Airplay on Apple TV is choppy from Macbook, smooth for iPad/iPhone.

Question

Airplay on Apple TV is choppy from Macbook, smooth for iPad/iPhone.

I am trying to use Airplay from my Macbook Pro (2017) to my 4th generation Apple TV 4k to put a livestreamed video on my TV screen. Whenever I do this, the video playback stops, stutters, and is overall choppy. I have tried to troubleshoot this issue by changing the Airplay mode from mirroring to extending my desktop, but this barely helps the problem. I've also disabled Airplay Display Underscan in the Apple TV settings and this hasn't helped either.

What's frustrating is if I use Airplay from either my iPhone or iPad, the same livestream plays smoothly with no stutters/choppy playback. Is there any explanation for this? Is there anything else I could try to help with this issue?

Specs:

Apple TV 4K (Latest Model) - 64GB

Macbook Pro(15-Inch, 2017)

Processor: 3.1 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory: 16GB 2133 MHz

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 630 1536 GB

iPhone X, iPad Pro (2016)

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Jan 15, 2019 9:28 PM

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Answer 1

Urquhart1244

Level 10

147,566 points

Jan 16, 2019 4:57 AM in response to JohnRendleman

Does this video play in the browser on the Mac, or specific application?

If it plays in the browser, can you use the AirPlay icon in the movie controller in the browser, instead of screen mirroring?

Does this video play in the browser on iPad/iPhone, or a specific app?

Does this video mirror (i.e. both screens) on the iPad/iPhone, or does it lock out the video on iPad/iPhone when AirPlay streaming?

I think the smoothness difference is due to the choice between ‘basic’ AirPlay and AirPlay Screen Mirroring. Try to avoid actual screen mirroring (capturing and re-encoding the screen as a new movie), if possible, for video with regular frame rates. Basic AirPlay (on Mac from inside iTunes, QuickTime Player or Safari) forwards the video stream as-is, without all the overhead; although that limits to compatible formats.

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Airplay on Apple TV is choppy from Macbook, smooth for iPad/iPhone.

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