Airfoil - An Interesting Digital Out Option
I had noticed Rogue Amoeba’s announcement of Slipstream last year, but only now have they actually released and renamed the app to Airfoil. The cool thing about this program is that you can redirect ANY audio on your machine to an Airport Express. In case you forgot, the Airport Express has a digital out option through a mini-to-optical digital Toslink jack.
I don’t have the Express, but if I did I would want to be giving this a shot right away.
– Jonathan Greene
March 1st, 2005 at 6:38 pm
Only problem being the delay as described here.
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/forum/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000010.html
But they do mention potential workarounds.
March 1st, 2005 at 6:51 pm
Great thread - thanks! Seems it’s also only Stereo for now, though they will be working on fixing that soon enough.
March 1st, 2005 at 7:21 pm
I agree this is interesting for sure, but something about it just doesn’t sit right with me personally. I’d be happier finding a wired solution by means of either USB or FireWire (or better yet, a Mini with optical out built in like my PowerMac G5).
March 1st, 2005 at 7:51 pm
Totally… Though perhaps in the near future, you could use this combination to control a second room.
March 2nd, 2005 at 8:32 pm
I almost shit myself when I saw this story. I ran over ther right away and downloaded it. First thing–the delay with Apple’s DVD player (audio quality did sound pretty good though). I then downloaded the software mentioned in the workaround above. Unfortunately AirFoil isn’t passing the audio from MPlayer.
March 2nd, 2005 at 8:42 pm
We swear by Pampers Cruisers for my daughter…. snug and slim fitting!
I don’t know why MPlayer would not work for you, but you should definitely check in with the support forums at Rogue Amoeba. Please let us know how it works out!
March 5th, 2005 at 3:50 pm
Well I checked in at the support forum for AirFoil and finally got MPlayer to work. However, the “synching” of the audio/video deosn’t stay synched. I’m using a 1.5gig 17″ G4 laptop with 1 gig RAM, which should be more than enough horsepower.
Despite the shortcomings, I’m hopeful as this is the first product I’ve found that offers this functionality. It’s just a matter of time before someone get’s it right. I just hope it’s an Apple solution.
Great site by the way! Thanks for the awesome content and presentation. Consider me a regular visitor.
March 5th, 2005 at 6:11 pm
You might actually be better with VLC only since you can de-sync the audio and video channels to compensate for the delay. I have no experience with this, but I read about it on the Rogue Amoeba site and it seems to be a viable solution for streaming a/v with an Airport Express. For now anyway.
Thanks for visiting… we’ll keep up the good stuff if you guys keep on coming back for more!
March 7th, 2005 at 9:32 am
> Though perhaps in the near future, you could use this combination to control a second room.
Just out of interest, I have done exactly this. iTunes via Airport Express from a mac mini. Simultaneously watching a DVD with 5.1 sound out via Sonica USB from the same mini. Seemed to be flawless. No reason why Airfoil would cause any problems with this - and would allow more source choices.