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27" iMac screen always on with AirPlay

I

insane79

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 20, 2008
276
1
Hi Guys,
I got a late 2012 27" iMac & i use airplay to stream movies on my apple tv, the thing is the iMac display is always on with airplay even if i lower the brightness completely :confused: is there a way to switch of the iMac screen during airplay?

Thanks..
 
I am almost certain but I think this is by design. I believe airplay only offers mirroring - so if the display on the source device is off, then nothing is mirrored.

At least this is the case when I first used airplay on my iMac. I moved the mouse to the hot corner that controls the display and when the display turned off, nothing played on my apple tv.

Dimming the display all the way has been the best solution I can think of.

Hopes this helps!
 
From what I found there is no stock way to turn the display off while airplaying.
 
dimming the display helps little bit, another way is to use extended display & run the player on the tv only but well even with lowest brightness the iMac display isn;t fully dim :(

Thanks..
 
i just don't understand why we can't turn off the LED light on the screen at all. i mean we can do this on Macbook Pro/Air, why is iMac screen so special?
 
eddieaus said:
i just don't understand why we can't turn off the LED light on the screen at all. i mean we can do this on Macbook Pro/Air, why is iMac screen so special?
Click to expand...

yes its very frustrating, even on lowest brightness level the screen isn't completely blank :confused:
 
Make an interactive corner in system prefs to get the display into sleep. After starting the movie just put your mouse in that corner, display goes to sleep and airplay still works!
 
Dreadnought said:
Make an interactive corner in system prefs to get the display into sleep. After starting the movie just put your mouse in that corner, display goes to sleep and airplay still works!
Click to expand...

tried it, both displays goes to sleep & even airplay video.
 
How do you airplay the movie? Because when I watch a movie through airplay my iMac's screen stays in sleep mode. I wake up my iMac, put the mouse in an corner so that the monitor goes to sleep and with the AppleTV I select the movie.
 
Dreadnought said:
How do you airplay the movie? Because when I watch a movie through airplay my iMac's screen stays in sleep mode. I wake up my iMac, put the mouse in an corner so that the monitor goes to sleep and with the AppleTV I select the movie.
Click to expand...

do you use airplay extended desktop? would be great if you go explain how to do it.

Thanks..
 
insane79 said:
do you use airplay extended desktop? would be great if you go explain how to do it.

Thanks..
Click to expand...

It sounds like you're using Airplay up by the clock, right? You're sharing the computer's screen and then playing the movie?

Yeah, don't do that.

Share the video from the app itself. Like, if it's in iTunes there's an Airplay icon on the play/pause bar. Use that and then when the iMac puts its screen to sleep iTunes will keep right on playing underneath.

Then, as Dreadnought said, set up hot corners so you can put the display to sleep. You have to use 'Display Sleep' though, and not regular sleep. (This means you can't use 'Sleep' from the Apple Menu either since that fully shuts everything off.)
 
Small White Car said:
It sounds like you're using Airplay up by the clock, right? You're sharing the computer's screen and then playing the movie?

Yeah, don't do that.

Share the video from the app itself. Like, if it's in iTunes there's an Airplay icon on the play/pause bar. Use that and then when the iMac puts its screen to sleep iTunes will keep right on playing underneath.

Then, as Dreadnought said, set up hot corners so you can put the display to sleep. You have to use 'Display Sleep' though, and not regular sleep. (This means you can't use 'Sleep' from the Apple Menu either since that fully shuts everything off.)
Click to expand...
thanks for the explanation, will try that, the thing is i watch blur ays from a 3rd party app(Macgo Blu-ray player) unfortunately they don't have air play in the app itself, WISH apple supported blu ray but will definitely give this a try for other movie formats.

Thanks..
 
Small White Car said:
It sounds like you're using Airplay up by the clock, right? You're sharing the computer's screen and then playing the movie?

Yeah, don't do that.

Share the video from the app itself. Like, if it's in iTunes there's an Airplay icon on the play/pause bar. Use that and then when the iMac puts its screen to sleep iTunes will keep right on playing underneath.

Then, as Dreadnought said, set up hot corners so you can put the display to sleep. You have to use 'Display Sleep' though, and not regular sleep. (This means you can't use 'Sleep' from the Apple Menu either since that fully shuts everything off.)
Click to expand...


I believe (and could be wrong) iTunes is the only thing that really supports this. And if you are using iTunes you might as well just stream your iTunes from the ATV and not even mess with the Mac at all.

All else on the Mac requires airplay mirror (icon in the upper right).
 
workaround

I have this same problem and found a workaround.

To turn off the iMac display (with apple TV set as an extended display) I created a black gif file that is the same size as my 21" iMac (1920 x 1080px) When I want to 'turn off' the display I just open this file in preview and set it to full screen. The screen isn't actually off but it's black and this serves the same purpose.
 
Bils42 said:
I have this same problem and found a workaround.

To turn off the iMac display (with apple TV set as an extended display) I created a black gif file that is the same size as my 21" iMac (1920 x 1080px) When I want to 'turn off' the display I just open this file in preview and set it to full screen. The screen isn't actually off but it's black and this serves the same purpose.
Click to expand...

Yes i do the same, its lame apple hasn't fixed this issue yet..
 
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