Q: When using airplay from mac to apple tv it lags/freezes, but works fine with iPhone

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.

Laptop class components doesn't make a difference. The fact is I can push my resolution to 3840x2400 on my laptop screen while pushing 1080P out of my HDMI port without issue. Thanks to VLC I can play differnt videos on both screens without a single hickup. Horsepower and optimization is definately not the issue.

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..

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?

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.

Lots of people spending money on extra items to get this thing to work, remember when Apple products worked with other Apple products and that's why we bought them? Even paid More for them knowing they would do so and laughed at other companies who needed Drivers etc..? No I am not buying anything, ATT has come and swapped out routers 3 times now for me now, each time  better model etc.. I was on the phone for 96 minutes with tech support the other day, he had me do everything, even open up the router and reconfigure some items in there etc... and it still doesnt work, I told him "so this is just garbage and I cannot return it because its too old so I am stuck?" and he said Yes. and that was that. I guess I should be happy that it's the least expensive Apple item I ever bought and takes up very little room.

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.

Update - I went in to my NetGear N300 Wireless ADSL2 settings and changed the wireless channel settings from 'auto" to 6 (1 to 11 was my options) and the airplay streaming from my iMac to my AppleTV works fine now.  It took 3 minutes to do.  Wish I would have tried that earlier.

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.

I played around with 5G network settings and 2.4G settings on my router, and the 5G didnt work at all, it all froze and lagged just as you and others did describe, everything seems to be working on the 2.4G network settings, and i choose the channel 6 from this forum. Hopes this works

I got same problem - latest iMac 27" with best GPU + Apple TV 3 - all upgrades up to date.

I was playing with router settings - my can go only on 2.4G but using WiFi monitor I managed to set up router on chanel 5 what make little noise and best connection. Still got this video lags. I was trying to connect ATV by eternet cable but no change for me.

Think is I got Beamer app to play video on ATV and its going absolutely perfect - cant put subtitles or anything like that but streaming can be perfect. I just dont undersund the problem.

Just like upgrading to 10.9.1, upgrading to 10.9.2 had fixed the lag and pixelation problems ONLY TEMPORARILY

After each upgrade using AirPlay mirroring from my late 2013 MBP to my 3rd gen Apple TV worked perfectly. After a few weeks however it became unusable (quarter-inch sized pixels and multi-second lag).

Whatever is happening during the Mac OS X updates, it fixes the problem (temporarily).

Is it some kind of network related cache that only gets flushed when updating the OS?

Come on Apple, give us a fix or a workaround!

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.