“While screen mirroring solutions — like Apple’s AirPlay — have reached a relatively high level of awareness, not a lot of people are actually using it, according to a new study by the NPD Group’s Connected Intelligence team,” Chris Maxcer reports for MacNewsWorld. “What is screen mirroring? It’s when you wirelessly project what you see on your smartphone or tablet and show it on an HDTV screen. As it turns out, only 7 percent of U.S. smartphone and tablet owners are using screen mirroring.”
“Apple’s Steve Jobs introduced AirPlay in the fall of 2010. So what gives? Is AirPlay a cool technology that’s underappreciated or is it too much of a pain to be useful?” Maxcer writes. “In my experience, it’s both — wicked cool and a royal pain — but lately the pain has been overshadowing the shine. I thought I was alone in this, but the disparity between knowledge and use of the feature makes me wonder.”
Maxcer reports, “It’s quite possible that a high percentage of Apple TV customers use AirPlay. That leads to insight very different than what The NPD Group reports: You could have high awareness with low use over a large population of smart device owners, and still have a very active Apple TV install base using AirPlay. With a different set of questions, you could determine that AirPlay is wildly successful among Apple TV owners. However, I’m not so sure that it is. In my experience, it’s either handy and awesome — or buggy and slow.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Here’s the thing: We were watching some YouTube videos the other day. We started on our iPad and AirPlayed them to our big screen HDTV. The video played, but started pausing every 3-10 seconds. Very irritating. So much so, in fact, that we eventually switched to YouTube directly on the Apple TV, searched for the videos we were watching, and watched them play flawlessly (so it obviously wasn’t our Internet connection that was causing the problem).
This doesn’t just happen with YouTube,, either. Video content that doesn’t stutter when played on the iPad, pauses every so often on the TV via Apple TV. We are, naturally, using all current model Apple products, from the iPad to the Airport Extreme to the Apple TV. Yet, no go – not smoothly, at least. Mirroring video/audio from iPad or iPhone to Apple TV is generally an irritating, staccato experience. Why doesn’t it “just work,” Apple?
Here’s a thought: Maybe if it actually did “just work,” more people would use it.
MDN Take – spot on!
It needs to just work, smoothly without hiccups, or you just feel like a nerd trying to push a nerdy solution.
I use the Masters app AirPlay most of the time and it works flawless
AirPlay is only as good as your home network.
Double hint: ISPs are shafting us.
Their speed testing instruments (ie: SpeedTest, OOlkla, etc…) are misrepresenting performance by measuring speeds based on peak throughput rather than continuous throughput performance.
So don’t use their speed tests. I have Comcast, and have only used their speedtest to see how accurate it is. Ironically, it’s under-reporting. I’m getting an average sustained 116mbps download pretty consistently using other tools, while the Comcast speedtest shows me just a bit lower at about 112mbps.
For me, it’s all about routing anyway, so I’m using tools like MTR and Network Logger testing my own servers around the world and look at real-world performance to other servers.
BUT that’s another issue…
AirPlay performance is dependent on your *LAN*. So test that instead. The only time you need to test your ISP speed as an issue is if you’re trying to AirPlay something you’re streaming online, in which case the problem could still be your LAN, your ISP, the routing to your content provider, or the content provider itself (I’m looking at you Netflix).
Noted, however the two I use: testmy. Net and SpeeofMe.Com (the best independent, Java and Flash free instruments.) show FIOS speeds to be overly hyped, promoted and falsely misrepresented to be stable countinuous and steady…the burst performance is the culprit caisiing the pause…
testmy.net, Speedofme.com…
What’s funny is that as I mentioned before, I’m getting real world results (actually downloading large files from my servers) of 116mbps, but with 3 tests of testmy.net I got 54.9mbps, 86.4mbps, 74.8mbps. With SpeedofMe.com, I got 120mbps, 122.59mbps, 124.26mbps.
So the two tests you recommended, I got between 54.9mbps and 124.26mbps. This is with the entire network disconnected (no other devices) and no apps or other browser windows open. Also, I set the location of testmy.net to a near city (and tried others to verify).
TL;DR: at least one of them is very wrong.
Happens sometimes…might have to do with server routing but continue and you’ll find that at times they both confirm each other.
What other independent tests are you using?
Look under the testmy.net miscellaneous tab for good explanations and validations of it’s approach and why ISPs should not be involved in speed tests… ISPs have bought an interest in most speed tests out there which, in some cases hosted on their servers and falsely read shortest path performance.
Verizon is the biggest customer abuser.
Ya, I would never use an ISP’s speedtest as a reliable method. It’s not so much that they’re intentionally being deceptive as it is that you’re only testing your connection to your ISP. The routing from your ISP can kill your speeds.
And to some degree that’s the problem with all of the speed tests. If I’m going 3rd party to a server that’s local and has a solid connection to Comcast, I’ll get higher results.
That’s why I use other tools like MTR and Network Logger to test my speeds and routing to specific servers and areas.
For example… using MTR, I can explain the discrepancy between testmy.net and SpeedOfMe.com and why SpeedOfMe.com got results higher than Comcast’s speed tool.
TestMy.net is going through far more hops to get to. On two of the hops I’m getting significant packet loss. If fact, on ae19.bbr01.eq01.dal03.networklayer.com, I’m getting 80% packet loss. That’s where the problem is, not Comcast. On the other hand, SpeedOfMe.com has routing with far fewer hops and no problems along the way… 0% packet loss and fast pings. Since SpeedOfMe.com is local and on the same backbone, there’s no real difference in connecting to it, as compared to Comcast. However, SpeedOfMe.com is better suited for speed tests and things like not using Flash is allowing it to score higher than Comcast.
IOW: There really is no *one* accurate bandwidth score other than what your ISP is actually giving you and perhaps throttling you at, but you have to take that score as a theoretical maximum and know that realistically, wherever you connect in the world (not necessarily geographically) you’ll likely get lower results (caveat of higher results as per my example).
There is electrical noise around the home that gets in the way of Airplay over WiFi and there is nothing you can do about it except increase the buffer size which increases the starting delay. Streaming from one device to AppleTV is inherently going to be choppy for many people unless WiFi moves over to other frequencies.
Ya, that’s why I pretty much go with the rule in our house…
Q: Does it move?
A: WiFi.
Q: Does it not move?
A: Cat 6 Ethernet.
I know that’s not an option for most people, but AirPlay, TiVo streaming, Sonos, wireless phones all over the house, 3 Microcells webcams etc… it all works great in my house despite the complexity… 6 WiFi routers, 7 switches and between 100-150 devices connected.
You don’t have a house, you have a farm. A server farm.
I totally agree. Your network has to be a high performance one. I have a Netgear N 900 dual band gigabit router. At the time I got it, it cost $199. Now it is $149 with the new ac one at the top for $199. I have no problems with AirPlay or any thing else that is on my network wired or wireless. I have a friend that has the latest Apple dual band wireless and it is marginal at best. Video pulls a lot of bandwidth and for that you need a wireless router that can handle it.
So what are the differences in specs between your Netgear and your friends Extreme? Or does he have an Express?
I use Airplay to stream ESPN3 a lot and never have problems. I use an iPhone 5. Neither of my Apple TV’s is latest generation.
Same experience here. Would love to use Airplay more often, but too much lag and delay. Disappointing to see this from Apple.
Works great through iTunes. IPad 3. IPhone 4S. Second-generation Apple TV.
@MDN
Do you have the Apple TV connected to your network via ethernet or WIFI?
Ethernet connection to Apple TV resolves stuttering for us.
We use airplay for video daily on on nearly 20 Apple TV’s in our org. It does work.
I mean think about it. You are streaming video from youtube across the internet, through your router, to your wireless device. You then expect that wireless device to simultaneously re-stream that feed in real time back out over the wireless to another wirelessly connected device and are then surprised when you have stuttering, buffering, issues? The problem isn’t Airplay it is your unrealistic expectations..
Welcome to WIFI latency. Wifi interference plays a role. Airplay is great tech, it is the inherent flaws in WIFI that contribute to the bad experience. Apple isn’t likely to fix that ever..
We have Apple TV connected via Ethernet to AirPort Extreme. No streaming problems at all.
I did see that some Apple TVs are being replaced for having WiFi issues:
“Apple has informed its official retail stores, AppleCare employees, and authorized resellers that a small number of third-generation Apple TV units have WiFi issues. These issues surround not being able to locate a WiFi network, unable to join a network, and dropped or intermittent connections”
http://9to5mac.com/2013/04/15/apple-says-small-number-of-apple-tvs-have-wifi-issues-opens-replacement-program/
Also MDN, are they using the 5 GHz network with wide bands or the 2.4 or mixed? I’ve set up a dedicated 5 and seldom have these problems (with wired Apple TV as Truth says).
And have you checked for interfering networks and adjusted your channels (the higher, the better)?
I know these are basic, but I have seen so many issues resolved by adjusting these settings.
And while I am thinking about it, wireless repeaters, Extreme, Express or others, severely slow down throughput, even if the speed looks good.
Best bet is to wire from router to extender which will keep your throughput at same rate as router’s, or to wire FROM the extender to the recipient (client).
In other words, one wireless hop is all an extender can handle without affecting your network, whether it is receiving or transmitting.
Our household has a 27″ iMac, Macbook Air, iPhone 4S and 5, iPad 2nd generation, iPod touch, and Apple TV 2nd and 3rd generations. And we’ve got a 60″ LED TV that begs for movies to watch. The 5GHz Wifi signal is strong though out the house.
But I could not get either Apple TV to stream movies consistently without stuttering or failing outright. Airplay from the iMac didn’t work much better, hit or miss. Streaming seems to work well enough in the mornings but in the afternoon or evenings, forget it. But I did find a solution. Airplay steamed great from my iPhone 5. So I loaded up all my rental movies onto my iPhone and used Airplay to stream it to the TV. No stuttering. It worked great… Until the last Apple TV OS update. Now it stutters or doesn’t do anything at all. I’m back to watching movies on my 27″ iMac.
I don’t know whether it’s my cable company, RF interference from the neighbors or, Apple simply not getting it right. Very frustrating but I’m glad to see that it’s not just me having problems.
In my home setup (3 Apple TV’s and 1 airplay sound dock) I have very good experiences with audio and it impresses everyone who we entertain. It’s very rare for it to cut out or not be responsive.
With video, it just depends. At one time before you had access to all of your purchased movies via iCloud I used to stream iTunes-bought movies from the iPad to Apple TV and it worked really well.
But I have never had good luck with streaming home movies shot on our iPhones or iPad. It takes so long to buffer. In each case I’d be trying to show some friends something and it would take so long it was completely embarrassing both to myself and Apple.
This really makes no sense because we’re talking about a compressed file over a modern local network. MDN’s take is pretty spot on.
I have never experaced the problem. Love AirPlay
I use Airplay with both an apple TV and a denon stereo receiver, nearly all day long every day. I send music from spotify on my laptop, videos and music from my iPad and iPhone. I’ve never had and issues other than interference from a microwave oven. Hardly a disappointment. The most disappointing thing is all the blabbering about how it doesn’t work. One of the best features of any apple device.
Use it all the time, every day, love it. When something works so well that it’s invisible, you don’t have to think about it, and thus you forget how awesome it is. I have 3 TVs, house sound system, 3 Macs, 23 iPads, 2 iPhones, 2 Touches, in my 4 member household. Everyone can instantly play anything from their device on any TV at any time. Sad thing is, my kids think that’s just how everything in the world is supposed to work, and are confused when we are anywhere else and wonder what’s wrong with the world.
23 iPads for a 4 member household? WTF?? I’d like to have your problems. Who the hell needs 23 iPads? How about you donate a few to a school or make actual use of them you greedy hoarder?
Typo, I’m pretty sure… otherwise, I agree – WTF!
Have you got a lot of devices on the network MDN?. It might be a network or internet bandwidth issue If I am streaming stuff from my iPhone to my Apple TV, I rarely if ever get stuttering/buffering issues unless I am also downloading movies to iTunes on my Mac at the same time.
I use airplay all the time. No issues whatsoever. Maybe buy a better router next time.
We are starting to use airplay here with our recruiters. They will have an iPad, AppleTV and Apple Airport Express. Doing presentations and video they have been flawless. The hardest part is getting the presentation onto the iPads. Be nice to simply plug the iPad into USB and drag them over, but thats too easy! Tested Dropbox. But no problems here with Airplay, my only disappointment is Jobs said it would be open source and if it was we would probably see more of it.
Once I got true high speed internet (instead the faux high-speed DSL), my AirPlay has been very usable. I cut the cable bill and watch most everything from the internet over AirPlay. Between Comcast internet and NetFlix, I can watch just about 90% of what I want to see–all over AirPlay.
And if I have to run an ethernet cable to the AppleTV (as many are suggesting here) doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose?
The WHOLE reason I bought an AppleTV was to not have to worry about stinkin’ CABLES.
You don’t “have-to”, but you may want to. If you use a mac or iOS device to Airplay video to the Apple TV, you will find that performance is better if the Apple TV is connected via ethernet.
Why would you want to Airplay something like Netflix that is already integrated with the Apple TV anyway? Why tie up the computer streaming something you can use natively on the device?
It is a very simple concept, Each wireless hop adds latency to the connection. Building construction, radio transmission, people, other wireless devices ALL can contribute ‘noise’ or interference that reduces connection strength, stability and throughput.
The unfortunate side effect of the mass adoption of WIFI is that people expect it to always work and expect it to be as good as wired services, neither of which are true.
From my living room in my condo, I can see over 20 other wireless networks. As a result wireless performance is less than ideal and requires a level of tuning, most average users do not know anything about.
Excellent app to help find a ‘hole’ to tune your network to.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wifi-explorer/id494803304?mt=12
This is a must-have app for anyone with multiple wifi routers in their house, or who lives around others where there may be interference.
My recommendation is to put everything that doesn’t move on Ethernet, unless it’s impractical to do so (like there are no ports or ability to run cable to the location).
I have ZERO issues with video playback through airplay. I use it all the time and wouldn’t wanna be without it. For me, It just works. I love it!
I’ve been using AirPlay on my hacked Apple TV G1 with great success! So, huh?
I do have great Internet bandwidth and have optimized which WiFi band I’m using in order to avoid interference. As ever, it’s useful to know what’s the bottleneck. I’m not sure it’s AirPlay that’s the problem.
It’s the ISP.
Ive been extensively testing for 5 months now, the FIOS product which is failing miserably to provide steady reliable continous stable performance as promised. FIOS is not what it promises at least here in all locations and despite high peak bursting, which may be the problem impacting AirPlay…
Two independent speed testing instruments worth using are :
testmy.net and SpeedOfMe.com ( they are java and flash free tetsing instruments that show continuous as opposed to burst performance results)
Locally I can choose between two companies that suck bad: Verizon or Time Warner. I hate them both. So much for competition.
My dear old mom chose to get DSL service from her phone company. Surprise: They treat her like royalty and she has steady, decent bandwidth. Go figure.
I get hiccups when streaming *music* from my library (i.e. not internet radio), from my MBP, through my Airport Express, to my 3rd-gen AppleTV–all Apple gear, no internet congestion to deal with. If it can’t stream and buffer a measly 100KB/s, how can you rely on it doing realtime screen mirroring?
That said, a couple times I’ve Airplay mirrored a (short) video from my computer with friends watching, the results were flawless, and they were all rather impressed… even the jaded anti-Apple guy said so.
Probably psychosomatic. Try holding your breath while drinking water and having someone scare you are the same time.
Might not work, but be sure to video it……;-)
(and if that doesn’t work, check your 2.4 congestion.
For that I recommend a vaporizer….)
It’s all about pass through. I had problems till I realized that my wifi was constantly bogged down by use. After reconfiguring what device was using what feed it solved all the stuttering. Move a few things over to other wifi’s and wire in a few devices to reduce wifi congestion and your good.
That’s why my iMac is connected via ethernet, since it’s supplying the iTunes library to three apple tv’s it’s a bottleneck otherwise.
and also, Mac Mail is stinking ass piece of shit that is actually dangerous to use in business. Get your head out of your ass Apple.
Howe?
We use AirPlay all the time without issues – at least not from Apple. We have one app on the iPhone that stutters, airplay or not, so I don’t blame apple since it’s the only one that does it. Other than that one, we all push YouTube and other content from our iPods, iPhones and Macs directly to Apple TV without issue. Love the feature.
This is a big hurdle Apple…
As many have commented on above, the technologies AirPlay relies on are troublesome for video. But this is no excuse for it not working, and the average user will blame Apple every time. Then it is a ‘failed’ product that Apple couldn’t get right.
I myself use AirPlay quite a bit for photos / mirroring presentations, but videoes from iPhone 5 are not worth the huge wait. I know the hold up is the wifi, but even then it is frustrating that this option that is so easy to summon doesn’t work.
If anyone can fix it Apple can – so maybe it’s unfixable on wifi?
As stated, very happy other than video – reliable, consistent and fast.
I think you are way off base. Perhaps in an overly simplistic sense what you say is true. Perhaps Apple should put a disclaimer about wireless network performance.
~OR~
Perhaps you just have unrealistic expectations and require a level of handholding Apple isn’t willing to provide. Perhaps you should invest your energy in learning about how wifi works. Do you consider a MacBook Pro a failed product when you have a latent connection and videos take forever to buffer? You do realize that different sites have different technologies and bandwidth and streaming isn’t always consistent on a high speed wired connection, let alone when streamed between devices over a wifi connection?
Sounds to me like you just expected perfect in an imperfect world and set yourself up for disappointment.
I use an iPhone4 and original iPad to airplay YouTube and Vimeo numerous times every day and rarely have problems. The only times I have ever had a problem I had the same problem accessing the video directly from the AppleTV, on the iPad and on my Mac and even my wife’s old PC running Windows XP. It’s YouTube causing the problems in my experience. Of course, YMMV.
I use Airplay a lot streaming Acornonline.com TV shows to my Apple TV from my iPhone. I only wish I could use Airplay between my iPhone (which has a lot of storage) to my iPad (which doesn’t) for TV shows downloaded from iTunes.
The vast majority of the time, it works really well. A few hiccups have occurred, but as others mentioned above, I suspect those are network related.
I use it all the time from my iOS devices with very few problems. Just wish I could use my mid 2010 iMac! Still chaps my butt! (yes it was my fault for not reading the fine print before installing Mt Lion)
MDN maybe you have one of the recalled AppleTVs (WiFi issue).
I was having issues using it WiFi to WiFi then I connected using Ethernet to my iMac that is on WiFi using sharing and now works great this tells me the WiFi in my AppleTV is the issue.