I got a brandnew MacBook pro with Retina. All software is up-to-date. My problem: When I try to watch a movie from the external DVD via Airplay, I just get a grey screen on PC AND TV. Interessting: Audio is obviously transfered to TV but not the Video :-(. Somewhere in the net I found the tipp "use the mplayerX". But this didn´t work, as the Apple DVD Player always "takes over" the DVD ... Does anybody know the solution for that annoying problem?
VLC player or MPlayerX should be ok.
You need to stop DVD player launching as the preferred app for DVDs.
(Or quit and start the other apps and play)
Clcik the Apple icon on top left and open System Preferences. Find this option:
I have mine set to ignore the DVD, then I choose tha app I want:
Playing a DVD via Airplay is an obvious use for Airplay. Unfortunately Apple prevent mirroring of apps which may play protected video such as DVD player (even for family DVDs without protection - in which case convert with Handbrake or other utility and add to iTunes).
So if you see the grey checkerboard pattern it's because you 'might' be playing something the movie studios don't want you to be allowed to play in that particular way!
AC
Hi AC,
thanks for your qucik response. This helps me, but doesn´t solve all the problem. In fact with VLC I can now watch the video on my TV screen, but the sound ist on the PC only :-( ... The mplayerX does not start the DVD ... for whatever reasons ... ?:-/ ...
The Apple World itself becomes from my point of view more and more similar to Microsoft. The ratio of "Enjoy it"/ "hate it due to the need for ongoing troubleshooting" has signifantly declined within the last years...
Jörg
Not sure if VLC which I don't use can actually send an Airplay stream rather than Airplay Mirroring.
Is this Mirroring?
Which audio track is selected? If it's a surround audio track the TV may not be able to decode it.
Afraid I can't mirror with any of my Macs as they are too old (when you say PC I assume you mean the new Mac?).
AC
Hi AC,
PC is wrong, I have a MB Pro with Retina Display. Sorry for my limited English :-( ... I think your answer is absolutely close to the solution. I just nust figure out, why the mplayerx does not want to start ... perhaps there will be someone who experienced exactly the same problem ?
Jörg
Fiddling with the display resolution seemed to do the trick for me. I was dealing mirrored displays with a Mac Mini and an external projector. I presume that making ANY change to the display settings will help. I'm guessing there is a corrupt preference file that gets overwritten by a clean file when you make a change, thus fixing the display issues.
My specific solution was this:
Open System Preferences > Displays
Enable Display Mirroring
Switch the "Optimize For:" setting to the alternate display option
Change the resolution to something else
Switch the "Optimize For:" setting back to the original display option
Set the resolution where you want it
Airplay / External DVD - grey screen on PC & TV
