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Demo: Check Out AirPlay 2 on a Mac in macOS Monterey

For what it's worth, Apple sometimes don't list Macs as compatible with new features if they don't fully support the feature, or if their performance while using it is underwhelming.

It may be that the devices listed have a faster wifi system than others, which might be required for full-resolution AirPlay to their screen - it's possible be that a direct cable or ethernet connection might enable the functionality, but the inability to fully support the feature keeps them off the compatible list.

All speculation of course, and time will tell if enterprising coders are able to work around software lock-out if that appears to be in place.
 
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MEJHarrison said:
It sounds like a cool feature. But what I'm not getting is the use case. Why would I AirPlay photos or videos when I could open Photos on my Mac and view the same content. Why would I AirPlay something like Netflix when I could go to Netflix in the browser. And so on.

I'm not saying it's not useful, just that I don't understand how. What am I missing?
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I think it would’ve came in handy a couple months ago when we had no home internet. Had to rely on cellular data/hotspot for 2 months. Unlimited data on phone, but only 15 GB of hotspot, so instead of hooking up my Apple TV to hotspot, we would just airplay it. However, even when reducing the resolution from 4K to 1080p, it ate up a lot of data and couldn’t always keep up during peak hours. ALSO….you can’t airplay Netflix video without FORCING the AppleTv to open the app (which then requires its own data consuming internet connection). Would it behave the same on the Mac since there is no Netflix app? Soooo we ended up watching from my phone a lot, but if I could airplay to the Mac and resize the window for more comfy viewing that would’ve been nice.
but I have a 2017 iMac, so I guess I’m not getting the feature anyway lmao
 
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When will apple have a simple way to remote control Apple Music from a stationary computer? The iTunes remote app is a 50% solution, but they have really failed on the "whole home" audio setup.
 
MacRumors said:


With macOS Monterey, Apple has introduced expanded AirPlay 2 support, so you can AirPlay content from an iPhone, iPad, or even another Mac to your main Mac. We thought we'd do a quick demo of this handy new feature in our latest YouTube video.


With AirPlay to Mac, you can extend or mirror an Apple device's display to a Mac, and since two Macs are supported, a Mac can use another Mac as an external display, which is a kind of substitute for the Target Display Mode that used to exist for Macs.

AirPlay to Mac works wirelessly or using an appropriate cable, and the wired connection is useful for cutting down on latency.

You can also turn your Mac into a speaker that can be used for multiroom audio alongside other AirPlay 2 devices.

AirPlay to Mac works with the 2018 or later MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, 2019 or later iMac or Mac Pro, the iMac Pro, and the 2020 or later Mac mini.

Apple has also added a useful new Universal Control feature that lets you control multiple Macs and iPads with a single keyboard, trackpad, or mouse, but Universal Control does not appear to be functional in the initial macOS Monterey beta.

Article Link: Demo: Check Out AirPlay 2 on a Mac in macOS Monterey
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Still trying to wrap my head around this feature. Supposedly, the Mac will have all the streaming abilities of the iPhone or iPad, so casting the content the Mac sounds superfluous. Just share the link and play the content natively on the Mac. I must be missing something. About the only use I can think of is to share iOS gameplay with a bigger screen so that your friends can watch the action. ???
 
MEJHarrison said:
It sounds like a cool feature. But what I'm not getting is the use case. Why would I AirPlay photos or videos when I could open Photos on my Mac and view the same content. Why would I AirPlay something like Netflix when I could go to Netflix in the browser. And so on.

I'm not saying it's not useful, just that I don't understand how. What am I missing?
Click to expand...

You're taking a long flight and want to download some shows/movies from one of your streaming service (Hulu, HBO Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc). There is no MacOS app for most of these, hence no way to download content. So you download to your phone at home, and then Airplay to your laptop on the flight.
 
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djestouff said:
You're taking a long flight and want to download some shows/movies from one of your streaming service (Hulu, HBO Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc). There is no MacOS app for most of these, hence no way to download content. So you download to your phone, and then Airplay to your laptop on the flight.
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Ok to do this you would need the iOS device and the Mac on the same network? Which network would that be if you are on a flight? The airline would have a limitation of how much data you could stream? Or airlines unlimited data?
 
citysnaps said:
The T2 chip provides fast hardware one-the-fly encryption, which likely cannot be handled by the CPU along with its other normal processing chores. The T2 also provides hardware audio processing and image processing, further off-loading the CPU which I suspect (ie, a guess) is used to advantage in AirPlay 2 securely (ie, encrypted) transmitting processed audio and video data. That, secure boot, and hardware on-the-fly SSD encryption are the features the T2 provides in hardware, rather than slowing the CPU down to a snails pace.

"Apple should have made it dependent on macOS version. At least that way, a user could easily recognise *why* it does or doesnt work on a given computer. As it is, the list looks completely arbitrary."

Holy smokes... Imagine the whinefest and eye-rolls of epic proportions if Apple arbitrarily, ie for no technical reason, intentionally crippled AirPlay 2 support by the particular OS a customer chooses to use. The reason it doesn't work on a given computer is because older computers do not have the accelerated hardware processing that new computers have. That's progress. I suppose I could have a good whine that my older computers that run the latest OS can't handle AirPlay 2, but recognizing their hardware limitations would make that over the top.
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OK - some good points raised here - but why doesn't it work on a 2018 Mac mini with T2 chip?
 
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