How good is Airplay mirroring in ML?

[Fille]

Next week I get my new Macbook Retina and I am totally psyched about the new Airplay mirroing feature in ML. So how is it working? Can I start a movie in VLC and mirror it to my ATV without any problems?

 

[Mafteah]

Not so good for me.
Can't switch the main display off, resolution is too small.

 

[JohnDoe98]

1080P worked very well for me for everyday tasks. It also handled a flash video within Safari easily with no stutter or lag. I'm very satisfied since I won't be using this for gaming anyway, nor do I have any games that I can test it on.

 

[pdjudd]

Can't switch the main display off,.

It's supposed to be that way - it's mirroring the display.

 

[matt2053]

Does this require beta firmware for Apple TV as well?

 

[heisenberg123]

Not so good for me.
Can't switch the main display off, resolution is too small.

it wouldnt be mirroring if the main display was off

 

[Lance-AR]

Does this require beta firmware for Apple TV as well?

It works just fine with my ATV running the latest IOS5.

 

[brueck]

To turn the display off just press the brightness down key until the display is off.

 

[Glockron]

Brueck is right. Macs are built so that the lowest brightness turns off your display. Just do that. It'll have no effect on the AirPlay

 

[Mafteah]

How can I change to 1080p?
When using MBA display cant change to 1080p, If using external 1080p it's posible.

 

[wouwout]

Mirroring a 1080p MKV (playing in VLC, fullscreen) to my Apple TV was horribly choppy.

720p MKV was better though I saw dropped frames.

I was using a mid 2011 Macbook Air, MKV's play fine and smooth on it.

 

[Puevlo]

Next week I get my new Macbook Retina and I am totally psyched about the new Airplay mirroing feature in ML. So how is it working? Can I start a movie in VLC and mirror it to my ATV without any problems?

It is the greatest thing you'll ever use.

 

[iOrbit]

can anyone confirm that they can mirror their desktop in 1080p to their tv?

 

[Krazy Bill]

I loaded Mountain Lion DP4 last week just to compare Apple's AirPlay to AirParrot. No surprise that AirPlay trounced AirParrot. AirPlay pairs up to the ATV rather quickly - both video and audio. Parrot on the other hand seems to take forever and you often wonder if it's even working.

AirPlay's main limitation is your bandwidth (mine is crappy). It does basic mirroring rather quickly but in my house most video needs considerable time to "buffer" on ATV.

Not sure if the GM makes any difference. (Again, I was using DP4).

 

[PerryMason]

Hi

I'd like to know how good is airplay in terms of quality....

Has anyone tried 1080p videos and compared the video and audio quality with a non-streaming option?

Is it audio converted to stereo? Or it keeps the original source quality?

I'm currently using a WD TV live and I was wondering if an ATV was a suitable option.

Many thanks!

 

[SpiderDude]

Perian al the way.

VLC has terrible noise and artifacts problems.
Install Perian, the best thing ever, and use it.
Also, the Apple remote works way better with Perian/Quicktime than with VLC.

*

 

[throAU]

Just tried it out and streamed video off my NAS, to my MBP and then mirrored onto my AppleTV 2 just fine.

There's a bit of mouse cursor lag, but for watching media it seems to be fine?

 

[204353]

Brueck is right. Macs are built so that the lowest brightness turns off your display. Just do that. It'll have no effect on the AirPlay

Actually, doing that turns the backlight off, but the LCD panel remains on. Picking minor details, I know.

It's true, though, that this is the only way to make the AirPlay Mirroring continue with the display effectively off. If you were to turn the display off via Ctrl + Shift + Eject, it counts as sleeping the display; it would turn back on if you were to move the mouse or hit a key.

 

[hipnetic]

A couple of points not mentioned (I don't have Mountain Lion so I can't confirm this, so correct me if I'm wrong)...

- I'm guessing 5.1 bitstream audio will not work and that you need to use regular AirPlay to achieve that. I suspect that AirPlay Mirroring is limited to stereo.

- You will be mirroring the same resolution/aspect ratio of your source computer, just scaled up (or down) to the 720p/1080p ATV/TV. With my 13" MacBook Air with 1440x900 resolution, I won't be able to get true 1080p, and there will be black bars on the left/right of the TV screen as my Air's 1440x900 resolution is at a 1.6:1 aspect ratio.

Assuming I'm correct on both of these points, AirPlay Mirroring won't be of much use to me as a replacement for my dedicated PC (Acer Revo 1600 ION nettop running Windows 7 and XBMC/Plex) for playing movies on my big screen.

 

[Mafteah]

hipnetic you are right.
I am having the problem with the resolution and cant make it 1080p.

 

[iOrbit]

is it atleast possible to get full 1080p desktop to atv with airplay if in my case- my macbook pro is attached to an external 1080p monitor in clamshell mode?

 

[bogatyr]

hipnetic you are right.
I am having the problem with the resolution and cant make it 1080p.

Same issue here on my MBA. Makes the feature worthless IMO. Should have an option to output only on the TV so we can get 1080p output.

 

[Sylon]

hipnetic you are right.
I am having the problem with the resolution and cant make it 1080p.

Same issue here on my MBA. Makes the feature worthless IMO. Should have an option to output only on the TV so we can get 1080p output.

Which model of Apple TV do you guys have? Only the newest one, released this past March, is capable of 1080P viewing.



So, question, is Airplay Mirroring just stretching the resolution of the MacBook Pro? So for mine, it'll just be a 1280x800 stretched across my 46" tv?

 

[iOrbit]

i hope i can get 1080p out of airplay.. it works for video and other content.

i have an apple tv 3rd gen.

 

[hipnetic]

So, question, is Airplay Mirroring just stretching the resolution of the MacBook Pro? So for mine, it'll just be a 1280x800 stretched across my 46" tv?

I believe that it rescales the source device's screen output to fit the AppleTV-connected TV, while keeping the aspect ratio the same as the source. If you're using a 16:9 (1.78:1) TV and you have a 16:10 (1.6:1) Mac, I believe it will stretch/shrink the Mac's height to fit the TV's height, resulting in black bars on the left/right of the TV (so as to maintain the source signal's aspect ratio). So, for example, on my 1440x900 resolution (1.6:1 aspect ratio) MacBook Air, if I transmit to an ATV3 (1080p) connected to a 1920x1080 TV, the 900 pixel height will get stretched to fill the 1080 height of the TV (i.e., 1080 / 900 = 1.2). The 1440 pixel width will get stretched width-wise, but at the same aspect ratio that the height was stretched (i.e., 1440 x 1.2 = 1728). So, the end result will be a 1728x1080 image filling your 1920x1080 monitor. The difference in width (1920 - 1728 = 192 pixels total, divided by 2 = a 96 pixel black border on the left, and a 96 pixel black border on the right).

If there is a way to set your MacBook to use a custom resolution, resulting in an abnormal-looking display on your MacBook's screen (i.e., things will look squished - people look fatter), then that might allow you to fill the entire TV screen. This could work well when playing movies. When mirroring your computer desktop (for presentation purposes), the Apple-approach of using borders on the left/right might still be preferable.

Does anyone know if there's a way to set the MacBook to use a custom (16:9) resolution?