showing pics on my tv using my MacBook Pro

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showing pics on my tv using my MacBook Pro

I am trying to figure out a way to show my pictures on my tv using either my Apple TV (3rd gen) or my Roku Express +. or just AirPlay I have tried the Roku Media Player, AirPlay, screen mirroring. i haven’t found any apps that do this (that also don’t restrict me to a slideshow or playlist.) Also everything I have tried have very clunky means or moving from one pic or folder to another.

Is there an OSX app that will do this and not:

- blacken my MBP (MacBook Pro, running Big Sur) screen when it goes full screen or uses Airplay?

- not restrict me to playlist or slideshow to see the pics?

Using the Finder is too many steps and it blackens the MBP screen when using full screen or Airplay.

Using screen mirroring and the tv as a separate display blacken the MBP screen. I NEVER want my MBP screen blackened. I want to choose what pics I want to see on the tv on my MBP.

I don’t like how Photos (and Apple TV) make me use a slideshow or screensaver. I want to look at whatever pics I want to look at, not have to set up an app that makes me create a slideshow or playlist.

The freedom to look at this or that as easily as choosing what folder they are in is what I want. Very little other busywork. I want to freely move around folders and display whatever pics I want. It has to be easy.

I haven’t found any apps to do this yet. None feature Airplay as that seems to be only a feature that video players use. I don’t understand that. Photos would almost work for me if 1) it didn’t black out my MBP when going full screen or 2) didn’t have a white background for the area of the screen that isn’t the picture. If if had an extension that would display pics on the tv as I like or had a black background option, that would work for me. (I see I can make my MBP use Dark Mode but I don’t want that on my MBP, only the app so it isn’t distracting when looked at on the tv.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

MacBook Pro 15″, OS X 10.10

Posted on Oct 17, 2022 10:39 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

kamote0628

Community Specialist

Oct 18, 2022 6:19 PM in response to lipwak

Hi lipwak,

We appreciate you reaching out to us. We understand that you are looking to show your pictures on your TV using your Apple TV (3rd generation) or your Roku Express.

Based on the devices you've mentioned and the conditions you want, there is no native feature within macOS Big Sur that you can use.

We strive to bring the best personal computing experience to customers around the world through our innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.

We welcome your feedback on our products here: Product Feedback - Apple

While these features may not fit your conditions, we'd like to share with you some features that may provide you with some insights.

Some TVs can be used as an external display for a MacBook Pro.

The article below can show you how.

Use an external display with your MacBook Pro

The latest tvOS versions have the Photos app.

View iCloud Photos on Apple TV - Apple Support

Take care!

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Answer 2

Oct 19, 2022 10:51 AM in response to lipwak

lipwak wrote:

And this is what I get when AirPlay refuses to work... with Apple TV or the Roku. Often.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/0a451966-ae76-4b87-9e5e-970073f4e23f

Sorry, I don't know how to solve that; maybe there is some network glitch. Are the devices and mac relatively near the Wifi access point? Having a weak signal, or many wifi signals from different networks, can make connections less stable.

In some cases, changing the Wifi channel on the router to one less used by neighbors and such, might help.

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Answer 3

Oct 19, 2022 6:01 AM in response to lipwak

You are supposed to be able to initiate Airplay from System Preferences, or even from the menu bar:

That is independent of Photos, or any other application.

If you choose to extend the desktop, you can get the Mac at its native resolution; But if you are mirroring, you can't, simply because the resolution of your tv is (probably) much lower than that of your Mac, and you are having both showing the same content.

Did you try running a slideshow from Photos? For me it looks very nice.

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Answer 4

Oct 19, 2022 10:03 AM in response to lipwak

Once you actually add the display, you should be able to do the switching between mirror and extended.

Here, I have an external display connected directly to my mac - but with an iPad or Apple TV it works the same:

Here is the System Preferences->Displays interface, with two displays (my built-in display and the external; again, this could be your Apple TV, for example):

To add an iPad, or Apple TV, you could click the "Add Display" and make your selection.

Once the relevant display is added, you should be able to click "Display Settings", select the relevant display and change from mirror to extended:

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Answer 5

lipwak Author

Level 1

123 points

Oct 19, 2022 11:11 AM in response to lipwak

Here's what the tv looks like now. So far, I am unable to get it show anything properly filling the screen, using full screen in the Finder or Photos app. This is just today. Other times I have... This is mirroring.

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Answer 6

Oct 19, 2022 3:10 AM in response to lipwak

Did you consider just connecting an HDMI cable between your mac and your TV?

This would bypass Airplay, etc, and have your TV just be an additional display to your mac. Set it as "extended desktop", and you can do whatever you want with it, and still be using your mac display at the same time for other things.

Depending on your mac model, you may need just an HDMI cable; or the cable and an adapter for TB2 or USB-C to HDMI.

EDIT: FWIW, I am not playing a Photos slideshow in full screen on my second monitor, and writing this at the same time on the internal display of my MBP - so I don't understand why Photos would not work for this... it does.

FWIW, this should also work with Airplay - what is it that does not work for you with Airplay?

(Maybe the version of Apple TV is a limitation here, I don't know; I can use Airplay to my Apple TV 4K and use that as extended desktop for my mac as well)

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Answer 7

lipwak Author

Level 1

123 points

Oct 19, 2022 4:49 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks. I'd rather not have to connect it with a cable. Wireless is much preferred.

Yes, Photos comes pretty close. If it didn't have that white background I'd want to use it since my pics are all adjusted in that app. Casting unedited pics won't be as good. I'm still not happy with having to go through the rigamarole of setting up the display every time. If Airplay was an option within Photos that'd be encouraging and if Airplay (or the app) remembered my preferred settings, that'd be nice. Not having to change my MBP screen resolution from my current settings would be nice.

Airplay acts up alot. Most of the time I only get the Airplay home screen rather than it actually working. I've seen the steps I have to take to make sure Airplay will work and they are all being done. VIdeos will work more often than pics when using it. This is true with both using the Roku and the Apple TV and whatever apps I have tried.

I can imagine better ways for an app to handle large numbers of pic than Photos does. A better gallery where I can not see the file list and not being based on chronological sorting are two. (Yes, I can create albums that are sorted by title and a few other ways but it is still very limited.)

I'd want to have my MBP be it's normal resolution, be able to get to whatever pics I want and have them show on the tv full screen with a black background. Be able to arrow through them as I like. Go to whatever photo I want on the gallery view of the app, etc.

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Answer 8

lipwak Author

Level 1

123 points

Oct 19, 2022 6:14 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

True, I can initiate Airplay those ways.

Yes, I could use Photos slideshow. I prefer to bounce around more though and get tired of slideshows. I'd get very tired of a timed slideshow. One that lets me just scroll through them would work better in most cases, which I guess Photos will let me do without using the slideshow feature.

Can I extend the desktop with Big Sur 11.7 on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)? That sounds like what I want to do rather than mirroring. Airplay if it worked would be the best though I think (as long as it doesn't black out my MBP screen.)

Mac support says: "On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Displays , then click Display Settings. Click the name of your display, then choose Extend Display from the pop-up menu."

I don't have a name for my display and the only pop-up is for Off/Airplay/Express (Roku). I guess that only works with a connected by wire display?

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Answer 9

Oct 19, 2022 10:47 AM in response to lipwak

It seems to me that you have already added the Apple TV, and were able to set as a separate display.

Once you have selected "Use as separate display", you can independently change the resolution of your built-in display and the Apple TV. If you don't like the "default for display" option, click Scaled and choose among the options available.

Note 1: You could in principle also add the Roku and have three displays, but of course if the the Roku and Apple TV are connected to the same tv, that is useless; and all being wireless, I imagine that performance might not be too good.

Note 2: my screenshots look different because I am running Monterey; I do not currently have a mac with Big Sur; but all the same options are available, just with a different organization

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Answer 10

lipwak Author

Level 1

123 points

Oct 19, 2022 11:01 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I like that using the Apple TV as a separate display leaves my MBP screen resolution alone. But now the image on the Apple TV is not filling the tv regardless of whether I choose default for display or scaled (which only offers 1280x720). At least with mirroring I can get Photos, when dragged onto the window, to occupy the whole screen regardless of whether I choose the full screen option or not. (Hmm. Choosing mirroring now, neither makes any difference and neither fills the tv, while my MBP seems zoomed in. I then chose optimize for Retina display (was optimized for Apple TV) and I am back to the res I want on my MBP but not getting the window to fill the screen on the tv.

If I go full screen on Photos, I get it full screen on my MBP but not the tv. That window size stays the same. Now, I've got to figure out how I got the tv window to fill the screen and then to get Photos on it....

Oh, if there was just an app that handled all this better...

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Answer 11

Oct 19, 2022 11:11 AM in response to lipwak

Is the actual TV screen a full HD (1920x1080, also known as 1080p) display? Or does it have some other physical resolution like "HD Ready" 1366x768, or some other? I don't think the Apple TV supports that resolution, so maybe it is switching to 1280x720, and not using the full display?

If the tv is actually full HD, I would not expect this problem to occur. The Apple TV should always output 1080p.

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Answer 12

lipwak Author

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123 points

Oct 19, 2022 11:32 AM in response to lipwak

I guess using as separate display, dragging the Photos window over to it and resizing it to fill the screen (but not using full screen as that will blacken my MBP) is the way to go. I don't like having to mouse around on the tv as the cursor is too small. I'd much rather do everything on my Mac and just have it show full screen on the tv. This sort of works... Sure wish an app/Photos would do that... (Too many posts, too soon so I have to wait again...)

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Answer 13

lipwak Author

Level 1

123 points

Oct 19, 2022 11:40 AM in response to lipwak

Ooh.... maybe this will fix things: https://www.duetdisplay.com/help-center/when-i-fullscreen-an-app-on-my-mac-the-other-screens-go-black Use Mission Control/Displays have separate spaces.

Am trying this right now... I NEVER use Mission Control otherwise... (of course I have to wait to post this...)

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Answer 14

lipwak Author

Level 1

123 points

Oct 19, 2022 11:49 AM in response to lipwak

That makes a BIG difference! Going full screen on the doesn't affect the MBP, what a relief. Now, if I can get used to using my tiny cursor on the large, far-enough away tv that it's pretty hard to see what to click on...

This is a major step forward.

I thank you for your help and hope maybe someone else might know of an app or a better way to do this. Progress!

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Answer 15

lipwak Author

Level 1

123 points

Oct 19, 2022 10:29 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

As soon as I add my Apple TV, my MBP screen resolution changes to a higher res. I don't have the option to add display with this OS/MBP.

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showing pics on my tv using my MacBook Pro

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