AirPlay Mirroring Video Stutter

This is not a wifi issue at all.

Macbook pro playing a video file to apple tv 3rd gen....stutters.

Same file put on iPad Air then airplay to apple tv....smooth.

Not a wifi issue.

Macbookpro retina issue.

Plain and simple...it is everywhere on the apple discussions....everywhere.

Streaming a movie, Fandango Now app on iPhone, AirPlay Mirroring, to Apple TV, attached to Sony Bravia TV: Annoying stutter every 3-5 seconds, drove me crazy. Searched all the forums; tried all the suggestions; no luck. Turns out my iPhone had joined the "public" Xfinity WiFi being broadcast by my Comcast 'modem', but my Apple TV is plugged into my AirPort Extreme. Switched my iPhone to my "private" Apple WiFi and the movie played perfectly. I realize I can turn off the "public" Xfinity WiFi, but it has come in useful in other situations, so I keep it.

Hey Woodwyn,

These are the recommended suggestions for when you're experiencing intermittent playback or significant network lag with AirPlay or AirPlay Mirroring. It could be due to a weak Wi-Fi connection, interference, or the distance between the Wi-Fi router and your iOS device, Apple TV or AirPort Express:

• Ensure that other devices are not trying to stream to the same Apple TV at the same time.
• Turn off Bluetooth on your iOS device by tapping Settings > Bluetooth.
• Ensure that your Wi-Fi router is set up with the recommended settings for the best performance.
• Certain external devices, such as microwave ovens and baby monitors, may interfere with a Wi-Fi network. Try moving or disabling these devices.
• If possible, try to locate your Wi-Fi router in the same room as your iOS device and Apple TV.
• If your wireless and wired networks are the same, try connecting your Apple TV to the router via Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi.
• If the Wi-Fi router has an external antenna, check to see that is it connected properly and in good condition.
• Use the Wi-Fi network troubleshooting guide to resolve interference and other issues.

from: iOS: Troubleshooting AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4215

Best,

Delgadoh

AirPlay mirroring is very sensitive to latency, something that wireless networks are notorious for. With AirPlay mirroring, your device renders the screen locally before mirroring it onto the Apple TV. If you're watching a movie that has a framerate of 24 fps, there can be at most 41.7 ms between frames. That means your device needs to render the screen and transfer it across your network all within a window of 41.7 ms. If any of the data packets are corrupted or lost due to interference, you'll have a much smaller window to work with. Ditto if you are watching a movie with a higher frame rate. At 60 fps, the window shrinks to 16.7ms.

In short, latency matters. A lot.

A wired network's latency is typically around 0.5ms and you don't have to worry about lost or corrupted packets unless router is on its last legs. With wireless on the other hand, I've seen latencies as high as 80ms though they're typically in the 30 - 50ms range. My wireless network's latency now hovers at around 10ms. Here's a list of settings I changed that was beneficial:

• Disable support for older wifi standards. If you don't have any 802.11g devices, just use 802.11n.
• Some routers have a "Greenfield" mode. This further improves efficiency by assuming that only 802.11n or later devices are on the network.
• Choose a WiFi channel that is not used by any other wireless network. Having more than one network per channel severely increases latency in addition to reducing bandwidth.
• Use 5GHz WiFi if possible. These are less prone to interference and as these frequencies are less common you're less likely to be sharing your channel another network.

With those changes, I brought down by latency from about 40ms to 10 ms. AirPlay mirroring now works flawlessly. Until the microwave oven comes on ... but it's an improvement in general 🙂

The reason you're seeing the difference between the iPad and MacBook Pro is because the MacBook Pro only mirrors to the Apple TV while the iPad supports both mirroring and normal mode. Normal AirPlay mode requires much less bandwidth and is a lot less sensitive to latency.

I did this to solve the latency, stuttering issue:

1. Made a new profile on my early 2011 mbp 17" with no network related services (dropbox, box, google drive etc)

2. Turned off bluetooth

3. Instead of just mirroring, i selected the "extend desktop" option

These steps helped to maximize the streaming without any hiccup.

(Just watched The Hobbit - desolation of Smaug on my Toshiba 58L7300U without any trouble, video went smooth)

(My ATV is wired through a 2010 airport extreme base with a speed of 10megas)

Bravo...tx

I had this issue. I converted the file to MP4 (using Handbrake app) then dragged into iTunes. Played perfectly after that every time 😀

If you're on a Mac, the absolute best solution to this an app like "AirFlow" (free, beta 7 since 2014 but absolutely stable even on the newest MacOS) and "Beamer" (costs about 20$)

These apps only send the video stream to Apple TV and are absolutely without a doubt the simpler and faster solution to stream video.

Cheers,

Takeo

from Mac to ATV3 - here is what did the job for me, quite simple. Switching on 5Ghz on Timecapsule (i.e separate network is shown with 5Ghz label), log Mac and ATV on to that one... and bingo.

I've been struggling with stuttering video on AirPlay for a long time. AirFow solves the problem, even if it costs $$