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why can't itunes stream movie audio over airplay?

This is more a suggestion to Apple engineers rather than a request for assistance but any comments in support (or otherwise) are welcome.


So, it goes like this, I use my iMac as my TV, entertainment centre, etc at home and I stream audio from there to an Airport Express hooked up to my stereo. Using Airplay in iTunes and third party apps like Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil this works for just about anything: my music library, live TV through EyeTV and non DRM movies...but I like to download rental movies from iTunes and for some reason I can't stream audio from iTunes movies. I understand that this is a documented limitation of iTunes and Airplay, and there can be some issues with audio and video getting out of sync due to the buffering, but if Airfoil can do it, why not iTunes? The Airfoil video player is pretty basic, but it compensates for the buffering delay without any problems, and I can even use VLC to manually add a delay into the video track.


Would it be possible to include this as part of a future iTunes update? I mean, I'd much rather rent movies legitimately through iTunes than resort to other more nefarious means to be able to enjoy watching movies on my Mac. What's more, I have this pathological antipathy toward hooking things up with cables, so Airplay is the perfect solution for me and loads of other people as well, I'm sure.


So come on Apple, show you really do care about Airplay and let iTunes stream the movie audio so that I can enjoy my entertainment in High Fidelity.


Thanks,


Joe.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on May 5, 2012 8:34 AM

Reply
7 replies

Oct 7, 2012 6:23 AM in response to joecoleman

Well, here's some good news!


Looks like a feature of Mountain lion that didn't make the front page solves my problem. To get movie audio over Airplay, on OSX 10.8 go to Audio and MIDI Setup app, make sure you have the Audio Setup window open (Window - Show Audio Window) and if your Airport or other Airplay device is online it should appear in the list of audio IO devices on the left hand side.


Right click on the Airplay icon and select "Use this Device For Sound Output" and away you go. iTunes (10.7 at least) seems to be smart enough to realise that it is playing audio to a streaming device and buffers the video accordingly. Viola! Glorious hifi sound sans wires.


J

Feb 2, 2015 6:29 PM in response to infinitejones

"BTW I've also discovered that you can select the default output by holding down "option" while clicking on the volume icon in the taskbar."

this, imo, is an amazing shortcut 'hack' that addresses exactly what i was looking for! thanks a bunch, infinitejones for finding the 'shortcut', and joecoleman for finding the original solution. i'm liking this post over joecoleman's simply b/c i love, love, love simple ways to navigate places and while joecoleman found the original solution, infinitejones found the one-click solution that makes me actually want to use it ^_^

why can't itunes stream movie audio over airplay?

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