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mattmcguire

macrumors newbie
Jul 9, 2012
2
0
Well in fairness your 12-core Mac Pro could probably do it. But then there'd have to be an entirely separate implementation of the feature just for the tiny, tiny amount of people who have Mac Pros with 12 cores. Not worth it.

Just use AirParrot.

Does AirParrot send audio as well or just the video? This is the first I've heard of this software and I've been waiting for this feature in OSX for months now.
 

Krazy Bill

macrumors 68030
Dec 21, 2011
2,985
3
Does AirParrot send audio as well or just the video? This is the first I've heard of this software and I've been waiting for this feature in OSX for months now.
Yes, AiParrot will send audio but depending on your system it can take a while to sync to the ATV.

Actually, AirParrot pretty much sucks for me. At first I just chalked it up to my crappy w-fi but AirPlay in ML runs circles around it (obviously).
 

macbookman83

macrumors 6502
Jan 23, 2011
421
1
New York
Airparrot is pretty decent. Before upgrading to my 2012 Air, It was my goto streaming software to watch the nba season. Its not the fastest but definitely viewable and its NOT as crappy as the above poster. It's pretty much at the mercy of your wifi/memory/system.

Not gonna lie I'm REALLY looking forward to test out Airplay on mountain with my 2012 Air. Will be putting up a demo when I get home today :)
 

DarwinOSX

macrumors 68000
Nov 3, 2009
1,658
193
If anyone had actually bothered to read the article instead of engage in Apple conspiracy theories you would know it is a DRM issue forced on everyone by RIAA and the other content companies.
There are other ways to send video to your TV than Airplay and most of the complainers would probably never use this feature anyway.
 

Senseotech

macrumors 6502a
Nov 23, 2009
785
28
NC
If anyone had actually bothered to read the article instead of engage in Apple conspiracy theories you would know it is a DRM issue forced on everyone by RIAA and the other content companies.
There are other ways to send video to your TV than Airplay and most of the complainers would probably never use this feature anyway.

If YOU bothered to read anything but the article, you would know that the originally linked article about DRM is utter BS and has nothing to do with the true reason. :rolleyes:
 

shompa

macrumors 6502
Jul 23, 2002
387
0
This is just lazy Apple.

Graphics card can accelerate H264 encoding since Nvidia 8800 AMD 2XXX series. I understand its more work to program for 3 different solutions, but it can be done.

I personally bought 3 Apple TVs and installed 10.8 just for this feature. A less then 2 year old mac cant handle it but a slow MacBook Air can?

BTW. Apple still haven't solved the resolution issues with Airplay + HDMI out from iPads. Most TVs are 1920x1080. How many mac laptops support that resolution today?

When I use my macbook air with Airplay I only get a small screen on the TV since Apple have no scaling in this. Just a straight H264 encode.

Ipad: Same there. TVs are 16:9 and Ipads 4:3. Sure. Apps can support 16:9, but why cant Apple support external 16:9?
 

kikuchiyo

macrumors member
Jun 5, 2005
98
0
Atlanta, GA
Mr. Cook and co. has replaced my 'reasonable expectation of a fit for purpose laptop ' for at least the life of the Applecare and I am now regretting buying into Mac

You have no idea what you're talking about. Instead of whining about your computer, I hope you get a PC next. You'll be happier and the rest of us won't hear you misstate reasonable expectations (hint Airplay isn't part of it).

----------

T
I personally bought 3 Apple TVs and installed 10.8 just for this feature. A less then 2 year old mac cant handle it but a slow MacBook Air can?

Yeah because the MBA has the hardware to decode it. You might a well be asking why can my phone do it and my computer cannot?

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This is garbage! My 2006 Macbook Pro can't do Airplay Mirroring! This is an OBVIOUS conspiracy by Apple to make me UPGRADE. YOU CAN'T HAVE MY $ APPLE.

I know my NEXT PC has to be an ACER because they know how to treat their LOYAL customers RIGHT!

I don't CARE that my Macbook PRO doesn't have the hardware and it's OLD. Apple SHOULD MAGICALLY put the hardware in my laptop! MICHAEL DELL would do the SAME THING. They should give me a feature no one even knew about when I bought my COMPUTER. /s
 

SnowLeopard2008

macrumors 604
Jul 4, 2008
6,772
18
Silicon Valley
Apple is certainly not perfect, they've made mistakes (MobileMe, Ping, etc.) and they've had huge successes (iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air/Pro, etc.). But in this case, AirPlay is NOT a crucial feature of the OS. It's not something fundamental like web browsing, music/video playback or connectivity. Besides, in most scenarios involving AirPlay, your computer is relatively close to the HDTV it's streaming to anyway. AirPlay just allows you to cut the HDMI cable from computer to TV. If you really want to, you can hook up the computer to the TV using HDMI, VGA or DVI depending on what your TV supports. The best part of this method is that it doesn't require any kind of video stream/encode, QuickSync or any of that. Most likely, you'll get higher FPS through a cable than AirPlay. Also, AirPlay requires an Apple TV. That's a separate hardware purchase. I also remember Intel's WiDi technology only worked if you had dongles and adapters all over the place. The fact is, most people don't have Apple TVs or WiDi dongles/adapters. Most people don't NEED or USE AirPlay and AirPlay-like functionality on a daily basis. Your $3000 MBP or $5000 MP just can't wirelessly send a screencast to your HDTV. Is that the main thing you do on that computer? I seriously doubt the answer is yes. Seriously, you can't get everything in a new OS. In Windows 7, there's support for all kinds of features that require compliment hardware. Same with Linux. And practically every OS out there.


If the main functionality of your computer regardless of how much it originally cost is to wireless mirror the display to a HDTV, then I guess you are right to be mad. But Apple didn't take away any EXISTING functionality. You just didn't get a new one. Not a bunch of new ones, JUST ONE FEATURE. GET OVER YOURSELVES. Your computer still work EXACTLY like it did the day you bought it. For $20, you get a bunch of new features. Be thankful for what YOU DO GET instead of what YOU DID NOT GET. Why? Because there IS ALWAYS something you did not get. ALWAYS. Thanksgiving should come early for people like Moonloop. Maybe all year round.
 

PaulKemp

macrumors 6502a
Jun 2, 2009
569
127
Norway
I understand that this is rooted in the hardware limitations of the older CPU's, but i still cant help but feel that they are pushing the upgrade cycle from iPad and iPhones to the more expensive hardware. They have seen that they can get people on 2year cycles with phones and tablets.

Obviously, I'm not going to upgrade my computer every 2nd year. But still, we are seeing that now. People going from 2010 MBA's to 2012. I donno, but you don't feel valued a as customer when you feel the push for the latest and greatest. Everyone wants to feel like they did a good buy, and I feel that was the case more often a couple of years ago.
 

Beta Particle

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2012
527
5
Apple is turning to PCs windows installed in 90s and 00s, with every os upgrade it is getting resource and hardware hungry.

If I pay £1300 for a computer, I want to be able to use it for at least 5 years while benefitting from new coming apps, features. This is why I switched from Win-PC to osx-mac.
I think you switched for entirely the wrong reasons. Windows has always retained support for older hardware much longer than OS X has—at the cost of offering worse performance on hardware that is too old to run it optimally.

Apple would rather that older hardware is unsupported rather than offering a potentially degraded experience.

The video encoding required for AirPlay Mirroring can be done on the CPU, but it requires a lot of CPU power, eating up battery life and limiting what can be done with mirroring. Doing the encoding in hardware via QuickSync should have no impact on the performance of the machine when mirroring. It's perfectly reasonable for them to not offer support for slower hardware, and a third-party software solution already exists to offer the feature for unsupported hardware.

Man this is HORRIBLE. So my 2010 Hexcore Mac Pro can't use Airplay mirroring?
AirParrot works just fine if you have CPU cycles to spare, or are mirroring something that's not very CPU intensive.

Reflection also works well for me as an AirPlay receiver. I have a PC hooked up to a large TV and mirror content from an older MacBook Pro (currently running Lion) to it using AirParrot at least a few times a month. I'm much happier having spent $15 on that, than $155 (equivalent price here) for an AppleTV. In fact, I actually had bought an Apple TV but returned it because Reflection was sharper quality. (can display iPad apps in a window without scaling for example)


I understand that this is rooted in the hardware limitations of the older CPU's, but i still cant help but feel that they are pushing the upgrade cycle from iPad and iPhones to the more expensive hardware. They have seen that they can get people on 2year cycles with phones and tablets.
Are you saying you'd rather they just didn't introduce new features because older hardware can't make use of them, making you want to upgrade sooner?
 
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Darknight670

macrumors newbie
Oct 24, 2009
16
0

This is utter ********, the real, the only; and the good reason is the lack of Quicksync in older CPUs...

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So you're telling me that my 12 core Mac Pro with 64 gig of ram can't handle something a piddley Mac Mini can do? This is ridiculous.

Yes exactly.

A 12 core Pentium 1 ( if it existed... a cray1 if you want) is also less powerful than an iPhone. You know number of cores / speed in mhz is not a good metric?
 

bchgoer

macrumors newbie
Jun 7, 2009
2
0
Not Cool!!!

I was about to DL the new OS for that feature alone. I am running an MBP 2009 2.53 GHz intel core 2 duo 4gb DDR3. If the OS is upgradable so should all the features. So now I am not interested in upgrading my OS. Kind of a bummer, since I have 2 MBP, 2 iphone, ipad and an ATV2. Just completely unforgivable.
 

AppleDApp

macrumors 68020
Jun 21, 2011
2,413
45
I was about to DL the new OS for that feature alone. I am running an MBP 2009 2.53 GHz intel core 2 duo 4gb DDR3. If the OS is upgradable so should all the features. So now I am not interested in upgrading my OS. Kind of a bummer, since I have 2 MBP, 2 iphone, ipad and an ATV2. Just completely unforgivable.

imagine me down voting your post.

But really the reason newer macs can do airplay mirroring is because they have Quicksync which is hardware that was only added in the newer CPU's
 

wafl iron

macrumors regular
Nov 16, 2007
183
0
Who really needs Mirroring anyway?

Mike: "Hey Julie! Come watch me browse twitter and reddit! I also have this sweet powerpoint presentation i want to show you!"

Julie: "Oh Joy!"
 

netnothing

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 13, 2007
3,822
422
NH
Who really needs Mirroring anyway?

Mike: "Hey Julie! Come watch me browse twitter and reddit! I also have this sweet powerpoint presentation i want to show you!"

Julie: "Oh Joy!"

My Mac can play ANY file format for a video file. The ATV needs it converted. Would be great to mirror a full video file from my Mac playing via VLC.

-Kevin
 

wafl iron

macrumors regular
Nov 16, 2007
183
0
My Mac can play ANY file format for a video file. The ATV needs it converted. Would be great to mirror a full video file from my Mac playing via VLC.

-Kevin

It's either copyrighted material or porn. Amirite?
 

Acrobat5

macrumors newbie
Jan 31, 2012
8
0
Of course there's an element of making more money from driving sales to newer models, but hardware is a big factor too. Yes third parties have been able to implement Airplay on older models & Siri on older models, but perhaps they want to reserve these features for their best possible performance.

Siri runs on models that have a more advanced noise-cancellation chip than the models it was left off from, and Airplay "left behind" iPad and iPhone 4 when they were just a year old or so because it's only implemented on models with the A5 processor.

Not everything is a big giant scheme of greed, entirely anyway.

Is it that hard to use an HDMI cable anyway? For a computer you're not likely to be doing things on it while mirroring (unless you're giving a presentation in which case perhaps your grievances are warranted) like you would with a mobile device anyway.
 

steeerpike

macrumors newbie
Apr 23, 2010
1
0
I had a life then I got an expensive 27" 4 core mac

I had a life, then I got an expensive 27" 4 core Mac now I got a traitorous company spitting in my face whilst trying to take more money out of my pockets chevalier433 says 'its all about marketing and money" well releasing apple tv which is unable to work on pre 2011 macs is a shot in the foot for apple mac.
New apple devotees get to use apple tv while the people who helped apple get up are BETRAYED.
I am surounded by Mac products but I guess that like me a lot of people who have bitten the Mac apple are spitting it out right now and thinking like ***** am I buying another apple product to make apple TV work "1st thing, is they lost the sale of an apple tv unit 2nd thing they lost is me as a customer.
New customers get to be happy while loyal customers who put apple up in the 1st place are left with a bad taste.

I find this situation a complete betrayal of of apple supporters and I won't ever buy another apple product unless this ridiculous tech problem is resolved.
I'll use the HDMI cable to mirror before I give apple any more cash.:mad:
 

Beta Particle

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2012
527
5
I had a life, then I got an expensive 27" 4 core Mac now I got a traitorous company spitting in my face whilst trying to take more money out of my pockets chevalier433 says 'its all about marketing and money" well releasing apple tv which is unable to work on pre 2011 macs is a shot in the foot for apple mac.
New apple devotees get to use apple tv while the people who helped apple get up are BETRAYED.
I am surounded by Mac products but I guess that like me a lot of people who have bitten the Mac apple are spitting it out right now and thinking like ***** am I buying another apple product to make apple TV work "1st thing, is they lost the sale of an apple tv unit 2nd thing they lost is me as a customer.
New customers get to be happy while loyal customers who put apple up in the 1st place are left with a bad taste.

I find this situation a complete betrayal of of apple supporters and I won't ever buy another apple product unless this ridiculous tech problem is resolved.
I'll use the HDMI cable to mirror before I give apple any more cash.:mad:
Your iMac is too old and does not have the Intel Quick Sync video encoder built into the CPU.

This is not Apple removing/restricting features, your computer does not have the hardware required for Mountain Lion’s AirPlay method.


If you want to use a software encoder that will eat up CPU power and potentially give you a compromised experience, you can give AirParrot a try.
 

Senseotech

macrumors 6502a
Nov 23, 2009
785
28
NC
I had a life, then I got an expensive 27" 4 core Mac now I got a traitorous company spitting in my face whilst trying to take more money out of my pockets chevalier433 says 'its all about marketing and money" well releasing apple tv which is unable to work on pre 2011 macs is a shot in the foot for apple mac.
New apple devotees get to use apple tv while the people who helped apple get up are BETRAYED.
I am surounded by Mac products but I guess that like me a lot of people who have bitten the Mac apple are spitting it out right now and thinking like ***** am I buying another apple product to make apple TV work "1st thing, is they lost the sale of an apple tv unit 2nd thing they lost is me as a customer.
New customers get to be happy while loyal customers who put apple up in the 1st place are left with a bad taste.

I find this situation a complete betrayal of of apple supporters and I won't ever buy another apple product unless this ridiculous tech problem is resolved.
I'll use the HDMI cable to mirror before I give apple any more cash.:mad:

This? This right here is what dementia and paranoia, mixed with a persecution complex looks like.
 
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