Beamer 2.0 is the long-awaited follow-up to an excellent video streaming app that I’ve been using for years.

The first version of Beamer was a pretty simple affair. Launch the app. Select an Apple TV and then drag and drop media files onto the app window to stream them to the Apple TV.

The beauty of Beamer is that it allows video in formats that iTunes/Apple TV doesn’t natively recognise to be streamed easily and with no fuss. Want to stream the latest episode of Game of Thrones to your Apple TV? No probs, simply launch Beamer, find the media file and dump it in the Beamer window. Walk over to the Apple TV and start watching. The viewing controls are pretty simple, you can play and pause and in 2.0 you also get fast forward and rewind, using the remote on your Apple TV as well as being able to skip forwards and backwards through your playlist.

Playlist? I hear you ask… Yes, one of the new headline features in 2.0 is support for playlists. The original version could only deal with one file at a time, so if you were having a bit of a binge on a TV series, or wanted to keep the kids amused with a heap of content, you’d have to walk back to your computer and queue up each episode in turn after the previous one finished. Now in 2.0 you can drag a bunch of media files into the Beamer window and retire to your couch for the rest of the afternoon knowing they’ll all be played one after the other. Beamer 2.0 also supports subtitles which is a great addition.

The codec support is pretty comprehensive with AVI, MKV, MOV, MP4, WMV, FLV videos all supported for AirPlay-like streaming. The version your download from the website is a time-limited trial with an in-app purchase to upgrade to the full licence, which is only $15.

Due to some of the high-tech goodness in Beamer, Beamer 2 only supports OS X 10.9 (Mavericks). Beamer 1 is still supported on older operating systems and will continue to receive updates to support new Apple TVs for the foreseeable future.