Stream Music from Any Application to Airport Express
I recently hooked up an Airport Express with speakers connected so that I could stream music to it from any of my computers. When I purchased it, I didn’t realize that by default OS X only lets you stream music from iTunes to it, not any application. I wanted to stream music over the internet through Firefox, and felt dead in the water until I found Airfoil.
With Airfoil you can take audio from any application and send to your AirPort Express units, as well as Apple TVs, and even other Macs and PCs running Airfoil Speakers! Transmit audio from RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, QuickTime Player, and other media players. Send audio from web-based applications like Pandora, Last.fm, and more. You can even stream audio from audio devices like RadioSHARK, XM and Sirius radios, all around your house.
The description on the website sounded very promising, so I downloaded it and gave it a whirl. After the install I fired up Airfoil, which found my Airport Express and its attached speakers immediately.
To stream music with any program to an Airport Express with Airfoil:
- Click the speaker button next to the name of Airport express. The status word “Available” should now read “Active.”
- Select the program from the drop down menu that you want to hear on your speakers.
- Give it whirl! You should now hear audio from the program you selected over your wireless speakers
Jono on July 24th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Great tip, thanks!
(P.S. a link to the app would’ve been handy :p)
smedvin on July 24th, 2008 at 9:57 am
the only problem is that if you are trying to stream from a video source there is a few second delay for the audio that makes it almost unbearable to watch.
dunno if a fix is possible, though.
any ideas?
Jenny Kortina on July 24th, 2008 at 11:43 am
@Jono: Click on the Airfoil link in the article. It will bring you to a download page. Cheers!
Jenny Kortina on July 24th, 2008 at 11:45 am
@smedvin: not sure, I haven’t watched any videos with it. Sorry!
MattF on July 24th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I don’t think that the problem with sound and video being out of sync is fixable– Airfoil separates the video and audio streams (and probably caches the audio), so the sync is lost.
chuck on July 24th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
If you use VLC for video, this article helps to get the audio in sync when using Airfoil.
http://www.j4mie.org/2006/05/03/using-airfoil-with-vlc/
Chris Lorensson on July 25th, 2008 at 4:07 am
I bought an earlier version of Airfoil and it worked a charm… but videos had lag. Apparently, I remember reading that their latest version had fixed this issue. If it did, it’s probably worth getting, but I can’t believe they’re making me pay for it again! I’m not giving those guys anymore of my money! Come on guys!
Partners in Grime on August 1st, 2008 at 7:21 am
Hard to believe they’re asking you to pay for it again. Especially for fixing something that should have worked better in the first place.
wallhack on June 15th, 2009 at 2:41 am
Stream Music from Any Application to Airport Express great article thank you.