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 had the same problem with MacPro Retina - try this:
Launchpad
System Preferences
Displays
In "Display" tab, choose "optimize for Apple TV (Airplay)"
so i just download and installed beamer fixed everything. i find it funny that a third party softwar takes car of the issue. the app works great no issue crystal clear.
The Problem is simple,
Go to your Apple Tv
Setting
General
Bluetooth
Turn it Off
then start airplay and it will work perfectly no lag or freezing.
The Problem is simple,
Go to your Apple Tv
Setting
General
Bluetooth
Turn it Off
then start airplay and it will work perfectly no lag or freezing.
Had the same issue. This did the trick for me.
hello
switching off bluetooth on macbook pre retina 2013 didn't help
switching off bluetooth on apple tv 3 fixed the issue
hope it helps
thanks everyone for your input
SOLVED!!
Extend instead of mirror. This fixes the problem instantly. I have only just bought Apple TV (delivered today) and worried I was sending it straight back!
Hope this helps.
Benj
Did you try connecting the apple TV to the router via ethernet cable?
I don't really have an explanation as to why it works, but it did for me. The same solution was mentioned in one of the earlier posts as well.
There was some ppl said direct connect to router or cable modem w/ ethernet cable solved this issue..
When i saw that, i was like..
'R u nut? We all can use airplay perfectly w/o any issue on ipad or iphone even when its on wireless.. What's the point? You ppl.. Think!!'
And a few days ago.. I got another desktop in the living room where apple tv is at..
Then i wanted use faster internet on my desktop..
(Im using fios 75/35 mbps)
So i got new router(not that fancy one.. Just regular wiress-n router..) and put it right next to the desktop..
Then suddenly i wanted to try what ppl said here..
So i connected apple TV to the router.....
I can never understand why it is..
But.. Now my apple TV is flying w/ my macbook pro retina 15' (2.6 i7, 16GB)..
Did macbook break up w/ apple tv wireless or what?
Im not a professional person here..
So is there any possibility this happens?
Even tho my issue has been solved..
Im tooooo curious..
When ipad and iphone are working fine w/ apple tv on wireless network..
Macbook only works well on direct connection to the router..
FWIW, changing my Uverse router from wide to narrow wireless channel (I think the interface calls it the "bandwidth" setting) was exactly the fix needed. One of the tech articles linked earlier in this thread led me to check my router settings, and this changed things from annoying but usable to very solid. The wide setting is apparently more susceptible to interference, though I don't pretend to understand the details.
Yes DKJR I agree with you. I restart the router and my Mbookpro and the problem was fixed but , stil happens sometimes and I restart my Mbookpro and fix de problem. I imagine apple will fix this in the next OS update.
After a lot of reading and researching, I found a solution that worked for me. I had read that one could connect the PowerBook (laptop) to the Apple TV via an Ethernet cable, so I did.
Here is what you need to know:
It will work, but there is no DHCP server dishing out an IP address. So you have to configure the Apple TV IP manually:
With the Ethernet Cable connected from your computer to the ATV - Go to Apple TV Settings -- Network -- Manual: IP needs to be 192.168.000.001.
The Netmask needs to be 255.255.255.000 --- the rest just click done.. until you are out.
Also configure your computer IP address by going to System Preferences -- Network -- Click on Ethernet -- Configure IP Manually to 192.168.0.2 and the Netmask to 255.255.255.000 --- No DNS or router address is required.
You may leave the wireless ON - no need to shut it down.
Your airplay should stream perfectly now....
Once again, I hope Apple fixes this, but in the mean time... This works!
ZippingLou
I seem to have better results using VLC for vids when using airplay. The usual lags I get when playing videos using quicktime are virtually gone. I was experiencing the lag problems with my Macbook Air (2013)
I encounter the same problem.
My Macbook Pro is in good condition, all the updates are done on both the Apple TV and The Mac. The lag is not always there but it comes back eventually. iPad or iPhone don't pose any kind of lag. The lag is both audio and video. the only way I manage to get rid of it is reboot both devices (sometimes more than once) and it gets back to normal, sometimes for a number of days, some other times only minutes.
Furthermore, i encountered a similar problem with bluetooth speakers and headphones. the audio only lags occasionally, which has led me to think the origin of this problem might be from the Mac itself rather than the Apple TV. I hope they fix the issues soon and won't wait for the release of El Capitan to correct this.
I have the same problem.
- It lags (both video and audio) when I play downloaded media file on TV with airplay
- When I mirror it, the media plays fine on my PC screen but lags on TV (both video and audio)
- Tried both mirroring option as well as extended display option, they both lag the same way.
- I cannot even play youtube video from my mac when it's on airplay.
I am in Sweden and busy during weekdays (customer service only available on weekdays), so I called US customer service on my weekend here. I was on this INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR 2 HOURS AND NO ANSWERS FROM APPLE! I talked to both macbook and apple tv specialist.
They had me go through all the trouble shooting steps. I had to educate them that these trouble shooting steps would be irrelevant as this is a common issue that at least 180,000 users are suffering.
Connection is not a problem - I tried all the steps, turned off router, macbook pro, apple tv and turned them back again.
AirPlay from iPhone 6, iPhone 5s is fine - connection, communication between devices is not a problem
If you use 3rd party software called Beamer - it solves all problems - this software bridges the gap and plays the media file, which means apple tv is not a problem, macbook itself is not a problem. But this is not proper Apple way and you have to pay for it so I do not want to use this forever.
After 2 hours, the customer service agent tried to make me restore my apple tv and macbook pro. Is he crazy???
I hope this gets fixed soon.
10.9.1 had temporarily fixed this problem for me. After a couple of weeks the lag and pixelation issues returned.
Updating to 10.9.2 has fixed it again. Don't know if it will last.
When using airplay from mac to apple tv it lags/freezes, but works fine with iPhone
