would an apple tv connected to an imac with an ethernet cable act like airplay and display content from the screen of the imac?
iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.13
If I am understanding you correctly, you want to have an Apple TV 3rd Generation connected to a TV via HDMI and you want to AirPlay to that Apple TV from a iMac? This will work if the iMac is from 2012 or later.
I can't say..... I think that you would have to run two ethernet cables into your router, with one running to your iMac and the other to your Apple TV, but if you are purchasing a Apple TV for AirPlay, usually people want to go wireless, because if you want to get a Apple TV and then wire it up to do airplay from a computer, you may as well get a HDMI cable. I can assure you that AirPlay will work very well through WIFi.
i thought of an HDMI cable but the imac doesn't have an HDMI output. i suppose i could use a thunderbolt/hdmi adapter though.
your advice has been very helpful. apple users are very fortunate to have this community to solve problems.
Airplay is a wireless protocol. There really shouldn't be any lag with basic airplay, when just sending content directly. However, mirroring is more intensive since it is sending out the full display in realtime. If you did encounter any issue it would need an investigation into the network.
this is what i'm talking about. you & others on this community are much smarter than me. i didn't understand the difference between airplay and mirroring. i was getting lag with mirroring but when i use airplay there was none. i was overthinking this issue but you and taylormark helped me see a very simple solution that doesn't require extra cables.
Don't put yourself down, been doing this for quite some time and am just more familiarized with these things. Both are part of airplay, one is just sending media directly and the other is mirroring the screen. If you had lag it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t use it, but may simply require some investigation and tweaking to see if the network issues can be overcome.
I assume you were referring to the option to wire via HDMI. In that case you would be bypassing Apple TV/airplay and tethering your Mac to your Tv, if you’re ok with that approach then you can definitely look into that.
No problem, glad I was able to help you
So the Apple TV would connect to your TV using HDMI and then you would be able to use airplay to mirror your iMac's display
Use AirPlay to stream video or mirror your device’s screen - Apple Support
No, it will only do that for a monitor or a TV with HDMI.
taylormark:
thanks for the quick reply. the apple tv would be connected to the tv with an HDMI cable.
taylormark:
yes. would airplay use the ethernet cable instead of streaming wirelessly? i want to avoid any buffering.
bruce
It shouldn't. I have two Apple TVs a Gen 2 and Gen 4 and they are both on an Apple Airport Time Capsule WiFi network and I have not had any lag ever with them.
but would airplay connect to the apple tv through the ethernet cable instead of using a wifi network?
apple tv (3rd generation)
