Future Airport Express

[Grasbak]

I currently use airport express to stream iTunes through my hi-fi. Two questions/thoughts:

1. why can I only stream from iTunes? Is there any reason why apple cant allow us to send the whole sound output from my iMac through express?

2. do you think it is possible that an upgraded version of express could carry a video signal so you could send slideshows/dvds etc through to tvs/hdtv or whatever?

 

[TheMonarch]

1) iTunes only because system sounds would have a considerable lag, thus ruining the Audio+Visual experience.

2) Yes and no. At least not using "G" WiFi. While wireless G currently has enough bandwidth to support SD video, it could only do so in a perfect world, where it would get a constant, strong data signal that is usable for streaming audio+video. Something which is a little unrealistic... But don't worry, wireless N is on its way ...

Though, who knows. Wireless Internet+Wireless Music+Wireless Video+Wireless Printing might make it more expensive than we'd like it to be...

 

[aswitcher]

I currently use airport express to stream iTunes through my hi-fi. Two questions/thoughts:

1. why can I only stream from iTunes? Is there any reason why apple cant allow us to send the whole sound output from my iMac through express?

2. do you think it is possible that an upgraded version of express could carry a video signal so you could send slideshows/dvds etc through to tvs/hdtv or whatever?

1. There is a third party software app that allows you to stream sound...NB you can now stream iTunes and play to your computer speaker - and other AXs (I believe) - in synch at the same time.

2. Yes. When, dont know, but it makes allot of sense and its been a while since the AX came out. Can you wait 6 months or so more.

 

[Grasbak]

I can wait! Just recently got my iMac and am keen to use as media hub if possible. Would be great to see slideshows etc on a big screen. I know I can output to screens using the mini-vga but get the impression it wouldnt be that great. Slightly annoyed that the new intel macs now have dvi, which, as I understand it will output a much better video signal.

 

[Tel]

Anyone here think there might be a chance that it will be able to be used as an SAN? I'd love to be able to connect my external hard drive and access it wirelessly.

 

[mrgreen4242]

1) iTunes only because system sounds would have a considerable lag, thus ruining the Audio+Visual experience.

2) Yes and no. At least not using "G" WiFi. While wireless G currently has enough bandwidth to support SD video, it could only do so in a perfect world, where it would get a constant, strong data signal that is usable for streaming audio+video. Something which is a little unrealistic... But don't worry, wireless N is on its way ...

Though, who knows. Wireless Internet+Wireless Music+Wireless Video+Wireless Printing might make it more expensive than we'd like it to be...

802.11g should do good SD quality MPEG4 pretty easily, as long as the file is transmitted compressed and then decompressed in the AE A/V. Correct me if I am wrong, but the current AE decompresses music and sends it to the router as ready to play data, no? I could never figure that out...

Chips able to do MPEG4 decompression are cheap enough now that I bought a DiVX compatible DVD player (Philips brand) for $60 a while back (great unit, btw), and with .11g technology being so standard and hence cheap now, I can see them getting it all into a little $150 package. Maybe a little buffer, a 32mb RAM chip of a slower speed should be just a couple bucks by the 100,000, and could hold a 3-4 minutes of MPEG4 video, which should be an acceptable amount of buffer for most purposes.

My logic, by the way, comes from the episode of Carnivale that I just converted to MPEG4 with Handbrake (I like having whole seasons of shows on one DVD-R for use with my aforementioned DiXV player) that is 468mb and 58 min long. This works out to 3480 seconds, and then to .134 mb per second, which is a mere 1.075 Mbit/s. 802.11g has real world throughput of anywhere from 10-25 Mbits/s, so even DVD quality MPEG2 (8Mbits+320kbit audio) should be able to squeak by on a decent .11g connection.

Anything about any of my math sound wrong to anyone? BTW, the settings used for the Carnivale episode I referenced were 1000kbits MPEG4 w/ FFMpeg, 128kbit stereo mp3, and looks nice on my HDTV using my DIVX DVD player. I attached a screenshot of it (highly compressed jpg, so not 100% accurate), but I think it is perfectly acceptable.