Airfoil for Mac 5.6 Restores Full Apple TV Compatibility
Posted By Paul Kafasis on May 18th, 2017
We’ve got a great update for Airfoil for Mac today which enables it to once again send audio directly to all versions of the Apple TV. Airfoil for Mac 5.6 is a free update, available immediately by selecting “Check for Update” from the Airfoil menu. We strongly encourage all users to move up to Airfoil 5.6 immediately.
Airfoil for Windows Updates
Update (September 25th, 2017): This update took longer than we’d have liked, but Airfoil for Windows 5.2 and above restore full Apple TV compatibility as well. Grab the latest from the Airfoil for Windows page.
We didn’t want to delay the release of our Mac version, but now that Airfoil for Mac is sending directly to the newest Apple TVs, we’re working quickly to bring the same fix to Airfoil for Windows. We should have an update there very soon, so stay tuned for more information.
Notes on Airfoil Satellite TV
The Airfoil Satellite TV app we released last month provided a useful workaround for users wishing to stream audio to the new Apple TVs. Prior to the recent tvOS 10.2 update, however, no receiver app was needed. Airfoil could instead stream directly to the Apple TV, with no additional software required. When the tvOS update broke this functionality, running Airfoil Satellite TV again enabled Airfoil to send to the Apple TV.
Now that we’ve worked around Apple’s changes with Airfoil 5.6, you can once again stream audio to the Apple TV without needing any additional software. As such, Airfoil Satellite TV shouldn’t be necessary for most uses. In the future, we may add additional functionality so the app better matches the iOS version of Airfoil Satellite. If nothing else, however, Airfoil Satellite TV will continue to exist as a fall-back, so that even if Apple changes or breaks AirPlay compatibility, Airfoil will still be able to send audio from a Mac or PC to the Apple TV.
John says:
May 18th, 2017 at 2:04 pmThank you very much. It works!
Terry says:
May 18th, 2017 at 2:35 pmAwesome!!
Vic says:
May 18th, 2017 at 3:30 pmAny idea why Apple intentionally broke audio streaming functionality on the ATV4?
Quentin Carnicelli says:
May 18th, 2017 at 4:03 pmVic – We don’t think it was intentional, just a side-effect. Awhile back they added additional more “secure” modes of connecting to the AppleTVs, but left the “None” security option. With tvOS 10.2, they removed the “None” option and finally required everybody to do an additional security handshake.
Why though, I have no idea. The security handshake anybody can implement (no secret keys are required), so what’s the gain? Furthermore, how much security does your audio speaker really need? Password protection seemed good enough to me.
So the mystery remains.
Frank says:
May 19th, 2017 at 6:55 pmWorks perfectly!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Mark says:
May 20th, 2017 at 4:25 amFantastic work! This is still one of my very favourite Mac apps.