“You’ll need a device running iOS 4.2, and at least one of the following: an AirPort Express, a v2 AppleTV, a third-party AirPlay-ready speaker, or a Bluetooth audio device. Using it is as easy as you’d expect when Apple controls the whole infrastructure. In any app that uses the standard media-controls (iPod, Video, Spotify, YouTube) you will see a new symbol, a rectangle being penetrated from underneath by a triangle. Tap this and a menu pops up showing available devices,” Sorrel reports. “From this menu, you simply pick where you want to send the media currently playing on your iDevice and, after a couple seconds buffering the signal, it starts. Audio will play anywhere, and video and/or audio will play on the AppleTV.”
Sorrel reports, “AirPlay really is a big deal, and you should expect to see it built-in to more and more third-party speakers and components in the future. Not only does it give you an instant, multi-room audio setup without a computer, it also turns your iPhone into a pocket home-theater.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The key to AirPlay is having at least one $99 Apple TV unit.
Where’s the love for Airport Extreme?!
Streaming from an iPhone is iffy due to the lower quality video on the iPhone.
BatteryGate not fixed.
Brand new iPod Touch drains over night.
Apple does not care.
I have no problem with the quality of video on my phone. It looks fine on my AppleTV. Remember, the iPhone 4 supports video up to 720p which is considered HD.
“a rectangle being penetrated from underneath by a triangle”
Yes, that’s my gay cousin. He has a very two dimensional personality and likes ’em thick at the base.
I find the lack of support for iPhone video you shoot yourself with AirPlay very strange. I hope that gets added soon. And best add rotational control or you’ll be watching a lot of video sideways…
Toslink mini to Toslink standard cable and a Mac with a optical out port to a quality high watt 5.1-7.1 surround sound stereo system with a decent 200 watt or better sub woofer. Adjust the surround settings for Theater Mode or Concert Mode like that so the music fills the room.
You won’t to fiddle with, suffer delays and/or degrade your audio experience over cheap arse wifi.
Just turn up the volume on the surround system to penetrate solid concrete and steel with a thousand watts of pure power, unlike the Airport which can’t penetrate anything past wood, and the neighbours in next block over will hear you for sure.
And video, you need a nice big screen, in a big room with lots of other people around in comfy chairs. No need to stream.
I dont think the video stream from the iPhone is from it’s screen. It’s from the internet thru the iPhone, therefore, screen quality of the device has nothing to do with what you see on your HD TV.
While it would be nice to have a wireless connection I do fine with my miniDVI to HDMI cable connected to my TV
Nope, the iPhone can stream an iTunes movie or TV show directly to your AppleTV. The great thing about AppleTV is that you can stream from any Mac, PC or iDevice to your AppleTV. You don’t need a cable from every device in you house to your TV/surround sound system.
Most houses don’t have ethernet cables running from every computer and internet provider to their home theatre systems. And most houses don’t have the newer TVs, receivers and DVD players with built-in wifi. The AppleTV solves those problems fairly cheaply.
IMHO the new version of Apple TV is not an improvement over the original. Now I need to keep my desktop turned on to stream music or video instead of having it all loaded and waiting on the ATV. Also, I can’t control the volume through the Remote app, which is a real pain. I upgraded to 4.2.1 yesterday and found that streaming from the iPad or iPhone causes music to stutter and video to pause. (My wifi shows three bars, so that’s not the problem.) Shipping a photo via Airplay is an exercise in patience as it takes quite a while to load megapixel size pictures.
I guess there would be an advantage to the new ATV in streaming rented $1.00 TV shows if there were any worth it in the anemic library. That’s about the only plus I see.
Too bad AirPort Express analog audio quality is crap and new Apple TV only has optical connections !
HUGE. fun. awesome. now I suddenly have 4 music machines in my house. HUGE that iTunes and the computer are no longer needed – awesome that phone calls interrupt the music if streaming from my active iPhone.
SO EASY TO USE! SO SIMPLE! SO PROFOUND!
@ Ivid-
Use the Monster Airport Express Stereo Connection kit.
It’s got a Toslink connector cleverly built into the male mini jack.
Pure digital, lossless and even supports surround.
I use it and it’s friggin nice.
Copy your iPhone movies to iTunes and sync them back to your iPhone, now they play over AirPlay. Kind of a hassle when it would be nice to simply shoot and play. I’m sure we will see that soon, perhaps 4.3.
@ Currentinterest
Just skip the “sync them back to your iPhone” part. Once the movie is synced to the computer’s iTunes library, you can just use Apple TV normally (streaming from computer to Apple TV) and not use AirPlay at all.
Question for someone who has all the “parts”… If you sync a video (through iTunes) to your iPhone or iPad so that the file resides on the iOS device, then turn your computer off, then start watching the video using the “iPod” app, can you use AirPlay to send it to the Apple TV?
Sorry, MDN -No Apple TV needed. I’m using a Belkin Bluetooth receiver and it works just fine.
Love to buy an Apple TV, but it looks like I have to buy a new TV too… Sorry, but my old CRT 32 inches is still quite good and untill it dies I don’t see any reason to get a new TV !
Is there a way to make the Apple TV work with my CRT ?
This will be even better when they build it into Macs. Airplay videos, photos, music, even webpages to another local (or not local) Mac or idevice. They could build it into iPhoto, safari, and have it be an API for apps in the Mac App Store.
Seamless sharing of anything between all Apple devices.
@ Ron
> Sorry, but my old CRT 32 inches is still quite good and untill it dies I don’t see any reason to get a new TV!
If you compare the viewing experience between SD and HD (much sharper and widescreen), you may have a good reason.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> Also, that CRT is probably using more electricity compared to a comparable (or even somewhat larger) LCD-based HDTV, so what you save in the cost to operate the TV over time may compensate somewhat for the cost of greatly enhancing your viewing experience.
(Note: There are some HDTV sets that use a widescreen CRT. I had one.)
The old Apple TV had HDMI and “component” (but not composite) output. The new Apple TV only has HDMI output. So if your “CRT” has HDMI (like my old CRT-based HDTV), it should work. If not, then it will not work.
they’re near the top on my ‘most hated bands’ list. 😡 it seems all the cruddy bands get tons of radio play these days.. my solution: stopped listening to the radio.. all the good music tends to be harder to find..
Renadex