Remote HD

the ultimate way to remotely access your Mac, PC and Apple TV
Click to open Remote HD in the iTunes App Store
Mac Apple TV PC

Audio streaming


Once installed on your Mac, Soundflower is an application that allows Remote HD to pick up whatever is coming through the computer speakers and enable streaming audio from your computer. This means you can listen to internet radio on your iPhone or iPod Touch, so long as you have that radio station playing on your computer. You can listen to music that you don't have in your device's music library, or even queue up and play music on YouTube or other websites!

SoundFlower is a free download from the Google code repository, developed and maintained by the software company Cycling74 (and not the staff of Remote HD). PLEASE NOTE: Audio streaming from Apple TV is not available. The following instructions will only work for Mac computers and laptops.

Soundflower installation instructions

  1. Download the Soundflower installation file and open the “Soundflower.dmg” file. Double-click on "SoundFlower" (you may see the file extension ".mpkg") and follow the installation instructions.
  2. Next: open System Preferences on your Mac.
  3. Within System Preferences, select "Sound”.
  4. You will notice three headline options at the top of the window: "Sound Effects", "Output" and "Input". Click on Output and select "Soundflower (2ch)" as device for sound output.
  5. Now click Input and also select "Soundflower (2ch)" as the device for sound input. At this point, you may need to increase the input volume all the way up - keep this in mind if you experience low volume within Remote HD.
  6. This step is optional. Follow these instructions if, when streaming audio to Remote HD, you also want to have the sound play through the speakers on your computer.

    Open the application "SoundFlowerbed" (look it up under Applications or type it into Spotlight search). You will see a flower-icon added to the top bar of your Finder, to the left of the computer clock. Click the flower-icon and check the "Built-In Output"-option (the one beneath the "Soundflower (2ch)" headline).
  7. If Remote Helper is already running, press the "Restart Helper" button to restart it. If Remote Helper isn't running at all, now would be a good time to start it.
  8. Now launch Remote HD and connect to the Mac you just configured the sound on. Holding the iPhone / iPod Touch in landscape mode, tap on the speaker. With any audio playing on the Mac, you will hear it playing through the speakers on your device. Make sure it's not muted!

Settings for audio quality

The Settings-dialog in Remote HD has some properties for you to adjust to optimize the streaming experience. You may want to change these depending on the connection quality you have (more quality for WiFi-connections, less for 3G connections).