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 ! !
I have been struggling as well, especially in the lagging bit. After asking and reading many questions as well as answers all I did was change the channel of WiFi to an unpopular one and it worked. Apparently when you install your router, it sets itself to a default number. Now usually everyone once they get a new router they install it without looking for any open channels or at least one that is not popular. Once I have done this it solved my problems, YES I simply tell you that it is possible but all it does require is a little bit of investigation on your side. All the tools are available for you and the research can be done by you.
Simply do the following (on a MAC of course):
1. Click on the "Spotlight Search'
2. Search for 'Wireless Diagnostics'
3. A new window will popup with an Introduction, which you can ignore since the application is what you need
4. Go to the menu and click on 'Window' and then click on 'Scan'
5. If the window pop's up and it's not populated with information, simply click on the 'Scan Now' button on the lower right corner
Here after completing the steps above you will find a window that includes a summary of your surrounding area's reachable WiFi routers (including of course the channels) that can benefit your research. Not that what I was hiding matters but thought it would be for the better.
Now lets look on the left side of the screen and you will find in the bottom two lines what is the best for you. In my case I need to look in the 2.4 GHz Band and says 6 or 4. You can follow their recommendations or you can go for your own by looking on the right side of the window and look at other routers have their channels on. As shown below none of the other routers are on channel 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 running on Band 2.4 GHz. I can use any of the open ones and settle with for now. Next step would be updating your channel in your router. It should be in your wireless settings and I leave that for you since there are different routers out there with different settings. But to make your life easier is simply go to the Wireless settings on your router and you should find an option with the Channel next to a pull down menu where you get to select your chosen channel.
Once I completed this, I found this working better than OK and tested running a movie on VLC (a video media player) and seemed way better than before. The only problem I found is that when I run streaming channel for example watching a soccer game it was not fully smooth but it was OK. But watching a movie on a media player was good or even watching a soccer game that running from a file and not from a streaming site worked smoothly. I guess the streaming problem still presides on any PC/Mac device but if it was from a mobile device seems to work better. But so far yet to test a stream game on a faster router if it would solve the issue, that is yet to test.
Hope this helps and lifts your spirit in using your Apple TV with your mac.
Cheers
Karim
I switched to wired ethernet on the AppleTV and it is much better (not perfect, though). The wireless in the AppleTV is slow. Even 1 foot away from my AccessPoint it connected at 56mbps. I have a feeling that the video sent through the iDevices is not true 720P so they stream fine.
Same problem as most everyone else here, but I have found a possible answer / workaround.
Problem: Laggy / stuttering performance when using Airplay Display from a MacBook Pro, most noticeable with video playback, but I've seen this in slideshows of pics from iPhoto as well. Airplay works fine over iPad and iPhone on the same network.
Answer / Workaround: First off, I'm sorry this "answer" will NOT help most of you, because it seems the problem occurs with certain routers and/or router configs. Here's how I found a workaround: My AppleTV is connected to a stock CISCO Linksys N UltraRangePlus router. When I start AirplayDisplay when connected through this router, I have the same problem as everyone else. However I have a second router - a CISCO Linksys e2500 router that I've flashed with DD-WRT (an open source router firmware replacement) so that it could serve as a wireless bridge (a wireless bridge is a way to extend a wireless signal). When I connect to my network through this second router, the problem goes away. Video plays with no lag from the MBP.
What's this mean for you? The simplest test is to try to borrow a spare wireless router from a friend, relative or colleague and try it in your network. If it works, there you go. If you're comfortable poking around your router settings, there may be some setting that's causing the problem - tho I have no guess as to what it might be. A final option is to install DD-WRT if your router supports it, however this final option is not for the faint of heart. It took me two solid, half days to research DD-WRT and flash my router. You can brick your router, making it completely useless. If you don't have the time or technical prowess, do not attempt.
Of course Apple should try to fix this problem and I hope Airplay Display will work on all routers equally well (like it did pre-Mavericks), but if you want results now, you'll have to take matters into your own hands.
I Solved 🙂
In my case the problem was related to the wi-fi modem router speed. I changed my modem with a new one and now it works correctly. It seems that the problem was related to the type of wi-fi connection, now i have a modem with a wi-fi with "802.11n" connection type.
I hope this can be helpfull in order to solve the problem also in your case. Please note that in order to use the type "802.11n" connection all the devices connected to the modem have to be complied with this kind of protocol connection (old devices could be not complied).
HI all
I've just recently bought an apple tv 3rd gen and 2013 macbook pro non retina, i had a lot of issues too with lagging between my macbook and apple tv through airplay, i have a new wireless N router, but i have found a solution that works for me.
when i put airplay on i always match screen size to apple tv, lagging would occur, i was playing around and set res. to inbuilt display and i haven't had a a single lag issue since, try it out see if it works. working perfectly for me
i also had this issue and made a post with suggestions on on few things that can be done to make your apple T.V. with your macbook pro, but today i came across a web site that had a good point stating that the apple T.V. wasn't the culprit but it was the wireless router settings. check out his site and it might be a solution to your problems
http://gieselman.me/airplay-mirroring-drops-network-apple-tv-cisco-e4200/
i followed this persons instructions and now my apple T.V is working flawlessly come to find out it was not my apple T.V. it was a setting in my Cisco wireless router settings.
I had the same issue since a couple of days, even with Netflix!
Sound stopped every 5 minutes, movies were freezing without any possibility to look further while the files worked fine on my laptop.
All of this and the fact that Netflix did the same thing made it clear the problem came from the Apple TV, I went on a search in the preferences, found nothing that could rely to the problem and then I saw "restart" at the end of the "general" list, so I tried that.
Everything works fine now, streaming without problems, Netflix without problems!
My thought was that the Apple TV always goes to "sleep" but never restarts and if we have problems with a computer or laptop we can mostly resolve them by restarting, I thought right! 😀
I really hope this works for everyone!
***Using Macbook unibody mid 2009 installed with Mavericks and Apple TV 2***
I can't believe that this problem has something related to my hardware or my network. I have an early 2013 mac book pro retina, an iPad, Apple TV and my router is a 3TB time capsule.. The lag is tremendous.. But, if i use an app like beamer, the mirroring flows perfectly.. Unless the Beamer app has the power to change all my router and hardware configuration, its very clear to me that the problem it`s between the mac and the apple tv..
I just tried mirroring and extending desktop to ATV with my brand new MacBook Pro (NVDIA version) and tried playing several video files through VLC. No matter what type - mp4, mkv, mov, nothing worked smoothly. I was never able to do this with old MacBook Pro either, but stumbled across third party software that allowed me to stream movie files to ATV without many hiccups. Good news - still works with new MBP. So far, anything but video works with mirroring/extending to ATV. Do yourself a favor and get Beamer - http://beamer-app.com. It's not free, but so worth the money.
Turn off the bluetooth!
I have the same problem. I have everything updated and if I turn off the Mac's bluetooth, the lag goes away and it works perfectly in both mirror mode and extended mode.
Specs:
Yosemite 10.10.2
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Apple TV3
I had the same problem and solved it by turning off bluetooth and all bit torrent applications. Turning off bluetooth is the most important part since I am using the wireless keyboard and trackpad, it consumes a lot of traffic.
Credit for this tutorial on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH5FDtV87GA
Finally figured it out: just unplug the ethernet cable from you AppleTV.
As soon as I connected my AppleTV to my network through wifi, mirroring my Mac became smooth. Who'd have thought?!
Hope this trick works out for everyone else.
Good luck.
AppleTV 3rd Gen
MBPr 13" Mid 2014
I had issues too.
The only way to solve this issue is buying newer hardware
This is the configuration that works for me:
I believe the modem is not that important but I upgraded to this one
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MA5U1FW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_deta ilpage_o02_s00
And I bought the Apple Airport Express:
https://www.apple.com/airport-express/
I used VLC to see a 720p movie and no Lag. My macbook is a Retina Display late 2013. Apple TV is wire connected to the Airport.
Everybody was recommending upgrading the router. I had this one before and I was getting lag,
So I would say not all the routers do the job.
Had this problem. Interestly, but I solved this by going from ethernet connection to wifi. Looks like I have 100mbit on cable and 300mbit on wifi. Router - tplink 941. Looks like 90% of lags - network speed issue.
I had the same problem. I closed Parallels Desktop 8 and everything works beautifully.
When using airplay from mac to apple tv it lags/freezes, but works fine with iPhone
