Q: Mountain Lion AirPlay Mirroring (iMac to AppleTV) Not Working

@Mike

The reason to the complaints is not because no body read the requirements, but because apple hasn't put a side note under their airplay advertising about the systems that can run airplay. They did not make clear of what you needed to have for airplay to work.

Also, it seems to me that apple has just failed to make older generation systems be capable of running airplay, or in my mind they didn't bother giving support for previous generation macs. I mean my 3rd generation ipod touch, back in 2009, support airplay. Airplay on ML is not supported unless you have a mid-2011 mac? I think they just didn't even bother to support previous macs. 

Can you tell me how to reinstall drivers.....kinda new to Apple so still learning the terms.

Never mind....I just loaded AirParrot and did ran the tool and I'm good to go. You just got $10. I got audio and video.

I can see that people are upset that they laid out $20 and a feature (albeit a feature they wanted) is not supported in some models.

Consider the following scenarios:

• You buy the upgrade and load it onto your unsupported iMac, Macbook Pro, etc.  It runs like a dog.   You're back in the Apple Community Boards moaning -  "****, this AirPlay Mirroring is rubbish Apple, give me my money back you con-men.  It's going to be like 1995 if you keep this up.
• You buy the upgrade and load it onto your unsupported iMac, Macbook Pro, etc. You're back in the Apple Community Boards moaning -  "****, you duped us Apple, give me my money back you con-men.  It's going to be like 1995 if you keep this up.
• You buy the upgrade and load it onto your unsupported iMac, Macbook Pro, etc.  It doesn't seem to work.  You go back to the OS-X website and realise that you don't have a machine with the supported graphics hardware that Apple code for, for the best experience and you have a nice cup of tea, a biscuit and stop acting like entitled tits.

How's that sound?

How about this scenario: Apple makes the mirroring an option for everyone with a warning that there may be performance issues with older Macs, like there are with almost every other feature in any operating system. Then, instead of feeling duped, we might actually feel like we need a new computer.

I understand how you might feel "duped", but that would mean that Apple intentionally mislead you.  It's on their website (apple.com/osx/specs) where it is clearly stated what is and what is not supported.

I paid my $20, and my Early 2009  iMac is not supported.  I knew it wasn't.  My mid 2011 MacBook Pro is supported, as is my mid 2011 iMac.

What I can't understand is why there is 42 pages of "screw you Apple!  You duped us!  I wasted $20!".

As far as I am concerned, if people can afford to by a Mac, they, or their parents can fork out $20 for what I feel is a good upgrade, whether it has AirPlay or not.

It's a tragedy. I can't understand why Apple do this. I cost 100$ to buy an Apple TV and $20 to upgrade to ML, just for the airplay...

So what about my scenario.

I have been looking forward to this update for ages, and was ready purchase apple tv. Only to find out on release day that my IMac is 6months to old.

What do you suggest know it all.

its garbage that u cannot use what u already have. I got my mac pro in 2011 in Feb and air play doesn't work. bummer. I can tell the difference when Steve J was uncharge men with a vision and not how can I make more $. Sad very sad

Same thing....bought in 2011. Built Mid 2010. Have been stiffed! The gift that keeps on taking...........

What do I suggest Lattridge84?

I certainly wasn't being a know it all - just a realist.

So, back to what do I suggest?   Don't by Apple products.  Buy something else.  Or go get Air Parrot.

You had a choice to either buy or not buy.  Just don't whine.

42 Pages of unhappy customers means at some point in Apple's Marketing campaign they failed to adequately inform customers of the limitations of the hardware they sold, and implied to a large user base that Mountain Lion + Apple TV equalled the ability to 'Air mirror' their desktops.

Apple's policy is also to shrowd their product releases with a veil of secrecy. The specifications you are talking about are often not revealed in advance of product launches.

Many of the people complaining have purchased Apple TVs on the basis of this sales campaign.

I have no issue with a twenty dollar upgrade for an OS. I happily did not bother to pursue a free upgrade to Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard that I was entitled to because I understood that a major upgrade would have a certain number of bugs, and I was happy with snow leopard, but I am NOT a happy owner of two apple tv's purchased and shipped to me a month ago so I would be able to use the mirroring functions advertised, and a mac mini purchased in July of 2011, that does not appear anywhere on receipts, or identified anywhere as a 2010 model.

I would probably have been happy to purchase a new Mac Mini instead of the AppleTv's I spent my money on if Apple had spent more time explaining the differences between their new hardware's processing ability compared to their older models, and had given Intel credit for the new functions their OS was able to offer.

Air Mirroring is a feature dependant on their more recent hardware and should have been marketed that way, rather than as a feature of an OS that is software related.

I am also less than impressed that my brother in law who has 6 '2009' MAC Pros cannot purchase memory upgrades from Apple and that  trying to identify his hardware using the MAC Info function in OS/X does not list a model year, if that is the terminology that Apple is going to use for marketing purposes.

I have purchased Airparrot, and I am forced to agree with Apple that the Mac mini I own is underpowered for air mirroring. I would be very surprised if my brother-in-laws MAC pros, with 16Gb would be unable to perform the software encoding necessary.

I have purchased:

1 Macbook 2007 model, 1 Macbook Pro 2009, 1 Mac Mini 2010?, 2 Iphone 4s, 1 Iphone3gs, 2 Apple TV's.

My brother-in-law has easily spent in excess of $20,000 on Apple equipment for his Graphic design company.

As a result of Apple's poor marketing and poor product support, two previously very happy customers are left with the impression that Apple does not accurately advertise their products.

I will be skipping several upgrade cycles to be sure that Apple's hardware has caught up to their hype.

I am also glad I didn't send my brother who is a university student an Apple TV as a birthday present as his $2000 Imac I tried to discourage him from buying two years ago, would be underpowered for presentation purposes.

A lot of people who have trusted Apple to sell hardware that wasn't easily upgradeable are questioning what they were thinking when they bought a computer with no expansion ports,and non-exchangeable CPUs. I know the Apple Macbook Pro with the Retina display is looking distinctly unappealing to me now.

Very unhappy about this. I'm just discovering my iMac 2010 purchase is not compatible. Apple, please be more explicit about these things. For the first time I feel hoodwinked!!

That's a reasonable response @unhappycustomer.

I have to admit that AirPlay wasn't a big ticket item to upgrade for, and my uses for it are pretty small.

However, in terms of secrecy - around hardware I will agree with you, however software is seeded to developers and beta testers alike for quite some time before gold masters are produced and the software released GA.

As I pointed out, the specifications requried for AirPlay are pretty clearly stated on Apple's website:

"AirPlay Mirroring requires a second-generation Apple TV or later, and is supported on the following Mac models: iMac (Mid 2011 or newer), Mac mini (Mid 2011 or newer), MacBook Air (Mid 2011 or newer), and MacBook Pro (Early 2011 or newer)."

There are a number of other features in 10.8 that also have requirements based on the GPU and graphics hardware to provide an experience that most users would find acceptable.   It's no consipracy theory, and as one poster posited:

I can tell the difference when Steve J was uncharge men with a vision and not how can I make more $. Sad very sad

Steve Jobs would have acted no differently in this respect.   Jobs would have made the decision based on user experience, even if, as it has, prompted 42 pages of people complaining.  As you said:

I have purchased Airparrot, and I am forced to agree with Apple that the Mac mini I own is underpowered for air mirroring. I would be very surprised if my brother-in-laws MAC pros, with 16Gb would be unable to perform the software encoding necessary.

It's not about dollars, hoodwinking people, etc.  Whilst I can see why people may feel this way, all I can say is Welcome To Apple.   I've been using their products for a very long time.  I have never owned a Windows PC and in some cases I may have saved a lot of money by doing so.   I have an understanding of Apple (since Jobs return in 1996 anyway) and why they do things.   They've put the specifications up on their website - and that is all they have to do.  If they felt the user experience would be rubbish, they just won't support it.

Where I feel for you, however, is that I would be rightly miffed that you purcahsed a Mac Mini in 2011, and it's a 2010 model.  That's not a great outcome at all.

That's all I'll say on the matter further.   All I can say is that there are reasons for Apple not supporting older hardware, and that reason is the performance would be rubbish.  And for that reason alone not some conspiracy to rip people off or be evil.

Hi Everyone

1.

2. Airparrot although $10.00 dollars works just fine with apple TV and does fsar more than Air Play.

Please note airparrot is not available on the app store (surely no mistake.) Apple knew thev'e produces a crock and don't want the competition to make the new OSX pointless to anyone with a two year old mac.

3. (Tounge in cheek bit.) Why is it not reasonalbe for a company to expectd you to pay $20 for a new OS and then expect you to pay $1000 to $500 for a new machine come on get with the picture.

<Edited By Host>