New Apple TV Now Supports Video Airplay for 3rd Party Apps in New 4.3 Beta

[kas23]

I don't know if this is the killer feature we think it is. Like it or not, over 90% of video on web is Flash-based and this can't be streamed from my iPhone. I dunno, whenever I want to watch decent videos (not YouTube), I usually have to grab my Mac. And streaming Flash from my Mac to an ATV wouldn't work either since it basically has a cellphone processor.

 

[Mac.World]

If you install Click2Flash on your Mac, you'll find that most Flash on the web is actually adverts. A lot of vids are already encoded to H.264, so if Flash is disabled, the vid will auto-load to this format (including Youtube).

Granted there are still some sites that are still strictly Flash based and this is an issue for some people, but I personally avoid Flash as much as possible.

What I want more than anything is for ATV and iTunes to recognize .avi and .mkv files!

 

[bpaluzzi]

Like it or not, over 90% of video on web is Flash-based

Ludicrously false

 

[posnera]

Does anyone have Slingplayer to test this out on?

 

[powerman]

I would like to be able to airplay from Imovie.

 

[Aries326]

Does this mean we can now get Plex on ATV2 and on the fly conversion of 1080p files to 720p for viewing?

 

[newagemac]

Does this mean we can now get Plex on ATV2 and on the fly conversion of 1080p files to 720p for viewing?

Most likely yes although currently the transcoder Plex uses (ffmpeg) converts with a max bitrate of 2.5mbps. There is a 5mbps option but it isn't stable yet.

It's worth noting that people are already doing this by installing a Plex client on jailbroken Apple TVs and for instance streaming 1080p mkvs to the Apple TV that are transcoded on the fly. With Airplay enabling this natively means that will probably no longer be necessary.

 

[kas23]

Ludicrously false

Thanks Steve, but I thought you were on medical leave?

Truth is, regardless of numbers, most stuff even worth watching is Flash-based. Can I watch Hulu? No. Can I watch Dog Wisperer or Dogtown on www.nationalgeographic.com? No. Can I watch clips on www.cnn.com? No. abc.com, nbc.com, fox.com, cbs.com? Nope, all Flash. So, you tell me. What exactly are these non-flash content containing websites I can watch? And don't tell me YouTube - I'm not really into watching funny cat videos.

 

[monaarts]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Ludicrously false

Thanks Steve, but I thought you were on medical leave?

Truth is, regardless of numbers, most stuff even worth watching is Flash-based. Can I watch Hulu? No. Can I watch Dog Wisperer or Dogtown on www.nationalgeographic.com? No. Can I watch clips on www.cnn.com? No. abc.com, nbc.com, fox.com, cbs.com? Nope, all Flash. So, you tell me. What exactly are these non-flash content containing websites I can watch? And don't tell me YouTube - I'm not really into watching funny cat videos.

I can watch hulu on my iPhone and iPad. I have only run into problems a very small number of times. Why dont you email nationalgeographic.com and bitch at them for using flash to build their site...?

 

[bpaluzzi]

Thanks Steve, but I thought you were on medical leave?

Truth is, regardless of numbers, most stuff even worth watching is Flash-based. Can I watch Hulu? No. Can I watch Dog Wisperer or Dogtown on www.nationalgeographic.com? No. Can I watch clips on www.cnn.com? No. abc.com, nbc.com, fox.com, cbs.com? Nope, all Flash. So, you tell me. What exactly are these non-flash content containing websites I can watch? And don't tell me YouTube - I'm not really into watching funny cat videos.

Right, because only steve jobs is able to comment on you pulling figures out of thin air.

And the fact remains, regardless of your opinion on content, that the statement that "90% of the video on the web is flash" is still straight-up wrong. And give those sites a year. I'll bet money that on their next site redesign, the majority of those sites will offer html5 versions alongside the flash (or drop the flash altogether).

 

[newagemac]

I'm not going to get into the whole debate about flash but you seem to be missing the whole point about Airplay and the new APIs. Sure it opens up the web to your Apple TV but more importantly it's all about the apps. You seem to be forgetting that regardless of whether or not their regular websites are in flash, content providers are creating apps for iOS devices to make their content available making that irrelevant.

For example, you mentioned Hulu and ABC but both of these have apps on the iPad that put their websites to shame in usability and user interface and it's a growing trend. No flash to be found at all just HTML5, H.264 video, and multitouch gesture support. Airplay means that potentially you can use the superior user interface of these apps to shoot video over to your Apple TV2. Browsing around a flash website meant for a mouse and keyboard pales in comparison.

And then there are the apps like Plex, Air Video, Zumocast, etc. that can now convert practically any codec, format, or resolution on the fly for display on the Apple TV with Airplay. Plus you have EyeTV which now means the ATV2 can be used for watching live TV and watching DVRed content without having to export to iTunes. These kinds of things are what make Airplay so interesting. Apple is leveraging the quality of the 3rd party apps available for the iOS platform with the fact that the new Apple TV is based on the same platform.

 

[fpnc]

...For example, you mentioned Hulu and ABC but both of these have apps on the iPad that put their websites to shame in usability and user interface and it's a growing trend. No flash to be found at all just HTML5, H.264 video, and multitouch gesture support. Airplay means that potentially you can use the superior user interface of these apps to shoot video over to your Apple TV2. Browsing around a flash website meant for a mouse and keyboard pales in comparison. ...

I agree with most of what you said. However, apps like Hulu and ABC may not enable AirPlay because of licensing restrictions. Right now neither of those apps allow you to view content over the iPad's component video connection and that's most likely happening because the apps do not have a license for viewing their content on the TV (i.e. it's restricted to the iPad's built-in display). In fact, this may be one of the reasons why AirPlay support for 3rd party apps was missing from the previous release of iOS, Apple needed to add a mechanism that would allow content providers and websites to effectively disable AirPlay video.

In any case, it's possible that Hulu Plus might enable AirPlay since they currently run on the PS3 and (I think) some other set top boxes but this is a bit different since you'll be paying a monthly fee to use Hulu Plus. The ABC app could be a different matter (AirPlay will not be enabled, IMO). The same is true for a lot of other content, I suspect that many of the video services (apps) that run on the iPad/iPhone will not enable AirPlay video.

As for Flash, I still find a fair amount of Flash video on the web (unfortunately), but H.264/HTML5 is also getting pretty popular.

 

[kas23]

Personally, I'm just sick of the excuses ("it's the website's fault"), endless list of workarounds, and waiting for Apple to decide when I should have a particular feature (or wait for a particular app to enable APIs - if they're even legally allowed to do it or even want to do it).

Seems like it's just easier to buy a Mac Mini n hook it up to my 52 inch (It will "just work"). Besides, all my wife does is watch these Chinese websites that play every Asian movie known to man. And I know "He'll" will freeze over when they turn away from Flash. I'll even be able to put Boxee on it too.

 

[Mac.World]

The final nail in the coffin for web-based Flash was when the Porn industry announced, in June last year, that they will drop Flash altogether in favor of HTML5.

Within 2 years, I expect 80-90% of websites to have gone to HTML5.

 

[EvilC5]

eyetv uses a cable/satellite box does it not?

I have mine setup on my HD DVR box, and Verizon charges 9.95 per month for each of the HD standard boxes. I have 7 tv's in my house, and 6 apple tv's. it would be awesome to cut back to maybe 1 HD DVR and 1 HD box. I have already dropped back to 1 HD DVR and 2 HD boxes, and 1 standard. before that, I was spending ~80 bucks a month just on cable box rental....and you have to have a box to decode their Fios signal...

I did the math, and buying a mini, and 4 new ATV2's with a netflix account over the course of the next 10-14 months will pay for itself.

so to be able to stream from the EyeTV app on my touch or iphone to my tv's that have ATV2's hooked to them would be a winner for me!