“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.
Have no problems with video but there is some latency when I stream games so it makes Real Racing hard to play between my ipad and HDTV via AirPlay but that is mainly the 802.11 n.
I’ve used AirPlay since the 2nd Gen Apple TV came out with various model iPhones, iPads & MacBook Air. Honestly I’ve only ever had problems with video stutter on two occasions & both times the problem was fixed by rebooting my router
I disagree with the premise of the article’s headline. “Nobody,” is a bit of an exaggeration. I use it as well as many of my co-workers. In fact, AirPlay, is one of the biggest lures I use to get people to buy an AppleTV. (that and the awesome Netflix interface) It works and it works well.
I see 2-3 times more glitches with my regular “cable feed” from Comcast/Xfinity than I get with AirPlay. Anecdotal? Sure, but so is the whole basis of Mac Daily News’ experiences. No more definitive than mine.
Use it all the time. All my iTunes music goes out of my iMac to the TimeCapsule to an old AirPort Express to my stereo receiver to my speakers. In our famy room an AppleTV 3rd gen receives video from iPads, iPhones and MBAs. In fact last night YouTube on the AppleTv didn’t have the new Anna Kendrick “Cups” music video so we had to AirPlay it from the YouTube app on my iPhone.
I use AirPlay often, never with a problem from my iPad. My iMac fir sime reason seems to lose sync with the Apple TV once I awhile. The HBO and MAX apps with AirPlay are awesome.
My wife uses an Appletv and an iPad in her classroom…. Streams movies and presentations flawlessly, even on the lousy school wifi.
Put me in the camp that has no problems and uses it very frequently as well.
While I did initially have issues when AirPlay was new, I haven’t had any problems with stuttering for a very long time now. I don’t know which update did it, but it has been since before the Apple TV 3 was released.
I have no problem streaming content from my iPad 3, or my iPhone 5 to my Apple TV 3 or Apple TV 2. Everything is connecting wirelessly through a last gen AirPort Extreme.
I personally use AirPlay quite often, at least twice a week (usually more).
Alot of what causes airplay to mess up from what i’ve is improper wireless network coverage. If you have an improper set up in your home then you will more than likely have Airplay issues. Now what would be pretty cool is if when you hit you tube to your apple tv it launched the youtube app on your apple tv and played what you were playing versus streaming it from device to device. That would eliminate the wifi that majority of users are experiencing. I used to wonder why I never had issues and everyone i met didn’t and i realized I set up my network using ports and gave certain machines priority in my network. THe problem is that the average JOE isn’t an IT technician.
Been using airplay since day one and never have the issues MDN is describing. AirPlay is a staple in my household, we have it in 3 rooms and use it nearly every day.
I use airplay quite a bit and would use it even more but so many App’s like NBC, CBS, and ABC don’t support it.
I put movies on my 128GB iPad and stream them to my AppleTV with no problems. I love it.
We use it everyday for work. No issues.
I use it all the time, streamed master piece theatre Mr. Selfridge the other day to my tv from my iphone 4s… love it!
I had to disagree with the initial comments on it not ‘just working’ I just used this feature last night from my Apple TV 3rd gen, to stream content from the YouTube app. Full 1080 resolution, no pauses it did just work for me; this is the case 90% of the time.
I highly recommend not trying to stream video over wifi, it’s not quite there yet, just do it over LAN. Also if your home network is only 1-2 Mbps then that is neither Steve Jobs fault, nor Apple’s products.
We use PLEX as our media server and open movies on our iPad mini then AirPlay to our big screen FLAWLESSLY every single day. We also watch TED talks and the Apple Trailers with no issue either. We kicked DirecTV to the curb and we don’t even remember what commercials are!
sorry but i have two apple tv. i always watch videos, movies etc from my iPad, MacBook or even my iPhone and i send them to any of my apple tv’s, sometimes in house we use the 2 apple tv’s at the same time with no problem what so ever. i’m a heavy user and i spend more de 300 gb’s a month. only one good router that handle them real good.
I have zero problems playing movies on my appleTV using AirPlay. I find that other airplay accessories are just too high priced. Give it another year or two and maybe the prices will start coming down.
I tried AirPlay a few time. But it’s like a hidden feature and doesn’t work well.
Let me join the group that hasn’t had a problem with AirPlay stuttering video. Use it with iPad Mini with no problems in mirroring mode over WiFi (both devices connect to my home LAN via WiFi). Also, use it a lot for just audio. Set up speakers on the patio connected to the AppleTV (via Optical to Analog converter and amp) and play music from anyone’s iPhone/iPad to the patio speakers without a hitch. I use AirPlay a lot in general; not just the video mirroring mode.
I haven’t had any problems with AirPlay, besides the occasional lag for a video to show up on the TV.
I think the biggest problem is that most people don’t have an easy way to AirPlay their iPhone/iPad screen to their TV because they don’t have an AppleTV and their TV doesn’t support AirPlay.
The next obvious answer is that many times you’re just showing a video to one or two other people, so it’s faster and easier to simply have them gather round or pass the iPhone/iPad over.
We use AirPlay daily, however we have discovered we need fast cable Internet and fast router. Once those both in place, no more ineradic play or pausing. Yes, I have new AppleTV and 2 year old AppleTV. Both units work great with the speed and can use both at same time on separate TV’s and use iPads and IPhones to surf web while watching TV’s.
Downstairs my air play is fine when it is connected to the ethernet port. Upstairs where the modem is is fine on wireless.
We have been using AirPlay for flawless playback of full quality (i.e. *not* transcoded) EyeTV recordings for over a month now and have used AirTunes for many years (since mid-2004) for audio with similar results.
If you have a problem, it’s in your LAN.
Maybe I am just one of the lucky ones or I just have my network configured properly but airplay mirroring/streaming has worked flawlessly from all my devices. I have tried it with multiple things from streaming the miami ATP event from my iphone 3gs and iPad 3 to mirroring my MBP and running video in VLC all without a hitch.
I use airplay almost everyday with 2 apple tv2 unit. Both with no problems.sometimes I get an error and have to restart. I use plex or air video to stream non apple purchased tv from my iMac to my apple via my iPad. Very handy. More tv should have airplay for direct use without atv
My house and all my HDTV’s and 3 Apple TV’s are all hard wired with Cat 6, and AirPlay works flawlessly. But then again, it better work with this kind of infrastructure!