Beamer is a Mac app that brings AirPlay mirroring to Macs, but is specially optimized for (and tops the native OS X mirroring in) streaming movies to your Apple TV (read our full review of Beamer 1.0 and about their 2.0 update, which brought a great interface and some cool new features). Recently, Beamer 2.1 was pushed out dealing with some of the most demanded features.
The most prominent one is how Beamer 2.1 will interact with keyboards. The media buttons on the Apple keyboard will now work directly with Beamer and the following Mac shortcuts makes it more powerful than ever:
Keyboard shortcuts for opening the playlist (Shift-Command (⌘)-P) and
The device list (Shift-Command (⌘)-D).Keyboard shortcuts for skipping back and forward:
Shift-Command (⌘)-Left Arrow : Skip back to beginning
Shift-Command (⌘)-Right Arrow : Skip forward to end
Option-Command (⌘)-Left Arrow : Skip back 30 seconds
Option-Command (⌘)-Right Arrow : Skip forward 30 seconds
Shift-Option-Command (⌘)-Left Arrow : Skip back 5 minutes
Shift-Option-Command (⌘)-Right Arrow : Skip forward 5 minutes
Beamer 2.1 brings scripting support for Apple’s Open Source Architecture. You can right click Beamer icon from the dock and use the playback controls directly. Also the audio, video and subtitle tracks can now be selected from the context menu.
Besides, Beamer 2.1 brings a wide array of performance improvements and bug fixes:
Improved audio quality of stereo output.
Starting and skipping is now significantly faster for some MKV files.
Some SRT files would show overlapping subtitles.
AirPlay password or pin were often not recognized at the first attempt.
A dialog sheet would sometimes not disappear, causing the app to hang.
Playlist selection changed when deleting items from the playlist.
The video snapshot would sometimes not update to the selected movie.
Beamer 2.1 is sold at $15.00 and you can get it from here. A free trial (limited to the first 15 minutes of each video) is also available (the full fersion can be unlocked using in-app purchase).
For current users, Beamer 2.1 is a free upgrade.
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