Have a lot of movies or TV episodes stored in your computer and want to watch them on your big screen TV? Here are the steps on how to easily stream those videos from your Mac to the Xbox One using this handy app from the Mac App Store called SofaPlay ($4.99 - Download now). It's so easy and convenient, that I want to slap myself for not knowing about it earlier.
- On your Mac, go download and install SofaPlay from the Mac App Store.
- Open Xbox Video on the Xbox One. If you do not have it yet, go to your Xbox home screen and scroll all the way to the right until you see the search tile. Look for Xbox Video, and then install it.
- Open SofaPlay on your Mac and select the Xbox-SystemOS option from the dropdown list.
- Drag a movie file into SofaPlay.
- That's it! The movie should start playing on your Xbox One.
I was surprised at how easy it was to set up. Previously, I copied my videos into a USB stick and then attach it to my TV. With this setup, I can just drag and drop the videos from my Mac, and then immediately watch it on TV.
There are a couple of issues worth mentioning. SofaPlay is unable to play videos I have in .mov format. It did not have problems with .mp4 videos, though.
Another issue is that I cannot drag the playhead or have forward and reverse buttons on the SofaPlay player to skim through videos. It's not a major issue though, since you can use your Xbox One controller, SmartGlass on mobile devices, or the Xbox One Media Remote. Other than that, I love that I can now easily stream my movies to the Xbox One.
SofaPlay for Mac is $4.99 at the App Store. There is a free lite version available, but it is limited to just two minutes of video streaming.
Are you a Mac user and use SofaPlay? Do you stream videos to the Xbox One in any other way? Let us know in the comments!
Reader comments
How to stream videos from your Mac to Xbox One
http://mediabrowser.tv/download/ works for Mac OSX and it is free. You can rom the computer directly or get the app on and play it on the Xbox One.
Yep I'm using this since it was "Videobrowser".. Works on everything, also have app for WP and Surface. Prefer to Plex as Plex destroyed my metadata on numerous occasions.
Just install serviio on mac or pc Then get something like skifta for iphone or av-remote for WP8 Dead easy and doesn't matter pc mac iphone or WP and you can play to most smart devices selected on your handheld
Hey what movie you're playing?
Interstellar maybe?
Can you play media on an Xbox One, using play to, and media stored on a FTP server or NAS?
Ps, what's the movie in the intro of the instructional?
My what?
Just add Plex Media Server to your Mac and use any Play To enabled app in the WP store (Linada, Smart Player) to send whatever media you want from your Mac to your Xbox One.
And yes, Macs work with DLNA
Sounds more complicated than what was mentioned here
Thanks Mark. Appreciate you making this article for us Mac users, and glad you didn't have any bad attitude towards Macs, unlike the people who commented above me. ;)
Mac user here as well. High five!
High five!
I've been on Mac since 2008, then got the 2010 MBP, then got the SP2. Selling the SP2 and getting the 2014 13" MBP Retina. :)
What Mac do you have?
Have the Late 2013 15" MBP Retina. Great at editing vids
Nice!
Just got the 2014 rMBP and put my SP3 for sale on here and eBay.
Yeah, I saw both the SP3 and rMBP lime three times, and I'm switching back to Mac OS. Yosemite is beautiful.
I don't like Macs, but I'll use the OS. I have Mavericks running on my HP Envy.
I've no bad attitude, just think its amazing that a mac can't massively steam to dlna devices..
I just think it's amazing that a PC can't fully mirror everything to the Xbox One.
Mirroring>DLNA
Running Mac on PC has more issues than running PC on Mac, but it can still at least run Mac OS.
Usually. I however have no issues, all of my hardware works.
Never said the hardware doesn't work. I mean Hackintosh isn't as good as boot camp as Mac OS is meant for their hardware, meaning even software issues on PCs with Hackintosh. Plus, it's hard to be up to date and the Mac FULLY thinking it's a Mac.
That's the challenge that makes it fun. For me at least....
I'm sorry, but that's the strangest thinking I've ever seen.
No hate here bro. Just sticking up for my platform
Never said windows is bad, I love windows. Just the hardware is still meh. Macs may be "overpriced", but they don't slow down after a year, you don't need to install a billion drivers and search them, more stable, and sexier than many PCs (although I love the Razer Blade). And the good thing about Macs is if you ever want Windows, you have OFFICIAL support for running it!
The hardware isn't "meh", windows uses the same hardware as OSX. As you're very much aware, windows also has a much bigger variety of available supported hardware than OSX does.
And I'm not sure where the year slowdown comes from, but none of my computers have ever become slower after a year. Vista, 7 or 8.
I agree with the drivers, but OSX would be par with windows on that front if it had the hardware variety.
Sexier?... We have our tastes ;)
I know Windows devices have more variety, I owned a SP2. I know the Mac doesn't have touch. But I need Mac OS. And my bad, I meant many cheaper PC's that aren't really true "ultrabooks" are really crap. For example, we had two Windows 8 PCs for one of our classes. It has great internals, 4th gen i5, 8GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, etc. I don't care about the screen and trackpad and stuff on this PC, as that wasn't a hardware issue in terms of performance (although the trackpad was total crap).
These two PCs had TONS of issues, and were actually slower than a SP1 I tested. Not in terms of opening apps and stuff, as I know SSD>HDD, but in terms of real performance. I feel these cheaper made computers don't have much effort into them and can run into many software and hardware issues. We had to replace both of them with replacement ones (same model) because of these issues, but even the replacements had some kind of issue (different issue).
When you have a lot of variety, it can be considered inconsistent, and not very reliable. After using both OSes on many pieces of hardware, I've come to the conclusion that Macs are more reliable, more stable, more secure (that's a big one), and have a better life span in many categories.
And sexier compared to those crap PCs. Some Windows ultrabooks and gaming ultrabooks are really sexy, like I mentioned, the Razer Blade, and some ultrabooks appeal to others.
I think we're getting into forum territory lol, but I see your side.
Lol
Can I stream video from windows 8to Xbox 360?
Select content you want to stream > Open Charms and select PlayTo > Choose device > Enjoy!
does something like this exist for Windows 8 or do we have to wait for the media updates on Xbox One?
on Windows 8/8.1 PC
Step 1 - Right Click on the video you want to watch
Step 2 - Select - Play to > select XBOX ONE Console name
Enjoy for Freeeee!
mans550 beat me to it. Just an fyi this will work with most dlna devices, not just Xbox.
Charms> Devices> Play To
Easily one of my favorite features!
second being that I can PASTE links into smart glass on windows phone and IE will open with that page :0
Have to do this... "eew"
Are you saying that Macs can't natively stream to dlna devices? That's hilarious..
Are you saying PCs can't natively mirror their whole screen and all content to devices like the Xbox One? That's hilarious...
Yeah, I'm pretty bummed that's not built into Windows 8.1 yet. Nice to see the capability in WP 8.1, though.
Can it mirror to the Xbox one? Or we have to wait? Because they said they are adding dlna, but not sure if that included WP project to screen.
Step 1: ditch the Mac
▶ Step 2: Buy a PC
Step 3: Loathe thy Apple
Step 4: Be awesome.
▶ Step 5: Love thy PC
Shouldn't step 4 or 5 be profit?
Step 4: Realize how badly Microsoft partners support laptops after an OS upgrade and sell your PC notebook so you can go back to running Windows (and OSX) on a Mac because the support is better. This happened to me. I switched to an Asus Zenbook from a Macbook Pro. Got frustrated and switched to an Acer S7. Got frustrated and switched back to a Macbook Pro. Honestly, Windows has better support on a Mac in my experience.
That's why I don't own a laptop, and I see the surface as a better option for on the go computing.
I am very interested in a Surface 3. If Microsoft had made a laptop or the Surface 3 when I bought the new MBP then I would have been very interested. My laptop is great for my purposes though.
Step 5: Don't buy Asus and course one of the top three partners who will provide better support.
I'm gonna stop you there...Asus is probably the very best quality OEM on the market. As far as quality of craftsmanship goes. You never said they weren't, but for a custom build, you can't beat it
It was a great machine. But when my free upgrade to Windows 8 was installed (bought within about a week of release of Windows 8) Asus did not support the upgrade at all. I contacted them with trackpad issues and was told by support that they would not support that OS since it was not original. Microsoft needs to force OEMs to support OS upgrades. I waited about two months for the situation to improve, it did not improve, so I sold the thing.
Ok, this is not a dig on you or your actions, but hopefully a helpful hint to others. Before upgrading your OS you should go to the manufacturer's website and see if your specific model is supported with the OS. If yes, then upgrade. If no, then don't upgrade, or upgrade at your own risk. I'm not saying this is good or bad or better or worse than Apple, just that with Windows this approach will yield the best results.
I understand that. But for me it does not work. With Apple OSX upgrades are supported from day 1 and I haven't had issues with Windows either. If the companies sell high end machines they need to actively support the machine including the software. Especially when the new OS came with the machine for free.
Funny u mention trackpad issues, when ive experienced major track pad issues on MacBook Air's and Pros after the Mavericks updates that still havent been resolved til this day. Apple has its own share of software issues just like anyone else.
LOL. There is a huge middle ground between Asus and Apple as far as hardware/OS support goes!
I should have bought a Lenovo. In my defense, it was not a cheap Asus, it was about 1700 dollars at the Microsoft store.
You need support? What for?
▶ Mac huh? Didn't know you could do that. It would be nice if Xbox Video supported streaming from a remote PC. Although OneDrive serves that purpose, using your PC storage space would be a little more awesome.
It will, major nelson announced it 'in the coming months'.
Microsoft can ban your account for using one drive to watch movies it's happened
▶ Source? I don't think it's anywhere in their terms of use that you can't do so
as long as you dont share those videos then you wont get banned. i've uploaded a few seasons of Dexter on mine and havent run into any issues.
Windows Vista/7/8/8.1 Video streaming is available through DLNA on Xbox 360 and Xbox One. All you have to do is highlight the video file and there should be a media bar in that will allow you to choose your Xbox 360 or Xbox One. You mist have the state on. I use it all the time to stream videos via my computer to my system via DLNA. Goto YouTube for more info and instructions.