AirPlay lag issue

HaukSwe

Member
Jul 6, 2010
96
3
66
AirPlay from various iPhone4, 5 and 4s and iPads works flawlessly in 720p over wifi to our ATV3.

Desktop mirroring on the other hand, from my Macbook air lags significantly. Video/audio is choppy etc. I've tried mirroring whole desktop or only mirroring the video by playing it in itunes.

In another location the same macbook air can stream/mirror flawlessly to a projector also in 720p via an ATV2.

I want to blame the Router, but since it works from iOS... I want to blame the Mac, but since it works elsewhere.. ?

Running 10.9, tried mirror, extend and matching/not matching resolution.
 

boomhower

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2007
7,228
19
81
What router are you using? I had a ton of issues with a Linksys E4200 but it all went away when I change to a gen 5 Airport Extreme.
 

Doppel

Lifer
Feb 5, 2011
13,306
3
0
AirPlay from various iPhone4, 5 and 4s and iPads works flawlessly in 720p over wifi to our ATV3.
What is the latency? I find it's a good couple hundred ms at least. I wonder if it's possible to have a flawless experience such that there is no visible lag between the idevice and the tv...
 

Devfarce

Junior Member
Jun 20, 2013
1
0
0
Connection and router choice are huge. If the I have found that there are a few things that I can do to improve mirroring experience on the OSX or iOS. I am on a 5th gen Airport Extreme with 802.11n. If you aren't using something like that or better, you should have a 2 or 3 stream, dual band n or ac router. Make sure you are close to the router for best signal throughput and that you are connected via 5GHz. It is extremely crowded in the 2.4 GHz band for me but there is nobody on 5GHz so that makes a huge difference. Also, connect your ATV via ethernet to also further decrease latency. I have a 50' ethernet cord that runs to mine and it has made a huge difference in streaming and mirroring performance. Maintaining a continuous, low latency, high bandwidth stream between two wifi devices isn't a strong point of most routers or even possible for some so you need give them every advantage possible. Yesterday I watched a full episode of south park on the AppleTV using a mirrored display from a MBP on 5GHz and performance was smooth and consistent at 1080p with very little lag.
 
Feb 25, 2011
17,001
1,628
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Yeah it's all about the Wifi.

Plug the Apple TV and Laptop into an ethernet switch and see if that resolves it. Bet you 5 internet points that it does.