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Is AirPlay working on Mac Pro 4,1-5,1?

pastrychef

pastrychef

macrumors 601
Original poster
Sep 15, 2006
4,760
1,465
New York City, NY
I am able to use AirPlay to stream music and videos from iTunes to my Raspberry Pi. However, it doesn't work from anywhere else. All I get is:

Screen Shot 2015-10-07 at 5.19.30 AM.png

Screen Shot 2015-10-07 at 5.20.47 AM.png


Is this due to the fact that I'm not using an AppleTV or is it a limitation of our Mac Pros or is it an El Capitan issue?

Thanks in advance.

Again, AirPlay works fine with iTunes:

Screen Shot 2015-10-07 at 5.33.33 AM.png
 
Last edited:
pastrychef said:
I am able to use AirPlay to stream music and videos from iTunes to my Raspberry Pi. However, it doesn't work from anywhere else. All I get is:

View attachment 590425
View attachment 590426

Is this due to the fact that I'm not using an AppleTV or is it a limitation of our Mac Pros or is it an El Capitan issue?

Thanks in advance.

Again, AirPlay works fine with iTunes:

View attachment 590431
Click to expand...
Not sure if I understand your question correctly...

If you are asking if the cMP supports the AirPlay functionality to mirror display from the finder, the answer to that is no.

-JimJ
 
jimj740 said:
Not sure if I understand your question correctly...

If you are asking if the cMP supports the AirPlay functionality to mirror display from the finder, the answer to that is no.

-JimJ
Click to expand...

I want to know why AirPlay works in iTunes but not for QuickTime or for YouTube in Safari.
 
I'm not trying to do AirPlay mirroring. I'm just trying to AirPlay from QuickTime and Safari.

For example, if I open an MP3 file with QuickTime, I only get "Looking for devices..."
 
I don't have airplay buttons in either of those apps that I can see?

EDIT: I see it's a new feature in El Cap, that'll be why I don't see it!
 
Hold Option and hit the speaker icon and choose your airplay device.

Airplay always works (Audio) except for video on cMPs.
 
That's changing the audio output of my Mac to AirPlay. That's not what I'm trying to do.

When I play music in iTunes, I can choose to have the songs played through AirPlay directly from iTunes. All other sounds continue to use my regular audio output device.

So, songs can be heard from the speakers connected via AirPlay and Mac system sounds etc will continue to play through my computer's speakers.

In QuickTime and when watching videos from within Safari, there's an option to play through AirPlay, however, (at least for me) it only stays at "Looking for device..." and never actually finds a device. Meanwhile, iTunes finds the AirPlay perfectly fine.
 
PastryChef,

I am still on Yosemite for my 2010MP, so I'll check out the applications you used this weekend and get back to you.

However, all of my AirPlay destinations are licensed, so I cannot replicate your exact example (if I understand correctly, Raspberry Pi uses open source code that mimicks an older AirPlay implementation).

The Raspberry Pi also cannot handle DRM'd content, so I just want to ask if you were trying the exact same media file in Quicktime as you were in iTunes. With the Pi as a destination, a DRM-free file should work for both applications, and a DRM'd file should work for neither application.
 
AirpPlay video is only supported on CPUs that have QuickSync by Intel. 2012 MBP and above and 2013 Mac Pro.
 
That's interesting. Intel says no, and AFAIK, QuickSync is a function in the iGPU which the Xeon does not have. Also, it seems no one can use QuickSync to export H.264 in the 6,1, that's why it's much slower than the iMac in some export job.
 
ActionableMango said:
PastryChef,

I am still on Yosemite for my 2010MP, so I'll check out the applications you used this weekend and get back to you.

However, all of my AirPlay destinations are licensed, so I cannot replicate your exact example (if I understand correctly, Raspberry Pi uses open source code that mimicks an older AirPlay implementation).

The Raspberry Pi also cannot handle DRM'd content, so I just want to ask if you were trying the exact same media file in Quicktime as you were in iTunes. With the Pi as a destination, a DRM-free file should work for both applications, and a DRM'd file should work for neither application.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm currently using a Raspberry Pi. I'm waiting for the new AppleTV to be available.

I have not tried any DRM'd content. Everything is been DRM-free.
 
Well I tried it just now. MP5,1 Yosemite, ATV3.

I don't even get an Airplay icon in QuickTime or Safari/Youtube. I do get the Airplay icon in iTunes, and that works fine.
 
ActionableMango said:
Well I tried it just now. MP5,1 Yosemite, ATV3.

I don't even get an Airplay icon in QuickTime or Safari/Youtube. I do get the Airplay icon in iTunes, and that works fine.
Click to expand...

Hmm... Weird... I've never installed any sort of non-Apple apps related to AirPlay on my Mac.

Oh well, thanks for testing. I appreciate the help.
 
h9826790 said:
That's interesting. Intel says no, and AFAIK, QuickSync is a function in the iGPU which the Xeon does not have. Also, it seems no one can use QuickSync to export H.264 in the 6,1, that's why it's much slower than the iMac in some export job.
Click to expand...

Use opencl and Adobe media encoder
 
pastrychef said:
Hmm... Weird... I've never installed any sort of non-Apple apps related to AirPlay on my Mac.

Oh well, thanks for testing. I appreciate the help.
Click to expand...

I looked up Apple support which was not too helpful, but the knowledge base article says that Airplay will work in applications like Quicktime and Safari "if the Airplay icon is showing" or something like that.

Just curious, but did Airplay ever work for you in those apps? If not, then I can only speculate that it is normal that Airplay doesn't work in those apps (on a cMP), but somehow the icon is being incorrectly revealed on your computer.
 
ActionableMango said:
I looked up Apple support which was not too helpful, but the knowledge base article says that Airplay will work in applications like Quicktime and Safari "if the Airplay icon is showing" or something like that.

Just curious, but did Airplay ever work for you in those apps? If not, then I can only speculate that it is normal that Airplay doesn't work in those apps (on a cMP), but somehow the icon is being incorrectly revealed on your computer.
Click to expand...

I think AirPlay in QuickTime and Safari are new to El Capitan and I never got it to work. I was hoping that it was due to the fact that I am using a Raspberry Pi.

AirPlay as a system audio output works fine in Yosemite and El Capitan. AirPlay from iTunes also works fine with both OSes. Streaming videos (DRM free) from iTunes also works.
 
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