Q: When using airplay from mac to apple tv it lags/freezes, but works fine with iPhone

Hello,

I have the same issue here since I got the latest Apple TV and the latest Macbook Pro Retina Display 2.8ghz i7 16GB of RAM, which is about 6 months ago now. I still don't have a solution. Anyone?

Same issue here. Macbook Air and current generation Apple TV. Insanely frustrating. As soon as I attempt to connect from my laptop, the setup takes a while to recognize, then music plays but skips every other second. So basically unusable.

The mirroring is also unusable as the frames on the screen take an excutiating long time to update. Couple fames every 30 seconds or so.

It gets better. After attempting to play for a while the whole connection just bombs. I have to reset all devices and my home router to even get the internet working again, which is like a 10 minute process. The whole mess gets worse and worse and I almost don't even attempt it anymore because I risk wasting about 30 min of my time when it's not working. Which is pretty much all the time.

This used to work but as soon as the mirroring started the problems did as well. It's a total joke and the whole idea of owning all apple products is so they work seamlessly together, but they don't! You need to Fieeeeyyyyyyxxxxixxx-it!

Same issue here.  Ruunning Mavericks on my macbook pro and ATV 2 and 3,  Studders and freezes on both.

I Solved

In my case the problem was related to the wi-fi modem router speed. I changed my modem with a new one and now it works correctly. It seems that the problem was related to the type of wi-fi connection, now i have a modem with a wi-fi with "802.11n" connection type.

I hope this can be helpfull in order to solve the problem also in your case. Please note that in order to use the type "802.11n" connection all the devices connected to the modem have to be complied with this kind of protocol connection (old devices could be not complied).

I have two 802.11n routers that I run in parallel and can switch between them.  Neither one makes any difference for me.

HI all

I've just recently bought an apple tv 3rd gen and 2013 macbook pro non retina, i had a lot of issues too with lagging between my macbook and apple tv through airplay, i have a new wireless N router, but i have found a solution that works for me.

when i put airplay on i always match screen size to apple tv, lagging would occur, i was playing around and set res. to inbuilt display and i haven't had a a single lag issue since, try it out see if it works. working perfectly for me

This solution actually worked for me. Thanks!

For everyone else - use the Extended Display setting rather than Mirroring displays. Apple should really make mirroring work between a MBP Retina and a current generation Apple TV, but video playback appears to be problematic at least. I noticed issues with mirroring when I was trying to project a presentation as well -- very slow.

My setup:

MBP 15" Retina, 8GB RAM (late 2012 model)

Mac OS 10.9.4

Apple TV 2 (purchased in 2011 I think)

Airport Extreme for Wifi and Ethernet

Apple TV connected via Ethernet

I tried turning off Bluetooth, using Wifi vs. Ethernet and a couple of other suggestions. Mirroring didn't work; extending the display worked just fine. I just had to carry my laptop in to the living room so I could see what I was doing. Might not work so well if you have an iMac or a Mini...

I had a similar problem, when streaming video from my  mac to apple tv video and sound was blacking out and it was impossible to watch. tried loads of different solutions. nothing helped. finally I tried putting hdmi cable in to a different slot on my smart tv. The problem solved. Hope this might be a solution for some of you too.

okay so after spending a few hours on the phone with apple support because of my early 2011 mac book pro not working with my apple TV we came up with a solution. first we did a SMC reset on my computer:

1. You will shut down your computer by clicking on the Apple in the upper left corner and selecting Shut Down.
2. Make sure only your power adapter is plugged in.
3. Press all four of these buttons at one time (left side of keyboard: Shift, Control, Option (or Alt) and your power button)
4. Hold them all for 5 seconds then release them all together.

NOTE: Your computer will not boot during this process. If it has booted up at this point, the SMC reset has failed and you will need to shut down and start over with Step 1.

5. Press your power button and allow the computer to start up like normal.

then we did  a PRAM reset on your computer:
1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys as soon as you press and release the power button.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.

Then we made sure i had up to date firmware on my macbook pro, my apple TV and my wireless router, those all checked out.

Then they had me do a reset of all of my devices (Apple TV, MacBook Pro, and Wireless router.)

Finally we were able to determine it was not the apple TV that was the issue and it probably was not the Mavericks software on my Macbook Pro either so the final step was to login to my wireless router using the IP address 192.168.1.1 and changed the 2.4GHz channel setting that my wireless router was broadcasting on (it was set as a default to "auto") (they suggested to use either channel 2 at 2.417GHZ, channel 6 at 2.437GHZ, channel 8 at 2.447GHZ, or channel 9 at 2.452GHZ)

i am not sure if these steps will be the solution for any of you out there but it seems to have worked in my case.

i also had this issue and made a post with suggestions on on few things that can be done to make your apple T.V. with your macbook pro, but today i came across a web site that had a good point stating that the apple T.V. wasn't the culprit but it was the wireless router settings. check out his site and it might be a solution to your problems

http://gieselman.me/airplay-mirroring-drops-network-apple-tv-cisco-e4200/

i followed this persons instructions and now my apple T.V is working flawlessly come to find out it was not my apple T.V. it was a setting in my Cisco wireless router settings.

Hi i have been having the same issues....

am not sure if this will be useful :-/

http://isource.com/2012/03/31/a-few-tips-for-improving-airplay-mirroring/

I had the same issue but figured out what the problem was....Maybe this will help someone else

I have two 20" cinema displays connected to a mac mini and was trying to extend desktop to my apple tv but it would

freeze the screens and the computer when turning on airplay.

What was causing it was when I enabled airplay mode it was trying to mirror all displays....

but both of my cinema displays are lower resolution compared to the HD 1080p resolution on my newer apple tv.

So what I did was go into apple tv settings/ Audio and Video / TV Resolution and temporarilly changed it to a lower resolution

then it worked and I was able to shut off mirror all displays mode on the mac mini to get it to stop freezing.

then I went back to apple tv and put the resolution back to HD.

Hope this helps!

New member in the ATV club. I have tried everything on this forum from page 1 with no luck: wires, resolution, airport channels, etc..etc.

Seems there is a software problem with our MACs and not a hardware one because this is working 100% without any lags: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IhvNIFEn04

having lag issues too. I have the latest Apple TV and Macbook Pro Retina 15' late 2013 Highest spec. My father's iPhone 5S seems to be running smooth, but my Mac lags. FPS is like 25 instead of closer to 30-60fps.... It also freezes every couple of seconds. I'm on Yosemite btw..

Same issue here. Doesn't do what it says it does on the box. iPad mirroring works superbly, but my brand new 2014 Macbook Air freezes every 5 seconds when mirroring. I bought the Apple TV in order NOT to rely on cables, so when the Apple "genius" told me to try connecting the Apple TV by ethernet I was laughing my face off. Talk about not understanding your customer's reasons for purchasing the product in the first place. I guess I'll return it back to the store.