Screen mirroring not as functional as AirPlay

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Screen mirroring not as functional as AirPlay

In prior generations of Mac OS (Catalina and earlier)- one could AirPlay a video or online stream from a Safari window directly to Apple TV to watch on a larger screen, all while still surfing the web on another Safari tab/window on the Mac that is the source of the streaming content.

With Screen Mirroring, it seems this is not possible in Big Sur- I can only find where it.. mirrors the screen of the Mac, not allowing surfing and streaming simultaneously from the same Mac, is this correct, or am I missing an option somewhere?? It would seem they took functionality away from this aspect.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Jul 10, 2021 9:38 AM

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Barney-15E

Level 10

122,072 points

Jul 10, 2021 10:53 AM in response to latemodelfan

Screen Mirroring is different than Airplay. Screen Mirroring essentially duplicates your screen onto the TV (or whatever device) like another monitor.

Airplay pushes a video or audio stream to an Airplay compatible device.

Airplay availability depends on the source of the video or the controls they put on the page to view videos.

I can Airplay from YouTube to my AppleTV. Vimeo also has Airplay controls on the video controls.

Netflix doesn't appear to allow Airplay, so you would have to use Screen Mirroring.

I also remember watching some videos that didn't have an Airplay control until I put it into full screen on the device (iPhone). I can't remember the source of those videos.

If the video source doesn't let you Airplay, then Screen Mirroring is all you can do. You should be able to change it to a Separate display, move the video window to that display, and play the video in that window. You may end up with interruptions from notifications, switching Desktops, or whatnot.

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Screen mirroring not as functional as AirPlay

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