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“Yeah, retroactively,” Murph reports. “According to an updated product listing, the AVR will see a ‘planned upgrade’ in the fall of 2010 that will ‘provide Apple iTunes AirPlay compatibility [that will let you] stream your favorite music to the AVR-4311CI.'”
Murph reports, “This is first mention of any existing product receiving a simple upgrade (firmware, we’re guessing) that would add support for Apple’s newly touted streaming feature.”
More info and links in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, how many more AirPlay-compatible devices are already out there just waiting for “planned upgrades?”
What about video? Just mentions music, but I thought AirPlay could and would do both. I can do music with my airport express. What I want is to be able to stream videos and music to my receiver…. I’d get a new AppleTV maybe, but would rather do without the extra thing to plug in, and don’t need or want the rental options. Already have Netflix through my XBox, PS3, Wii, and iPad.
How do you easily upgrade firmware on a receiver
Fatal,
Depends on the receiver.
Most of them do it through an RS-232 port (ah, the nostalgia).
But – if I recall – there is at least one Yamaha and one Denon that can pull of the trick through an Ethernet port.
Damn. Just bought a new Yamaha this past weekend. I was looking at the Denon too.
Doesn’t make sense to me why someone would spend two thousand bucks (list price) on a receiver to listen to the relatively low quality music reproduction that comes through iTunes. Casual listening, sure, but again, two thousand bucks for a receiver that will be used for casual listening? Whew. Way above my pay grade.
@Eric
Video will probably require 802.11n. I don’t see it working on g, a, or b. But for the equipment with the n, I don’t see why not.
AirPlay was an absolutely brilliant move on the part of Apple. It is the starting point for progress towards a more consumer-oriented and tailorable video/TV environment.
Apple approach – visualize how things should be, assess how things are, strategize on paths from “are” to “should be,” find opportunities and chinks in the armor of the establishment vested in the status quo, develop and market devices and software to push things towards the Apple vision.
@KingMel
This news is huge if you take it as looking at the roadmap where iOS devices are headed. I believe that next year, or the year after that Apple will eliminate the Dock Connector from their products. Think of it, slowly consumers will transition anyway to streaming their content via AirPlay and we will get used to not using the Dock Connector to these drives. By that time the nano will be running iOS eventually eliminating the HD based IPod classic, leaving just the shuffle which doesn’t have a Dock Connector anyway.
I hate to spoil a surprise Apple has in store, but I expect the 3.5mm jack to be the last connector. Implement it as electrical+optical they do on MacBook, and instead of digital audio implement lightpeak. You get 10gbps out of the gate, with essentially unlimited future rates. Sync in seconds (assuming your host can feed the firehose). Stream wirelessly, or connect to get power from attached display. There may be something I’m missing, but I worked with high-performance networking for a long while and I don’t see any impossibilities blocking this.
Why did I get a vision of The Overlook Hotel’s elevator doors opening when I read this article?
Why would you need a receiver? Why not put a chip inside of the speakers only to receive AirPlay?
@ silverhawk: unless you have amplifiers integrated into your speakers, then you’d be out of luck. Decent amplified speakers for home use are hard to find – unless you enjoy the sound of cheap plastic “computer speakers”. A receiver combines amplification with some handy input & output switching and a tuner for lo-fi broadcast enjoyment. Match it with some excellent speakers and you will be awesome-ized.
To the article: big deal. I am not going to run out to buy a middle-of-the-road Denon receiver with inferior performance to my current amps just because it supports Airplay. You can buy a Firewire audio preamp to convert your audio to digital toslink or coax, or you can use an iPod dock (Wadia is the best) with most current amps. Airplay is for people who don’t yet own a stereo and can’t/won’t wire their home to install their home theatre.
and Airplay isn’t the only way to go wireless. Denon already offers wireless networking iPod docks too: http://usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/5059.asp
If you have the means, you’d just buy a Yamaha RX-Z11: http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/productdetail.html?CNTID=558249&CTID=5000300 Yes, it goes to 11. 11 channels!!!
@ critic: you’re not out of luck, check out Yamaha’s YID-W10 wireless iPod dock.
http://www.yamaha.com/yec/accessories.html?CTID=5003400