Still No Apple TV Audio or Video Streaming Options?

xeltros wrote:
Another way to go for apple would be to open the airplay standard.

There already is one - called Miracast. Apple didn't create it though.

xeltros wrote:
I don't see when you triple the bandwidth (unless you count that switching from wifi to wired connection is a entirely new stream) but I agree on double at least (from NAS to Apple device, from Apple device to AppleTV).

There's only one sender on a wifi network at a time, and in the case of Airplay all the streams are relayed through the AP. So if the Apple TV is also wireless, you really have NAS->iPad to play the media, then iPad->AP + AP->Apple TV to get it on the TV. That's 3x the bandwidth. Miracast doesn't use the AP btw, it goes peer-to-peer. so in that respect it is better than Airplay.

How well this works depends on congestion and distance to the AP. Some of the problems could be overcome if streamers used UDP as a transport, but they typically use TCP, which is not good at maintaining bandwidth during packet loss. There are lots of cases (some posted here) where people using media streamers end up needing wired ethernet or powerline networking to overcome WiFi QoS issues - with HD, not 4K, and in some cases full DVD rate (which is 6-8 mbs).

xeltros wrote:
Apple is definitely a great brand in many regards, they only have two things to work on : prices and compatibility.

I agree they have a great brand, and people buy their products for good reasons. But they do create and protect a closed ecosystem. Their goal is to have you only buy Apple Tech. Even when they use standards they often use them in closed ways - Facetime and Airplay are two of several examples. The compatibility issues are generally designed in, they are not accidental. IMO the only thing that might change this is competition from Google/Android. So far it hasn't though.