Beamer, the AirPlay movie player for Mac that allows you to stream any movie file from your Mac to your Apple TV, has been recently updated to version 1.6.2 that brings a bunch of improvements and bug fixes. The developers promise Beamer is now more stable than ever.

What’s new in Beamer 1.6.2?

• Fixed an issue where audio would sometimes be muted for the remainder of the movie.
• Fixed an issue where some subtitles would be parsed incorrectly.
• Fixed an issue where some movie files would not open (since version 1.6).
• Added the ability to report movie files that cannot be opened.
• Added support for MPL2 subtitles.
• Added support for audio-only movie files.
• Various performance, stability and cosmetic improvements.

Read our review of Beamer.

Beamer for Mac is sold at $15.00 and you can get it from here. A free trial (limited to the first 15 minutes of each video) is available from here. The app is currently on sale on MacUpdate Promo (25% off).

Beamer requires a Mac (2007 and up), OS X 10.6+ (Snow Leopard, Lion or Mountain Lion) and Apple TV (2^nd or 3^rd generation).

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Back in January XBMC released the long awaited Frodo 12.0 for all of your Apple products. Now you can install XBMC on your iPads, iPhones, iPods, and your, glorious, little Apple TV 2. The installation is almost the exact same as installing previous builds of XBMC with 4 subtle differences. Here we have put together a guide that incorporates these changes. So, sit back, relax and grab a cup of coffee.

Note: XBMC is not yet compatible with the 5.1+ Apple TV software. XBMC Developer Memphiz said on XBMC forum that the team is “trying their best” to make XBMC running on Apple TV 5.2. XBMC now available on iOS 6.1 for Apple TV

Upgrading An Existing Installatin Of XBMC EDEN 11.0

So you may be asking the question, “what do I do if I already have XBMC Eden installed on my Apple TV?” If this is the case, we have a few tips for you specifically. After extensive testing throughout the BETA phase, the team at XBMCHUB.COM has discovered that you will find the best results by simply doing a fresh install of XBMC Frodo. Yes, it is possible to back up your settings and reinstall your preferences but this often leads to many of the same issues.

It is not the happy news you may have wanted, but it ends up that XBMC Frodo plays nicest with your Apple TV when you uninstall XBMC, and all of your presets, from your device. Though I am unsure where the problem is located when upgrading directly… The problem is there all the same.

Installing A Fresh Version Of XBMC FRODO 12.0

Requirements

• Jailbroken ATV2 running firmware 5.0.2 or older
• Mac computer (use Terminal App)  or Windows PC (use PuTTY App)

Step 1: Launch the “Terminal” or “PuTTY” application.

Step 2: Ensure that your computer and your Apple TV are on the same network.

Step 3: Connect to your Apple TV via SSH using the following commands.

• ssh root@[Your Apple TV’s I.P. Address]

Example: ssh root@192.168.2.18
This can be found under General/Network on your ATV’s main menu

Note: Should you receive an “Authentication Error,” copy and paste the following command into the Terminal window and press Enter, then continue.

• rm ~/.ssh/known_hosts

Step 4: Agree to any Security Prompts by typing “yes” (without quotations), then press Enter.

Step 5: When prompted for a Password, type the word “alpine” (without quotations) then press Enter.

Step 6: Copy and Paste the Following Commands into your Terminal App, pressing the Enter key after each. It’s important that you wait for each one to finish before moving onto the next. Don’t worry… you will know when each line is finished.

1)      apt-get install wget
2)      wget -O- http://apt.awkwardtv.org/awkwardtv.pub | apt-key add -
3)      echo “deb http://apt.awkwardtv.org/ stable main” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/awkwardtv.list
4)      echo “deb http://mirrors.xbmc.org/apt/atv2 ./” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbmc.list
5)      apt-get update
6)      mkdir -p /Applications/AppleTV.app/Appliances
7)      apt-get install org.xbmc.xbmc-atv2
8)      mkdir -p /Applications/XBMC.frappliance
9)      reboot

Step 7: Once the Apple TV menu reloads, Launch XBMC into XBMC Frodo.

Step 8: To ensure the new build fits your screen, let’s enter the “Settings” sub menu under the “SYSTEM” heading.

Step 9: Select the “Appearance” tab from the left menu bar.

Step 10: Under the “Skin” menu, you’ll now want to choose “-4%” for the “Zoom” field so that your XBMC configuration will properly fit your television display. Depending on the television, you might have to play around with this, but it should work flawlessly at the “-4%” setting. Press “MENU” on your Remote Control to return back one level once this is done.

Step 11. Also worth noting: in XBMC 12.0 you will need to set up your sound. For this simply navigate to Settings/System/Audio Output go to the second option from the bottom and sleet the audio option that is right for you. Afterwards, go to the very first option and select between HDMI and Analog. If you are unsure… you are on HDMI.

Congratulations! Your Apple TV now has XBMC Frodo installed on it, and fitting on your screen. Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?

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UPDATE: Although it has been confirmed by @MuscleNerd that evasi0n would support Apple TV 2, it seems that it doesn’t. Based on earlier news from evad3rs team, we believed their jailbreak was compatible with Apple TV 2 when publishing the below post just a few minutes after evasi0n went live. We are very sorry for causing confusion. We now have to wait for Seas0nPass to be updated with iOS 6.x support for Apple TV 2. We believe it won’t take long.

UPDATE 2: How to jailbreak Apple TV 2 5.2 (iOS 6.1) using Seas0nPass (untethered; Mac & Windows)

Evad3rs, a group of four top iOS hackers (@pod2g, @musclenerd, @pimskeks and @planetbeing) has just released a long-awaited evasi0n jailbreak for all iDevices running iOS 6.0 through 6.1, that include Apple TV 2 running software version 5.1, 5.1.1 or the latest 5.2. This is an untethered jailbreak, meaning you will be able to reboot your Apple TV without attaching it to a computer. Evasi0n jailbreak doesn’t support Apple TV 3 (however, there is some hope that it will in the future).

Here are the direct download links:

• evasi0n jailbreak for Mac OS X
• evasi0n jailbreak for Windows
• evasi0n jailbreak for Linux

Official mirrors.

Requirements:

• 5 minutes of your time
• A computer running Windows (XP minimum), Mac OS X (10.5 minimum) or Linux (x86 / x86_64)
• An Apple TV 2 running iOS 6.0 through 6.1 (Apple TV firmware 5.1 through 5.2)
• A micro USB cable to connect ATV to the computer

Apple TV 2 running iOS 5.x (atv software version 5.0.2 and earlier) can be jailbroken using Seas0npass.

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Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

It now seems as if it has been years since we began the wait for an Apple TV 3 jailbreak! The truth is, I have grown tired of the wait and decided to look into what I could do with my existing Apple TV 1 & Apple TV 2. What I found was an tool known as OpenELEC 2.0! OpenELEC is one of the projects that aims to give users the ability to install XBMC as a standalone operating system for a wide variety of devices. What OpenELEC has done is build a stable version of XBMC using Linux and then create an installable package, integrated with a host of drivers, for a growing number of machines, including: old & new laptops, old & new desktop computers, raspberry pi boxes, and, yes, even your old Apple TV 1! Sadly, due to the software/hardware, the Apple TV 2 is not supported.

OpenELEC is not, necessarily, new to the Apple TV scene. What is new is that they have recently released OpenELEC 2.0, a stable version of their software based on XBMC Eden. This gives the Apple TV a strong and stable, standalone, XBMC experience. With it being an Eden build, it even offers your little silver box AirPlay! The team has added a few functionality increases to XBMC and even has a custom group of add ons and services that are made available to OpenELEC users only. These tools alone, make this a project worth looking at! If you are interested, you can find more specific information for this project at openelec.tv. To save you the visit, here are some of the key points made by their team:

What is OpenELEC?

Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center, or OpenELEC for short, is a small Linux distribution built from scratch as a platform to turn your computer into a complete XBMC media center. OpenELEC is designed to make your system boot as fast as possible and the install is so easy that anyone can turn a blank PC into a media machine in less than 15 minutes.

Key Features:

• It’s completely free
• Full install only 80-125MB
• Minimal hardware requirements
• Trivial install onto HDD, SSD, Compact Flash, SD card, pen drive etc
• Optimized builds for Atom, ION, Intel, Fusion etc
• Simple configuration via XBMC
• Plug and Play external storage
• File sharing out of the box

Required?

1. Mac, or Linux, computer
2. USB Stick,with at least 1 Gig of memory (to be on the safe side)
3. Apple TV 1
4. Remote Control
5. 10-20 minutes

STEP 1:
Connect the USB key to your machine, then open your Terminal app (For Mac it is located in /Applications/Utilities) and cut/paste the following commands to download the AppleTV SwissArmyKnife USB creator script for Mac OS X:

• curl -O http://chewitt.openelec.tv/atv_swissarmyknife_osx.sh
• chmod +x atv_swissarmyknife_osx.sh
• sudo ./atv_swissarmyknife_osx.sh

STEP 2:

The script will ask you confirm the /dev/disk# for the USB Drive. It runs with root privileges so please be careful with your selection! You will see a list of all current drives available on your machine… so simply look for the name and size of your thumb drive. Once the target device has been confirmed the script will repartition the USB Stick, download files needed to boot the AppleTV (11MB) and then install them to the thumb drive. It should take no more than a couple of minutes to complete, at best.


PLEASE NOTE: If you choose the wrong drive, you could accidentally delete important content. Make sure you read the list of available devices carefully. Mine, for example was a 2 GIG drive that I named UMOUCH-ATVH. Once I knew the drive, I entered “/dev/disk2″ and hit Enter. You are then prompted to confirm the election… type in “Y” for yes. When complete, your output will match the image below:.STEP 3:
Power the AppleTV OFF and then connect the USB Stick to the single USB port, between the Ethernet port and the Power Cable on the back of your device.

STEP 4:
Power the AppleTV ON (Plug it in). After 10-15 seconds you should see the Grey/Blue OpenELEC logo on the screen, then the “SwissArmyKnife script” will start and confirm the current keyword function. The default keyword is “install”. This is where the device will download the OpenELEC software from the OpenELEC website.

STEP 5:
Before anything destructive is done, the installer will pause for roughly 30 seconds, and display a warning message; this ensures you enough time for you to power the AppleTV off (remove the power cable) before anything is changed. After the 30 second wait the installer continues. 

What is Happening  (advanced):

Once it completes, a message will be displayed telling you it is safe to remove the USB key and reboot.

That’s It! If you followed the steps correctly, you should have XBMC running as your standalone operating system! If you had any troubles with the process, openELEC has a great source for troubleshooting any, and all, issues: Troubleshooting USB Key Creation & Opperating System!

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Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

We have had XBMC 11.0 Eden for 8 months now and, if you are anything like me, it is time to begin the process of upgrading our XBMC installations to the new & improved XBMC 12.0 Frodo. The process should be fairly straight forward and essentially identical to the process we used for install the previous version of XBMC. Before we get started let’s clear the air on a few points so that we are all on the same page:

• This is a BETA release and as such may result in some unexpected behaviors.
• This is the 1’st BETA XBMC has released, there will be more to come.
• XBMC Frodo can cause a good time and may be habit forming.
• To install Frodo to Apple TV 1 you will need to:

- Visit OpenElec.tv regarding their 2.0 project
- Visit Stnlabs.comregarding their 2.0 project

How to install XBMC 12.0 Frodo (beta 1) APPLE TV 2 (Running iOS 5+)

Requirements

• Jailbroken ATV2 running iOS 5+
• Mac Computer (use Terminal App)
• Windows PC (use PuTTY App)

Step 1: Launch the “Terminal” or “PuTTY” application.

Step 2: Ensure that your computer and your Apple TV are on the same network.

Step 3: Connect to your Apple TV via SSH using the following commands.

• ssh root@[Your Apple TV’s I.P. Address]

Example: ssh root@192.168.2.18
This can be found under General/Network on your ATV’s main menu

Note: Should you receive an “Authentication Error,” copy and paste the following command into the Terminal window and press Enter, then continue.

• rm ~/.ssh/known_hosts

Step 4: Agree to any Security Prompts by typing “yes” (without quotations), then press Enter.

Step 5: When prompted for a Password, type the word “alpine” (without quotations) then press Enter.

Step 6: Copy and Paste the Following Commands into your Terminal App, pressing the Enter key after each. It’s important that you wait for each one to finish before moving onto the next. Don’t worry… you will know when each line is finished.

1)      apt-get install wget

2)      wget -O- http://apt.awkwardtv.org/awkwardtv.pub | apt-key add -

3)      echo “deb http://apt.awkwardtv.org/ stable main” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/awkwardtv.list

4)      echo “deb http://mirrors.xbmc.org/apt/atv2 ./” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbmc.list

5)      apt-get update

6)      apt-get install org.xbmc.xbmc-atv2

7)      reboot

Step 7: Once the Apple TV menu reloads, Launch XBMC into XBMC Frodo!

Step 8: To ensure the new build fits your screen, let’s enter the “Settings” sub menu under the “SYSTEM” heading.

Step 9: Select the “Appearance” tab from the left menu bar.

Step 10: Under the “Skin” menu, you’ll now want to choose “-4%” for the “Zoom” field so that your XBMC configuration will properly fit your television display. Depending on the television, you might have to play around with this, but it should work flawlessly at the “-4%” setting. Press “MENU” on your Remote Control to return back one level once this is done.

Congratulations! Your second generation Apple TV running iOS 5+ now has XBMC Frodo installed on it, and fitting on your screen. Now that wasn’t so bad… was it?

• More on FRODO from Apple TV Hacks : XBMC 12.0 Frodo (beta 1) released: One media center to rule them all!
• More on FRODO from XBMC.ORG
• Installation on other platforms.

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The Apple TV 2, Apple TV 3, iPad 2-4, iPhone 4-5, and some iPod touches have all shared one thing in common over the past few years and that one thing is AirPlay. Well, as of this year Apple has decided to updated its latest Mac OS X, Mountain Lion build, with support for the mirroring functionality as well. There is no arguing that AirPlay is one of the strongest growing features in Apple’s multimedia arsenal. For those of us who have the distinct pleasure of utilizing AirPlay to the fullest, we know that it is something everyone needs in their lives. That said, there is a large segment of the globe that is unable to take advantage of these features.

What about those of us who haven’t done the upgrade to the newest Operating System? What about those of us who have upgraded, but want to use AirPlay while still working on your Mac? What about those of us who have an amazing surround sound system and discover that the Mac’s AirPlay functionality only supports stereo? Well… your answer just may be in a tool for Macs known only as Beamer!

Beamer App For Mac (by Tupil) – Straight From The Source

Now you can play any movie from your Mac on Apple TV.

Features include:

• Drag, Drop, Watch

Drag any movie file onto Beamer and it will start streaming wirelessly to your TV with Apple TV instantly. No jailbreak required.

• No Conversion Needed

Beamer plays all (OK, almost all) movie files, so you don’t need to convert your videos. AVI, MOV, MKV, MP4, WMV and FLV files will play just fine.

• Wondering if it will support another File Format?

You can easily download the trial to test any obscure file format you may have. We strive to support as many movie files as possible. If you have a video that doesn’t work, we’d love to hear about it.

THE GOOD

Beamer could not be any easier to use or set up! It is important to note that I say this because there is NO SETUP! Users need only download the app and turn on their Apple TV. Yes, that is it. Now, in order to play a movie from your Mac to your Apple TV 2, or 3, you need only drag the file from your Mac and drop it in the window that appears when opening the Beamer application. Within seconds your Apple TV will be streaming your movie.

There are many benefits to Beamer that Mountain Lion’s implementation of AirPlay Mirroring does not account for:

1. With Beamer you can user your Apple TV Remote to control your movie. This includes all remote functionality such as Play, Pause, Skip, Fast-forward, and Rewind;
2. With Beamer you can continue to work on your Mac, as the Beamer app is “just another window” on your desktop;
3. With Beamer you can user your Apple TV’s complete audio setup. This means if you have a great surround sound system connected to your Apple TV, you can utilize it with your movie streaming;
4. With Beamer you can download and test the app before deciding to make the purchase.

THE BAD

I did have a somewhat poor experience with the app in two situations.

1. While the app handled all of the video formats I sent to it, I found that if I used larger .mkv files I wound up with very slow navigation.
   • As an example, when I played the 1080p release of BRAVE, by Pixar, I found that as I attempted to skip forward in the movie, my Apple TV would hang for a good 5 minutes or more while the App and the TV communicated.
2. In one instance (and only one) I found an .MP4 formatted video that would only play in intervals of 10 seconds, or so, at a time. Now, the app handled 3 other movies formatted in the exact same way so we can be sure it is not entirely and issue with its ability to read codecs. That said, the video does play via my Mac and AirPlay using Mountain Lion.

While I did have these two problems it is important to note that I did all of my testing while working on a 3MB connection speed, over a DSL line. This is not very good. So the fact is, this issue was likely caused by my internet connect more than the Beamer app itself. I would go as far as saying if you have at least a 6MB connection, this app will be smooth as butter… spread over your Apple TV.

THE UGLY TRUTH

In the end this app did exactly what it said it would do. Though the team behind the Beamer app is not trying to reinvent the wheel, they did find a way to do AirPlay without Apple’s supported method. To quote their reasoning for not being available in the App Store:

“It was turned down for using undocumented Apple technology. We use an undocumented way to talk to the Apple TV with AirPlay. While this is unsupported by Apple, it works well in practice.”

That aside, I was not disappointed with this app at all. There are many players in this field right now, but Beamer is by far the easiest option for users who have video content on their hard drive, or other local storage, and want to be able to share it on their Apple Televisions. All in all, if your set up is missing any of the features we have mentioned in this review, you should seriously consider Beamer. After all it is free to download and try.

Beamer for Mac is sold at $15.00 and you can get it from here. A free trial (limited to the first
15 minutes of each video) is available from here.

Beamer requires a Mac (2007 and up), OS X 10.6+ (Snow Leopard, Lion or Mountain Lion) and Apple TV (2^nd or 3^rd generation).

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Squirrels, a developer behind AirParrot and Reflection, is running a sale for its products: both AirParrot and Reflection are 20% off. AirParrot, an app that enables your Macs or Windows machines to AirPlay its screen to Apple TV, is now $7.99 (was $9.99). Reflection, a little piece of software that lets you AirPlay mirror your iDevice to any Mac or PC, sells at $11.99 (was $14.99). Hurry up, sale ends on November 16^th at midnight EST.

Sale’s page.

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AirServer, an AirPlay receiver that enables you to stream audio, videos and photos, to your Mac, Windows PC or iOS device, has been updated to version 4.6 that features support for projectors, iPad mini and onscreen passcode (very useful in classroom environments). New AirServer also add a new audio player with remote playback controls, support for Remote Speaker output and Mountain Lion mirroring support on older 32-bit Snow Leopard Macs.

Here is what’s new in AirServer 4.6:

• Added all new audio player with remote playback controls.
• Added audio only receiver in lossless quality.
• Added onscreen passcode/password.
• Added projector optimizations.
• Added support for Remote Speaker output Winamp plugin by Eric Milles.
• Added side by side connections for photos, videos and slideshows as well.
• Added Mountain Lion mirroring support on older 32-bit Snow Leopard Macs.
• Added always on top window option.
• Added option to turn off automatic check for updates.
• Improved video playlist support.
• Fixed random disconnects while mirroring.
• Fixed audio crackling issues
• Removed alert sound when starting audio playback.
• Fixed red icon.
• Fixed Syphon recorder bug on Macbook Pro Retina.
• Fixed IPv6 related issues.
• Fixed various other bugs.

The update for AirServer is free for existing users.

AirServer delivers full 1080p HD mirroring and allows you to mirror your display from your iOS devices or Mountain Lion.

AirServer also supports 3rd party media players, such as the BBC iPlayer, 4oD and Netflix. This new breakthrough means you can now Mirror content from popular media apps to your HDTV or Mac via AirServer (local restrictions imposed by media players still apply).

AirServer for Mac or Windows is sold at $14.99 (there is also free 7 day trial) and you can get it from here.

Check out our review of AirServer.

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Mac version of AirParrot, a fantastic little app that enables your Macs or Windows machines to AirPlay its screen to Apple TV, has been recently updated to version 1.5 that brings lots of performance enhancements, few bug fixes and improved compatibility with Apple TV’s latest firmware. Windows version of AirParrot will also be updated soon.

What’s new in AirParrot 1.5?

• Automatically detect TV Overscan settings
• Added ability to force 720p for improved performance on slower networks
• Corrected an issue that could cause passwords to not save
• Improved logging for network problem resolutions
• Improved menu status messages when unable to connect
• Resolved an issue that could cause problems connecting audio to an Apple TV
• Added support for deployment to all users (when installed as admin/root) – contact support@airparrot.com for more details on bulk deployment
• Added support for date-limited promotional keys
• Improved compatibility with iOS 6
• Misc. performance improvements and bug fixes

AirParrot is available from here with a single machine license for $9.99 USD and a 5-machine license for $29.99 USD. 10 minutes trial version is also available.

Check out our review of AirParrot.

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It’s September 19, so iOS 6 should be with us any minute now. Once you install it on each of your iDevices, don’t forget to check out the newest version of AirServer (for Mac or PC) which has already been re-engineered for iOS 6. The new AirServer includes 1080p HD mirroring, content streaming and better support for video-on-demand apps like Netflix. The PC version hits version 1.0 and is now feature complete, with audio, movie and photo streaming.

Full HD support

AirServer has been enhanced for iOS 6 and now lets you stream content or Mirror your display in full 1080p HD. According to the developers, this enhancement is “twice as crisp as before and makes all the difference when viewing content on your iMac or HDTV via AirServer.”

Big screen browsing with Safari

iOS 6 with AirServer brings even better web browsing to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. With AirServer you can view the web full-screen on your Mac, HDTV or projector. Zooming-in to read illegible text becomes a thing of the past thanks to AirServer.

Facebook

Now that Facebook has been fully integrated into iOS 6 you’ll be able to share, post and stay up-to-date in a myriad of new ways. Combined with the new update of AirServer this means you’ll be able to stream all your social interactions to the big screen to share with others around you.

Maps

Apple has designed Maps from the ground up and is purely vector based, so graphics and text are incredibly detailed – even in full-zoom. With AirServer you’ll be able to stream the new Maps application from your iOS device onto your Mac or HDTV. Great when you need to debate the route with your friends before you even hit the road.

AirServer is sold at $14.99 for Mac and Windows version (there is also free 7 day trial) and you can get it from here. The new AirServer is a free update for existing users.

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Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!