Why AirPlay Mirroring is Reason Enough to Buy an Apple TV

By , Jan 31, 2012

As big fans of the Apple TV, we’re making it our business to get the word out about how great Apple’s so-called “hobby” device is for a variety of purposes.

The bottom line is that we can’t live without our little $99 wonder device, so it’s no surprise when someone like Apple CEO Tim Cook thinks just like we do.

We’ve shown you some of the amazing benefits that jailbreaking your Apple TV can provide, but there’s also quite a few perks for those that aren’t jailbroken. One of those is AirPlay Mirroring — a technology that lets you mirror your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 screen 1:1 for an awesome big screen experience.

The most obvious reason to use AirPlay mirroring is for gaming. More and more game developers are following Real Racing 2′s lead by offering modes of play that are tweaked for the AirPlay Mirroring experience.

With Real Racing 2 you can play in full 720p HD, control your vehicle using your iPhone or iPad as the steering wheel, and have different UI elements on the small screen versus the big screen. It all adds up to what is essentially a console experience — this is the future.

Then there’s web browsing, presentations, movie streaming, Pandora, and a variety of other valid uses for the technology. It also works great for giving Keynote presentations on the big screen.

AirPlay mirroring is just one of the reasons that the Apple TV is so instrumental in our day to day lives. If you have an A5 device like an iPad 2 or iPhone 4S, we highly recommend you check it out.

What do you think? Is AirPlay the future of console gaming?

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  • http://twitter.com/Choorel Casey Hoorelbeke

    My airplay mirroring from my 4S to my ATV2 has never worked. I’ve never been able to have the mirroring option to show.

    • http://twitter.com/akiboy14 Akshay Shah

      Have you enabled AirPlay on your Apple TV?

      • http://twitter.com/Choorel Casey Hoorelbeke

        Im pretty sure I have verified that multiple times, but Ill check again.

      • http://www.facebook.com/yered Yered Martínez

        Im sure its gonna have something to do with your access point, try disabling it’s firewalls and protections, i’d recommend you to at least change your wifi password to WPA2, you know, just in case ;)

  • Anonymous

    ” Is AirPlay the future of console gaming?” … No to put it simply, playing an iPhone game on the tv doesn’t make it a console.

    • http://twitter.com/akiboy14 Akshay Shah

      Have you played Real Racing 2 on the Apple TV? Trust me, it is like a console

      • Dan

        I have, and I can assure you that it isn’t. Comparing real racing to 2 to the latest PS3 or Xbox 360 racing title is a joke.

        It’s a good game on iPad 2, but if I want to play on a TV, I’ll play something with more horsepower.

      • Anonymous

        That’s crossing the line a little bit haha.. PS3 controller and graphics……… iPhone and Apple TV……………… Please………….

      • Dan

        well he was saying iPad 2 airplay is just like a console… that’s apples and oranges to me lol

      • Anonymous

        I have with a fios connection. It is nothing like a console, extremely laggy and not that enjoyable at all.

      • Anonymous

        The experience will never be better than ps3 or xbox360.

  • jose castro

    so you cant use the iphone 4 on that tv. that sucks, is there a tweak that will let you or no?

  • http://twitter.com/seanodotcom Sean O

    AirPlay works great for displaying iPhone photos on the “big screen”, but for videos (_especially_ 1080p movies from the 4S) take much too long to buffer, even on a modern Wireless N network. And mirroring is fun, when it works, but is quite unstable (for me…) on either the 4S or iPad 2.

    • Anonymous

      This.

      AirPlay is good in theory and works well with videos purchased from the iTunes store….but it is extremely laggy with videos that are recorded from your iPhone (almost to the point of no usability at all) and very very laggy on streaming games (like real racing). AirPlay has promise, but right now it’s really a disappointment.

    • http://twitter.com/mgalicki Mike Galicki

      I agree. I wonder why it doesn’t start playing videos after a certain percentage of buffering. The fact that it waits until the whole video is buffered is a design mistake. Wonder if its hackable when jailbroken.

  • http://twitter.com/elicourey Eli Courey

    Thanks for this article, I’ve been trying to get the word out on how awesome the Apple TV is too. I definitely think games are going to be big on it, maybe not replace a PS3, but it’s going to bring in a whole new market of gamers just like the iPhone did. As far as apps I like to use with the Apple TV, AirVideo is great. It lets you stream videos in any format from your computer to your Apple TV. Just browse for the video on your iPhone or iPad and send it to the Apple TV with AirPlay, it works perfect! It doesn’t effect the battery on the iOS device and you can use other apps on your iPhone or iPad while the video is playing.

    • Anonymous

      If you have the Apple Digital AV Adapter, attach your device to the TV using this adapter and stream through AirVideo. If that’s all you wanted the Apple TV for, it’d be a cheaper option. AirVideo is great app.

      • Anonymous

        haha, cables are so 90s. but no, that’s not all i use it for, i use the Apple TV for everything i watch or listen to on my TV. i don’t have cable or satellite, those are also so 90s. cables are too confining, that’s why WiFi and 3G/4G have done so well. do you plug your iPad or iPhone into a phone or ethernet jack?

      • Anonymous

        I plug the HDMI cable from TV into the Apple Digital AV Adapter which plugs into the ipad/iphone. The adapter basically mirrors your idevice onto your TV.

  • Leandro Jajan

    Hello, I have my jailbroken atv 2 and my iPhone 4s and iPad 2. I also have Real Racing HD on both devices but I can not do mirroring to play. The game does not run fluently. Could it be because my router es 2 rooms away? How close to de atv2 does it have to be? Thank you!.

    • Anonymous

      Your router is definitely too far away. It works best if there are no obstacles between Apple TV and router (and of course also iPhone and router ;) ).

  • Kok Hean

    When converted, the Apple TV costs about about $125. A 16GB factory unlocked iPhone 4S costs about $950. Together, they cost about $1075. Still worth it?

    • Dan

      well I think he’s saying buying the apple tv is worth it if you already have the iPad or iPhone, no one is suggesting you go out and buy the iPhone/iPad just to play games over airplay.

      • Kok Hean

        Since I have the iPhone 4S, is it still worth it to get the Apple TV? Or should I just get the cable?

      • Dan

        that I couldn’t tell you, I didn’t jump on the apple tv bandwagon. I’ve tried out the apple tv at a friend’s, I imagine it’s more convenient than the cable, up to you how much you want to spend :)

  • http://twitter.com/AmpliFreQuency AmpliHelix

    When I had an iPhone 4, I bought this for AirPlay and Netflix, but using some games with it like Real Racing 2 was slow in response so I returned it, got my money back, and used my 360 and blu-ray player for Netflix.

    Now I have an iPhone 4S. Is the response any better with games?

  • Joseph Duffy

    Airplay didn’t work for gaming for me. Too much lag on a N router when I was 15 feet away from it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rajan-Patel/3324529 Rajan Patel

    Great Article. It will be interesting when Apple TV concurrently supports more devices- for instance 3 people playing the same game on their iPhones projected on the television. Family Feud would be amazing!

    I think the biggest impact the TV will have on software development / user experience will be the ratio increase. You and your iPhone is 1 to 1, you and your iPad is maybe 1 to 2 if you are collaborating with someone, but you and you TV is 1 to many (think of a small family or friends hanging out).

    I can’t wait till Apple makes a big splash here over time.

    • Anonymous

      Real Racing 2 kinda does what you’re suggesting, one iOS device hosts the game, but 3 other devices can also be used as controllers. Family Feud could be like that too and you’re right, it would be amazing! we should email the developer about it.

  • Anonymous

    Virtual controllers can never replace physical controllers.

  • http://twitter.com/martinbusek Martin  Busek

    I have apple router and apple tv beside it and Real Racing 2 is a bit lagging… It’s definitely not what I would expect from Apple :-( Tried both, iPhone 4S and iPad 2. Is it just me or you guys have same problem with Real Racing 2 framerate?

    • http://www.facebook.com/vazandrew Andrew Vaz

      Works fine for me, rarely any lag

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1830908730 Hubert Savelberg

    I use the apple tv a lot…. When we have visitors, i choose an internet country music radio station, and the screensaver shows about 500 pics of our last alaska cruise,
    my favorit choice is the photo wall presentation that moves peacefull without forcing to be looked at all the time.
    Tx to Mobiscope, i can watch our 4 security webcams anywhere and on any kind of iOS device.
    By using Airplay i can stream that image from my iPhone 4S to the TV screen in the living as well.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/MJ6JMMYTOFWVC2GDEUPBZTAVM4 Jeff

    I have an iPhone 4S and a Mac Mini connected to my HDTV. Besides BananaTV (which is very unstable), is there another way to use Airplay Mirroring without having to go buy an ATV? It seems silly that a full blow computer can’t do Airplay Mirroring, but a $99 device can?

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/MJ6JMMYTOFWVC2GDEUPBZTAVM4 Jeff

    I have an iPhone 4S and a Mac Mini connected to my HDTV. Besides BananaTV (which is very unstable), is there another way to use Airplay Mirroring without having to go buy an ATV? It seems silly that a full blow computer can’t do Airplay Mirroring, but a $99 device can?

    • http://www.facebook.com/vazandrew Andrew Vaz

      It’s a different OS, not that it’s not possible but it hasn’t been made compatible . No you need the ATV for AirPlay mirroring

  • http://twitter.com/don_afrim Don_Afrim

    hey man, is there a way to make apple tv3 a second monitor (my hdtv) for my macbook? i know the mirroring thing but i actually want two functioning monitors, i know it works somehow but i’m not sure if there is an app needed for that like AirParrot or if it works out of the box.

    Please let me know!