New Apple TV - Stream over WIFI quality

[ReL1988]

Hello there new buyers,

Can any of you please tell us how good/bad/smooth is the WIFI streaming for 1080p movies/clips from your macbook pc hard-drive and web ?

My brother had ATV3 and he didn't had a good smooth experience with the ATV3.

I am wondering if that's something they improved/fixed in the new ATV.

Thanks!!

 

[mattopotamus]

I can't wait to test this myself. Streaming works good from an iPhone/ipad, but is always choppy from a mac via airplay.

 

[kring]

Hello there new buyers,

Can any of you please tell us how good/bad/smooth is the WIFI streaming for 1080p movies/clips from your macbook pc hard-drive and web ?

My brother had ATV3 and he didn't had a good smooth experience with the ATV3.

I am wondering if that's something they improved/fixed in the new ATV.

Thanks!!

This isn't an ATV question, the question is your service provider bandwidth/quality. and then your wirless router speed an capability... the wifi in the ATV has more bandwidth then needed to simultaneously stream five flawless 8K videos.

Any issues you are having are not because of your ATV... so I would guess the issues you(or bother/others) have currently will be there even if you buy a new ATV... you need to fix your service/Wifi router.

 

[mattopotamus]

This isn't an ATV question, the question is your service provider bandwidth/quality. and then your wirless router speed an capability... the wifi in the ATV has more bandwidth then needed to simultaneously stream five flawless 8K videos.

Any issues you are having are not because of your ATV... so I would guess the issues you(or bother/others) have currently will be there even if you buy a new ATV... you need to fix your service/Wifi router.

simply not true. I have 1gbps internet speeds. Airplay from a phone/tablet is great....airplay from a mac is awful.

 

[kring]

simply not true. I have 1gbps internet speeds. Airplay from a phone/tablet is great....airplay from a mac is awful.

Actually it's 100% true, but to cover your point, I'll add that your "Source" also needs to be able to stream at 1080p... again.. NOT an ATV issue.

 

[mattopotamus]

Actually it's 100% true, but to cover your point, I'll add that your "Source" also needs to be able to stream at 1080p... again.. NOT an ATV issue.

It really is though. I have tried mac pro, mac air, macbook, etc (2015 variants) They all airplay terribly. For some reason it does not work the same way it does from your phone/tablet.

Go into an apple store and airplay a video from a mac to an Apple TV. You will see what I mean.

 

[zhenya]

What sort of Airplay are you trying to do from your Mac? If it's video from iTunes, it should stream to the ATV seamlessly. If it's via screen mirroring, this is never, ever going to work as well as people like as it's fundamentally different from how it's done with most iOS apps. This has NOTHING to do with the ATV version you are using so don't expect any change with the new ATV.

 

[mattopotamus]

I guess it would be screen mirroring, but that is the same thing the iPhone/ipad does when I am watching a video in a website and "push" it to the TV. It seems odd the iPhone does it without a hitch but the mac is a stuttering mess.

For example, the website afdah.com can airplay perfect from a phone/tablet but horrific from a mac.

What would be the cause of that?

 

[zhenya]

I guess it would be screen mirroring, but that is the same thing the iPhone/ipad does when I am watching a video in a website and "push" it to the TV. It seems odd the iPhone does it without a hitch but the mac is a stuttering mess.

For example, the website afdah.com can airplay perfect from a phone/tablet but horrific from a mac.

What would be the cause of that?

iOS is not doing screen mirroring. It is negotiating the stream directly from the source to the ATV. On your Mac you are streaming the video to your Mac, and then re-transmitting the entire screen as a separate image to the ATV. This has never worked from any manufacturer for anything other than basic screen sharing. In El Capitan some website video can now be properly transmitted via Airplay the way it works in iOS, but it's still not universal.

 

[madmaxmedia]

What would your internet connection have to do with local streaming?

I stream a lot of 720p movies from my 2009 MBP iTunes library to my ATV 3, and it has always worked very well. But I don't have much experience streaming 1080p. I'm not doing Airplay, I'm using iTunes Home Sharing or whatever it's called, to browse my iTunes content from the ATV.

 

[RollTide1017]

the wifi in the ATV has more bandwidth then needed to simultaneously stream five flawless 8K videos.

Uh, no.

The Apple TV 2 and 3 WiFi speeds are capped at 65mbps because they only included 1 WiFi antenna. This has been known for years.

In theory, that is plenty to stream 1080p but, so many variables can clog up or interfere with your WiFi bandwidth that it is really hit or miss. If you have the ability to plug an Ethernet cable into you ATV 3 then you'll probably see better results.

As far as this 8K streaming over WiFi claim, I doubt the ATV 2 or 3 could stream 1 flawlessly, much less 5 at one time. I doubt that there is any consumer product on the market today that has the bandwidth and processing power to stream 5 simultaneous 8K videos.

 

[ReL1988]

any results anyone?

 

[zhenya]

Well, now that there is the Air Video TV app available, it just works, and works perfectly. Install the Air Video server app on your Mac and buy the Air Video TV app on the TV. Point the server at the folders with your videos, and then play them on the ATV. No reason to do screen mirroring.

 

[critter13]

Well, now that there is the Air Video TV app available, it just works, and works perfectly. Install the Air Video server app on your Mac and buy the Air Video TV app on the TV. Point the server at the folders with your videos, and then play them on the ATV. No reason to do screen mirroring.

you were using mirroring to play videos?? thats your problem right there. if they are .h264 load them into iTunes and use home sharing to browse your iTunes library. If not use plex, the ATV app should be out any day now.

 

[mattopotamus]

Well, now that there is the Air Video TV app available, it just works, and works perfectly. Install the Air Video server app on your Mac and buy the Air Video TV app on the TV. Point the server at the folders with your videos, and then play them on the ATV. No reason to do screen mirroring.

would this work for something like Kodi?

 

[ReL1988]

it's an absurd to purchase an app / look for others apps to play content from my apple Macbook.

Isn't there an easier way than using iTunes library / uploads / ftp etc etc...?

I really hoped that this time AirPlay / Mirroring will be enough

 

[zhenya]

it's an absurd to purchase an app / look for others apps to play content from my apple Macbook.

Isn't there an easier way than using iTunes library / uploads / ftp etc etc...?

I really hoped that this time AirPlay / Mirroring will be enough

How is that absurd?? Your options are to use the MacBook directly, which means converting any files you have into iTunes compatible format, storing two copies, adding that content to your iTunes library, then accessing it over the ATV which still requires your MacBook to be turned on. Or spend $3 for an app that does it all for you and requires you do nothing except put the files you want to watch in a folder and then use the ATV remote.

Mirroring sucks for video and will never be a good experience. And it's nowhere near as smooth. With proper Airplay or Air Video support, you get full, smooth real-time ff/rw/pause/play all from the ATV remote. That doesn't work with mirroring.

 

[ReL1988]

i dont have any complaints about the price (even if it was a lot more than 3$).
Its the fact that i thought they might bring us a better solution by now..