Are you longing for the new Apple TV but it’s not available in your country? No problem! Here’s what you’ll need:
- an iDevice capable of running iOS3.0, practically any iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad.
- Air Video app for your iDevice (US$2.99). It support live convert so you can actually watch your movie remotely on 3G connection.
- The free Air Video Server for your Mac or PC to stream video to your iDevice
- Apple Component or Composite AV Cable to connect to your TV (US$49 each)
The above 2 items with price are what you need to buy.
You’ll probably want to install DivX & RealPlayer & possibly other decoders on your Mac or PC so that the Air Video Server can playback your movie files. Once you’ve added your movie folder to the server, you are almost good to go.
Video playback performs best on WiFi but it also works on 3G if your boardband service support it.
The server has a remote PIN so that you can locate your home computer remotely with ease. Like most Apple product, this just works. It can playback Real media, mkv, as long as the decoders’s playback method are recognized by the server. It also supports conversion to m4v so that you can queue the conversion of your files from your iDevices.
This is a great solution for those don’t want or can’t buy the Apple TV.