Why no GOOD Airplay alternative in Win10Mo?

oryan_dunn

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I should be able to do 2 things very easily within the Microsoft ecosystem.
1. Send all audio via WiFi to a local device for playback.
2. Send all audio/video via WiFi to a local device for playback.

I just helped a friend setup a new A/V Receiver, that had both AirPlay and HTC Connect. I've been playing around with my Wife's old One M7. Both Airplay and HTC Connect seamlessly beamed music to the receiver. In my case, I was beaming streaming slacker to the receiver.

When I got home, I realized just how bad the situation is for non-apple devices. I've got several targets for the HTC, but none worked very well. When I connected to the Xbox One, only local content on the phone could be played, streaming media was a no-go. When I connected the HTC to my Xbox 360, I was able to stream streaming music to the 360, but it was just a bad experience it may have just as well not worked. On any song change, there was a 22s delay before audio would play. Pause would pause it immediately on the 360, but clicking play would incur another 22s delay before it'd play on the 360. You could see on the phone that the track was playing, it just took 22s for the audio to play through the 360. The last thing I tried with the HTC was miracast to my Fire TV Stick. This, at first, seemed to work the best, but even it had issues. I was able to connect to the Fire TV Stick (after what seemed like forever), and all content on the HTC was mirrored. Streaming slacker worked and was basically real-time. However, there were numerous audio dropouts, and it completely locked up at one point. One nice thing was that the HTC continued to stream audio even when the screen was off.

Moving on to my Lumia 830 with WP8.1. The only DLNA streaming I could get working was via the Lumia Play To, which only allowed playing phone local content to my Xbox One or Xbox 360. The miracast screen mirroring seemed to work a little better than on the HTC, but I still had audio issues every once in a while; and, with WP8.1, when the screen turns off, it kills the miracast connection. I was able to stream slacker via miracast, but that's clearly not a good solution for streaming audio.

I also tried miracast with my Lumia 630 with Win10Mo preview, with the same results as my L830 with WP8.1

I really should be able to do points 1 and 2 above with Windows Phone, and Microsoft hardware, like an Xbox One or 360. I assume the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter would work similarly to miracast with the Fire TV stick. BB has the Microsoft adapter on sale for $30 this week, but after the poor results with the Fire TV stick, I'll likely not even bother.

The app gap MS can't directly control, but this is something they can. They need to have a solution to rival Airplay, either their own, or using industry standards. If using industry standards, they need to work better than they do now.
 

tangledW

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Why would you steam from phone to Xbox when those services are already on the Xbox?
Not all Miracast devices are equal either BTW.
Continuum.
 

oryan_dunn

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Why would you steam from phone to Xbox when those services are already on the Xbox?
Not all Miracast devices are equal either BTW.
Continuum.

Slacker isn't on Xbox One. I'd stream from my phone so I could have my TV off and listen to music, and control it with my phone. So I can control the music from anywhere in the house (anywhere I have WiFi).

I hadn't really used AirPlay till just the other day, and I have to be honest, it's just one more thing pulling me away from WP. I really hate this corny line from Apple, but it did just work. And I have a feeling my positive feelings toward AirPlay were amplified when I had such a bad experience with trying to get something similar from the devices I had at home.

Also, even if the Miracast adapter would make a difference, it wouldn't help streamibg audio from Windows phone. It'd possibly help my android. Though even there if it really connects via WiFi direct, I would have near the range.
 

seb_r

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Why would you steam from phone to Xbox when those services are already on the Xbox?
Not all Miracast devices are equal either BTW.
Continuum.
...or simply admit there is no solution for WP.
I was having trouble with controlling digital media renderers via DLNA as well. Not possible to stream content from my NAS to TV, media player or internetradio via WP.
 

dave_456

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I agree there should be a windows version of Airplay, but what are you trying to achieve?

For my TV I use Kodi/XBMC which you can control with windows/windows phone - or you could use Plex. For music I use a Bluetooth speaker. For YouTube you can use Tubecast to send media to Chromecast etc.

There is also Miracast which is dependent on the quality of the hardware you use.
 

oryan_dunn

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I agree there should be a windows version of Airplay, but what are you trying to achieve?

For my TV I use Kodi/XBMC which you can control with windows/windows phone - or you could use Plex. For music I use a Bluetooth speaker. For YouTube you can use Tubecast to send media to Chromecast etc.

There is also Miracast which is dependent on the quality of the hardware you use.

What am I trying to achieve?

1. Via WiFi, play whatever audio is playing on my phone on my home theater or whole home audio. This should work just like if I'm sending phone audio via bluetooth, but via WiFi instead.

2. Via WiFi, mirror my screen and audio to my TV/Home Theater.

Sure, there are a number of ways to play local content and streaming content, all of which are just too hard for most people to setup. It's really impressive when you setup a friends new AV receiver, and with a single button, the audio on their iPhone is now beaming to all the speakers in their house. They can play/pause, skip tracks, whatever, from anywhere in or outside their house. They don't have to drain their battery by having bluetooth on, and they don't have to stay within 30ft of their receiver. That's ultimately what I want. I want to pull down the notification shade in Windows 10 Mobile, and select a cast button to just send whatever audio is on my phone to a receiver. Really, it shouldn't be that hard, but apparently it is. Even on my android, I never got it working well with any of my receiving devices. His receiver supported HTC connect, and my HTC One M7 seemed to work just the same as Airplay on his receiver.

If HTC can convince Pioneer, Yamaha, etc. to build receivers with HTC Connect, surely Microsoft could do the same. It could build the standard into Windows 10, so any PC, phone, tablet, could stream whatever audio they are playing via WiFi to a receiver. They could start by having the XB1 or 360 be this receiving device.

At this point, it seems to do what I want, the easiest solution is to buy an iPhone.
 

tangledW

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What am I trying to achieve?

1. Via WiFi, play whatever audio is playing on my phone on my home theater or whole home audio. This should work just like if I'm sending phone audio via bluetooth, but via WiFi instead.

2. Via WiFi, mirror my screen and audio to my TV/Home Theater.

Sure, there are a number of ways to play local content and streaming content, all of which are just too hard for most people to setup. It's really impressive when you setup a friends new AV receiver, and with a single button, the audio on their iPhone is now beaming to all the speakers in their house. They can play/pause, skip tracks, whatever, from anywhere in or outside their house. They don't have to drain their battery by having bluetooth on, and they don't have to stay within 30ft of their receiver. That's ultimately what I want. I want to pull down the notification shade in Windows 10 Mobile, and select a cast button to just send whatever audio is on my phone to a receiver. Really, it shouldn't be that hard, but apparently it is. Even on my android, I never got it working well with any of my receiving devices. His receiver supported HTC connect, and my HTC One M7 seemed to work just the same as Airplay on his receiver.

If HTC can convince Pioneer, Yamaha, etc. to build receivers with HTC Connect, surely Microsoft could do the same. It could build the standard into Windows 10, so any PC, phone, tablet, could stream whatever audio they are playing via WiFi to a receiver. They could start by having the XB1 or 360 be this receiving device.

At this point, it seems to do what I want, the easiest solution is to buy an iPhone.

A quality Miracast service is exactly what your describing for #2.

Wifi receivers aren't that common, and certainly not as common as Bluetooth (which any smartphone will work fine with). Does your receiver not support DLNA?
Obviously, a receiver made to work specifically with iOS is going to work great with an iPhone.
From what I understand receivers made by Sonos work with Windows phones via WiFi. They're are also multiple other apps (most are 3rd party) that steam media via WiFi, whether your particular receiver will work with those I can't say.

Frankly, it looks like you're looking for a reason to get an iPhone. I'd suggest a "rose gold" iPhone 6S.
 

dave_456

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As I said I agree with you about Airplay, but there are ways to achieve a lot that Airplay does, but not all.

Personally I have setup an old computer with Kodi (it really is incredibly simple - if you can use iTunes you can use Kodi or Plex). It has the massive advantage that you don't have to stream via WiFi which quickly drains the battery of your phone, and you don't have to store everything on your phone. Kodi also acts as an Airplay receiver.

Also Miracast works well for music and video, not so well for apps/games.

Your use case of streaming something to your phone and then stream it via airplay to a receiver is probably a pretty niche use case, and would drain your phone battery extremely quickly.
 

oryan_dunn

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A quality Miracast service is exactly what your describing for #2.
Yes, but what I tried didn't work. I thought XB1 was supposed to have a miracast app, but the latest I could find was it was part of the preview in April... haven't heard anything yet. I suppose I could try the Microsoft adapter as it's only $30 this week, but I expect I'll be disappointed.

Wifi receivers aren't that common, and certainly not as common as Bluetooth (which any smartphone will work fine with). Does your receiver not support DLNA?
Neither of my receivers are network/dlna. At this point, I'm relying on an external device for DLNA DMR. Even if they were a DLNA DMR, it wouldn't work in the situation I describe as WP doesn't stream via DLNA. Sure, there are apps to stream local content, but the OS should stream any audio/video via DLNA.


Obviously, a receiver made to work specifically with iOS is going to work great with an iPhone.
Yes, and is it out of the question to have receivers that would work with WP? Maybe MS could just add the ability to stream to any DLNA DMR. I have a feeling that'd likely work.

From what I understand receivers made by Sonos work with Windows phones via WiFi. They're are also multiple other apps (most are 3rd party) that steam media via WiFi, whether your particular receiver will work with those I can't say.
The issue there is it's now app dependent. It should be part of the OS. Then the app doesn't have to support it, and it'll work for all apps.

Frankly, it looks like you're looking for a reason to get an iPhone. I'd suggest a "rose gold" iPhone 6S.
I'm not looking for a reason to get an iPhone, the reasons are quite conspicuous. I'm really looking for MS to add these types of features to WP. They can't do anything about devs not porting apps, but at least they could make the base OS stack up well against iOS.

As I said I agree with you about Airplay, but there are ways to achieve a lot that Airplay does, but not all.

Personally I have setup an old computer with Kodi (it really is incredibly simple - if you can use iTunes you can use Kodi or Plex). It has the massive advantage that you don't have to stream via WiFi which quickly drains the battery of your phone, and you don't have to store everything on your phone. Kodi also acts as an Airplay receiver.

Also Miracast works well for music and video, not so well for apps/games.
As MS has it currently implemented in WP, it doesn't work well for music. As soon as the screen turns off, the miracast connection is killed. At least with my HTC M7, when the screen turned off, the miracast connection stayed active, and only audio was sent. As soon as I turned on and unlocked the M7, the display came back.

Your use case of streaming something to your phone and then stream it via airplay to a receiver is probably a pretty niche use case, and would drain your phone battery extremely quickly.
Huh? That seems like an incredibly common scenario now. In fact, that's likely the only way my friends will use it. They will just open Pandora on their phones, and airplay it to their whole home receiver.

As far as battery, while it'd likely use more than just streaming to the phone itself, I'm sure it'd use less than streaming to the phone, then streaming via bluetooth.
 

matt john2

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Judging how you talked, I think what you need is an iPhone. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see those features you mentioned on my WP as well but I don't think they're coming anytime soon. Anyway, I see some evidences in the latest W10m that they're fiddling with the miracast/dlna support of the OS and I requested this feature as well in the Uservoice feedback and got about 2,000 votes, so I think it might gonna come in the future. Anyway, I solved most of the issues using various apps and software like the one mentioned above kodi/xbmc, Tubecast and Plex.
 

midnightfrolic

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I have the MS Wireless Display Adapter. I can say that it does what it's designed to do. Just not in 1080P very well. Streams both audio/video. But I have the 640 XL, which only has the SD400 CPU.

EDIT: The device and the Wireless Display Adapter connects directly to each other, not through home wireless networking. So that frees up some bandwidth.

EDIT2: Doing more testing with it, I've noticed a few things. Not sure if it's my TV or the wireless display adapter or the phone or Windows 10 Mobile, or all the above. Here's the lowdown. WDA unit connected directly into TV.

I play music in Groove, I then connect to the WDA. The video and audio mirrors on the WDA on my TV, but the audio cannot go any higher than what was already set on the TV at the time. Adjusting the volume on the TV up/down does not change the volume of the audio coming from my Lumia 640 XL. In fact, the volume level on the TV does not change AT ALL up or down. I can adjust the volume on my Lumia and it goes up and down, but again volume level does not go any higher than the initial level on the TV. Tested several times using very low and very high volume.

Other issue is when I do get the WDA mirroring going, the WDA unit gets powered off or at stop the mirroring, whenever I switch to another HDMI port.

Again, I'm not sure if it's my TV or just the nature of the WDA. Your mileage may vary I suppose.
 
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oryan_dunn

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Judging how you talked, I think what you need is an iPhone. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see those features you mentioned on my WP as well but I don't think they're coming anytime soon. Anyway, I see some evidences in the latest W10m that they're fiddling with the miracast/dlna support of the OS and I requested this feature as well in the Uservoice feedback and got about 2,000 votes, so I think it might gonna come in the future. Anyway, I solved most of the issues using various apps and software like the one mentioned above kodi/xbmc, Tubecast and Plex.

The trouble is, I don't have any Airplay receivers either. To be honest, it's not a use case I normally use, as I usually just listen via headphones. For me, it was just frustrating that I can't do something so seemingly simple with my WP or my HTC (though an HTC Connect receiver would help for the HTC).

My local ABC Warehouse has the RX-V677 (DLNA DMR, Airplay, HTC Connect) on clearance for $299. It's very tempting, but I really don't have the cash right now. I may be stupid and get it, keep it, and see how much I could get for my Onkyo TX-SR607. If I can't sell the Onkyo, just return the Yamaha unopened.
 

oryan_dunn

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I suppose I'll pick up the Microsoft adapter and see if it works any better. If it works as well as it should, then that may be the quickest way for WP to get the audio streaming I'm going for. Since the OS already supports it, all MS would have to do is update to not terminate the audio stream when the screen turns off.
 

dave_456

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I'm pretty sure Miracast is ultimately the replacement for DLNA, that is the reason that Windows supports Miracast and not DLNA now.

I think what you are looking for is a good Miracast receiver, ultimately that is the Windows version of Airplay (although they are not identical).
 

matt john2

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The trouble is, I don't have any Airplay receivers either. To be honest, it's not a use case I normally use, as I usually just listen via headphones. For me, it was just frustrating that I can't do something so seemingly simple with my WP or my HTC (though an HTC Connect receiver would help for the HTC).

My local ABC Warehouse has the RX-V677 (DLNA DMR, Airplay, HTC Connect) on clearance for $299. It's very tempting, but I really don't have the cash right now. I may be stupid and get it, keep it, and see how much I could get for my Onkyo TX-SR607. If I can't sell the Onkyo, just return the Yamaha unopened.

Personally I use this http://www.amazon.com/Marantz-MM807...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU3293205
With combination of dedicated pc and a dac so I don't really have that much issues with compatibility. Perhaps having your dedicated Miracast machine is better solution plus it's cheaper than buying a new receiver
 

oryan_dunn

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Personally I use this http://www.amazon.com/Marantz-MM807...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU3293207
With combination of dedicated pc and a dac so I don't really have that much issues with compatibility. Perhaps having your dedicated Miracast machine is better solution plus it's cheaper than buying a new receiver
I'll try the Microsoft Miracast first, and if it works well, I'll hang on to it and hope MS adds audio only Miracast to Windows 10 mobile (though I fear I'll be waiting a long time).
 

oryan_dunn

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Well, the Microsoft Adapter experiment ended in expected failure. While it did seem to work better when you were close, because it doesn't connect to my wifi network, range is incredibly limited, making it not suitable for audio only streaming as you roam around the house. I'm keeping it because it was only $20 and I could see uses for it later. Though it seems that even though it shows in windows as a 5.1 device, it really only sends 2 channel stereo. Even though I expected it to not work, I'm still disappointed.
 

mnsiw

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I have El Capitan (Mac) on desktop, play video on it (VLC), stream audio using Airfoil for Mac and receive it on Droid Mini (Android / Airfoil Speaker), it work perfect. Now I'm looking for something similar on Lumia, any app that can receive audio from Airfoil or any other server / receiver combo for Mac to Lumia.
 

FearL0rd

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I should be able to do 2 things very easily within the Microsoft ecosystem.
1. Send all audio via WiFi to a local device for playback.
2. Send all audio/video via WiFi to a local device for playback.

I just helped a friend setup a new A/V Receiver, that had both AirPlay and HTC Connect. I've been playing around with my Wife's old One M7. Both Airplay and HTC Connect seamlessly beamed music to the receiver. In my case, I was beaming streaming slacker to the receiver.

When I got home, I realized just how bad the situation is for non-apple devices. I've got several targets for the HTC, but none worked very well. When I connected to the Xbox One, only local content on the phone could be played, streaming media was a no-go. When I connected the HTC to my Xbox 360, I was able to stream streaming music to the 360, but it was just a bad experience it may have just as well not worked. On any song change, there was a 22s delay before audio would play. Pause would pause it immediately on the 360, but clicking play would incur another 22s delay before it'd play on the 360. You could see on the phone that the track was playing, it just took 22s for the audio to play through the 360. The last thing I tried with the HTC was miracast to my Fire TV Stick. This, at first, seemed to work the best, but even it had issues. I was able to connect to the Fire TV Stick (after what seemed like forever), and all content on the HTC was mirrored. Streaming slacker worked and was basically real-time. However, there were numerous audio dropouts, and it completely locked up at one point. One nice thing was that the HTC continued to stream audio even when the screen was off.

Moving on to my Lumia 830 with WP8.1. The only DLNA streaming I could get working was via the Lumia Play To, which only allowed playing phone local content to my Xbox One or Xbox 360. The miracast screen mirroring seemed to work a little better than on the HTC, but I still had audio issues every once in a while; and, with WP8.1, when the screen turns off, it kills the miracast connection. I was able to stream slacker via miracast, but that's clearly not a good solution for streaming audio.

I also tried miracast with my Lumia 630 with Win10Mo preview, with the same results as my L830 with WP8.1

I really should be able to do points 1 and 2 above with Windows Phone, and Microsoft hardware, like an Xbox One or 360. I assume the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter would work similarly to miracast with the Fire TV stick. BB has the Microsoft adapter on sale for $30 this week, but after the poor results with the Fire TV stick, I'll likely not even bother.

The app gap MS can't directly control, but this is something they can. They need to have a solution to rival Airplay, either their own, or using industry standards. If using industry standards, they need to work better than they do now.

Just click on the connect and select you device. it is built it or click on the little antenna icon during the video playback
 

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