When using airplay from mac to apple tv it lags/freezes, but works fine with iPhone

The problem is not with you AppleTV or your Mac. Your problem is the network. I had the same problem and finally solved it.

airplay makes screen mirroring, there is a lot more data to be sent from you mac than from your iPhone or iPad

-> airplay can be okay from the small monitor, but jumpy/lag from your mac->Network handles the smaller data sufficiently enough.

"five bars on my wifi" does not mean you get great signal strength.

-->press "alt"-key on your keyboard and then click on the WiFi symbol on your mac to get more data.

You want to look at "RSSI" and "Noise".

- RSSI (=received signal strength indication) can go from 0 to -100 (on apple). Closer to 0 is better, closer to -100 is worse. My RSSI is -54dBm meaning that the signal strength is 54dBm less powerful when it reaches my mac than when it left the base station. For WiFi normal range is from -45 to -87. Below -85 is more or less unusable (for example -90 is just horrible).

- Noise is a combination of all unwanted interfering signal sources (your wifi is not the only one in the neighbourhood, radio frequencies interference etc). this is valued form 0 to -120dBm. Closer to -120 is better(little to no ninterference), closer to 0 is worse. My Noise is -94dBm.

Calculate your SNR margin by doing the following:

SNR margin = RSSI(dBm) - Noise(dBm)

for example my RSSI is -54dBm and my Noise is -94dBm and thus

my SNR margin = -54dBm - (-94dBm)= +40 --> the higher the better.

SNR over 40 excellent, 25 to 40 good, 15 to 25 airplay probably will lag, under 15 is just horrible.

What can you do to get better SNR margin which means of course no lag/jumpy video on airplay form you mac to AppleTV.

1. You can use a router that has 5Ghz instead of "the normal 2.4GHz"

-5GHz is faster with a good signal, but 2,4GHz will go through walls better. A couple of walls(even thin walls) will kill 5GHz quickly, distance also kills it more quicker than a 2,4GHz. Most people use 2.4 GHz and the channels on 2.4GHz are more crowded.

2. You can use ethernet cables to connect either your mac or your apple tv to you router. Beware there are different ethernet cables though, I tried an old ethernet cable which i got in 2000, but boy did my internet connection (internet speed test) get worse readings than through WiFi.

3. You can buy a powerline adapters (sends your network to your power line)

What did I do?

a) My router is upstairs (I get internet from 4g antenna mounted on my outer wall). ->Airplay really bad (new AppleTV 3rd gen, new 27' iMac).

b) I bought a router that handles 2.4gHz and 5Ghz (TP-Link Archer C7, cheap & got lots of awards), connected it with a new ethernetcable to my upstairs router. Connected appleTV and iMac to the new router on the 5Ghz bandwidth. -> Airplay got better but still bad.

c) put my MacBook Pro into use, pressed "alt" key and then pressed the WiFI symbol on the top right corner, looked at my RSSI and Noise and noticed that next to my apple TV my SNR margin was a lot better than next to my iMac, so the problem was the WiFi connection between my iMac to router rather than between my router and appleTV.

d) Used a longer ethernet cable so that my Archer was upstairs above the room my iMac is in-> SNR margin got better-> airplay got better ->still not watchable enough.

e) bought power line adapters (didn't know they existed, didn't believe they were good, my brother recommended them, the shop offered a 30 days trial & return policy) (Netgear powerline AV500 (XAVB5401)). Now I get internet through 4g to my original upstairs router. Upstairs router to Netgear powerline via ethernetcable. Downstairs the internet comes from my power outlet via the second Netgear powerline through ethernet cable to my Archer C7 router. iMac and appleTv are connected to Archer-router via 5Ghz WiFi. ->Airplay works wonderfully with VLC,iDVD,Quicktime,iTunes, from a movie DVD connected to my iMac.

One could of course just use router to powerline via ethernet cable and then powerline to mac and another poweline to appleTv that would have been the neater solution.

You can also look what channels your neighbors use (press "alt"-key + click on WiFI symbol). there are some charts in the net that show what channels interfere , what channel should you put your router on.

An easy test should be to put your router, computer and Apple TV next to each others and try airplay (hey your router doesn't have to be connected to the internet to be able to do this), if that solves the lag, then your network is definately the problem (SNR margin remember?).

Hope this helped, i cursed that I didn't find an explanation like this, people just say "bad apple", "why doesn't apple fix this", "I have 5 bars on my Wifi so the network can not be my problem" "solved it by lowering my resolution (=less data to be send so they had almost enough of SNR margin, enough for low resolution(less data), not enough for higher resolution or something like that)! !

Click "this helped me" if this really helped, you so more people find this lengthy text easier ! !

okay so after spending a few hours on the phone with apple support because of my early 2011 mac book pro not working with my apple TV we came up with a solution. first we did a SMC reset on my computer:

1. You will shut down your computer by clicking on the Apple in the upper left corner and selecting Shut Down.
2. Make sure only your power adapter is plugged in.
3. Press all four of these buttons at one time (left side of keyboard: Shift, Control, Option (or Alt) and your power button)
4. Hold them all for 5 seconds then release them all together.

NOTE: Your computer will not boot during this process. If it has booted up at this point, the SMC reset has failed and you will need to shut down and start over with Step 1.

5. Press your power button and allow the computer to start up like normal.

then we did a PRAM reset on your computer:
1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys as soon as you press and release the power button.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.

Then we made sure i had up to date firmware on my macbook pro, my apple TV and my wireless router, those all checked out.

Then they had me do a reset of all of my devices (Apple TV, MacBook Pro, and Wireless router.)

Finally we were able to determine it was not the apple TV that was the issue and it probably was not the Mavericks software on my Macbook Pro either so the final step was to login to my wireless router using the IP address 192.168.1.1 and changed the 2.4GHz channel setting that my wireless router was broadcasting on (it was set as a default to "auto") (they suggested to use either channel 2 at 2.417GHZ, channel 6 at 2.437GHZ, channel 8 at 2.447GHZ, or channel 9 at 2.452GHZ)

i am not sure if these steps will be the solution for any of you out there but it seems to have worked in my case.

I'm so sorry I forgot to say that I also changed the resolution. I went to display preferences after I extended my desktop to Apple TV. Then I looked on my tv screen and changed the resolution from 720p to the one below it. Watching now and there is no lag.

Okey, here's what I found out this morning actually.

Watched a movie (with VLC over air mirroring - extended desktop) yesterday and it studdered pretty bad. Movie was 720p and my setup is AT3 and Macbook Air mid 2011.

My ATV3 is connected with wire.

My router (RT-N66U) supports both 2,4 and 5Ghz as any other modern router out there.

Simple solution (at least for my setup) was simply to hook up my Air to the 5Ghz Wifi, and all symptoms of studder went away,

Hope this is to any kind of help 🙂

I just bought an Apple TV today and was experiencing similar problems with Video mirroring from my Macbook Pro 2011. I am working on a 10.9.1 operating system with 2.3 GHz Inter core i5 and 4Gb of DDR3 memory.

When I set up the Apple TV, the image would freeze on my TV as soon as I activate airplay mirroring. What ever image was on my Macbook screen would apear on my TV and that would be it. There would be no more video mirroring. I could not see the mouse move, or any video playback, or any applications...Basically I would be stuck at the image that I had when I started mirroring.

The audio playback was normal throughout however. Even when the image was frozen the audio would work just fine.

When I set up the apple TV it was connected to my network wirelessly. I connected my Apple TV to my router via ethernet cable and that solved the problem.

Now, I have excellent video playback. I have excellent audio playback. I can stream videos from the internet on my computer and watch them on the TV via apple TV. I can access my itunes from my computer and listen to songs through my TV and there is no lag or missed frames.

My router does not support a 5G signal so I could not try that option, but it seems that the ethernet cable works great.

Quite a disappointment from apple, but at least there's a fix to the problem.

I just had the same issues- basically unusable. ATV2 would show an image of the desktop (MBP13R) maybe for a second- but nothing even close to functional. Sound worked ok. I have another guest network on my router (dualband?), which no other devices are using. So I switched to that on both the macbook pro and the apple tv and things are perfect... mirroring, everything works well. The guest network is slightly slower or on a different frequency, but I suppose there is less interference on it and that's why it works for this. I do have a nest, iphone, printer, ipod... all on the other network- so that makes sense to me. Hope that helps anyone out there.

Update - I went in to my NetGear N300 Wireless ADSL2 settings and changed the wireless channel settings from 'auto" to 6 (1 to 11 was my options) and the airplay streaming from my iMac to my AppleTV works fine now. It took 3 minutes to do. Wish I would have tried that earlier.

I had the same problem as many of you here, video was lagging like crazy (looked like one frame per second) and audio was horrible as well. BUT my iPhone worked fine streaming.

I read this whole thread, tried EVERY fix, one by one and when I did I turned off AirPlay Display, tried a new fix and then turned it on. Just to mention a few things, I tried: updating Apple TV, the routers firmware, (had already the latest updates for my macbook pro), tried turning off bluetooth, tried using 5GHz as well as 2,4GHz radio, restarted all my units one by one, etc etc. The last thing I tried worked and now I am a happy camper again!

Solution: I logged into my router (ASUS RT-N660U) and turned off WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia), ironically it worked...

Relevant specs:

Macbook Pro Retina Mid 2012, Yosemite 10.10

Apple TV 3rd rev A (connected wirelessly to my router)

ASUS RT-N660U

Thought I would update that I solved my issue with lagging video on rMBP,

After Apple agent recommend reinstalling Mavericks, there was unfortunately no change with lagging video output,

she then recommend a complete system wipe and reinstalling Mavericks fresh from reformatted drive,

this was not an option with my work commitments and having to reauthorize numerous software license nightmare....

So last effort was to call ATT Uverse and request an upgrade on my old router (2 Wire Gateway 3600 HGV) which just operated in G band.

They agreed since it was 4 years old and installed a Motorola NVG589 which works in the N band,

Bingo!!!

Lagging video gone from rMBP, Airplay working perfectly now,

I guess since the local network speeds have been considerably improved with this new router -

I only have the Elite package which gives me download speeds of 7MB

May bump that for better quality Netflix but am happy its all working now.

Hope this helps someone.

I had the same issue too - disabling the Apple Wireless Direct Link interface (awdl0) seemed to help at least.

You need to open up terminal to disable it, so type terminal into spotlight and hit the top hit, or locate it through finder, it's in Applications/Utilities.

Type sudo ifconfig awdl0 down into the console, then hit enter/return, type in your password (if prompted) and hit enter/return.

This works for the current session, so you'll need to repeat this every time restart/power down but pressing the up key in terminal will show last used command.

You could also try using Extend Desktop instead of Mirror Built-In Display in the AirPlay Menu, this also reduced lag for me.

Hi Daniel, last part of your solution worked for me, but in a bit different way:

I've changed "Region" setting (Wireless->Wireless Settings via router's web interface) in my TP-Link TL-WR941ND router to "United States" (however I live in Europe), accepted message that I might be violating local law 😟 and it worked!

I guess this is related to different frequencies used in the US than in Europe (mentioned by you). This router works in 2.4 GHz frequency.

I've also changed Channel Width to 20 MHz.

Hope this helps.

Maciej.

UpDate to my Post 2 days ago:

I actually APOLOGIZE to Apple for claiming that my above issue was theres... It wasn't.. The problem was that my XFINITY Cable Modem that must have done an update and changed something in its NETWORK Settings.. The fix for my AIRPLAY Problem was to RESET My Xfinity Modem to defaults, then LogIn to the Firmware and change the MODEM to BRIDGE MODE.. Evidently I had a "DOUBLE NAT and Dualling DHCP Servers" going on.. What I figured out is: If you have your own WIFI ROUTER other than your ISP provided one, then one of them needs DHCP/NAT turned off and the other needs to be in BRIDGE MODE. I turned my Cable Modem to Bridge Mode and set my Apple Airport Extreme to Issue the DHCP with NAT.. I first Reset all Hardware Items to FACTORY DEFAULTS just to make sure.. After performing all the above steps it was a BREEZE to reconnect all ITEMS.. I now have 6 (six) airplay devices and they work flawless AGAIN... Thanks APPLE, sorry for the previous negative post.. Mike

I Have found my Problem and its solved. I hope this can possible work to solve your issues too.. I found that my MacBook WIFI Card had interference issues with a 2.4ghz WiFi Camera that was installed with my VIVINT home Swcuriry system. I started using my 5ghz WiFi in my AirPort Extreme and logged my MacBook onto it and my problem stopped immediately!!! It also stopped when Inunplugged the Cameras. Hope this helps everyone. Good Luck.

MIke.

i had the same issue, found this solution in a chat. it works perfectly for me.

hi The problem have been sorted for me i tried ol the option and this one worked for me 1.Go to settings menu on atv 2.scroll down to Audio video 3.scroll down to Tv resolution and change it from auto to ur tv mine one was selected to 1080HD-60 Hz works perfectly fine for me with no lag 2013 macbook pro 15 retina with yosemite hope this solves for you

Same issue here. I have:
Apple Tv 3

Macbook Pro Retina, Yosemite 10.10.3, i7 2,3Ghz, 16GB DDR3, Nvidia GT 750M
Asus AC68U
(so it should obviously work flawless)

First i tried with all wireless, no hope.

Wired the apple tv, no hope, actually made it worse.

This worked for me:

* Making a guest network and connecting macbook to that, kept te apple tv wired.

This changed everything. So no question that there are some interference issues with wireless settings. I guess the guest network runs on a different channel (main wireless is set to auto). Also that it probably only uses 2.4Ghz and not both/5Ghz.

I still wasn't completely happy, I felt it dropped some frames here and there, so I changed the apple tv hdmi output to 720p to make the bitstream smaller, which made it "perfect" (considering we live in 2015 it's absolute garbage).