
AppleTV 6.0 requires Fairplay-DRM Airplay Sources - ryansouza
http://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2013/09/20/warning-on-apple-tv-version-6-0/
======
archgrove
Since 10.8, OS X has had native Airplay support. Even if your Mac doesn't have
the hardware to do Airplay video, you can select Airplay as a sound output
device. Applications can output to Airplay via the CoreAudio API, documented
at[http://joris.kluivers.nl/blog/2012/07/25/per-application-
air...](http://joris.kluivers.nl/blog/2012/07/25/per-application-airplay-in-
mountain-lion/).

Of course, Windows users are pretty screwed.

~~~
windexh8er
And this is the typical reason I cannot take Apple anymore. I've paid for
numerous RogueAmoeba software licenses over the years and they are top notch.
Apple decided, screw that we'll do it how we want it - because, you know,
streaming audio in your house you should be doing it exactly how we told you
too.

F you Apple. Nobody has cracked the open streaming audio nut, trivial as it
may be. And the rest are left with junk, proprietary crap like this.

~~~
parasubvert
You might want to consider that there were licensing reasons behind this move.

Consider that AppleTV 6.0 now allows "AirPlay via iCloud", which means you can
stream tracks you own on someone else's AppleTV where you haven't registered
your iTunes account. Such a change might be one of the reasons for FairPlay
encryption.

This might be a temporary issue where they open it up if enough people
complain.

~~~
imaginator
I can understand licensing issues. But since Airplay only runs on the local
network segment, this shouldn't be an issue.

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josteink
Apple TV, which requires me to ruin my media-collection with iTunes and only
get content from the iStore: It was no thanks before. It's certainly no thanks
now.

~~~
CrazedGeek
I'm now worried that Apple will update the AirPort Express to require FairPlay
for audio as well. The precedent has been set. (The Express + Airfoil makes
for a really nice multiroom audio setup.)

~~~
JohnTHaller
Of course they will. Everyone was worried that they'd turn on the whole 'only
run apps signed with an Apple ID' in Mac OS X, too. They did. Sure, you can
manually turn it off if you're an advanced user, but most users won't (and
won't know how), so you need to pay the 'Apple tax' as a software publisher on
Mac OS X now, too. The walled garden's walls keep getting higher.

~~~
reaperhulk
You seem to be engaging in some revisionist history of Gatekeeper. The
original concern was that it would be turned to MAS apps only by default,
which it wasn't (and still isn't in Mavericks). By default the only thing you
need is a free developer certificate to distribute apps outside the MAS (or to
tell your users to right click to open, which bypasses the restriction).

Whether or not Apple does something in the future is a separate question, but
accusing them of something they haven't done (despite several opportunities)
appears more than a little biased.

Update: I am 100% incorrect about the developer certificate being free. You
must be a member of the $99/yr Mac dev program to get one. So score one for
"raising the walled garden" and I will gladly eat this humble pie.

~~~
DrJokepu
It’s not free actually, you have to sign up to the Mac Developer Program which
costs $99 / year. I think it used to be free in the past (the certificate, not
the membership) but now it isn’t.

~~~
reaperhulk
I didn't believe you so I just checked and now it's time to eat crow! You are
absolutely right. I will update the original to note that my statement is
completely wrong.

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rdl
I don't see why Apple would do this when the chromecast is out there...making
a useful device and creating strong network effects for iOS and OSX hardware
by making streaming anything from those devices onto tvs seems like a wiser
choice than bending over for the media companies. It isn't as if labels will
pull their music from iTunes Store at this stage of market penetration; if
they were going to withdraw their consent they would have done it early.

~~~
lnanek2
ChromeCast has been breaking apps written to push to it as well:
[http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/21/airplay-mirroring-
android...](http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/21/airplay-mirroring-android-
cyanogenmod/)

And honestly, if Google had any intention of having generally open access to
it, they would have started with DLNA support, which would have allowed many
phones to push to it out of the box. Instead expect it to stay heavily locked
down and to only provide good support for getting users on to Chrome and
Google Play.

~~~
jonknee
Chromecast's API hasn't been finalized and their are huge warnings all over
the documentation telling you to not release an app until the API is final.
Apple has never released an API and has actively tried to stop things like
Airfoil from working.

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thex86
Reminds me of this:

[http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/stickers/DBD-
Sticker_002-jmt.svg](http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/stickers/DBD-
Sticker_002-jmt.svg)

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yalogin
This is rather fucked up. The author does not provide any proof that Fairplay
is the reason their app is not able to play. Of course HN crowd do not need
proof to bring out the pitch forks. If they can show me proof I will
definitely fall in line. In fact if the guys want some help fixing their app
they should try talking to Apple and not try to sensationalize things and make
false accusations.

~~~
qdcarnicelli
Here ya go:
[https://gist.github.com/qdcarnicelli/6653766](https://gist.github.com/qdcarnicelli/6653766)

Ten seconds of running WireShark and watching iTunes talk to an AppleTV
running v6 will give you something like that, where iTunes and the AppleTV do
much talking about 'fp-setup' and FPLY and handshake together.

Apple's AirPlay (AirTunes) devices have actually been doing these FPLY
verifications for years now, but they were optional and talking to the devices
with the older non-FPLY protocol worked. It's just as of Apple TV 6.0 that
they appear to be dropping the old connection exchange and requiring the FPLY
one to talk to the device.

I'm not quite sure what you think we have to gain by claiming we think
FairPlay is required now, when it really wasn't? This weblog post was to
inform our customers about an issue with our software and ATV 6. We'd all
dearly love a solution.

~~~
duskwuff
...perhaps Apple's intent was simply to drop support for the extremely old
clients that Airfoil was emulating? That seems like a much simpler explanation
to me than some sort of nefarious plan to break Airfoil.

~~~
mikeash
The fact that it requires DRM is clearly a nefarious plan to break third party
usage in general, surely.

~~~
duskwuff
My suspicion would be that feature was added in response to external demands
(e.g, movie/TV studios required it for remote playback), and making it
mandatory was a later simplification.

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donatj
Does anyone known if Beamer ( [http://beamer-app.com/](http://beamer-app.com/)
) still works with the update? I'm putting off updating until I know because I
use Beamer all the time.

~~~
eelco
It still works, Beamer uses a different part of the AirPlay protocol ‘suite’.
We’ve tested with the betas to ensure it would. (I’m one of the developers.)

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thrillgore
I'm seriously getting sick and tired of all the peripherals and differing
standards for every OS I need to buy and use just to play a goddamn song on my
surround sound.

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brandon272
I'm confused. If I upgrade to Apple TV 6.0 will I still be able to Airplay
DRM-free video that I've imported to iTunes?

~~~
i386
Yes. They just require the source to be iTunes or the Mac.

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rbritton
On a side note, does anyone who has updated know if this adds 1080p mirroring
yet or is it still ridiculously restricted to 720p?

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AJ007
Between Google Chromecast, Amazon's new "micro-console", numerous other
Android "mico-consoles" and Roku, Apple's "hobby" project may be in for a real
battle. Locking down the usability scenarios right now is not a good idea.

~~~
Terretta
Except that Amazon just enabled AirPlay on their iOS app.

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booruguru
I never understood why anyone would buy an AppleTV when there are cheaper,
much more capable alternatives that will play just about anything you can
throw at it...without idiotic DRM restrictions.

~~~
eddieroger
Because if you live in the Apple ecosystem already, it makes tons of sense and
is a welcomed addition to get the content you probably already have on to the
one screen it wasn't yet on. My 10+ year iTunes collection sounds great coming
out of my sound system, and I can control it from my iPhone. Being able to
mirror my MacBook to my TV is also pretty great, and with Mavericks, it will
have second-screen capability in addition to plain mirroring.

Also, iTunes content hasn't had DRM in years now, idiotic or otherwise.

~~~
fpgeek
Um, last time I checked, movies and TV shows purchased from iTunes were still
locked down tight. For that matter, for a long-term user it is surprisingly
easy to have random DRMed music in an iTunes library unless you were very
diligent about paying to unlock it (as I discovered while uploading my wife's
library to Amazon Cloud Player). Unless you have some bizarre definition of
iTunes content that doesn't include those kinds of cases, you just don't know
what you're talking about when it comes to iTunes DRM.

~~~
mikeash
I don't understand why this comment is being downvoted. Is it a little
abrasive? Sure. But it's also absolutely correct. The comment he's replying to
is simply misinformed. While it's true that iTunes _music_ got rid of DRM
years ago, iTunes _video_ content still has it. If you're buying movies or TV
shows to watch on an Apple TV, that content is locked into Apple's ecosystem
unless you manage to crack their DRM.

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GoldfishCRM
Stupid is as stupid does.

