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iPhone 4S finicky mirroring to AppleTV

Having issues with mirroring iPhone 4S (iOS5) mirrored to AppleTV2 (4.4). The mirroring feature doesn't seem to work as advertised for me. It stutters a lot or the image freezes and the sound continues to play. So, mirroring becomes pretty much useless and unstable.

I tried mirroring several different games. I thought it might be a bandwidth or signal issue. The wireless signal on the iPhone 4S does seem to fluxuate the local wireless signal, but the ATV stays consistent at 4 out of 5 bars. My iPhone 3GS within the same room even holds a consistent full wireless signal.

Even when I'm streaming content from the internet, my download speed is ~15 mbps.

Otherwise, the normal AirPlay feature of sending HTML5 videos from iPhone to ATV works flawless as long as it's not streaming VUDU content.

On a side note, sometimes AirPlay abruptly drops video streaming over a specific period of time. This seems like a bug. I found shutting of autolock within settings solves the issue. But, then disabling autolock completely defeats the purpose of having an autolock option.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems?

AppleTV 2, iOS 5

Posted on Oct 15, 2011 12:19 PM

44 replies

vazandrew

Level 8

40,348 points

Mar 21, 2012 8:38 AM in response to applefan32

Mirroring requires a lot of LAN bandwidth, so yes other activity on the network would cause lag (e.g. streaming, backups etc), especially if one is gaming. You don't have to be an administrator to do so. I have verified this on my system and it does work

zerg445

Level 1

45 points

Mar 21, 2012 8:53 AM in response to Scott Konradt

If you view my other help topic on this subject, I found the following:

Even if you have nothing else running on your network, your router needs to have its Quality of Service QOS settings updated to give priority to the IP address associated with the AppleTV. Connecting an AppleTV via a Cat5e cable versus WiFi also helps reduce/remove the AirPlay jitters. You can connect to your router typically by pointing your browser to 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.0 or something of that nature.

People feel lied to since the ads and demos for this feature make it look like it seamlessly works, it does not.

Mar 22, 2012 6:37 AM in response to zerg445

Thanks zerg445 !

So I bought an TP-Link TL-WA901ND coz my WiFi modem from my provider doesn't support such functions like QoS, I can't even swich off the WiFi functionylity 😮 .

I'll check this tomorrow and give a feedback 🙂

Mar 23, 2012 6:37 AM in response to applefan32

As I said I bought a new WiFi Router with 300 MBit/s but Real Racing 2 keeps juddering.

I have no other activities on this network...

There is either something wrong with the iPad 2 or a bug inside the Apple TV (3.rd generation) 😟 First buyer are beta tester, I know that...

vazandrew

Level 8

40,348 points

Mar 23, 2012 7:08 AM in response to applefan32

It could be interference or router settings (see above) I don't believe there is a bug with the device

Mar 23, 2012 7:40 AM in response to vazandrew

How to eliminate Interference

Connceting ATV 3G with cable to the router does the same - it judders 😠

So in other words: there is nothing I can do.... like most of us I don't own a house in the mountains where there aren't any interferrences 😀 This should run.. other streaming stuff runs too... I think the ATV3 have got problems with Mirroring.

Apple is doing this TV stuff as a hobby...

vazandrew

Level 8

40,348 points

Mar 23, 2012 8:27 AM in response to applefan32

I'm not in the mountains either. Other streaming is not comparable. If it was a device bug the majority would be complaining I think.

Only difference is I am using 2nd gen, the new one hasn't been out long. But I don't think that's the issue.

Mar 28, 2012 1:30 AM in response to vazandrew

I ordered a dual band router to see if this on 5GHz one can avoid interferences...

Apr 11, 2012 9:16 PM in response to applefan32

I have the new Ipad (3rd generation) and Apple TV (3rd generation) I am seeing the same problem. I have a top of the line router (WNDR3800) and set up the QOS settings to give highest priority to the Apple TV and the Ipad, I still see constant mirroring dropouts. Once the drop out happens, the iPad can no longer access the network even though the wifi icon shows it is connected. I need to disable wireless and re-enable it to get it to work again (this seems like an iOS bug).

It works flawlessly if I just stream HD video over AirPlay (without mirroring).

I took both devices to the local "Apple Store" and mirroring worked flawlessly in the store. Took it back home and the problems continue.

I am convinced its network bandwidth issue, however I am not sure what else I can do to fix it. I have tried 2GHZ and 5ghz Wifi. I have tried connecting the Apple TV through ethernet, and still see this problem.

Any ideas are welcome.

Apr 11, 2012 10:46 PM in response to inteldork

Tried 2 other top routers, TP-Link 1043 and currently the Linksys E3200 with dual band.... Still the same problem with Mirroring.

Very very disappointing ...

Apr 11, 2012 10:54 PM in response to applefan32

Actually I saw a bit of improvment with the QoS changes as well as disabling the guest network accounts (WNDR3800).

I am now able to actually play RealRacing2HD in mirror mode with Apple TV being on wifi (Both 2G and 5G) right next to the router. As soon as I move the Apple TV upstairs, the game stutters and eventually drops the mirroring session.

I have a few more things to try on the router (e.g. Enable Video Network), but it seems it definitely is a network throughput issue. It seems mirroring is very demanding, even more so than streaming HD video/audio content through standard Airplay.

Apr 11, 2012 11:01 PM in response to inteldork

LOL the E3200 from Linksys has a special WMM setting for multimedia streaming and exactly this feature disables the all kind of AirPlay, music, video, mirroring! Disabling this feature and AirPlay works again but with the known issues.

So QoS does the opposite on my equipment :D

Apr 12, 2012 8:41 AM in response to applefan32

This for me is indeed a networking problem.

I am considering getting a wireless extender to try and see if it would improve things further. At this point my setup works for 90% of the things I want to do. Only the really GFX intensive games like RealRacing2HD cause it to drop the mirroring. So I think I am just going to continue trying to improve the wireless in my house, or eventually pay for my home to be wired with Cat6.

Good luck with your debugging.

Jul 1, 2012 3:07 PM in response to Scott Konradt

I'm having the same problem with my 3rd gen IPad

iPhone 4S finicky mirroring to AppleTV