Q: yosemite airplay video and audio stutter

Very frustrating not being able to stream properly to the Apple TV, I am sure many of you bought the Apple TV for that purpose alone, as I did.

I can't understand why the Apple support tech guy couldn't recreate this issue while so many of us are have the exact same problem.  I am hoping an update will be out soon to fix this.  Thanks for your reply, I am glad others are contacting apple about this

Hi

Todays Yosemite and AppleTV updates has not fixed this issue :-( Its stutter even more now! Terrible :-(

Im a hudge music fan in general, audio streaming from my iMac, iPad and iPhone was for me one of the most important features of this ecosystem, and now I have to use a headphones to enjoy my collection :-(

ANd this is another perfect moment to my wife to complain how bad are all new apple product these days...

APPLE! YOU MUST TEST YOUR PRODUCTS BEFORE FINAL RELEASE !!!!PLEASE!!!!!!

and one more thing... Streaming from iphone 6 on ios 8 its a nightmare too...

I have also updated Yosemite with the latest software update, also added an update for the apple TV and no luck, stutter is still there!  I think the more Apple gets notified of this the better, then perhaps it will be fixed with an appropriate update, guess they have a host of other issues to sort out first?

For me what fixed it was turning off Spotlight Web Content in System Preferences and Safari. I saw some URL in Activity Monitor and when I found out who was running it, it was Spotlight Web Content. When I killed that process my video immediately started playing smoothly again. Then it slowed down as this process picked up again. So I turned it off by unchecking everything in System Preferences -> Spotlight [Search Results] and all is well.

Great, Polamex! Worked out for me.

But I', curious, how is spotlight interfering with Apple TV and my MBP? Any ideas? 

MadMalik wrote:

 

Great, Polamex! Worked out for me.

But I', curious, how is spotlight interfering with Apple TV and my MBP? Any ideas?

Who knows. The process did grow to about 3 gigs for me, so maybe it turned into a memory contention issue?

Upgraded to Yosemite on my Macbook Pro (approx 2 yrs old).  Sure enough Apple TV (1 mth old) ceased working - no joy from Apple Help, returned TV to store, installed new Apple TV - no difference to stutter in both film and audio!  Thanks heavens for MacForums - wish I had remembered you wizards before I returned the 1 mth old Apple TV.  Turned offf bluetooth an everything immediately returned to normal.

Thank you so much - you're the best!

Great shout Polamex,

Your spotlight solution worked for me!!!

I disabled all spotlight search results apart from applications and that solved the ATV stutter problem almost instantly. I am now able to airplay from my Macbook Air to my big screen without the annoying stutter.

I cannot believe that no updates have been released yet by Apple to fix this major problem for Yosemite users.

Thanks again Polamex, you're a life saver!!!

IMPORTANT ADDENDUM:

Sorry to say that it only worked temporarily as the stutter came back after a few minutes of airplay from my Macbook Air

So disappointed as I thought this was a work-around

I disabled the spotlight search as well, only to have the Apple TV work without stuttering for about 1 hour, but now it's back to its usual post-Yosemite stuttery self.  Pretty sure I've tried every trick mentioned in all of these threads regarding the Apple TV/Yosemite stuttering issue and nothing has worked.

Had stuttering audio problem. Restarted apple tv. No change. Restarted macbook pro. No change. Restarted router, no Change. Read this thread and turned off my bluetooth on the macbook. Worked.

Rich

when turning off bluetooth it is 10 times better, but still too often it stutters.

i'm trying to stream audio only (alt+click on the volume in menu) from macbook air to apple tv over wifi.

if i have bluetooth enabled on the macbook i get a hickup/skip/stutter every 10 seconds or so. very small only 1/20 of a second or something.

if i disable bluetooth on the macbook it is a lot better, like only every other minute.

when i go in the bluetooth menu of the apple tv it is stuttering continuously.

i've tried updating all devices, restarting and they all have perfect reception.

airplay is just unusable for me. it's a shame because supposedly it's a great feature...

I found another solution that worked for me immediately.  Simply turn off mirroring to your Apple TV, and instead use it as an extended monitor.  This also impacted the audio.

My scenario was that I was sending video out through the thunderbolt connector to a projector, and using airplay to send the sound to my stereo.  The audio was unusable.

The fix for the video also cured the audio.

Finally figured it out: just unplug the ethernet cable from you AppleTV.

As soon as I connected my AppleTV to my network through wifi, mirroring my Mac became smooth. Who'd have thought?!

Hope this trick works out for everyone else.

Good luck.

AppleTV 3rd Gen

MBPr 13" Mid 2014

My Apple TV is not connected via ethernet, only WiFi so that's not the issue.