Don't waste your money and time on this app because the developer has clearly abandoned it. Beamer now offers virtually no functionality. It requires the user to constantly start and restart it and after awhile, the few controls built into it (play, stop, skip back, skip forward) have stopped responding.
The app works amazingly well for me. I can basically drop any video on it and get it on my AppleTV through AirPlay.
No problem in Mojave once you add it to the Accessibility preferences.
IT DOES WORK ON MOJAVE! You just need to use AppCleaner to uninstall it, then reinstall it, and manually go into System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility and check Beamer, then launch it.
Was once a very satisfied user, but am now sick of this app! Numerous bugs (on my 4g Apple TV, 2014 iMac and most recent OS) have already been mentioned and contacting support from this maker seems pointless since most who've tried report that they get no response. Worst of all, I've found Beamer sporadically refuses to play even common .mp4 and .avi movie files and if it does, it plays them only for a few minutes and then disconnects. At this price, there should be regular bug fixes and updates, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Shame on you Tupil!
Contacted customer support 3 times and no reply - and I am a paying customer. Horrible, or should I say non-existent customer support. Crashes on installation with Mojave. Not recommended.
This is a gem of a little application that comes in very handy on my 2010 MacPro which does not support AirPlay as fully as later generation Macs. It does what it is supposed to do and is a snap to use.
"Just works" with Apple TV and also works perfect with Chromecast - but make sure you tick the Googlecast Use Multichannel AAC Audio box or it won't work.
I use Beamer from the day one and I pay for every Upgrade. I love it, but, I tried the Airflow app of my girlfriend because she have bought Chromecast and Beamer app crashed every 30 minutes. Airflow app is awesome. It's free at the moment and works perfect. Has live preview and many more. I love Airflow. Its really great. Beamer is not free and don't have many functions what Airflow. http://airflowapp.com
The app looks nice and is very intuitive. Finds my chromecast no problem, but performance is very bad. I mean, it's worst than any other software, commercial and open source that I tried. The stream interrupts every couple of seconds and makes casting almost any media a nightmare... All other apps streamed the very same media without an issue. I own a license since v2, and I hoped v3 would change but unfortunately I can never use it.
The current version of Beamer will not work with the 4th generation Apple TV running the latest update of Apple TV OS. After much time digging around the developer's website, I found their solution: download and reinstall a previous version of Apple TV's operating system. Of course you have to have a USB C cable, which I don't. Even if I did have the cable, their solution is not for me. Very disappointed that the software is not updated and especially disappointed that their support does not reply to questions submitted to them. Beamer WAS a great app (5 stars plus), but without an update, it's dead. I have installed the VLC app on my Apple TV and set it up for drag, drop and play of my videos. It works like Beamer used to work.
The current version as of this writing (3.2) is great! It reliably beams my videos from my laptop to the Apple TV in my house (gen 3) perfectly. One Feature they are totally missing is a control over ASPECT RATIO. My TV is unable to change its display well enough to compensate for the occasional video which is at 1280 pixels but gets displayed at 1920. UGH... people are stretched horizontally to look totally like fat robot android creatures. Beamer makers/Tupil guys Ben Lenarts & Eelco Lempsink: Give us some settings for this, please!
I really like it. A piece of software that does one thing... but does that one thing really well. I think it's a little costly, but ahhhh what can you do. If I could request a feature, it would be: ability to play files by providing a http location
I don't understand how this app. works. Say your Mac is in one place in the house and your Apple TV in another (let's say your rec room) -- do you have to start the video from your Mac and then make a mad dash for your rec room, or can you access videos from your Apple TV?
Been a Beamer user since v1 and loved it all the way :) Plays any video/audio format I throw at it, uses external and/or internal subs, playback picks up where you left off. It's awesome.
Unlike mirror option on apple TV, this requires broad band internet connection. If you don't have one it won't play. I can't use it over a 1 Mbps connection where apple TV mirroring works perfectly.
This is the way you want to stream video.
I had another application that I was happy with, but it didn't seem that intuitive to me. It worked well, so I wasn't looking to replace it. I purchased a software bundle that included Beamer. As soon as I tried it I never went back. A couple of months later version 3 was released. I possibly was the first person to upgrade. Version 2 had no deficiencies, but it was so great I wanted to see what the next level was like: smoother, faster.
If you just want to drag and drop your video file and watch it on your player device then Beamer is for you.
I upgraded to V3 after the snag was ironed out. This version is as reliable (maybe more) than the prior version. The picture quality is very good when fed a good quality file. Frankly the UI, and ease of drag and drop list re-org and additions make this a true “Mac” Application. The UI’s feedback is great and snappy. It works fine with the Apple Remotes, and scrubbing back and forth is accurate as well. On my 802.11AC network (even though the laptop has only 802.11N), reload times after scrubbing are fast enough to avoid that annoying delay one gets when streaming Netflix or Hulu when you jog back a few seconds.
About the only thing that would make Beamer better is if it could be launched from the 4th Gen AppleTV via a tvOS app, and load a preset folder to chose videos from so you could leave the computer locked or alone. But this “wish list/bonus” feature would probably a v3.5 or v4 feature, or maybe a $2–5 tvOS companion app?
FYI: I occasionally get dropouts where the App disconnects from the device or it initially can’t access the device until I reboot my 4th Gen AppleTV or the laptop, but this happens across all streaming from both the net and my computer, and even my Bluetooth Gamepad controller has problems initially connecting sometimes. (This I blame on xOS 9’s & OS X 10.10+ known problematic network stack.)
So, I can’t ding a developer for flakey network reliability of the AppleTV, nor the occasional 2.4gHz band noise spikes in my area (which seem mostly responsible for the disconnects). In case you’re wondering: I have a good 802.11AC router with beam forming going through 2.25* walls and a noise floor below ~-80dbm with average RSSI of <-60 (-54 to -58). So noise spikes can sometimes drop it below the ~12dbm S:N it seems to require to prevent dropouts. (I’ll probably mount the router in a better place if noise increases in my area & I get knocked off more frequently—that or go back to the 90s Ethernet setup I had a few residences ago.)
* the .25 means one “wall” is a cabinet wall less than half the thickness of a wall.
IF you have Videos or Movies you want to stream to your Apple TV or Google Chrome, this is the App you need. Works fantastically well with a whole range of formats. Could not live without it!! Very responsive developer!
i just updated my beamer 2 to version 3 with a pay what you like upgrade. After updating my late 2009 mac mini to OSX Yosemite, i now have the smooth functionality i hoped for in streaming video to apple TV. This is a very much improved result from my previous config, with no buffering lags during play and full resolution on streaming a 4Gb avi movie. I have not updated my AirParrot app to do the same function because beamer now finally works fine, highly recommended.
Not version 2. Only offers version 3 on site and through the DL link here. Seems like an oversight to not make old versions available for DL.
My old HD died, and my apps were not backed up (since you can usually re-DL apps). But, You can’t DL the older 2.0 version. So I can't reinstall and reregister to get the upgrade (and the 3.0 upgrade process requires me to drag in some sort of license file that might or might not be among my backups). I am stuck until the developer gets back to me. (sad since I would qualify for a free upgrade.)
Until now, this was my favorite Mac-to-AppleTV streamer of the 4 or 5 others I tried. Will be sad if I can’t use it anymore.
Perfect. This is my favorite way to play ripped/downloaded movies on AppleTV. There is no lag AT ALL ... even when playing huge, lossless MKV rips from Blu-ray from MakeMKV. Worth every penny.
Anyone with the queue in Beamer (to watch videos in succession) not working? I put 2 or more videos in the queue and when the first one ends, Apple TV screen just goes black and nothing happens. I to click "back" on the Apple TV remote and leave the couch to go to the Mac click Play on the next video. Thanks!
Well... Am I the only one disappointed with Beamer 2?
The older version (Beamer 1) have a much better image quality.
I bought Beamer 2, but still use the older version.
Already sent lots of emails to Beamer Support, but no answer yet.
Comparing the 2 version's image, you can clearly see the difference.
Fantastic app, love it.
Under Yosemite though, sometimes it can't connect to my Apple TV (3rd gen) unless I restart the Apple TV and the computer. Otherwise, perfect.
Absolutely fantastic companion app to the AppleTV and essential if you own one.
Beamer is beautifully simple. Drag a media file - any media file, be it an MKV with weird formats inside it, an MP4, an AVI; pretty much anything you can think of, and watch it play on your TV. Beamer re-encodes the file to play on your AppleTV.
The quality of encoding is excellent, and allows obscure formats to be watched on the big screen with ease. Furthermore, if your file is already in a format that AppleTV natively supports, it'll simply pipe the file to it without re-encoding, resulting in higher quality and less workload on your Mac.
Simply put, this software is a must have.
i agree with bigboysdad, the 2.0.7 version works sometimes, but mostly doesn't.. it shows the apple tv but can't play the video... you click on the play button but nothing happens... tried changing preferences , restarting, playing different videos without success.
Playlists? Since when? Can I now add more than one video? The missing playlist and the steep price was the reason for me to not buy it.
To Macupdate: plz move that stupid INSTALL NOW MACUP DEKTOP thing away an replace it with the link to de developer.
Love the simplicity of the device, drag and drop works very well for this kind of app. There are basic features like subtitles audio track (similar to VLC). Not much but all that is needed to transfer to Apple TV. Nice not having to convert some of the files and go via iTunes as in the past (Handbrake etc).
How do I apply the licence? I like the app but there's no info on applying the registration code and all attempts don't work. When I try to import the licence code from an exported PDF of my licence code the file is greyed out.
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Airflow app is awesome. It's free at the moment and works perfect. Has live preview and many more. I love Airflow. Its really great. Beamer is not free and don't have many functions what Airflow.
http://airflowapp.com
About the only thing that would make Beamer better is if it could be launched from the 4th Gen AppleTV via a tvOS app, and load a preset folder to chose videos from so you could leave the computer locked or alone. But this “wish list/bonus” feature would probably a v3.5 or v4 feature, or maybe a $2–5 tvOS companion app?
FYI:
I occasionally get dropouts where the App disconnects from the device or it initially can’t access the device until I reboot my 4th Gen AppleTV or the laptop, but this happens across all streaming from both the net and my computer, and even my Bluetooth Gamepad controller has problems initially connecting sometimes. (This I blame on xOS 9’s & OS X 10.10+ known problematic network stack.)
So, I can’t ding a developer for flakey network reliability of the AppleTV, nor the occasional 2.4gHz band noise spikes in my area (which seem mostly responsible for the disconnects). In case you’re wondering: I have a good 802.11AC router with beam forming going through 2.25* walls and a noise floor below ~-80dbm with average RSSI of <-60 (-54 to -58). So noise spikes can sometimes drop it below the ~12dbm S:N it seems to require to prevent dropouts. (I’ll probably mount the router in a better place if noise increases in my area & I get knocked off more frequently—that or go back to the 90s Ethernet setup I had a few residences ago.)
* the .25 means one “wall” is a cabinet wall less than half the thickness of a wall.
Very responsive developer!
I put 2 or more videos in the queue and when the first one ends, Apple TV screen just goes black and nothing happens. I to click "back" on the Apple TV remote and leave the couch to go to the Mac click Play on the next video.
Thanks!