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SuperMatt

Suspended
Original poster
Mar 28, 2002
1,569
8,281
I recently saw an article on Macworld where they point out that only Macs from 2011 and newer will support Airplay mirroring to your Apple TV. Here is the relevant page from Apple's website:

http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/

I'm very sad about this, because it's something I was really looking forward to, and my Mac isn't that old. In fact, I think its graphics capabilities are better than some integrated graphics being sold in Macbook Airs right now... :-(
 

osohardy

macrumors member
Jul 7, 2009
66
1
I recently saw an article on Macworld where they point out that only Macs from 2011 and newer will support Airplay mirroring to your Apple TV. Here is the relevant page from Apple's website:

http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/

I'm very sad about this, because it's something I was really looking forward to, and my Mac isn't that old. In fact, I think its graphics capabilities are better than some integrated graphics being sold in Macbook Airs right now... :-(

It is too bad but Apple is relying on certain hardware only found in Sandy Bridge and later models (Intel Quicksync). Quicksync is used to encode in realtime to an h264 stream to feed the apple tv. Encoding in software is cpu-intensive so the choice not to support CPU driven mirroring is not surprising for those without recent intel integrated graphics. There are third party apps like Airparrot that will offer this functionality for unsupported macs.
 

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
It is too bad but Apple is relying on certain hardware only found in Sandy Bridge and later models (Intel Quicksync). Quicksync is used to encode in realtime to an h264 stream to feed the apple tv. Encoding in software is cpu-intensive so the choice not to support CPU driven mirroring is not surprising for those without recent intel integrated graphics. There are third party apps like Airparrot that will offer this functionality for unsupported macs.

AirParrot does not work well, unless you have a multicore cpu. Think about it, if AirParrot could transcode to h.264 on the fly using CPU, Apple could do the same and include the capability for all of us.
 

Mavimao

macrumors 6502a
Feb 16, 2005
857
15
Lyon, France
AirParrot does not work well, unless you have a multicore cpu. Think about it, if AirParrot could transcode to h.264 on the fly using CPU, Apple could do the same and include the capability for all of us.

They could, but they don't like half baked features. Or forked features. Why should they waste their time doing both Quicksync and CPU airplay transcoding? Quicksync is a simple and functional hardware feature on newer CPUs.

All others can use Airparrot. Of course, you will see that it's not always very pretty, and then you will realize why Apple went with the route they did.
 

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,050
Detroit
I recently saw an article on Macworld where they point out that only Macs from 2011 and newer will support Airplay mirroring to your Apple TV. Here is the relevant page from Apple's website:

http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/

I'm very sad about this, because it's something I was really looking forward to, and my Mac isn't that old. In fact, I think its graphics capabilities are better than some integrated graphics being sold in Macbook Airs right now... :-(

Yep. I'm disappointed as well. This was a big feature I was looking forward to and my iMac is *only* two years old and not compatible. pffftt...
 

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
They could, but they don't like half baked features. Or forked features. Why should they waste their time doing both Quicksync and CPU airplay transcoding? Quicksync is a simple and functional hardware feature on newer CPUs.

All others can use Airparrot. Of course, you will see that it's not always very pretty, and then you will realize why Apple went with the route they did.

I think we are agreeing. ;)

I just get tired of everyone suggesting AirParrot can be a substitute for AirPlay and it really can't.
 

osohardy

macrumors member
Jul 7, 2009
66
1
I think we are agreeing. ;)

I just get tired of everyone suggesting AirParrot can be a substitute for AirPlay and it really can't.

Umm I'm not suggesting it is equivalent in my reply to the OP, I'm sure it isnt; I'm saying it's an option for those with unsupported hardware. There are a gazillion threads of people bitching about how apple screwed them with mirroring, but there is a reason why.
 
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