Playback for Mac

User Reviews

• Simple setup, flawless perfomrance

  jbchengDecember 27, 2013

  Pros

  Up and working in a minute Smart access to mac files via the Xbox, included mac organizational folders Video streams fine even over old wifi set up

  Cons

  haven't found any yet

  Summary

  Just got my son and xbox 360 for Christmas and was upset to find out you can't copy video, photos or images to the xbox's hard drive. Only solution for playing back many family-related images and video was to find a streaming solution. Tried Window Media Center but most of my files are on my mac, and I wanted to stream directly from the mac. Did research and bought this program. It's fantastic. Installed and immediately up and running on my iMac without any tweaked needed. Xbox immediately recognized my mac and I was streaming photos, my video collection and my iTunes music. Even better, the software retains Apple "categories" like Albums, Artists, Genre, etc for itunes and "Events" in iPhoto. So Playback is iLife friendly. Couldnnt have asked for an easier or better implemented software. made MY Christmas!

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• Works better then I expected

  EPerez37November 5, 2011

  Pros

  Works Great streaming Media from my Mac to my PS3, Easy to set up and use.

  Cons

  Not all media is supported yet but hopefully updates will fix that.

  Summary

  Yazsoft Playback works great streaming Music, SOME Movies (hopefully that will change with future updates) and your photos from Mac to your PS3 and XBox and you can copy your media to the PS3. Playback is very user friendly and Yazsoft's costumer service is very helpful.

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• Absolutely Maddening

  steelsmith80October 8, 2011

  Pros

  Pride of ownership

  Cons

  Maybe I'm crazy, or maybe I'm not computer savvy enough, but if you'd got a macbook pro and an xbox 360, you'll hate life.

  Summary

  If you click on the "supported files" link in the software, you will get an article from FREAKING 2007 that shows a scattered list of file types that should work. Well folks, they don't. MKV files don't convert correctly and almost all downloaded .AVI files (xvid or otherwise) simply don't work on the xbox. If you like to cut yourself, buy this software.

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• Does not play a sufficient range of formats.

  _nashyo_February 12, 2011

  Pros

  It works.!

  Cons

  It costs.!

  Summary

  I'm sure that my content is protected. But I have used Connect360 to play some of the other movie files I have on my system, that this software could not.

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• UI good, worked for music, but not for video or TV

  edarodriguezJanuary 6, 2011

  Pros

  The program has a very good interface, very Mac-like. Recognized my DLNA client immediately. Played iTunes songs.

  Cons

  Did not play video or pictures. It cost more than Twonky, which had a free license of 30 days rather than 7.

  Summary

  In a perfect world I may have ended up with the program rather than Twonky, because it was slicker looking, but the world of DLNA is far far from perfect. This was the first DLNA/UpNP compatible server that I downloaded and tried when I first attempted to connect my MacBook Pro to a LG 50PX950 that is DLNA enabled. (I tell the story below not as a review of the software, because it was find, but to give a heads up to those trying the same thing.) Playback recognized the TV immediately and showed thumbnails of my picture, music, and videos. However the TV would only allow me to play the music. Because this DLNA technology is fairly new, I think that there are still a ton of compatibility issues between clients and servers. So the problem with the media not play is probably neither the software's nor LG's. I chalk it up to new technology. I knew that when I set out to connect my computer to the TV wirelessly to stream media I was heading towards the deep end of the proverbially pool for a person of my middling technology savvy. I downloaded all the mac compatible servers, I could find to see which would work best. None was able to work perfectly with my TV. I finally chose Twonky for three reasons. First, it worked about as good as the others. It was fairly cheap at $10. And finally, and most importantly, I had thirty days of free use to see if I could get it to work. I know that getting it to work properly--if I could get to work properly would take a long time. I was able to finally make it work after much research on the web and various trial and error "experiments". In the end I had to edit entries in a client.db file that is part of Twonky when you unpackage it. I then needed to edit a line in database to allow it to transcode my jpegs in a format that the TV would recognize. What I changed is probably not really considered code, but it was a bunch of letters, separated by commas amongst a lot of other letters separated by commas. This was a first for me. So my conclusion is that none of this DLNA server software for Macs is really good right now. I am sure that in a few years all the compatibility issues will be worked out and it will work like you expect it to work. Epilogue: I started this project knowing that it would be time consuming and not certain to be successful. I also knew that an AppleTV would stream my media easier and probably better. I did it because I wanted to see if I could do it. If you don't want to deal with a lot of hassles, I would skip the DLNA functionality for now.

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• Simple yet very effective software

  Ziutek--2008October 5, 2010

  Pros

  Integrates perfectly with OSX. I am able to play movies, videos, and photos over my network using the WD TV live. Price is right as well.

  Cons

  None that I have yet to find.

  Summary

  If you want to access videos, audio, or photos on your Mac using the WD TV live, this is a very simple and cheap solution.

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