted it went flawless and then it started buffering every minute. If it was the WiFi, this should have started from the first second. I also noticed improvements with respect to the buffering issue in new versions, so I think there is a software issue somewhere.....
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Really? Does Air Video stream 1080p, and when I say "stream1080p" I mean receiving 1080p on your TV?
I just tried for you and there's no actually setting to say whether you want 1080p or 720p or whatever. I played a 1080p version of Prometheus mp4 and it was beautiful You have an option of "Play with live conversion" or just "Play". I tried both and it played perfectly.
The only two settings it has is two sliders more max width and max height. I set them both to max which is 1280x720 (iPad 2) and like I said it was perfect. Not to say it doesn't have any other settings but in regards to resolution it looks like it plays the videos in whatever resolution they are encoded to.
I hope that answers your question.
If your max height is 720, how could it be playing the 1080p file at full resolution?
Well proportionately it has to fit the screen right? So to me it looks wide screen 1080 with black bars at the top and bottom. The bottom line is that the picture quality is as good on my iPad as it is watching the same blu-ray disk on my TV. I don't know if the screenshots will do it any justice for you but I'll attach them anyway.
EDIT: On my iPad there are no black bars on the sides. Only top and bottom.
Of course, having your Mac connected by cable in order to not have buffer issues on big files, kind of defeats the purpose of having beamer doesn't it?
Also, in looking around at some reviews on the app, it seems that one of the most frequent complaints is its choking on mkv files over 4GB.
I found that an issue I had was (auto racing recording) was resolved by converting the audio format from 5.1 AC6 to 2 channel AAC. I don't know why, except that maybe it was making beamer or the apple tv 3 work too hard. (Multi channel audio was a recent addition to the app, there may be a bug or two as well still.)
If it matters, both the apple tv3, and the 2011 imac were both hard wired with ethernet.
Overall, the app works great, and it is money well spent for me.
If it matters, both the apple tv3, and the 2011 imac were both hard wired with ethernet.
Overall, the app works great, and it is money well spent for me.
