Chance of crack that will allow AirPlay on older MacBooks?

[Aluminum213]

It's a complete joke they locked out all pre 2011 MacBook pros, I have a 13' late 2010 MacBook pro with an upgraded 8 gig of ram.

I really hope a hack comes out to allow this feature for us "older" users

 

[GGJstudios]

It's a complete joke they locked out all pre 2011 MacBook pros, I have a 13' late 2010 MacBook pro with an upgraded 8 gig of ram.

I really hope a hack comes out to allow this feature for us "older" users

Not possible.

The Real Reason Why Macs Before 2011 Can’t Use AirPlay Mirroring In Mountain Lion [Feature] | Cult of Mac

 

[Orange Furball]

Me too. Though the chances for me are slim. I have the late 2008 non pro aluminum MacBook. Its a shame, I doubt anyone would sell their older computer just to use AirPlay, so why would apple lock it down like that?

 

[smithrh]

You can certainly try AirParrot - but be prepared to be disappointed.

On my MacBook, AirParrot basically works but with CPU absolutely railed and with plenty of stuttering and random half-second freezes.

So, maybe I should say it *doesn't* work - but they have a free trial so you can try it for yourself.

 

[Lance-AR]

The problems with AirParrot are the reason it is limited to the new models. The feature needs hardware to support it.

 

[Aluminum213]

You can certainly try AirParrot - but be prepared to be disappointed.

On my MacBook, AirParrot basically works but with CPU absolutely railed and with plenty of stuttering and random half-second freezes.

So, maybe I should say it *doesn't* work - but they have a free trial so you can try it for yourself.

I've heard airparrot was junk sadly

 

[CyBeRino]

so why would apple lock it down like that?

It's not locked down, it just requires hardware that you do not have. No way around that.

 

[Beta Particle]

I've heard airparrot was junk sadly

AirParrot works fine on the MacBook Pro I use it with, though it does require a lot of CPU power.

But as others have said, this is exactly why Apple don't offer AirPlay as an option for devices without QuickSync support.

If AirParrot doesn't work for you, your hardware is too slow to do the encoding on the CPU.

 

[robgendreau]

Thanks for the article explaining the hardware limitations.

And crikey, you've got a portable, just slap in a cable. Beaming stuff around the house to an Apple TV isn't that high a priority for most portable users I expect.

 

[Titanium81]

It's a complete joke they locked out all pre 2011 MacBook pros, I have a 13' late 2010 MacBook pro with an upgraded 8 gig of ram.

I really hope a hack comes out to allow this feature for us "older" users

It's not locked down, it just requires hardware that you do not have. No way around that.

Exactly, AirPlay wasn't even a thought when your "late 2008 non pro aluminum MacBook" was being designed / built. So how can you expect software that is designed 4 years later to support hardware that is 4 years old. Apple is the business of creating NEW Hardware and New Software not supporting Old Hardware. Looks like your due for an Upgrade.

 

[PaulKemp]

AirPlay is supported, but not AirPlay mirroring. You can beam sound with alt clicking the speaker icon in the meny bar and choosing the airplay device. But only sound. Sound is good though!

 

[AzN1337c0d3r]

So how can you expect software that is designed 4 years later to support hardware that is 4 years old.

The same way that Windows 7 still runs on a Pentium III processor perhaps?

Quick Sync might make AirPlay mirroring smoother, but they could also implement in a fallback option of encoding on the CPU like what AirParrot does.

This is nothing but Apple doing its planned obsolescence routine again.

 

[Matthew Yohe]

Quick Sync might make AirPlay mirroring smoother, but they could also implement in a fallback option of encoding on the CPU like what AirParrot does.

They could do whatever they want, you're right. I'm fine with Apple innovating and pushing forward rather than continuing to support legacy.

 

[quietstormSD]

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro so this doesn't effect me. But I would like to see Apple support it on "older" hardware. Even if it will hog the CPU. Let the user decide whether they want to use the feature with the CPU being hogged. But then again people will be complaining that Apple dropped the ball with AirPlay mirroring cause it hogs the CPU in older Macs.

 

[ideal.dreams]

It's not your RAM that's the issue, OP, it's your processor. On the fly encoding is extremely CPU intensive and only newer processors can handle it.

 

[smithrh]

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro so this doesn't effect me. But I would like to see Apple support it on "older" hardware. Even if it will hog the CPU. Let the user decide whether they want to use the feature with the CPU being hogged. But then again people will be complaining that Apple dropped the ball with AirPlay mirroring cause it hogs the CPU in older Macs.

I think you unintentionally just made Apple's point here...

 

[Aluminum213]

AirPlay is supported, but not AirPlay mirroring. You can beam sound with alt clicking the speaker icon in the meny bar and choosing the airplay device. But only sound. Sound is good though!

but you can't even beam SOUND unless you have a 2011 macbook pro, explain how my late 2010 macbook pro can't handle sound beaming

 

[tkermit]

but you can't even beam SOUND unless you have a 2011 macbook pro, explain how my late 2010 macbook pro can't handle sound beaming

Streaming music to an Airport Express base station works fine on my Mid 2010 MBP.

 

[eagandale4114]

but you can't even beam SOUND unless you have a 2011 macbook pro, explain how my late 2010 macbook pro can't handle sound beaming

I think you may have set that up wrong. It should be able to stream sound perfectly.

 

[AzN1337c0d3r]

But then again people will be complaining that Apple dropped the ball with AirPlay mirroring cause it hogs the CPU in older Macs.

I think you unintentionally just made Apple's point here...

As opposed to people complaining that they have to sell their old Mac and purchase a new one to get AirPlay streaming? Not to mention the environmental impact.

 

[ScottishCaptain]

Jesus christ, just get a MDP -> HDMI adapter for $40 and deal with it.

AirPlay Mirroring isn't even that great. It doesn't handle surround sound at all and the system isn't upgradable in the least (in other words, expect Apple and Intel to come out with something even better in a year that requires even newer hardware) being that it is a HARDWARE FEATURE.

Seriously, if you're serious about watching stuff on the big screen with any reasonable amount of quality to it- just get an adapter and use that instead. The quality you get off a high-quality MKV source when using an HDMI adapter is infinitely better then that of what you get with Airplay Mirroring, partially because HDMI supports DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD whereas Airplay Mirroring does not. Airplay Mirroring also adds yet another stage of lossy compression to an already lossy-compressed video (unless you're playing a bluray disk).

I still don't know what the big deal is. People are acting like there's projectors and stuff out there that support this technology (when in fact there are none- nothing except the Apple TV works with it). It's an Apple gimmick, and it will be swept under the rug as soon as Apple figures out something better.

If your machine has a Thunderbolt or Mini Displayport on it, just use that and be happy. Buying a new machine is NOT WORTH IT for Airplay Mirroring, unless you're one of those people who goes crazy because they don't have all the most available up-to-date snazzy features.

-SC

 

[Michael CM1]

You can certainly try AirParrot - but be prepared to be disappointed.

On my MacBook, AirParrot basically works but with CPU absolutely railed and with plenty of stuttering and random half-second freezes.

So, maybe I should say it *doesn't* work - but they have a free trial so you can try it for yourself.

Try it out first. I just did and IT'S NOT AS BAD AS PEOPLE MAKE IT OUT TO BE. The delay was maybe half a second, and the only trouble I ran into was playing 1080p video. That could be because I have a 720p TV.

Anyway, it ran like that on my computer specced below (I need to update it to 12GB of RAM). I have Spotify, iTunes, MetaX, HandBrake and Pages open, plus Safari with nine tabs.

Yeah. It didn't suck.

And thus, I put to rest all of the "oh well those old computers CAN'T do it" nonsense. Some of them can. It may take up more resources, but IT CAN BE DONE. My iMac was a $1199 model, so I'm assuming there are people who spent $2500 wondering the exact same thing. Apple just didn't want to bother with the alternate method for older computers even though plenty of them can work it. As I said, put some warning about "because your computer doesn't use hardware acceleration this may be slow" blah blah. CYA accomplished, and people with enough horsepower can do it.

 

[PaulKemp]

but you can't even beam SOUND unless you have a 2011 macbook pro, explain how my late 2010 macbook pro can't handle sound beaming

Yes you can. If that's not working it's not set up correctly. The airplay icon should show in iTunes and when alt clicking the speaker icon.

 

[Aluminum213]

Yes you can. If that's not working it's not set up correctly. The airplay icon should show in iTunes and when alt clicking the speaker icon.

but I can't play the songs from my computer using my macbook pro, I have to use the Apple TV to select songs which is a major pain

 

[kolz]

but I can't play the songs from my computer using my macbook pro, I have to use the Apple TV to select songs which is a major pain

I'm not shooting you down but this is somehow a sad portrait of an apple user / first world problem =( if you really want to play your itunes song in your computer in your TV, then hook your computer to your TV, don't blame Apple TV! and no, it is not a major pain to use your Apple TV. Using LP on the other hand, might be.