Choppy/stuttering playback using airplay

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.

I assume you're using normal AirPlay, no screen mirroring. When you AirPlay the video, the player on your iPhone goes gray, says "This video is playing on Apple TV". If that is the case, the video URL is handed over to ATV, which then streams direct from the server. So the problem is the download speed from the server to ATV. This may be a problem with the DNS setting. Is ATV using the same DNS as the phone? Normally, this should be the DNS from the internet provider.

If it's an ATV 4, you can download a speed test app for ATV, and test it directly.

If ATV is on WiFi, you could try setting it to WPA2-AES (CCMP), no WPA, no TKIP, on the router. That should give a more reliable and faster connection.

Also, use a 5 GHz network, if possible, to reduce interference from other networks.

Yes, it makes a difference. When you mirror, the iPhone screen is updated normally, then special software accesses the iPhone graphics chip, formats the screen data as H.264 video, and transmits that to the ATV. So, it creates a video stream on the fly and retransmits it to the ATV. If the ATV is on WiFi, that means the video data is transmitted over the network three times: once from the internet through the router to the iPhone, then back to the router, and on to ATV. So mirroring is a real test of the iPhone, and of the network. If your iPhone is very recent, and your network is 802.11ac 5 GHz, that might work well. Are you unable to AirPlay this content without mirroring?

Great. That's good to hear.

Cheers Di