Actually, that's not what I meant. To use basic AirPlay, you don't use the icon in the main menu bar. Instead you use the AirPlay icon that appears in the controls of the video player object in the browser or other app, as described here Use AirPlay to display video from your Mac on an HDTV - Apple Support. Here are some general notes on AirPlay.
Video AirPlay works in two modes. Basic AirPlay just sends the video URL to Apple TV which then streams it directly. This usually works best since there's no double transmission. You're using basic AirPlay when the video player on your device goes black. On a computer, you do this using the AirPlay icon that appears in the controls of a screen video player object, in the browser or other app.
The other mode is Mirroring, which generates an H.264 video stream from the device frame buffer and transmits it over WiFi to Apple TV. This video compression inherently limits resolution, and may have trouble with fast motion. When you puit the iPad or iPhone video player into full screen mode, mirroring automoatically switches to basic AirPlay, and it seems to be impossible to prevent that from happening. On a Mac computer, you access this mode from the AirPlay icon in the main menu bar. It lets you mirror the main display, or create a new display, extending the desktop. But remember that the data sent to the Apple TV is always being converted to a live video stream. Actual display frame buffer pixels are not transmitted, as they are to a directly connected monitor.
