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Joe914 Author

Level 1

5 points

Poor AirPlay mirroring performance

I have been struggling with this for several months now but I'm getting frustrated now.

My setup:

2011 Mac Mini - hardwired Ethernet

2011 MacBook Air

AirPort Extreme Router (2nd Gen Gigabit)

AppleTV (2G) 720p

AppleTV (3G) 1080p

New iPad

iPhone 4S

No matter which device I use the performance for AirPlay mirroring is crap. The picture quality is good but it skips / lags every 10-15 seconds.

I recently tried the mountain lion mirroring from my hardwired Mac mini and it still has the same problem.

I've tried apps like Hulu, Conan, slingbox, abc player...

I am operating on a b/g/n network but have temporarily tried the 5ghz N wireless and it does not fix the problem.

What's the problem here? Shouldn't apple's products all play nice together?

Since this is all local my Internet speed shouldn't matter but FYI my download speed was about 25Mbps

Is the new AirPort Extreme any faster or does it just do simultaneous networks?

MacPro, MacMini, MBA, iPad LTE-OTHER, iPhone 4s, ACD 30", Airport, ATVx2

Posted on Jul 28, 2012 6:37 PM

Best reply

Winston Churchill

Level 10

122,505 points

Posted on Jul 28, 2012 6:45 PM

Intermittent problems are often a result of interference. Interference can be caused by other networks in the neighbourhood or from household electrical items.

You can download and install iStumbler (NetStumbler for windows users) to help you see which channels are used by neighbouring networks so that you can avoid them, but iStumbler will not see household items.

Refer to your router manual for instructions on changing your wifi channel or adjusting your multicast rate.

There are other types of problems that can affect networks, but this is by far the most common, hence worth mentioning first. Networks that have inherent issues can be seen to work differently with different versions of the same software. You might also try moving the Apple TV away from other electrical equipment.

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21 replies

Apr 3, 2013 4:50 PM in response to miccheck

Similar situation here. I've an iMac 27" (2011) OS . The image on the Mac display is excellent but when using airplay mirroring through my latest version of Apple TV, I get horrible resolution on the HD TV (can't hardly read any text) and with movies or TV (Elgato Eye TV). Intermittenly there is much choppiness going on too. It is really unusable as it is right now.

It looks fine when Airplaying using my iPhone 5 or my iPad v2.

Any help would be appreciated.

greybruce

Apr 12, 2013 3:16 PM in response to Joe914

Make sure your computer has updated software! This happened to me!

jlfunder

Level 1

0 points

May 25, 2013 9:36 PM in response to Joe914

OK, I had the same thing. Tried all of the suggestions that Apple made. The most telling test was when I used the app 'beamer' which streams through the ATV and it was beautiful. This kind of belies the argument that the transfer rate is poor. It points clearly to an issue with Airplay Mirroring. When I restarted my MBA13 it fixed the nasty pixellation but seems to be temporary. There is an earlier discussion on this site in which lots of folks indicated that a restart will help. I reccommend downloading beamer. If it works then transfer, resolution, wifi etc. Is all working OK and the apple software is messing you up. Just restart and hope for an upgrade.

RBCGL

Level 1

5 points

Jun 20, 2013 8:16 AM in response to Joe914

Know what? I think this is a matter of processor speed. I have the same problem with my 3rd-gen ATV and Late-2011 13-inch MBPro (w. M. Lion). It works great with my iPad2 and iPhone4

btr4we

Level 1

0 points

Dec 8, 2013 10:36 AM in response to Joe914

This issue appears to still be ongoing. I bought an Apple TV 3rd gen for airplay. I have had lag/glitch problems with video ever since I got it 6 months ago. I have a decked 2012 iMac with the 2GB graphics card and previous gen TimeCapsule. Problem persists whether all three are wired Gig-E, all wireless, or any combination thereof. I am extremely disappointed that with $5k of apple hardware I can't play a video nicely.

May 5, 2014 2:58 PM in response to Joe914

I was having the same problem on my 2011 iMac. I updated it to Mavericks and it fixed the problem! Hope this helps

Poor AirPlay mirroring performance