AirPlay is one such application that has revolutionized the world with its unique features. It was widely appreciated when it was first launched by Apple Inc.

airplay windows alternatives

It allows you to stream video from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to an Apple TV. Using AirPlay, you can display the contents of your Mac's desktop, start a video in an app on your iPhone and "push" it to your TV, or play a game on your iPad and mirror your display on your TV. AirPlay works very well, but it has a big limitation — it only works with Apple devices. If you have a Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, you'll be happy with it. If you want to stream from a Windows laptop or to a device that isn't an Apple TV, you're out of luck.

AirPlay was first developed exclusively for Apple users. We all know how often Apple tends to keep its best applications for its own users. That makes many wonder what the AirPlay alternatives that the Win users can use? In this article, we will provide you with easy instructions to AirPlay for Windows Alternatives.

If you are of no fan of having cables running across your living room or using a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, with their limited range, to talk to the PC media server. What you want is a way to just have your laptop in front of you and then just throw your video from your laptop display to your TV without any fuss. That's what Wi-Fi Direct (WiDi) promises.

WiDi

airplay windows alternatives

WiDi is short for Intel® Wireless Display. It's a proprietary technology built into Intel® Core™ i3, i5 and i7 processors, and lets you wirelessly stream audio and video from a computer directly to a compatible TV (through an adapter). It uses WiFi Direct for wireless connection. But WiDi never saw much uptake. At the moment, WiDi is only available for computers running with a Windows operating system. For Windows Operating System 7 and 8 it requires third or fourth generations of CPU (Central Processing Unit).

Plex

airplay windows alternatives

Plex is a all-in-one media sharing server that uses your PC to distribute content to any room in your house. Plex essentially acts as a faux-server, using your computer and the media you already have as a media hub for devices you grant it access to. Plex is free. The only charge for Plex is for something called PlexPass which allows you to share media or to share your media, sync media with another device, and get the Android client for Plex. But Plex is closed-off compared with the open source media servers it builds off, and while the initial download is free, many of the program's best features are not.

 

VLC

airplay windows alternatives

VLC Media Player is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia program, developed by the VideoLAN project. It's available for all common operating systems. VLC has all codecs built-in. It comes with support for nearly all codecs there are. And it can even play back the file or media if it is damaged!

Streaming is one of the powerful features of VLC. It is able to stream audio video from one computer to another over the network. But the VLC streaming setup tutorials may be strange to most of us. Never mind. You can get the VLC streaming setup step-by-step guide here.

1)Launch VLC, go to Media -> Stream.

2)Then the Stream Output window will pop up for you. Simply hit "Next" to go to Destination Setup pane to specify a destination for your stream. Once finished, please click "Add" to add the destination. Then, you are allowed to customize its settings. Or you don't need to change the advanced options here.

3) Apart from doing some setup on VLC, you should make sure that your firewall recognizes VLC as an allowed program. Otherwise other computers can't connect to your PC.

4) Then you can stream the media using VLC on another computer following the procedure:

 

Go to Media -> Open Network Stream

Type in the address like https://IP.Address:8080

Click Play button to start playing.

VLC is notable for excellent media supporting. But there are still some codes/files that might in fact not be supported by VLC. And you need to do some codec settings before you can actually play some videos on VLC. You may also encounter VLC no sound and external subtitle not loaded error when playing Blu-ray discs or other videos.

 

airplay windows alternatives

If you are not a tech-savvy user, you must get overwhelmed by such complicated VLC setup settings for media streaming. If that's the case, you can turn to a powerful VLC alternative like the Leawo Blu-ray Player which is a solution that makes playing Blu-ray discs simple and offers several advanced features like hardware acceleration and region free disc playing. The main feature of region code removal allows you to play any region because the software automatically removes the region requirement. The player is easy to use and has several settings including subtitles, audio and video options and connects to a wide variety of hardware including receivers and speaker systems. What makes it more attractive is that the AirPlay function is to be added soon.

   

What's your best option? What works best for you will depend on your needs. Just get start to make your best try now.