How fast of WiFi network is needed for HD AirPlay from IPad2. Is there a standard MBps that the router should be able to do to make sure things do not glitch.
iPad 2
If it's itunes material then 720p HD is around 6 Mbps, 1080p around 8 Mbps.
That's not the whole story though.
You can at least double the requirement if the AppleTV is also on wifi for near instant playback.
If rates are slow then AppleTV may buffer the video initially before playing, but if the wifi is unstable or erratic you might still get dropouts later.
Realistically I'd say you really want an 802.11n network. 802.11b would not really suffice, 802.11g might but no guarantee of good performance.
As for other video sources eg iOS device video recordings, sometimes conversion is also required before sending teh video which can really slow things depending on the device combination.
AC
Thank you for that, that helps lots. What if you are cloning a APP, does it depend on the app if it will be 4:3 or 16:9 or does the apple TV up scale every thing to 16:9, 1080? Your numbers stand out to me and seem low? From reading I have done people our saying you need a router that can do 400+ MBps to stand up to HD streaming, can you clarify your data.
Gerbvdh wrote:
Thank you for that, that helps lots. What if you are cloning a APP, does it depend on the app if it will be 4:3 or 16:9 or does the apple TV up scale every thing to 16:9, 1080?
Airplay mirroring mirrors the iPad screen in 4:3. I don't know the exact details but strongly suggest what you get is a VNC like screen sharing whereby a compressed copy of the iPad display is sent to the AppleTV.
Basic Airply is different - media tends to already be in h264 format for video or is converted prior to transmission - again compressed video.
Gerbvdh wrote:
Your numbers stand out to me and seem low? From reading I have done people our saying you need a router that can do 400+ MBps to stand up to HD streaming, can you clarify your data.
Remember routers are rated at particular speeds but rarely achieve anything near those maxima in practice.
The figures I gave are for Airplay of itunes store HD content 'near instantly' analagous to the speeds you'd need from an internet connection to stream them near instantly for the same content.
No one can give you exact specs for this as there are too many variables involved, but if you are looking for a router get an n router or better.
The higher your connection speeds to a router the better, but you do not need a 400 Mbps capable router for Airplay. I don't think iOS devices support those speeds and in any case they won't be achieved in practice.
AC
General airplay and mirroring are separate. Those figures are for streaming HD material from iTunes or similar. Mirroring requires a lot of LAN bandwidth and it is advised not to have background activity, especially if using a game.
The iPad's display is 4:3 and that is what is mirrored. If you want to stretch you need to adjust your TV's settings
Remember, the figures I am quoting are not for the router's on paper capability, but the actual bandwidth needed minus overheads for particular quality streams.
If you had an n router rated up to 270 Mbps, your connections would be unlikely to manage that - say you got 50 Mbps, it would still be adequate, though not as robust as all wired.
Wi-fi speed drops in relation to distance/signal strength and interference from competing networks/devices.
AC
vazandrew wrote:
General airplay and mirroring are separate. Those figures are for streaming HD material from iTunes or similar. Mirroring requires a lot of LAN bandwidth and it is advised not to have background activity, especially if using a game.
Yes, my understanding was the initial question was about HD Airplay - which I took to mean playing movies etc not pure mirroring or in-game Airplay.
That said I'd be interested to know if anyone has any objective measurements of bandwidth usage for mirroring or in-game airplay. I cannot see that Airplay sends uncompressed video in these instances though it may be adaptive with better quality when better bandwidth available.
My suspicion is that in many instances the bottleneck is actually in compressing the frames of display for transmission.
AC
Oh, I forgot to mention I don't think Airplay lives up to all the hype - it can work well in some areas but in others is lacking.
Minimise wireless traffic by having ethernet to AppleTV if you can.
AC
So far as I am aware, basic video airplay will use more or less the same bandwidth as playing video from your iTunes library or from the Internet. The device that transmits via airplay is simply sending the same content and metadata that would be sent from the iTunes library or the Internet.
Mirroring uses less bandwidth than basic airplay, because it is essentially a lower resolution, to compensate for the fact that it has to be displayed in real time. Those that have poor networks, will likely have more problems with mirroring, because of its real-time requirements not because of bandwidth requirements. This is based on the assumption that we are comparing mirroring to basic airplay of 1080p content, of course if the source content is only 720 p the bandwidth requirements will be similar to mirroring.
Sorry for my questions and how they are not fully clear. I work in the A/V industry and I have a event coming up and its for a company who is doing a product launch of there new app. so the creators of the app have left it in my hands to figure out the best way to get what he is doing to show it off to my big screens, they will be walking people threw the App so mirroring it.
so just to be double clear, every thing coming out of the ipad to the apple TV it will be a 4:3? but its out is HDMI witch I thought natively is 16:9. or is it forcing 4:3 since that's what the I pad is telling it to do.
so just comes down to, 1) what is the apple tv going to push out to me when mirroring ( resolution / aspect ratio) and 2) how fast / robust of a network do I need to have the ipad on WiFi and the apple TV wired, and have no chance of glitch / buffering.
thanks again.
Mirroring will be in 4:3 because that is the aspect ratio of the iPad display. You are confusing that with resolution. If you want 16:9 you have to set that on your TV but it could distort the image
Recommendations have been given above as far as network
It probably outputs a 4:3 image with black bars at the sides or just centers the 4:3 image in a 16:9 screen - as vazandrew says you'd need to set a zoom setting on teh TV to fill the screen but that distortts things.
If the app is designed to be usd like this might as well show it as it is?
Ah yes, if an app is specifically designed to take advantage of the bigger screen via airplay mirroring then it will come across as 16:9. I have seen a few games with this capability (i.e. Real Racing 2 HD), but not much else at this time. Gerbvdh, might want to ask the developers about that.
Yes I have been in cantact with them to try to figure out what there app is ment to do and what acpect ratio it's going to be. So fare no luck. Next step is to go find myself a apple tv and do some testing with my wirless network.
That's probably the easiest way to determine what it can handle based on your setup. Best of luck
How fast of WiFi network is needed for HD AirPlay from IPad2. Is there a standard MBps that the router should be able to do to make sure things do not glitch.
