Ive recently bought a apple tv 3rd generation. Everything seems to be working fine with airplay from my iphone to apple tv, but when I try and use airplay from my mac book pro, it is extremely slow, and if I try and stream a movie or something its that terrible it is unwatchable and usually freezes then stops. How can I resolve this problem? is this a problem with the apple tv?
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 ! !
Same happens here.
iPhone 5S air playing very smooth, but when I try the same thing / video with my Macbook Air it lags a lot and pixelation can be seen.
The only thing that frustaste me on Apple is the lack of information on these situations. It really seems an update problem.
This is unbelievalbe. A $150 iPod Touch works better than a $3,000 MacBook Pro Retina Display. All the talk about hooking up an ethernet cable to skip wireless, etc. etc. Why does it work the way it's supposed to with a cheap piece of crap iPod Touch, but the most expensive MacBook Pro is completely useless.
The best part - it works like clockwork. We have 4 iPod Touches in the house (kids), and they ALL work correctly consistently. AND we have MacBook Pro Retina, MacBook Air and another MacBook Pro in the house...ALL of which work like crap. At least Apple is CONSISTENT!
I've tried all the settings and tricks and streaming is complete crap with MBP...so, alas, I'm stuck with using this great new Apple TV technology exclusively from a crappy iPod Touch. Unbelievable.
2012 MacBook Pro 13 and atv 2nd. Have the same problem. Work's OK with iPhone and iPad. It works until today then , I don't know what happen . Already look for any problem on the router or atv. Everything seems working well as I can mirror with my two other devices.
It's been months and still no fix to this?
My friends are making fun of me with me when I'm down on 4 with my $3200 Macbook Pro in my hand, connecting it to tv HDMI when the Apple TV freezez again in the middle of the show.
Come on, that should not be the way....
Dear Apple.
This should be embarrassing to you and for you.
This is a known issue for years, and your only response is sending a generic canned email response at the beginning of this thread. That's insulting to us, the customer.
You have a suite of products and clearly is the reason you remain in business. Yet you don't bother fixing a major gap in your system?
My family enjoys watching movies, netflix, tvshows, etc., and base our family entertainment around this product when we have family nights, and I know we can't be the only ones. Doesn't that mean anything to you?
Just to chime in - another user with identical problems - macbook air, latest everything, atv, latest everything, streaming from my iphone works perfectly, from the macbook it's terrible. Shameful that this it not fixed or even a workaround identified by the vendor.
Hello,
I have the same issue here since I got the latest Apple TV and the latest Macbook Pro Retina Display 2.8ghz i7 16GB of RAM, which is about 6 months ago now. I still don't have a solution. Anyone?
Same issue here. Macbook Air and current generation Apple TV. Insanely frustrating. As soon as I attempt to connect from my laptop, the setup takes a while to recognize, then music plays but skips every other second. So basically unusable.
The mirroring is also unusable as the frames on the screen take an excutiating long time to update. Couple fames every 30 seconds or so.
It gets better. After attempting to play for a while the whole connection just bombs. I have to reset all devices and my home router to even get the internet working again, which is like a 10 minute process. The whole mess gets worse and worse and I almost don't even attempt it anymore because I risk wasting about 30 min of my time when it's not working. Which is pretty much all the time.
This used to work but as soon as the mirroring started the problems did as well. It's a total joke and the whole idea of owning all apple products is so they work seamlessly together, but they don't! You need to Fieeeeyyyyyyxxxxixxx-it!
New member in the ATV club. I have tried everything on this forum from page 1 with no luck: wires, resolution, airport channels, etc..etc.
Seems there is a software problem with our MACs and not a hardware one because this is working 100% without any lags: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IhvNIFEn04
having lag issues too. I have the latest Apple TV and Macbook Pro Retina 15' late 2013 Highest spec. My father's iPhone 5S seems to be running smooth, but my Mac lags. FPS is like 25 instead of closer to 30-60fps.... It also freezes every couple of seconds. I'm on Yosemite btw..
Same issue here. Doesn't do what it says it does on the box. iPad mirroring works superbly, but my brand new 2014 Macbook Air freezes every 5 seconds when mirroring. I bought the Apple TV in order NOT to rely on cables, so when the Apple "genius" told me to try connecting the Apple TV by ethernet I was laughing my face off. Talk about not understanding your customer's reasons for purchasing the product in the first place. I guess I'll return it back to the store.
You would think that the Mac is more powerful than the iPhone that it would be smooth, but it's not. My father has an iPhone 6 and it runs really smooth, but on my 5 and my Mac is stutters and sometimes shows artifacts.
I have the same issue, I just got a Mac Book Pro, and I have a Airport Extreme, my Internet is 25 mbp, with the Airport Extreme the speed is between 25 and 30 all the time..but when I do the Airplay from my Mac to the Apple tv 3rd generation the video lags or freezes....all devices are up to today. (Mac, Apple TV, Airport Extreme
APPLE PLEASE REVIEW THE ISSUE AND ADVISE, no issues with my new Iphone 5, no issues with my Ipod......
Apple, more than a year has passed and you have yet to offer a solution to this issue.
You are letting down your loyal customers by not resolving this problem.
What use is Apple TV to us if we cannot airplay from our Laptops? Think about it, Apple. Do not force us to find an alternative to Apple TV...
Please fix this problem now - we should not have to go out of our ways to figure it out for you. You need to deliver a working device in all fronts. That's why we pay premium prices - so they "just work."
This is ridiculous!
(Yes, I read the whole thread and all the possible solutions - there like 10 different solutions - not all work for everybody. Apple needs to just make it work for us - period!
I have the same problem.
Recently bought an ATV 3 because I got bored with all the wire connecting with my macbook, then discovered it doesn't even support AirPlay. So, I went out and got myself a new Macbook Pro Retina because there were too many compatibility issues with other apple products and my 2008 Macbook (even after upgrading to Snow Leopard).
I am just amazed at how iPhone 5 does better when in AirPlay mode than the Retina which is much more powerful.
I am really ****** off at Apple at the moment, I literally spent more than half of my paycheck for this.
When using airplay from mac to apple tv it lags/freezes, but works fine with iPhone
