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 ! !
Stumbled on this thread thought I'd add my two cents... Admittedly I haven't read all of the posts so if this is a repeat I'm sorry. I have a late 2013 MBP and have had the same problem my solution (not perfect but very usable) when mirroring...select "use as separate display" and run safari from the second screen...also select output device "internal speakers" from the sounds menu... i'm not sure but I think it has to do with the resolution of my tv and the MBP. I can watch anything from safari with reasonable quality and no sound lag. Hope It works for others too.
I had not so much a lag, but more of a stutter problem. Anyway, this solved it for me: https://www.quora.com/Apple-TV-third-generation-How-can-I-prevent-stutter-lag-wh en-using-AirPlay-mirroring
Hope it helps!
Same here... And I can definitely rule out some of those other factors (network interference, bandwidth, etc.). I come from a strong IT/networking background, my setup is ideal, and none of that in any way mitigates the issue.
I submitted this to their request form:
I try to use AirPlay to mirror my MBPr to my TV and it is a terrible experience. Any video playback is very choppy and laggy. This falls very short of Apple TV supposedly being a key component to the "Apple Ecosystem."
On the other hand, my iPhone 6 always performs AirPlay flawlessly. It seems like there is a big difference in the technical resources consumed to deliver video playback between the two different types of AirPlay. I wish OSX had something as reliable as iOS AirPlay.
My network is using a dedicated Xfinity modem set in bridge mode, leaving all routing to be managed by my Apple Time Capsule 3TB. I have no neighboring network interference, no environmental interference. The Apple TV is hard wired to the Time Capsule. My MBPr and iPhone use the Time Capsule's 5ghz frequency
I think Riis is on point:
I am in no way qualified to answer way the iphone gives better performance when it comes to mirroring with airplay, but I think it must be because of the different way the two platforms use airplay.
The iphone uses quicktime and streams "just" the video of your choice and does make a mirror of the iphone in the same sense.
The macbook makes a direct mirror onto the tv of everything on the macbooks screen. This might require a lot more from the computer compared to the iphone. Because the macbook is of course on all parameters much more powerful than the iphone.
It would be nice if Apple were able to make the macbook use airplay in the same, what seems to be a more efficient way, as the Iphone.
I have two routers hooked up. A Netgear N300 Wireless ADSL2 and a Belkin G. AirPlay from my iMac skips when connected to the Netgear but plays beautifully when connected to the Belkin.
indeed this worked for me as well
after that I switched to the 5ghz wifi and now even the mirror mode without extended screen works super smooth.
Tri an app Beamer. No turning off BT, no annoying changes of resolution. Works perfectly for me. Just drag and drop video and here you go.
If turning off your bluetooth doesn't work, try the beamer app:
Turning off VMware seemed to do the same for me.
Andrew
Ch3fy is right.
Apple, I'm afraid to say this little Beamerapp does the job pretty well.
Everything is working fine, I can now stream full HD movies to my AppleTV.
Seriously, what are you waiting for ?
Excellent man... that was the issue... the bluetooth...! I turned off the bluetooth as you said and the lag disappeared... thx
They aren't that powerful in the mac book air but I take your point.
I just think they would stand a much better chance if it worked like it does on the iPad i.e close the main screen and just use all the GPU to display the picture on the Apple TV. Can't see why you'd even need the display on both screens anyway as the resolution can only match one of the screens so it's not optimal.
Even in the mac book pros the GPUs are optimised for gaming and are not pro level cards. Also consider that these are all laptop class components not desktop and they are never as powerful as their desktop counterparts as used in pcs.
When it worked perfectly on my iPad air I just assumed it was down to the mirroring and I'm still not convinced it isn't. It stands to reason that if the main laptop screen was blacked out during airplay it would stand a better chance.
I just want to give a bit of an update for all of you. I was able to fix my airplay issues, but I also began to notice my internet through my Mac was giving problems while airplay mirroring. I have a defected wifi/bluetooth card inside my Mac and have to ship it in for repair. Wish me luck!
I recently bought a MacBook Pro in June (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) which supports the latest wi-fi standard (802.11ac or Wireless AC). I also just happen to have an ASUS RT-AC66U router that I bought earlier this year which is 2.4GHz/5GHz dual-band supporting 802.11ac. So for the MacBook Pro, it's practically like having gigabit Ethernet OVER THE AIR. It's wonderful....yet AirPlay mirroring STILL stutters to my AppleTV (3rd generation). The ATV is up-to-date and is hard-wired directly into the router, and sits in the same room with me. There are other wi-fi networks around me, but none of them are 802.11ac wireless. Most of them are Wireless N or G.
So when I purchased this MacBook Pro it came with OS X 10.10.3 installed. I still had stuttering issues over AirPlay until I read someplace that turning off Bluetooth should fix this. When I did the problems went away; AirPlay streaming was great for watching shows for a few days. I thought the problem was solved but then after I updated to OS X 10.10.4 (which supposedly was major fix for networking issues by removing the "Discoveryd" process) suddenly AirPay was stuttering again. 😠 I tried turning on and off Bluetooth, no difference. It's like OS X 10.10.4 broke AirPlay for me. I can't say for certain if this was indeed the cause, but when something was great for a few days and suddenly breaks after a system update.
Apple, this is ridiculous. 😟 I have an iPhone 5S and it will AirPlay just fine. Yet this brand new MacBook Pro which has more than enough power connected to my wireless network that is more than adequate has an annoying stutter.
Now using AirFoil for streaming to apple tv without stuttering or choppy playback!
Only this app does not stream to my non-apple-airplay-receiver...... getting closer 😉
So this problem is definitely a bug on the macbook pro/yosemite 10.10.4
I am using an Apple TV with an Airport Timecapsule and a 2015 Macbook. The streaming hangs quite a bit. I have found that rebooting the Timecapsule takes care of the problem for a few days. Could be an issue with the router, as opposed to the Apple TV, but I don't really know.
When using airplay from mac to apple tv it lags/freezes, but works fine with iPhone
