Apple TV, School work, and a question of practicality.

[angrytoothbrush]

Hi everyone. I recently purchased a 27" iMac which I have mounted on my wall in the bedroom. Its a great place for it since I can watch TV, Movies in bed or play games, check/ respond to emails in a comfortable setting at the low profile IKEA desk that sort of sits under it. Its notably terrible however for long term work, the space is naturally cramped and wouldn't accommodate a full desk chair- since the desk is low profile the only thing it will fit is a keyboard which is horror for my wrists.

I am looking for advice- On the precipice of returning to school for my masters, I am brainstorming ideas that of course dont include the moving of or purchase of a new mac- but rather expanding its use to a different room (an office I want to set up since my roommate is moving out, shares a wall with where the Mac is mounted) in one of the two following ways:

• Using AppleTV to mirror the display of the mac to a TV and simply using my bluetooth keyboard / mouse to work at as if the computer were there (does Airplay even support this, would degrade workflow with possible lag?)

• Mirroring the display via cables (would degrade 5k resolution to 1080p, correct me if im wrong)

Are either of these even practical, is there something I am not considering, what would you do?

 

[techwarrior]

iMac can mirror, or extend it's display to a TV connected to an AppleTV.

I believe the display would downgrade to 1080. This is an Airplay imposed limit if I understand correctly, but if it now supports 4K to an ATV4K, it would be in the Display Settings for the Airplay "Display" on the Mac. I suspect this is a network capacity decision. Unlike streaming files, which are compressed, the Mac display would be mirrored uncompressed so it would use more bandwidth. Also, expect some delays, this would be particularly troublesome with Mac games displayed on the mirrored TV.

This would be less of an issue with an HDMI cable as the mirror or extended display would go direct from the GPU to the TV via HDMI. If you connect the second display via HDMI, the resolution may be up to 4K (assuming the TV monitor is 4K). Check the 2nd display support for your iMac model at everymac.com.

The options you have are to mirror the display of the Mac to the ATV, or to use ATV as a second display. Either way, your mouse, trackpad and keyboard will still interact with the iMac as usual, and the inputs or movements will be reflected on whichever display you are active on.