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Comment by ComputerGuru | Hacker News Reader

For anyone actually looking for the ultimate HTPC, I've tried pretty much everything and the absolute best I've found is a combo of an Apple TV with Beamer.app [0] to play just about anything and everything with a great UI, awesome Netflix support, iTunes renting/buying, etc. etc. etc.

0: http://beamer-app.com/ (I'm not affiliated in any way, other than being a very satisfied customer that has had several feature requests fulfilled by the author)

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Barebones box with intel atom, a bit of ram, and a small HDD is cheaper and does all that, and you don't have to deal with sidestepping Apple's odd file format restrictions. Throw XBMC on there and you're done, for about $150.

Apple TV is $99.

Good luck updating it after Apple decides you won't.

Don't get me wrong. AppleTV is certainly a decent value, but it'll never do anything Tim Cook disapproves.

Never heard of Beamer, but I rarely stream/control video directly from the laptop. I've been using Air Video with both the iPad/iPhone (http://www.inmethod.com/air-video) + Drobo for media storage and it works like clockwork. I will still take a look at Beamer.

I bought this app 2 days ago. I have a video that plays perfectly fine on my laptop but on the Apple TV the video goes blank after 15 minutes. It was a choice between them and AirParrot. Although it was cheaper I didn't need the mirroring AirParrot provides.

From: http://beamer-app.com/ "Without a license, playback is limited to the first 15 minutes of each movie."

Why not just use Airplay? It's free and video that plays on your laptop can be mirrored onto your TV.

I'm seriously considering a Raspberry Pi or a cheap Android HDMI stick and run Netflix on it. Has anyone tried that?

I'm not familiar with Apple TV. Why is beamer necessary. Can the Apple TV not play video files from a network share?

No. It requires your files to be a format iTunes understands (which mostly limits it to stuff bought in the i-store) and in a iTunes media-library on a PC running on your network. Which for most non-Appleheads is pretty bad and for some (like me) even a no-go.

It could be worse though. In the olden days you had to synch the media to your Apple TV before being able to play it.

  sudo port install ffmpeg

You're welcome.

if you already have a Mac, why not just use airplay?

I just plug a cheap Windows laptop directly into my LCD TV.

That way I get more than just video. I can use the full operating system to do anything at all.

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