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Lovefilm (UK) AirPlay?

M

MrMister111

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 28, 2009
3,900
382
UK
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I had a trial for Lovefilm on my PS3 for streaming but stopped as was a bit buggy, and to me the film choice was poor, no new titles out, they were only allowed as rental of a disk (which was Inc in package), but I wanted a stream package.

Two questions.

1) Has the film choice for streaming improved to newer movies, not just ones that have been out for a year on Bluray/DVD?

2) Does the iPad app support AirPlay to an Apple TV 2? This is a must and would make me buy a package if so.

Cheers
 
MrMister111 said:
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I had a trial for Lovefilm on my PS3 for streaming but stopped as was a bit buggy, and to me the film choice was poor, no new titles out, they were only allowed as rental of a disk (which was Inc in package), but I wanted a stream package.

Two questions.

1) Has the film choice for streaming improved to newer movies, not just ones that have been out for a year on Bluray/DVD?

2) Does the iPad app support AirPlay to an Apple TV 2? This is a must and would make me buy a package if so.

Cheers
Click to expand...

1) Don't know, I only rent their blue rays.
2) Yes

EDIT: Nevermind 2), I didn't know you meant from within the Lovefilm app. Not sure. My guess would be yes, if the app plays videos in the native iPad player.
 
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Yes I know AirPlay works in general to an Apple TV 2, but specially does the Lovefilm iPad app AirPlay it's movie out to Apple TV 2 for viewing on big screen?
 
Tried the Lovefilm app on my iPad 1 the other day. Whilst it could stream a movie fine, when I clicked the AirPlay icon in was only able to send the sound to the ATV2 not the video?

Tried with a couple of films and both were the same.

Not sure if it was just me doing something wrong or if they disabled it deliberately.
 
MrMister111 said:
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Yes I know AirPlay works in general to an Apple TV 2, but specially does the Lovefilm iPad app AirPlay it's movie out to Apple TV 2 for viewing on big screen?
Click to expand...

there's always airplay mirroring in iOS5, every app has airplay with that....
 
With iOS 5 you should be able to mirror the iPad screen through Apple TV using Airplay, just a thought for the future.
 
Lovefilm does not support airplay.

As far as I know any film thats released on DVD will eventually be available on Stream.

I am personally waiting on a cheaper stream only package.
 
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AirPlay seems to work perfectly for me, but that is running iOS 5.

ETA: that's actual AirPlay, not AirPlay Mirroring.
 
Aidoneus said:
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AirPlay seems to work perfectly for me, but that is running iOS 5.

ETA: that's actual AirPlay, not AirPlay Mirroring.
Click to expand...

Please clarify your post - Do you mean video out via Airplay in the Lovefilm Player app? If so, this is surely an oversight by Lovefilm as they have intentionally not allowed this feature (see my post above referring to their own FAQ).
 
Has this been confirmed yet?

i.e. does the LoveFilm app on iPad, allow AirPlay to an Apple TV?

If not then I'll not join LoveFilm, when they do I think I will as can also use on PS3, and if the film choice for streaming is better than it was when I tried last time, about a year ago (i.e. no recent films were available for streaming, only hiring)

cheers
 
I'm in the same boat. I want the Ipad app to work with airplay, or at the very least HDMI out but there doesn't seem to be much info out there.
 
Well, I'm planning on buy an ATV tomorrow and have a LoveFilm sub, so can check it out when I get it. I'll let you know if no one else has chipped in before.
 
LostLogik said:
Well, I'm planning on buy an ATV tomorrow and have a LoveFilm sub, so can check it out when I get it. I'll let you know if no one else has chipped in before.
Click to expand...

Be great that to confirm thanks a lot.

Can you also check what the choice is like, last time I had a sub, the choice for streaming on my PS3 was poor compared to what you could rent as disks

cheers
 
shandyman said:
from what i can see, they can't block it, with airplay mirroring, the app is not using the airplay API's so there's nothing a dev can do, iOS is doing the airplay.
Click to expand...

This seems to be a common misconception -- as was suggested above, a dev can absolutely block AirPlay Mirroring if they want to. AirPlay Mirroring always mirrors a dedicated Video Out stream if one is provided; that's how Real Racing 2 does its magic. But you can also use this for evil, by providing a Video Out option that only displays a blank screen or a static message such as "Video out not available". This is what the LoveFilm app has done. So no AirPlay Mirroring is possible, and regular AirPlay only sends audio and not video.

The streaming selection seems all right, nothing very new but the quality is pretty good, probably good enough for catching up on older films on the couch.
 
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peterjcat said:
So no AirPlay Mirroring is possible, and regular AirPlay only sends audio and not video. 
Click to expand...

Wrong! You've just shown you really don't understand it with that comment. Normal airplay does video. Go to a video on YouTube or a website, you get the airplay icon and it streams audio and video to the apple TV. That's why devs can block that. 

AirPlay mirroring is different, it's a system level thing. Try any app were a dev has blocked video out and standard airplay, AirPlay mirroring still works, it doesn't use video out like normal, it mirrors the devices screen, this why the mirrored screen doesn't use the whole TV screen. That hows a dev cannot block it. 
 
shandyman said:
Wrong! You've just shown you really don't understand it with that comment. Normal airplay does video. Go to a video on YouTube or a website, you get the airplay icon and it streams audio and video to the apple TV. That's why devs can block that.
Click to expand...

I am talking about the LoveFilm app. Regular AirPlay under the LoveFilm app only does audio, not video. This is because, even though the default for regular AirPlay is now to send both audio and video, a developer can choose to send audio only. LoveFilm has done this.

AirPlay mirroring is different, it's a system level thing. Try any app were a dev has blocked video out and standard airplay, AirPlay mirroring still works, it doesn't use video out like normal, it mirrors the devices screen, this why the mirrored screen doesn't use the whole TV screen. That hows a dev cannot block it.
Click to expand...

The default for Video Out is not to send anything, so there is no concept of a developer blocking Video Out -- they just don't implement it. In that case, AirPlay Mirroring will work as you describe. But where the dev HAS implemented Video Out, but with a blank screen or a message that says "No video out for you", AirPlay Mirroring will not send the main iPad screen but will send the Video Out implementation instead, and nothing useful will play.

LoveFilm has figured this out, and so has HBO Go, and Max Go and probably other services that only want to provide small-screen and not TV-sized streaming. You must have seen the Real Racing 2 demo, where what is AirPlay Mirrored to the TV (the action) is not what's on the iPad screen (a picture of the track).

I have LoveFilm and an iPad 2 and can categorically say that when you enable AirPlay Mirroring, what comes up on your TV is a message with the LoveFilm logo telling you that there's no Video Out. The above is my understanding of how this is achieved. You can argue with my explanation, but there is no argument that apps in general, and the LoveFilm app in particular, have the ability to effectively disable AirPlay Mirroring if they want.
 
Since this thread has come back from the dead, a slight correction on my post above. Airplay Mirroring DOES (as of the iOS5 gold master) have DRM.

But presumably Lovefilm still have rights concerns, so they're still blocking it.

Phazer
 
As said above, I can confirm that LoveFilm player app will not stream via AirPlay to the AppleTV. Well, the audio will but not the video.

I'm not too bothered as I use the app on the iPad, which it's great on, and if I want it on the big screen I can now use my XBox too.
 
thanks for confirmation of that then, I'll wait till they do then.

I have a PAS3, so its fine for downstairs, but I have a aTV 2 upstairs so would like it for up there.

Whats the choice of streaming films like now then compared to what you can hire? e.g. whats the latest film you can stream as of today?

cheers
 
Hi
New here.
I subscribed to lovefilm with unlimited downloads last night, played first movie on ipad2 today.... Great.
So then I connect it to my TV with the genuine Apple cables which work fine with YouTube etc. But get the message others above have had that lovefilm can't be streamed to a tv.

Ok... So what's the next move or isn't there one?
We have an Xbox... Can I stream it to the tv via Xbox?

I'm guessing the reason it's been disabled is to keep the downloading file size small which is fine for a 9" screen but not a 42" TV
 
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Ok after some researching and speaking to a friend of a friend, it seems you can stream it to a TV from a Mac or PC using a VGA and HDMI cables connected together to the TV.
But as for going to TV from iPad I'm no further.
My pc blew up a month ago do I'm not in a position to use that method at the moment.
 
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