Mar 05, 2019 AirPlay 2 support will allow users to stream videos, music, photos, and more directly from an iPhone, iPad, and Mac to eligible LG smart TVs, complete with lock screen controls. Jun 02, 2018 Use AirPlay 2 on PC or Mac. Launch iTunes. Click “AirPlay” at the top of the window for iTunes. Tick the box beside every device that you want to play audio. If one of those devices is an Apple TV, you may be required to enter the passcode for authentication. See Also: Best Mirror Apps for iPhone and iPad. Use AirPlay 2 on HomePod or Apple TV. Apple's AirPlay technology lets you stream audio and video from a Mac or iOS device to AirPlay-enabled output devices. If you aren't using it yet, you should be. Jul 11, 2012 Whether you use AirParrot or AirPlay Mirroring, on a newer Mac or an older one, though, the real bottleneck for most users isn’t going to be whether the H.264 encoding was done on.
If you use a Mac for viewing movies, or as part of a home theater setup, you're probably painfully aware that there is not a way to stream video content to that Mac. Worry not, though: developer Erica Sadun has begun development of AirPlayer, an app that lets your Mac masquerade as an Apple TV to AirPlay-enabled iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches so that you can stream content to the Mac.
AirPlay is Apple's extension of its AirTunes technology, which includes photos and video. Unfortunately, its current incarnation has a few limitations. For instance, video on your Mac can be streamed to an Apple TV or an iOS device, but video from a mobile iOS device can only be streamed to an Apple TV and not other devices.
'I decided to figure out a way that people who didn't own an Apple TV, or who were on the road with their iPhone and a laptop, could actually use AirPlay streaming 'backwards'—from their iDevice to their Mac,' Sadun wrote on TUAW.
The key to solving the problem is that AirPlay works using Bonjour (aka ZeroConf), which allows network services to automatically connect and communicate over local networks. With the help of some developer colleagues, Sadun was able to monitor and decode the messages that pass between an Apple TV and an iPad, determining how an Apple TV lets AirPlay devices know it is capable of accepting streams.
(The process was not unlike that used by developers to figure out Apple's AirPrint protocol and enable printing to shared printers connected to any Mac—a feature that had appeared in betas of Mac OS X 10.6.5 but was removed before the official release.)
After a few days of delving deep into the network communications between the two devices, Sadun was able to figure out the proper messages to pass back and forth to enable AirPlay streaming. 'Ended up having to go down pretty deep in the socket level, down to NSFileHandle, but not raw sockets,' she noted via Twitter.
Oct 15, 2019 AirPlay lets you stream audio from one Apple device to an AirPlay-compatible speaker.You can also stream video and mirror the screen on your iOS device or Mac to an Apple TV. AirPlay 2 adds the ability to play music across multiple speakers throughout your home, or play something different in every room.
Beyond those messages, AirPlay uses standard Bonjour and HTTP sockets to operate, so AirPlayer doesn't require any jailbreaks or hacks on your iOS device to work. It simply runs on your Mac, broadcasting via Bonjour that it's an Apple TV and ready to accept AirPlay streams. AirPlayer then accepts the video stream over HTTP and plays it via a standard QuickTime window.
'There's a two-way communication channel, which uses Reverse HTTP for one direction and regular HTTP in the other,' Sadun told Ars. 'The reason for that is that both devices on either end of the connection get to control the video playback,' she explained, so there needs to be a way for both devices to communicate control data.
Sadun notes that without jailbreaking, though, AirPlay is still limited to a few Apple applications, such as YouTube, iPod, and Video. 'What Apple is doing is really innovative and cool, and well thought out; it's just surprising that it's not built in to everything yet,' she said. Installing a jailbreak hack called AirVideoEnabler, which allows any iOS app using Apple's playback APIs to stream via AirPlay, makes AirPlayer infinitely more useful.
'The big idea behind AirPlayer is that it allows you to transmit from small screens to big screens without having to buy extra equipment,' Sadun said. 'Without wires, it's possible to push video to a computer right from the iPhone in your pocket.'
AirPlayer is still in a very early 'alpha' stage, though Sadun has made an ad-supported version available for download. A newer update, which Ars got a chance to preview, adds full-screen video playback. Still in the works is adding support for audio streaming from iOS devices, which relies on the older AirTunes protocols to work. Our test used a YouTube video—AirPlay just passes the URL for online video sources to the destination to play back directly, so audio works fine in this scenario.
Feedback has been positive so far, Sadun said, but users are requesting three major improvements: the ability to stream from one iOS device to another, the ability to stream video from any Mac application (such as VLC), and enabling AirPlay on first-generation Apple TVs. Now that the protocol is understood, it should be possible to do all three, but Sadun thinks that streaming from an arbitrary Mac application to an Apple TV has the most practical application at this time. 'It would enable playback support for formats that iTunes doesn't work with, such as AVI' she said.
You can download a copy of the latest public release of AirPlayer from Sadun's online software repository.
About AirPlay and AirPlay 2
Using Airplay On Mac
AirPlay lets you stream audio from one Apple device to an AirPlay-compatible speaker. You can also stream video and mirror the screen on your iOS device or Mac to an Apple TV.
AirPlay 2 adds the ability to play music across multiple speakers throughout your home, or play something different in every room. You can stream video to AirPlay 2-compatible smart TVs, or use Siri on your iOS device to play a movie or TV show in the room where you want to watch it.1 It's never been easier to control what's playing in every part of your home.
To use AirPlay 2, update your devices to the latest software version and add your AirPlay 2-compatible speakers or smart TVs to the Home app on your iOS device.
Find speakers, receivers, and smart TVs that are compatible with AirPlay 2.
Airplay Hack For Older Macs Free
AirPlay 2 system requirements
The following devices support streaming audio with AirPlay 2. If your device meets the requirements below, but you can't use AirPlay, learn what to do.
Devices you can AirPlay 2 audio from
- iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 11.4 or later
- Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD with tvOS 11.4 or later2
- HomePod with iOS 11.4 or later
- Mac or PC with iTunes 12.8 or later
- Mac with macOS Catalina
Devices you can AirPlay 2 video from
- iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 12.3 or later
- Mac with macOS Mojave 10.14.5 or later
Devices you can stream to
- Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD with tvOS 11.4 or later
- HomePod with iOS 11.4 or later
- Speakers connected to the Audio Out port on AirPort Express 802.11n (2nd Generation) with the latest firmware update
- AirPlay 2-compatible smart TVs1 with the label:
- Speakers and receivers with 'Works with Apple AirPlay' on the speaker packaging3
Airplay For Mac
AirPlay system requirements
The following devices support streaming with AirPlay. If your device meets the requirements below, but you can't use AirPlay, learn what to do.
Devices you can stream from
- iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
- Mac
- iTunes on Mac or PC
- Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD2
Devices you can stream to
Mac Airplay Menu
- HomePod
- Apple TV 4K, Apple TV HD, and Apple TV (2nd or 3rd generation)
- Speakers connected to the Audio Out port on AirPort Express
- Speakers with “Works with Apple AirPlay” on the speaker packaging
- To use Siri to play and control video on a smart TV, you need an AirPlay 2-compatible smart TV that supports HomeKit. HomeKit isn't supported on Samsung smart TVs.
- You can only AirPlay audio from Apple TV.
- Some third-party speakers might require a firmware update to support AirPlay 2 streaming. Go to the manufacturer's website to learn more.