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

Well I don't BUILD COMPUTERS for a living, but I do know you can often buy or update hardware chipsets in Windows based models.  That isn't an option with my Mac.  I'll just have to buy a new computer to have the new "chipsets".  I asked on the helpline number about that too.

I'm not an IT nerd and don't pretend to be but I do spend about 6 hours a day on the computer and I'm always looking for a better but EASY mousetrap.  I don't want to have to jury-rig something for it to work.  The one time I tried that with Fire Core because I really wanted to stream from my Mac to my ATV, at the very least, I got burned.

If I keep hearing more good than bad about Air Parrot I may give it a try since it looks like it's only $10.  That doesn't sting as much as a $30 product that doesn't work, which had good reviews on CNET one week.  Boy were they wrong on that one!

Apologies, you've misunderstood. I didn't ditch all my apple gear because of one feature - it's just that Apple are clearly moving to a more consumer market than professional. When you rely on a computer as a professional tool, support and stability mean a lot. In this instance I felt that because of Apples market shift it was unwise for me to stick to Apple hardware. The lack of AirPlay support was a clear indicator of how their future hardware will be supported. I'm not a child, just someone with a business to run.

No, you are incorrect, you cannot update the chipsets in Windows-based models. It is not an option.

I would never opt for something that requires you to jailbreak your Apple TV as that is not a trivial process. I don't know why someone who does not know very much about computers would choose to go that route. I have used AirParrot and it is OK with some caveats, like you need a good amount of memory on your iMac and a good router and all devices need to be connected with the 802.11n standard.

I share your concerns about Apple moving away from professional to consumer only. I'm still waiting to see what they do with the MacPro although someone else I know here would explain to both of us that you can use a MacMini server and a Thunderbolt raid and do the same thing. And if you have not looked into Thunderbolt, and you have a business to run, you really should do so.

I don't see AirPlay mirroring as being a business feature, to me it is more of a consumer toy. Even though I have it on my MacBook Pro (I have the Quicksync chipset) I rarely use it. For a second monitor I need the wired speed and resolution.

I would disagree with the business side of Airplay. I work at a technology company and we use AppleTV on our big screen in the conference room and on our smart boards in the class room. We use it for training and presentations but all of use have i7 MacBook Pros so that's the twist. We also use it with our iPads too.

You'll need to update to a computer with the Quicksync chipset to AirPlay to those (and beware there are still Windows PCs available not using that chipset) but I would think the smartboard company would have somthing you could run on your computer that would allow streaming to the smartboard. Your i7 can stream using AirPlay, it just can't mirror.

I too am intrigued to see what comes of the Mac Pro, it's getting a little old now and is in dire need of a refresh, if they do bring out a Mac Pro fully rigged up with E5 Xeons I may get one for personal use.

Funny you should mention Thunderbolt, it's actually something that I'm a big fan of, when Apple first brought Thunderbolt to their MacBook Pro line I purchased one with a Peagasus RAID and it was astonishing! With all 4 discs is RAID 5 I could nearly pull down 450Mb/s (I know a fair few SSDs can better that, but this is 8TB worth of storage we're talking about here). The ability to "daisy chain" is also appealing.

The problem is that PCs are starting to offer Thunderbolt interfaces (it is an Intel Technology afterall) and I'm getting very much the same speed.

To be honest I must admit that I am now a little bias towards PCs now; as much as I love the design and build of Apple devices I was slowly becoming more and more frustrated with their Software changes. Don't get me wrong I loved and still do love OS X (even if it's enterprise networking leaves something to be desired). Once Final Cut Pro X was introduced I felt it was a massive step forward compared to Final Cut Pro 7 , but after a few weeks of trying to get on with it, I simply couldn't get done what I used to with ease. Therefore I moved over to Adobe solutions, which I admit are not as polished, but work just as well. From that point I struggled to justify using Macs any longer. I now have 2 full workstations, complete with workstation grade Quadro 4000 Graphics cards to take advantage of Adobe's CUDA support, a full 48TB NAS as a backup solution and money to spare, compared to our older Mac Pro and Xserve solution (the demise of Xserve also played a large part in the decision to part ways with Apple).

It's a real shame, I truly did love the things.

I'm also with camshaft869 on this, I'm a big fan of using AirPlay to showcase content.

Sorry for the essay!

Can you point me to a PC offering Thunderbolt? I have a friend looking for one and neither of us have been able to locate one. I also was beginning to fear Thunderbolt would remain a Mac feature (yes it is Intel but was developed with Apple engineers).

Speaking of moving towards only consumers, have you played with Windows 8 yet?

We use the smart board projectors as a second viewing device. When we use the smart board for what it was designed then, yes we use the software provided from the hardware company. In short, we use the Apple devices with no addons. We can Airplay to anything that is hooked up to a ATV no matter where we are in the building because they are all on the same network. It works awesome but we did our research first before the investment.

No problem at all! (Apologies you are correct, it was indeed co-developed with Apple).

I've used a couple, if you're looking for laptops the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge S430 has Thunderbolt on it.

It's build doesn't hold a candle to that of a MacBook Pro, but it does have that fanstatic interface.

If you're looking at desktops motherboards have begun cropping up with Thunderbolt on, my personal machine has the following board: Z77X-UP4 TH. It has two ThunderBolt ports and is so far proving to live up to expectations.

Ha! Funny you should mention Windows 8, I must say the Client OS has raised by eyebrows somewhat, however so far I am convinced by Windows Server 2012, I have a machine running 7 HyperV Boxes and it's doing a grand job so far, however we shall have to wait and see!

Thanks, I'll pass the Lenovo on to him (the last lap top I had a work before I retired was an IBM Thinkpad pre-sale to China. It was used up until last year to program lightbars). I think he is looking at a desktop so I may have to build him one.

I'm glad I could help. Rumour has it that ThunderBolt is also supposed to be coming to the T4xx and T5xx line of ThinkPads. Can't find any references to that on the Lenovo site yet though.

Why is Apple doing this? It is possible to stream movies & music using airplay to iPad, iPod, Apple TV etc. I would have thought streaming pictures would be a no brainer - certainly possible using the same technology. Now they distinguish between Airplay & Airplay mirroring. This is a lot of crap. Not everyone wants to mirror whats on their Mac screens, but the ability to show off pictures stored on a Mac on an iPad or on an Apple TV is certainly one of the reasons why many of us bought into the Apple hype. I've been a committed user of Apple products for so many years, I can't even count them anymore. I've always been pleasantly surprised by their computers, iPhone, iPad. This time with Mountain Lion and the crazy (stupid) decisions being made about user interface, about features etc is turning me off. I have been so disappointed with the dumbing down of features, the removal of standard things in Snow Leopard, this thing with Airplay and so many other things that simply annoy me. I don't see any of these as enhancements to the user experience. They are just stupid, head-in-the cloud decisions made by Apple and this is going to hurt them in the market.

My iMac is just around 2 years old. It was an expensive investment as it was almost as fully featured as possible. I have no plans and I am not about to spend that amount on another Mac in such a short time. I don't have a problem with new models with faster processors, more memory/storage, better screens etc. It's natural product development given that technology improves all the time. But when it comes to removing features that we all rely on, that is pure stupidity.

Come on Apple, listen to your customers. We made you what you are today. Without us spreading the word you are nothing!

FYI, I own 2 x iMacs, 1 MB Pro, Macintosh IIsi, innumerable iPods, 2 iPads, and original Apple II and even a Newton. I was a committed fan. Now I am in a difficult position. I am certainly not telling everyone around the great user experience I came to expect. Prove me wrong and I will spread the word again.

One point of clarification - I am referring to home sharing (airplay) streaming of photos in iPhoto or Aperture on my Mac to the iPad. I know this works on Apple TV. It irks me that something so simple is left out, or is this only a feature of the iPad 3 & 4? I own the iPad 2!

My comments on Mountain Lion usability stands. For example, the new scroll bars are always a hit and miss. I just simply turn on the old way of scrolling - lucky for me they left it in.

Your sentiments on your iMac is exactly what I've been talking about.  Not the people who didn't read all the caveats before buying Mountain Lion.  I didn't buy it because of its limitations. 

I bought my 27" iMac on sale just THIRTEEN MONTHS AGO. It was still $1500 on sale as I got the most features that were available on the mid-2010 model. (why do they say mid? There's only one 2010 model...I just looked at a memory upgrade redirect to confirm that when clicking on the apple and "about this Mac" and "more info"). That's a lot of money to be obselete 13 months after I bought it! The 2011 model had just come out which was why it was on sale, but there was no mention of the fact that it wouldn't be able to have Air Play Mirroring in the future.  I upgraded to Lion with no problem, and didn't forsee Mountain Lion being an issue in a computer that was purchased less than a year ago when Mountain Lion was introduced.

I can see a $500 laptop not being equipped to handle the upgrade and the investment is not so great in that situation.  You can afford to buy completely new equipment more often if you're buying something cheap.  But you expect when you're paying more for an Apple Product you'll get more longevity out of it and be able to purchase upgrades, if desired, with full functionality, as they become available.

The tech geeks on the site who probably make a living off new purchases based on new "chipsets", etc., they might've helped design obviously have no sympathy for us. They are like "stop whining and buy a new one".

But if Apple wants the middle class consumer to expand and grow their base, they are going to find that consumer is not the tech geek who "has to have the fastest, newest..." .  I DO expect to be able to purchase upgrades 13 months after I spent a good chunk of change.  Apple will fail in maintaining growth of that consumer base if they disillusion them so quickly before loyalty is developed. 

It's a shame because I wouldn't mind spending $600-$800 to purchase the necessary hardware to have 2011 capabilities.  But I will  not be forced into buying a totally new computer after just 13 months!

If this is not addressed I will leave Apple entirely.