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 ! !
Equally if the Mac and the Apple TV are both wired connections it works well.
Surely this could now be sorted out with all the time elapsed and suggested fixes from this forum.
Andrew
Just turn off the bluetooth from the Apple TV setting, then everything will be working normal! Even stream from your mac!
The link you posted was absolutely useless (it does not addres the issue with Apple but rather attempts to push the issue off on external hardware which is not the problem). I own a brand new macbook pro and purchased apple tv this past december, all software has been updated on both machines. Everything worked fine until I updated both machines. Now I can sync videos with apple tv through my iphone with no problem but when I attempt to mirror from my macbook pro I get audio but the screen freezes and lags way behind (showing one frame every 2 to 3 minutes). Additionally when I attempt to play music from apple tv via my macbook pro the songs take 10-20 seconds to start then I only hear a sound every 5-10 seconds but the songs. The controls then freeze on apple tv and I have to wait 2 to 3 minutes before the screen clears and I have access again.
Most of the posts that I have read (at least 100 or so in my frustration to find an answer) all detail issues related to Mountain lion and recent updates.
I know, it's the same thing with my MBPr, airplay simply lags too much to be usable for video streaming. Works perfectly with iPhone/iPad. This ***** as it was one of the reasons I upgraded from my MBP 2010. At least the MBPr has a HDMI video+audio output, so now I'm simply connecting it with a cable to my TV which works great, but would be better if airplay worked as advertised...
Same problem here. One screenshot shows up every 2-3mins from mac but perfect on iPhone. It worked for me a few months ago and stopped working around the time I updated my mac to Mavericks. I called apple support and they weren't able to fix it. None of their suggestions worked so they sent me to a local apple store to the Genius Bar. It worked perfectly immediately when I tried it with them. I brought in both my Apple TV and mac. They offered to give me a new Apple TV just in case there was an issue. I took a new one, went home, and still same problem as before. Very annoying that still no fix for this!!!
I think the main problem here is that the GPU on the laptop which isn't that powerful has to power to screens when mirroring where the iPad shuts off its own display and just let's you view on the TV.
It seems crazy to me why it doesn't work like this or at least make this an option, until they do these problems will persist. Works great on iPad it's just a pain in the *** transferring over to the iPad to stream kinda defeats the object.
Wish they'd sort this out as I love the Apple TV.
My Apple TV has always been hard wired to my router and it still cannot accept streaming music, especially from iTunes from any of my devices or laptop without sputtering etc... making it unusable. I basically use it now to send music VIA Hold the Option key down and choosing the Apple TV from under the Volumne in the toolbar icon and use Spotify instead of iTunes (as itunes quits all the time) for the dogs to listen to while I am away as they dont seem to mind the music sputtering every few minutes. But they are very happy to see me on my return so perhaps they are trying to tell me to stop playing it too?
There is no fix or solution for this, its been 3 months I have the Apple TV and I already tried everything, tried connecting the internet cable directly to Apple TV, updated the software numerous times, changed the resolution of my computer screen, nothing works, Its impossible to connect your MAC to Apple TV everything else works (iPhone - iPad). Its just lagging and freezing making it impossible to watch anything from your MAC.
Sad thing is I bought it to connect my MAC to my tv and watch movies and it ended up being useless, just waste of my money... What is the use of Apple TV if you cannot watch things from your computer???
I tried being patient and thought I could fix it but after 3 months and numerous attempts I am pretty sure Apple TV"s are garbage. Apple is selling an unfinished product, a product that does not work when you connect your MAC, Its just incomlete, buggy or I dont know just not doing what it should be doing.
I am just sad and angry to myself for buying this crap TV....
P.S: Forgot to write, everytime I go to the MAC center they tell me I just need to update the software and the solution is in that latest update, they know very well that their product is not performing and that they dont have a solution for it and instead of accepting it they just lie to your face hoping that you go away and waste your time trying to fix something thats unfixable, its been 2 times they sent me home for an update and non of those latest updates solved anything... Its the same old garbage Apple TV still freezing to a point where its impossible to use your MAC on TV
Also disabling WMM doesn't solve the problem. WMM should be enabled, because it was built around streaming video in mind.
Information about WMM here: http://nuangel.net/2012/01/in-my-router-what-is-wmm-and-should-i-enable-it-yes/
Same problem here.
I have the latest MBP retina 15" 2,6Ghz Core i5 8Gb Ram 512Gb SSD, Apple TV3, Airport Extreme. My house is Apple-gear-only :-)
No problem with mirroring from iPod 5, iPhone 6, iPad mini retina, iPhone 5C, iPad 3,...
Unfortunately mirroring screen from MBPr to Apple TV3 is a disaster.
Worked fine for years.
Somehow loads of problems started when upgrading to Yosemite.
I feel like I'm on Windows95
Ok after messing around for a bit more on this issue it is IN FACT something to do with Yosemite. My iPhone is running flawless, but with my Mac I noticed at random times pressing the volume button makes Airplay Mirroring lag like crazy. This sure is an issue that Apple has to fix there's no doubt about it.
Just went throughout this whole thread.
Same problem here, 2014 2.8ghz i7 Macbook Pro Retina 16GB Ram running 10.9.5 Mavericks,
Iphone 5s streams video perfect via Airplay to Apple TV 3rd Gen with no video lag,
try same on Macbook Pro in Extended Display mode and video frames stutter and lags
Also when I first open Airplay and choose Extended Desktop mode it often crashes and restarts my rMBP!
Might return Apple TV since its two weeks old.
I have an older router from ATT Uverse - 2 Wire 3600 HGV that operate in G mode but if video works fine on the iPhone 5s why not on rMBP?
I see some people suggest using Beamer but I like to stream Daily Show etc, so can't drag and drop flash videos.
J
I also have the same problem, I CAN play anything on my iPhone, iPad and ALSO my iMac which is running 10.8.5 BUT I cannot stream through my Macbook Pro Retina running 10.10.1 !
I have 2 ATV's one that is about 3 years old and the other only about 2 months and they are both the same, from this I would assume it is a Yosemite issue has anyone found a solution to this yet ?
Guys: THIS WORKS!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY2weHeKUI8
Thank you so much for linking to this video. The resolution is somewhat convoluted... but it works! No lagging when streaming between my Macbook Pro and Apple TV. What a shame the Muppets at Apple don't have a resolution and leave us to struggle alone. I thought we were meant to be valued customers?
Hi i have been having the same issues....
am not sure if this will be useful :-/
http://isource.com/2012/03/31/a-few-tips-for-improving-airplay-mirroring/
When using airplay from mac to apple tv it lags/freezes, but works fine with iPhone
