Opinion on using airplay to ATV

[charlien]

I currently have an ATV3 and a Roku. I use the ATV to play my (encoded for iTunes) movies and TV shows with plex connect. I also use it for netflix and YouTube.
I use the roku for Amazon Prime.

I've been playing around with plex, amazon prime, and YouTube on my ipad2 and using AirPlay to send everything to my ATV. I'm not the best judge of audio or video quality and can't see a difference. Is there one? It seems easier to just airplay everything and control it all out of iPad but not at a degradation of the viewing experience.

 

[dgalvan123]

Not sure the official answer, but I can offer this:

When I use the Airplay feature that is built into a particular app (like in Amazon Prime, for instance), the resolution looks great.
When I use "Airplay Mirroring" to send whatever is on my phone's screen to the TV, then I get degraded resolution because it's just reproducing the phone screen resolution, which can look not so great on a big 1080p screen.

 

[linds15]

if you can't notice a difference, then does it really matter?

 

[charlien]

Not sure the official answer, but I can offer this:

When I use the Airplay feature that is built into a particular app (like in Amazon Prime, for instance), the resolution looks great.
When I use "Airplay Mirroring" to send whatever is on my phone's screen to the TV, then I get degraded resolution because it's just reproducing the phone screen resolution, which can look not so great on a big 1080p screen.

That would probably explain why some people complain about airplay and others swear by it. My experience has been pretty good but admittedly haven't tried more than to get an idea how it works. I haven't tried mirroring.

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if you can't notice a difference, then does it really matter?

I'm not the only one that views it. Also, I don't want to explain to my wife how to do it from her iPad and then turn around and say never mind.

 

[carjakester]

i dont notice a difference, and honestly its easier to navigate the iPad than the controller for apple tv, so airplay it is.

 

[warvanov]

I haven't used AirPlay for video very much at all. When I first used AirPlay mirroring from my MacBook Pro to the TV it was at significantly reduced quality than when I just plug in an HDMI cable, so I've just continued to do that when necessary. I haven't come across any other circumstances where I saw an advantage to use either AirPlay or AirPlay mirroring rather than just using the Apple TV or another device to play directly to the TV.

 

[cynics]

Opinion on using airplay to ATV

AirPlay I've never noticed any difference. I figured it was just using my iPhone as a remote and sending data directly to my ATV from the router.

Mirroring on the other hand has reduced quality and can get laggy with home network congestion.

Since the two are so obviously and differently noticeable is why I figured the iOS wasn't a go between when using AirPlay.

 

[warvanov]

AirPlay I've never noticed any difference. I figured it was just using my iPhone as a remote and sending data directly to my ATV from the router.

Mirroring on the other hand has reduced quality and can get laggy with home network congestion.

Since the two are so obviously and differently noticeable is why I figured the iOS wasn't a go between when using AirPlay.

I had no idea. I think I'll have to play around with AirPlay later today. I do like the idea of browsing Netflix on my iPad and then playing it directly to the Apple TV.

 

[cynics]

I had no idea. I think I'll have to play around with AirPlay later today. I do like the idea of browsing Netflix on my iPad and then playing it directly to the Apple TV.

I notice this because I mirror Vine app to my ATV quite frequently. The performance and quality difference is massive.

Plus something else I noticed is when you AirPlay from an app (not mirror) the ATV remote can control the video/music.

 

[Shanghaichica]

So far my experience of airplay has been pretty good. Sometimes the airplay experience is even superior to the built in apps. I remember when the iTunes festival was on, the stream through the app on the Apple TV was poor, it kept buffering and freezing. I used airplay from my iPad to the Apple TV and the stream was flawless. It's funny because I had a first gen Apple TV for years and was reluctant to upgrade, thinking that the airplay wasn't worth it. It's actually the feature I love the most about the Apple TV.

 

[charlien]

Thanks for the comments. Looks like I'm not the only one looking at this. I tried it out last night with a Netflix tv show (Lilyhammer - great show). I think it is easier to navigate the iPad and then send it to the ATV. My only complaint is after the show the sound of the game I was playing was sent to the ATV. Easy enough to change it back (swipe up from the bottom of the iPad) but it would be nice if it was automatic.