When it actually comes to down to streaming your favourite movies, TV shows, music and even home videos around the house, Airplay 2 offers the Apple device owners with a plethora of ways. But for people who don’t have Apple TV, HomePod or any other compatible hardware, then, in that case, the overall experience is certainly quite limited. Hence, there is an ultimate solution which allows you to stream your favourite videos as mentioned above, from your Mac to different devices.
In this regard, to mitigate this problem, Eltima Software has brought its latest entrant, JustStream. Let’s know more about it.
What is JustStream?
It is essentially a macOS menu bar app which is utilized for wirelessly streaming from your own Mac to any compatible AirPlay or different Chromecast devices which include Samsung, LG, Roku and Sony televisions. This is actually done in two distinct ways.
a. Mirroring– This is essentially live-streaming your desktop
b. Streaming– Here one or more media files are duly queued up for playback.
Since it runs entirely from the menu bar, this software automatically detects different compatible devices present on your own local network which are capable of receiving through Chromecaase or AirPlay. You need to select a target device right from the pulldown menu present at the bottom of the window. A button is situated, which is hard to see in case you have enabled the dark mode. Now click Start Streaming. After just a few moments of buffering, your own desktop will appear on the selected screen.
Features
1. JustStream can easily mirror your own Mac desktop to almost every screen which includes Chromecast-compatible televisions.
By default, the sound is essentially disabled during mirroring, but it can easily be enabled by simply installing an audio driver and then restarting your Mac. However, performance isn’t as fluid as AirPlay since there is a bit of lag of about five seconds using an iMac, mostly mid-2015 iMac Retina 5K.
2. JustStream has the overall advantage of mirroring the desktop right at your present screen resolution instead of simply adapting to the particular target display.
3. It has few mirroring options which are available, unlike AirPlay. Both the cursor, as well as mouse clicks, can easily be disabled. Also, output resolution can easily be adjusted manually to 720p HD or 1080p Full HD.
4. Streaming video through JustStream- A more feature of JustStream is its inherent ability to stream various video files to another display wirelessly. It is quite great for people who have a home office at one place and a big, full HD television in their homes, which makes wired connectivity quite less practical.
The real convenience of this software comes in the form of steaming one or more different video files to television, even if they aren’t actually native Mac formats.
5. Through using this app, delivering audio and video to any screen in your house is quite simple, even with files which are in non-native formats such as MKV or AVI. It is because the app does all of the heavy liftings by simply transcoding in the real-time whenever needed, complete with different optional subtitles where they are available in your own chosen colour, font and size. You can even import subtitles along with play embedded as well as external audio tracks in sync with the particular video.
6. Essentially, real-time transcoding often tends to be a processor-intensive. Even though Quick-Time compatible videos which include MP4, easily start playing immediately with quite a little CPU impact, the different non-native formats need buffering, which is quite dependent upon the file resolution, size and even your Mac, entirely. A one and a half hours standard-definition AVI movie can start beginning streaming in mere 20 seconds, while a 4K MKV video of similar size and length requires several minutes of due preparation before even when the playback commences which include extra time in order to process the embedded subtitles, that can be bypassed if there is no need.
7. In order to be fair, this app has a maximum 1080p HD output resolution; hence, anything higher is quite redundant. Also, while this app is free to download, you will certainly be interrupted after every 40 minutes unless you make a decision to purchase its license code. Also, transcoding can easily be adjusted to stream different non-native videos in original quality or a certainly wide range of bitrates and resolutions.
How To Mirror Mac to Chromecast, Apple TV etc.
You can screen mirror on your Mac to the TV by following these easy steps:
Step 1. Download and then install JustStream on your own MacBook or Mac you wish to mirror screen on.
Step 2. Open the app once it’s installed. TO do that with clicking the app icon present in the Menu bar.
Step 3. You will view a list of monitors connected to your computer. Now, select any one of them that you are essentially going to mirror to another device.
Step 4. Now select the device you will actually be mirroring by simply clicking AirPlay icon present right at the bottom of the window. There will a list that drown down for you to easily choose from.
Step 5. Now click the button “Start Streaming” present at the top of the app’s window. Also, you can even double-click on the selected screen or even click the three dots which are present next to its own name in order to initiate mirroring right from the context menu.
Step 6. By default, the entire mirroring is muted. You can find the instruction for mirroring with sound too.
Step 7. In order to stop mirroring, go to the Stop “Streaming” button and click it.
Pros
1. It can stream any particular video file to Chromecast-compatible devices or AirPlay.
2. It can easily queue up multiple different videos, even those which are in non-native formats.
3. It mirrors the Mac desktop without even adapting to the given target display.
Cons
1. There is a slight video lag of few seconds behind whenever you mirror.
2. It requires high CPU power while transcoding some of the non-native videos.
3. There is no 4K or even surround sound output.
Conclusion
JustStream is essentially an easy-to-use, lightweight menu bar app for the purpose of wirelessly mirroring a Mac or even streaming a wide range of video files to your television, Apple TV without conversion, Chromecast, additional hardware or even any complicated setup. Mirroring provides quite some advantages over inbuilt AirPlay, but it redeems itself when it comes down to streaming any video file to any of the screen in your house.