AirPlay requirements

One thing you need to know about AirPlay is that you can use it on basically any device that Apple currently sells. This important and incredible feature was introduced with iTunes 10 for the Mac. Later on, Apple decided to also add it to the iOS with version 4.2 on the iPad and version 4 on the iPhone.

To run AirPlay, you need to have the following:

1. At least iOS 4.2
2. A 2011 Mac or newer
3. An Apple Watch
4. At least an iPhone 3GS
5. Any iPad model
6. At least a second Gen iPod touch

Unfortunately, you cannot use AirPlay on the original iPod touch, iPhone, and on the iPhone 3G.

AirPlay for Photos, videos, and music

With AirPlay, you can stream video, music, and photos from your iOS device to Wi-Fi connected stereo components, speakers, and computers. However, they all need to be AirPlay compatible to begin with.

While that’s not possible for all components, a lot of manufacturers have begun to release products that support AirPlay.

If you do have a pair of speakers though that doesn’t support AirPlay, you can still use AirPlay with them. How? Well, with an AirPort Express of course! This is a small Wi-Fi base station that you can easily use with AirPlay. All you have to do to use your speakers with AirPlay is connect AirPort express to the Wi-Fi network and then use the appropriate cables to connect the speakers to it. Once you do that, you’ll be able to stream music to your speakers.

If you have a 2nd Gen Apple TV, you should know that it works in the same way with your home theater system or your big screen TV.

Just keep in mind that you need to make sure all devices use AirPlay and share the same Wi-Fi network. For example, you cannot use your iPhone at work in order to stream music to your car.

AirPrint: AirPlay for printing

Did you know that AirPlay also makes it easy for you to print content from your iPhone or any other compatible iOS device to Wi-Fi connected printers that support this technology? You may actually have a printer that doesn’t support AirPrint and if that’s the case, then don’t worry about it. You can easily connect it to an AirPort express (as you did with the speakers) and make it compatible.

AirPlay Mirroring

Generally speaking, AirPlay Mirroring is used in order to display content from devices with smaller screens to bigger screen devices (such as your HDTV). Thanks to AirPlay, you can show the video, game, website or any other content you’re currently watching to your friends, family, coworkers, and more. You can do this via Wi-Fi, but the good news is that you can also achieve it via wire mirroring.

Using this method, you’ll need a cable that connects the iOS device to the TV (basically, an HDMI cable). For this type of mirroring you do not need to have an Apple TV. As for the devices that support AirPlay Mirroring, they include:

1. 2nd Gen Apple TV or newer.
2. Mac.
3. iPad 2 and newer.
4. iPhone 4s and newer.

How to enable AirPlay and stream music/movies on the iPhone

To do this, the first thing you need to do is download 5KPlayer and then launch it. By doing so, you’ll enable iPhone to PC/Mac AirPlay that is otherwise not possible by using independent AirPlay.

Thanks to this connection, you’ll be able to turn your iPhone into an AirPlay sender to PC/Mac to enjoy your favorite music or video content.

Instructions:

1. Connect the iPhone and the PC/Mac so you can activate AirPlay. Prior to turning on AirPlay, you need to ensure that your PC/Mac and iPhone are on the same Wi-Fi network.
2. If your iOS version is 8, 9 or newer, you need to launch the control center and then enable AirPlay from there.
3. Thanks to the AirPlay server 5KPlayer, you can enable AirPlay to your PC or Mac so you can then stream videos from your personal computer to your Apple TV.

To turn on AirPlay on your Mac, be sure to take the following steps:

1. Download 5KPlayer on your Mac and install it.
2. Tap the AirPlay icon to activate AirPlay. A user guide will appear if you click the AirPlay icon in the main interface. Please note that if 5KPlayer acts as a receiver on the Mac, the process ends here.

AirPlay supported files

AirPlay supports a lot of files, including MP3, AAC, M4A, MOV, M4V, and MP4. If you want to stream files of a different format, then you’ll need to cover them to one of the supported file formats before you can play them.

AirPlay is by far one of the best features Apple has introduced to its devices, making it a great way to share content with friends, family, and coworkers in a few simple taps. Now that you know how useful it is, how about you give it a try and let us know how you like it?

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CiderTV is a great alternative for Apple’s own Remote app as well as for the Siri Remote. It works perfectly with non-jailbroken 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation Apple TVs letting you to easily navigate menus with gestures, quickly send text queries with built-in keyboard and control your TV volume from your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch or Mac.

The best part is that it lets you do all of this from your iPhone’s/iPad’s Lock screen (Notification Center widget), so there is no need to unlock your device every single time you need to use the app.

Just swipe down to open the widgets pane and control Apple TV even if iPhone/iPad is locked.

(Note: to control Apple TV box from widget you need to pair it from the CiderTV app first and then add CiderTV widget to your Notification Center.)

The app also lets you connect to more than one Apple TV and access them all from one screen.

CiderTV is also available for Mac and Apple Watch, so you can control your Apple TV from your computer or even from your wrist.

Some of the basic gestures include:
– TAP to Select (Play/Pause)
– DOUBLE-TAP to go back
– LONG-TAP (press for a second) – go back to Home Screen
– SWIPE LEFT/RIGHT/UP/DOWN – move between menu items
– SWIPE LEFT/RIGHT – rewind or fast-forward. Further swipes will increase rewind/fast-forward speed.

CiderTV is available from the App Store for free.

The app is also available in Google Play Store.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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Apart from pairing the Apple TV Siri Remote with your Mac to test Apple TV apps running in Xcode’s simulator, the remote is not of much use on the Mac. That’s where SiriMote, an awesome third-party app comes into play: it enables you to use the Apple TV Siri Remote with all sorts of applications.

Aside from controlling your Mac’s system volume, SiriMote lets you use Siri Remote to control:

• iTunes (Play/Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind, Next Track, Previous Track)
• Keynote (Next Slide, Previous Slide)
• QuickTime (Play/Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind)
• VLC (Play/Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind, Next Track, Previous Track)

You can also use it to controll any other application that react to the media keys on the Mac’s keyboard.

SiriMote translates remote buttons into media key presses of your Mac’s keyboard. For example, when you press Volume Up on the Siri Remote, the app will translate that into the Volume Up key on your keyboard and send it to the system.
Likewise, it translates the Play/Pause button on the Remote to the Play/Pause media key on your Mac’s keyboard and sends that to the system.

That enables your Remote to interact with any application that hooks into the media key event system.

SiriMote requires OS X El Capitan 10.11 or newer and a Mac with Bluetooth 4.0. 

The app is free and can be downloaded from the Eternal Storms Software website.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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Tupil has today released Beamer 3.0, a major upgrade to their Mac OS X video streaming app that allows users to stream any video file from a Mac to any Apple TV, Chromecast or Google Cast-supported HDTV. Version 3.0 brings a redesigned interface, improved playlist controls, new sound playback and subtitle options, quick selection of playback options and support for Chromecast devices.

The app also allows users to fast-forward, reverse, or completely skip to the next movie using the Apple TV Remote.

Beamer is a ‘drag, drop & watch’ solution, which means that you don’t need to convert files to the “right” fileformat – the app handles it for you on the fly. Simply drag and drop a movie file and start watching immediately.

Beamer is compatible with the new Apple TV and does not require any app to be installed on the Apple TV.

Here’s the complete list of new features in Beamer 3.0:

* Now supports playback to Google Cast devices, such as Chromecast
* Supports the fourth-generation Apple TV
* Use the Apple TV Remote to skip to the next movie by double-clicking the play button
* Modern, redesigned interface
* More controls are available from the playback window
* Options to automatically select subtitles and audio tracks of a certain language
* Option to set Beamer to automatically use a surround soundtrack when available
* Set a playlist or a movie to repeat automatically
* Improved automatic subtitle selection
* Improved color accuracy for movies using the bt709 color matrix
* Detects more subtitle tracks in VOB files
* Updated transcoding backend
* Numerous performance and stability improvements

Beamer requires OS X Yosemite or later and is compatible with Apple TV 2/3/4 and Chromcast 1st/2nd generation.

Beamer 3.0 is sold at $19.99 USD  and is available through the Beamer website. Existing Beamer 2 owners can upgrade via Beamer’s unique “Pay What You Want” upgrade program.

Also read:

• AirParrot 2: the ultimate companion app for Apple TV 4
• MAME emulator running on Apple TV 4
• Official Plex app for Apple TV released
• How Apple is fixing what’s wrong with console gaming today

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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If you got a new Apple TV but you find native AirPlay mirroring in OS X too limited or you own a Windows or Chromebook machine, you may want to check out AirParrot 2. It’s the go-to app for all of your mirroring and streaming needs.

AirParot 2 allows you to wirelessly send your Mac/PC screen or media files to Apple TV. Among the main features are:

• Specific window or app mirroring
• Ability to mirror to multiple devices simultaneously
• Ability to stream audio around the house to AirPlay-enabled speakers
• Mirroring support to Apple TV, Chromecast and Reflector
• High-quality streaming for video and audio files (5.1 Surround Sound, 1080p mirroring)
• Compatibility with every mirroring-enabled generation of Apple TV

Check out our review of AirParrot.

Related articles:

• Pangea releases five tvOS games with support for 3DTV
• MAME emulator running on Apple TV 4
• VLC coming to the new Apple TV
• tvOS not coming to Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3
• How Apple is fixing what’s wrong with console gaming today

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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Admit it, you’re not necessarily a fan of all Apple’s products. Some are life changers for sure – you’ll have to pry my iPhone out of my cold, dead hands. Others are maybe more, ‘meh’. iTunes falls into that latter category for a lot of people. While it was groundbreaking back in the day, these days it is more of an unkempt warehouse for Apple to cram things into. So how do you maintain your love for your Apple TV, while hating iTunes and not using it?

The big problem is that your Apple TV requires you to fully incorporate all your media (music, photos and video) into your iTunes catalog, if you want to connect that media to your Apple TV. This is easy if you’re buying all your stuff in iTunes. But if you’re like a lot of people, your media comes from a lot of different places – ripped CDs/DVDs, downloads from Amazon, friends, etc. Not all this is quickly or cleanly imported into iTunes, ignoring that many of us just don’t remember to do it all the time.

younity makes it easy to use your Apple TV for all your media, even if it is not in iTunes. When you install younity on your computer, it indexes your hard drive for all your video, music and photos. When it discovers all of it, it reads the file metadata (stuff like the artist name, album, song, movie title, etc.). If your content is in iTunes, younity will have all your library categorization, like your playlists; but for all your media not in iTunes, younity will automatically organize it into the same type of sections for Artist, Album, Songs, etc.

younity turns your computer into a personal media server, so you can stream all your video, music and photos to your iPhone or iPad without having to sync. This means you can carry all your digital content around with you, without taking up any storage on your mobile devices. When you want to access something, younity streams it from your computer to your mobile device.

Of course, younity also uses AirPlay, which means that you can stream everything on any of your computers directly to your Apple TV – with or without using iTunes. You can still browse your music library by Artist, Album, Playlist, etc., because younity will read all your media’s metadata and recreate those lists for you – no importing required.

You can also use younity to access all your computers at once , instead of one at a time, to stream any of your content to your Apple TV.

Click here to learn more about younity.

Throughout our series on hacking your Apple TV with younity we’re giving away FIVE Apple TV 4s! Enter below until 10/31 for your chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

younity is a simple easy and free app that enables your computer to work like a home media server, giving you access to all your media files on your computer from your iPhone or iPad.

The post How to love your Apple TV and hate iTunes, successfully (and Apple TV 4 giveaway!) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

At one point or another, we’ve all been visiting family or friends and wish we could watch a movie stored back on our home computer while we’re at their house. Or listen to a favorite playlist at someone else’s backyard party, or show off our latest GoPro video on a friend’s big screen.

While the Apple TV lets you stream video, music, and photos from your computer to your TV, what about when you want to stream stuff from your computer to someone else’s Apple TV?

This has previously been impossible because the Apple TV only connects to a computer on the same WiFi network – if your computer was back at home (on another network), it was off limits.

With younity you can take all your media with you to stream to any Apple TV, or even share your media with friends for them to stream on-demand when you’re not around. younity turns every computer you install it on into a personal media server, similar to Plex. It’s easy to set up and free.

How to install younity:

1. Install younity on each computer you want to access and let it index that content (about 5-30 minutes, depending on how much stuff you have).
2. Install the iOS app on your iPhone or iPad.

If you install younity on more than one computer, it will unify all of your files into a single list within the younity iOS app.

Not only does younity let you connect to all your computers at once, it lets you stream all your video, music and photos to your iPhone or iPad no matter where you are in the world. This means that the next time you’re at your friend’s house you can easily stream anything you have at home to their Apple TV using AirPlay.

How to stream a video to your friend’s Apple TV:

1. Start playing avideo in younity
2. Pull up the Apple menu from the bottom of your iPhone. If an Airplay-enabled device is nearby then the AirPlay option will appear.
3. Click on AirPlay
4. Select the device you want to connect to, and your video will stream.

You can also share videos, photos, and music with friends or family through the younity app. Just find what you want to share and choose your friend’s email address of Facebook account and they’ll be allowed to stream your content from your computer to their mobile device or Apple TV.

Whether it’s taking your media with you or sharing it with friends for them to watch on their TV, younity is a simple, unlimited and free way to always have access to your stuff.

Click here to learn more about younity.

Throughout our series on hacking your Apple TV with younity we’re giving away FIVE Apple TV 4s! Enter below until 10/31 for your chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

younity is a simple easy and free app that enables your computer to work like a home media server, giving you access to all your media files on your computer from your iPhone or iPad.

The post How to stream your content to your friend’s Apple TV (and Apple TV 4 giveaway!) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

In the same way my house has more than one TV, it has more than one computer – many more, in fact. There’s the iMac we share, a few laptops (mine and my wife’s) and the home media server. For some reason, however, Apple has enforced a 1-to-1 relationship between the Apple TV and my computers. Being able to connect the Apple TV to only one computer at a time is a real pain – each time I switch between computers is time consuming and frustrating.

The problem with this is that our content (music, video and photos) is spread across these computers. Certainly, the media server captures most of it, but there are a lot of home videos and photos that get stuck on other computers. What’s worse is that most of the time I’m not sure which computer has the content I’m looking for – the media server has our movies, but our GoPro video is on the iMac; music is spread all over. So how am I supposed to easily find that video to stream to the TV when friends are over or switch between music playlists on different computers?

younity is a fast, easy way to search and stream content stored across multiple computers right to your Apple TV. By installing younity on all of your computers, you are able to unify all your content right onto your smartphone and tablet – no browsing files by devices, just all your content in one place.

Much like Plex, younity turns each computer into a sort of media server, however it also unifies all the content across all your devices. While Plex is intended as an alternative to an Apple TV, younity is its compliment.

By installing younity on your computers, it will discover all the music, photos and videos across each computer. All that metadata is then organized into a single, easy to browse menu on your iPhone or iPad.

It can differentiate your movies from your home videos and even your GoPro video. That way you can easily find the video you’re looking for and push it to the nearest Apple TV using AirPlay.

There’s no complicated setup, configuration or management. You don’t browse by individual devices and can even search across all devices at one. It’s sort of like a peer-to-peer iCloud, built from your computers. Only it’s easy, secure and free.

younity integrates with iTunes and even merges multiple libraries  across your computers into one simple catalog of music. It also includes all your music not in iTunes and plays media types that the Apple TV doesn’t like, like lossless formats.

This way we can switch from streaming music on my laptop to a playlist on my wife’s computer without having to go into the Apple TV’s settings to connect to a different computer.

Away from your house (and your computers), but still want to access your content? younity streams all your stuff to your phone or tablet. But we’ll save that for our next post.

Click here to learn more about younity.

Throughout our series on hacking your Apple TV with younity we’re giving away FIVE Apple TV 4s! Enter below until 10/31 for your chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

younity is a simple easy and free app that enables your computer to work like a home media server, giving you access to all your media files on your computer from your iPhone or iPad.

The post How to access all your computers at once on your Apple TV (and Apple TV 4 giveaway!) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

The Apple TV is a pretty awesome little device. The supremely portable hardware enables us to stream content from our computer, or from several pre-installed channels like Netflix, directly to our TV/stereo/home theater. For about the price of a month’s worth of Starbucks lattes, you can easily watch all your favorite content on the big screen.

While that’s cool and all, no product is without its frustrations. With limitations ranging from connecting to one computer at a time to the requirement to use Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV is no exception. In a series of posts, we’ll describe how one free application can offer a variety of ways you can side-step many limitations and make your Apple TV even better.

younity is a simple service that connects your devices together, so they can access each other’s content. Have a computer or two at home, but want to access files stored on them via your iPhone or iPad? younity does that. Easily. And for free.

You may be thinking, “hey, can’t I sync my phone to each computer to get some of my
stuff?” Yep, you can do that. Just find that trusty cable, plug it in, launch iTunes, find the content (wait, is it on my desktop computer or laptop computer?) then get iTunes to fit it on the phone. Whoops, out of storage. Sorry – you’re out of luck.

Then there’s that guy next to me telling me to just put all my stuff in the cloud. Only after I upload 1.2TB of files (which takes about 3 months) and shell out between $100-200/year, do I then realize that it can’t read my iTunes catalog, nor my photo albums in Lightroom, nor stream my HD video (it’s got my docs covered though!). Weak.

Alternatively, you can install younity on your computer and your mobile devices and just access all your stuff via your iPhone or iPad as if it were stored locally. No storage? No problem – younity streams content by default (don’t fret, you can download files if you know you’ll be offline). Better yet, install it on several computers and it will unify all your music, photos and video onto your smartphone or tablet.

Have a giant music collection stored on a bunch of hard drives from college? No worries, younity creates your own private version of Apple Music and streams your music (even your playlists) right to your phone (without destroying the library you worked so hard on creating). Want to access your massive video library, ranging from your GoPro to your movie collection? Easy-peasy, younity turns your computer into a private Netflix.

Ever wish you could access all those photos and photo albums (you know, the photos you really care about and not the 739 photos of your dinner or dog or whatever you shoot with your phone) no matter where you are in the world? Yup, younity lets you have all those too. All as if they were on your phone, via one simple app.

If you want to get all technical, younity actually creates your own cloud by building one out of your computers (like your laptop and your desktop). So that cool cloud thing can be yours, but also free and private (nothing gets uploaded or stored online). While you do have to keep your computers on to access their content (similar to Plex), by not storing your files online the service can remain free.

By now you’re thinking, “get to the Swiss Army-like features this thing has for my Apple TV.” We’re getting there! Ever wish you could connect all the computers in your house to your Apple TV  at once? Hate using iTunes, but love your Apple TV ? Wish you could play content stored on your computer when you are at (using their Apple TV)? Ever wish you could take the Apple TV on vacation  with you to use, even though all your stuff is stored back on the home computer?

Stay tuned- over the next month we’re giving you four new tricks on how to hack your Apple TV with younity.

Click here to learn more about younity.

We’re giving away FIVE brand new Apple TV 4s! Check out all our upcoming tips on hacking your Apple TV with younity to enter to win. Enter below for your first chance!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

younity is a simple easy and free app that enables your computer to work like a home media server, giving you access to all your media files on your computer from your iPhone or iPad.

The post Hacking your Apple TV with younity (and Apple TV 4 giveaway!) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

Beamer, a popular AirPlay video player for Mac, has been updated to version 3.0 (public beta) that features a brand new interface, sub/idx file support, option to skip movies with the Apple TV remote and support for Chromecast.

Here’s what’s new in Beamer 3:

• Chromecast support

Beamer 3.0 supports streaming directly to Chromecast.

This includes subtitle support for all formats supported by Beamer: external files, embedded in movies, text based, picture based.

• Redesigned interface

A new, modern interface that makes commonly accessed options such as selecting the audio track or subtitles easier.

Integrated in the player window is a queue. The queue also includes a history when you scroll up, so it’s easy to see what you watched previously and put it back into the queue.

• Skip movies with the Apple TV remote

Skip to the next movie in the queue by double-clicking the play button on the Apple remote. Just like skipping a track with the Apple headphones clicker.

• Improved subtitle support

In addition to subtitle files such as SubRip (.srt) and MPL, Beamer 3.0 also supports BluRay (.sup) and DVD (.sub/.idx) subtitles as external files.

Beamer is a ‘drag, drop & watch’ solution. You don’t need to convert files to the “right” file format – the app handles it for you on the fly. Simply drag and drop a movie file and start watching immediately.

Beamer 3 also supports HQ streaming (1080p, 5.1 Surround Sound). The app streams video directly so it will be played natively on Apple TV and Chromecast. The developers promise no glitches, clicks, pops or other shenanigans.

The video looks just as good as it would on your desktop.

Read our review of Beamer.

For existing Beamer 2 customers, Beamer 3 is a free upgrade. Beamer 3 will cost $19.99, but during the beta it can be purchased for only $15.

Beamer requires OS X Yosemite (10.10) or later.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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