Ladislav Soukup Apple TV is a very nice piece of hardware, but it also suffers from a lot of shortcomings. One of them is the very limited offer of localized content, at least for Czech users (currently around 50 dubbed films). Apple TV is primarily intended for consuming content from iTunes, and therefore it is almost impossible to play a movie in a format other than MP4 or MOV, which also needs to be added to the iTunes library.
Although Apple made it possible to use AirPlay Mirroring for full-screen mirroring in OS X 10.8, there are also several limitations here – primarily, the function is limited to Macs from 2011 and later. In addition, for video playback, the entire screen needs to be mirrored, so the computer cannot be used during playback, and mirroring sometimes suffers from stuttering or reduced quality.
The mentioned problems are brilliantly solved by the Beamer application for OS X. There are a few other applications for both Mac and iOS that can get video content to the Apple TV (AirParrot, AirVideo, ...), however, Beamer's strengths are simplicity and reliability. Beamer is a single small window on your Mac desktop. You can drag and drop any video into it and then you can just relax in front of the TV and watch. The application automatically finds the Apple TV on your Wi-Fi network, so the user does not have to worry about anything.
Video review
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Beamer plays any common video format without any problems, be it AVI with DivX or MKV compression. Everything will play completely smoothly. For MKV, it also supports multiple audio tracks and embedded subtitles in the container. Less common formats, such as 3GPP, do not cause him any problems either. As for resolution, the Beamer can smoothly play videos in resolutions from PAL to 1080p. This is mainly due to the library used ffmpeg, which handles almost every format used today.
The subtitles were similarly trouble-free. Beamer read SUB, STR or SSA/ASS formats without any problems and displayed them without hesitation. You just have to turn them on manually in the menu. Although the beamer finds the subtitles by itself based on the name of the video file (and adds the subtitles contained in the MKV to the list for the given video), it does not turn them on itself. It displays Czech characters correctly, both in UTF-8 and Windows-1250 encoding. In the case of an exception, converting subtitles to UTF-8 is a matter of minutes. The only complaint is the absence of any settings, especially regarding the font size. However, the developers are not to blame, Apple TV does not allow you to change the font size, thus running into the limitations set by Apple.
Scrolling in the video is only possible using the Apple TV remote control, which can only rewind the video. The disadvantage is the impossibility of moving precisely and quickly to a specific position, on the other hand, thanks to the possibility of using the Apple Remote, it is not necessary to reach for the Mac, which can then rest on the table. Rewinding in the video is not instant, on the other hand, you can do everything within a few seconds, which is doable. As for the sound, it should also be mentioned that the Beamer supports 5.1 audio (Dolby Digital and DTS).
The load on the computer during playback is relatively small, but you still need to take into account the need to convert the video into a format that Apple TV supports. The hardware requirements are also relatively low, all you need is a Mac from 2007 and later and OS X version 10.6 and higher. On the Apple TV side, at least the second generation of the device is required.
You can buy a beamer for 15 euros, which may be expensive for some, but the app is worth every euro cent. Personally, I am very satisfied with Beamer so far and can confidently recommend it. At least until Apple allows applications to be installed directly into the Apple TV, thus opening the way for playing alternative formats directly without the need for external transcoding. However, if you want to forgive yourself for jailbreaking your Apple TV or connecting your Mac to your TV with a cable, Beamer is currently the easiest solution for watching videos in a non-native format from your Mac.
[button color=red link=http://beamer-app.com target=”“]Beamer – €15[/button]
I've been thinking about apple TV for a long time, but I still can't decide if it would find application. It's a pity that there is no jailbreak for the 3rd gen yet, because without it, from what I've read in the reviews, Apple TV has only limited options here for us...
That's right, I still don't have a PC at home, only a work MacBook. I just want to have a TV box that can play any video content from the Internet. As a Jailbroken Apple TV 2 with XBMC installed, it can do it quite well, but I would still imagine it to be better.
Buy a Raspberry Pi and it's cheaper and does the same thing as ATV if not more
But the problem here is that it doesn't support Airplay Mirroring...
It can, XBMC can
In my opinion, the older Intel mac mini with a large LCD TV is the best, I have it at home and I can't imagine it any other way, under that two-meter hard drive, well done :-))
I bought a 3rd generation ATV and it has several uses. Immediate possibility to share photos with the visitor (mostly family) directly from the mobile phone, and also the possibility to plan trips with companions and a map directly from the laptop on the wedge mirrored on the projector via ATV. It's true that I don't buy iTunes content on the ATV, I use it as a wireless image bridge to the projector.
Playing the cut DVD does not solve this program? Most of the time, when I download movies, it's in .vob format.
to be honest, I haven't tried that... but I can test it during the day and add at least here in the comments. In theory, however, there shouldn't be a problem (the beamer uses the ffmpeg library and it can handle VOBs).
The developers state that VOB files themselves are supported.
so I finally tested it... VOB files play without problems including the ability to switch audio track and subtitles. The only problem can be the need to directly load a specific vob... ie, the beamer does not bite the control files from the DVD and you really need to push a specific vob file to it.
When BEAMER can't even play a recorded DVB-S transport stream from, for example, our HBO HD, it's not such a bomb...
Is there an application with similar capabilities for Windows PC?
for Windows I can only think of AirParrot (http://www.airparrot.com/) but it's not quite ideal for video :(
I personally sent it from Windows via AirVideo (http://www.inmethod.com/air-video) to and from the iPad via mirroring on the aTV... which is not the easiest thing to do, and the iPad was draining the battery quite quickly...
I use Beamer with Apple TV to my complete satisfaction. I'll add one more note about the app: Beamer sends the movie to the Apple TV, which buffers it with a certain footage ahead. Therefore, you won't experience any problems in the event of a drop in Mac performance or Wi-Fi capture (unlike image mirroring via AirPlay). So I recommend it :)
Hello, I have the beamer app and I am playing via apple tv, it worked until now, but I don't know why it stopped working... in addition, the Beamer app somehow can't connect via wifi to the apple tv, can you advise what to do about it? I have paid full version of Beamer
I purchased a Beamer, but most movies repeatedly pause while playing and take a while to load. This is mainly done by VOB files and movies in HD quality. I have them saved on an external drive
Did you manage to play streamed videos as well? E.g. do you watch serials and the like from the pages?
streaming video cannot be "pushed" through Beamer... Beamer only plays files.