Q: Mountain Lion: Airplay was the only feature i wanted!!!

What I don't understand is that the new version of iTunes accompanying Mountain Lion can stream a 1080p movie flawlessly on my late 2009 iMac, yet there's no Airplay option throughout most of the new ML operating system. My iMac is considered incompatible and can't mirror. So why it is that iTunes can stream so well and has that option? Could it be that Apple makes money streaming downloads in the iTunes store but doesn't make money if you want to stream and mirrow YouTube videos or other things?

David Mills

Huntington, WV

Funny I just posted a scathing post about how unhappy I am with Apple's false advertising regarding Apple TV mirroring and it surprisingly dissapeared after a few minutes. Now they're starting to cover their tracks? Well just to reiterate.... DON'T bother getting an Apple TV or the NEW OSX if you don't have a Mac book pro that's 2011 or later since apple tv mirroring won't work. Apple has suceeded in using misleading advertising techniques and using the fine print as a disclaimer to the above. I purchased an Apple TV and the new OSX mountian lion JUST for this mirroring feature and now what??? I want a refund!! that's all I can say... Apple can shove their products up their behinds because I will not be purchasing any more products from them. SAMSUNG here I COME!!!

Check out airparrot

So you know now that next time before embarking on an endeavor as major as upgrading an OS you should read the f... TechSpecs (and not just the ads) and carefully compare them with your system to avoid surprises.

Guess you work for Apple then Anna???

Then again... your argument does not refute my argument regarding Apple's misleading ads.

Shame on you Apple for leaving out late 2010 Mac Book Pro from compatibility with Airplay mirroring! I bought the Apple TV only last week for you guys to over look 2 year old computers! what is the use by date for your machines? this is getting out of hand!  I will be returning the apple TV back to Apple as it has already been bricked by your selective access to airplay…. and NO! apple I will not be buying a new Macbok pro just to use the feature, are you insane? I can't believe you thought we were going to upgrade because of that.

Despit all the media hype you would dare leave out the feature from 75% of existing computers?

BAD APPLE!

I have a mid 2010 iMac with only 4G of RAM memory. I didn't whine because I didn't read the system requirements for ML. It's a big boy world out there and you learn by living. Instead, I bucked up and spent the $10 for AirParrot. Works great with my AppleTV 3. Audio is spot on. If $20 or $30 bucks (including AirParrot) for an upgrade is going to cause you grief...maybe you shouldn't play with computers.

Yeah. Maybe Apple could've put the fine print up front in bold, flashing text...but we all know we should make sure we have the system requirements to handle the upgrades. Lesson learned.

Dude that's crap... I paid 2200 bucks for my hardware less then two years ago... Apple should support it. And a footnote on one random link is not sufficient notification. This would have never happened 10 years ago when Apple needed every last customer they could get. Apple has developed a bad habit of betraying its core (those who have caused it to thrive) over the past few years. Sadly, I don't think my words or any other words in this forum will evoke any chance. Apple has laid aside the principle (serve the customer) which made them so awesome and has instead given into greed.

I would be disappointed too, but the reason for limited hardware compatability is a real technical limitation.

Airplay requires on-GPU H.264 encoding, which older macs (even Mac Pros) do not have.

http://www.cultofmac.com/178460/the-real-reason-why-macs-before-2011-cant-use-ai rplay-mirroring-in-mountain-lion-feature/

I am sure that a company with Apple's resources COULD have made airplay work on older macs by changing the underlying technology. (See Airparrot) But any wireless mirroring technology without hardware encoding would have required software encoding, which would have consumed too much CPU on Mac portables. This is allowable on iTunes where the user is expected to focus on the screen and forgo multitasking. Maybe a Mac Pro would only need to sacrifice one of its cores to make it happen... But that's a discussion for another time.

Yeah, I read that artical too... Even if that's true (and it might not be) they could have been more upfront concerning the limitations. They knew this happened but the reality is they just don't care.

Yes I do agree that the footnote is too small. I think the disclaimer should have been given higher prominence.

daniellyle wrote:

 

Yeah, I read that artical too... Even if that's true (and it might not be) they could have been more upfront concerning the limitations. They knew this happened but the reality is they just don't care.

Ok then, so why does it still work while watching movies in 1080P off Itunes in my late 2009 MBP? Why also does it work using third party apps such as Airparrot, according to others who have posted here?

Seems like a misleading excuse to make ppl buy more of their hardware.

Airparrot admits that while their CPU encoding solution works, it taxes the system and uses a lot of CPU.

On my 2011 Macbook Pro, airplay mirroring does not tax my system and my CPU is free to process other things like the flash videos on hulu.com

Try paying a HD movie using iTunes airplay AND play a flash movie on Hulu on the older MBP units. I am not sure that would be a satisfying experience.

Airplay mirroring would be useless for me if Airplay ate up one of my two cores.

However I conceed that it should be enabled for Mac Pros that have 8 cores. Who cares if you lose 2 cores on those? You still have 6 left.

Apple you have been off the ball and letting custumers down alot recently. Seriously considering changing.

Apple is sadly starting to resemble the old man with the glasses from the 1984 commercial.