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OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" Q&A - Published September 5, 2012
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What is "AirPlay Mirroring"? Which Macs are compatible with AirPlay Mirroring? Are there any "hacks" or third-party apps to use AirPlay Mirroring on unsupported Macs?
The AirPlay Mirroring feature -- which only is provided with OS X Mountain Lion -- makes it quick to wirelessly mirror the contents of a Mac display on an HDTV via a 2nd Gen or 3rd Gen Apple TV. This Mac, Apple TV, and HDTV combo makes it easy to for you to show a presentation, stream a movie, play a game, and more from a compatible Mac to a compatible television.
It's effectively automatic, even. Just connect your Mac and Apple TV to the same wireless network and if the Mac and Apple TV are both compatible, it will display an AirPlay Mirroring menu item in the menu bar toward the right side of the screen on your Mac.
General AirPlay Mirroring Compatible Macs
Apple's own promotional copy notes that the following general Macs support AirPlay Mirroring:
- iMac (Mid-2011 or newer)
- Mac mini (Mid-2011 or newer)
- MacBook Air (Mid-2011 or newer)
- MacBook Pro (Early 2011 or newer)
Identification Help
If you're not sure which Mac -- or Apple TV -- you have and need help to identify it, look it up with EveryMac.com's Ultimate Mac Lookup.
This feature makes it easy to lookup any of these Macs by the Model Identifier listed in software (select "About This Mac" under the "Apple" menu and click "More Info"), its Serial Number, and a variety of other methods.
All AirPlay Mirroring Compatible Macs
More precisely, the following Macs support AirPlay Mirroring when running OS X Mountain Lion:
- iMac "Core i5" 2.5 21.5-Inch (Mid-2011)
- iMac "Core i5" 2.7 21.5-Inch (Mid-2011)
- iMac "Core i7" 2.8 21.5-Inch (Mid-2011)
- iMac "Core i5" 2.7 27-Inch (Mid-2011)
- iMac "Core i5" 3.1 27-Inch (Mid-2011)
- iMac "Core i7" 3.4 27-Inch (Mid-2011)
- iMac "Core i3" 3.1 21.5-Inch (Late 2011)
- MacBook Air "Core i5" 1.6 11" (Mid-2011)
- MacBook Air "Core i7" 1.8 11" (Mid-2011)
- MacBook Air "Core i5" 1.7 13" (Mid-2011)
- MacBook Air "Core i7" 1.8 13" (Mid-2011)
- MacBook Air "Core i5" 1.6 13" (Edu Only)
- MacBook Air "Core i5" 1.7 11" (Mid-2012)
- MacBook Air "Core i7" 2.0 11" (Mid-2012)
- MacBook Air "Core i5" 1.8 13" (Mid-2012)
- MacBook Air "Core i7" 2.0 13" (Mid-2012)
- MacBook Pro "Core i5" 2.3 13" Early 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.7 13" Early 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.0 15" Early 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.2 15" Early 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.3 15" Early 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.2 17" Early 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.3 17" Early 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i5" 2.4 13" Late 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.8 13" Late 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.2 15" Late 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.4 15" Late 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.5 15" Late 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.4 17" Late 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.5 17" Late 2011
- MacBook Pro "Core i5" 2.5 13" Mid-2012
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.9 13" Mid-2012
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.3 15" Mid-2012
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.6 15" Mid-2012
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.7 15" Mid-2012
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.3 15" Retina
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.6 15" Retina
- MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.7 15" Retina
- Mac mini "Core i5" 2.3 (Mid-2011)
- Mac mini "Core i5" 2.5 (Mid-2011)
- Mac mini "Core i7" 2.7 (Mid-2011)
- Mac mini "Core i7" 2.0 (Mid-2011/Server)
Presumably, subsequently introduced Macs that are compatible with OS X Mountain Lion and are targeted toward the consumer market also will support AirPlay Mirroring.
AirPlay Mirroring Technical Requirements
As is clearly evident from the above, AirPlay Mirroring only is supported by a small number of systems released within a year or so from the date OS X Mountain Lion was introduced and no doubt there are those with "older" Macs who also would like to use AirPlay Mirroring.
Although most readers are unlikely to think of a Mac purchased eighteen months or so before a new operating system was released as old (unless, perhaps, you purchased a Macintosh IIci to add to your vintage Mac collection), Apple ostensibly only supports AirPlay Mirroring on such a small list of systems because the feature uses Intel's Quick Sync technology provided by Intel HD Graphics 3000 and HD Graphics 4000 "integrated" graphics.
Intel explains that Quick Sync Video "accelerates decoding and encoding for a significantly faster conversion time, while also enabling the processor to complete other tasks, improving overall PC performance."
Whether or not Apple could have supported older Macs is a subject for debate. Perhaps Apple found the performance of AirPlay Mirroring unacceptable on non-Quick Sync Video-capable Macs. Alternately, perhaps in pursuit of additional profit, the company simply views it as a highly desired feature and one that customers will be willing to purchase a new computer to obtain.
Regardless, a quick visit to Apple's own support forums shows dozens, if not hundreds, of angry customers who bought Mountain Lion with the intention of using AirPlay Mirroring only to discover it wouldn't work with their Mac.
AirPlay Mirroring "Hack" Option
As of the date published (see top), there aren't any hacks available to use AirPlay Mirroring on Macs capable of running Mountain Lion, but that do not support the feature.
However, as those upset that their Macs don't support AirPlay Mirroring soon discovered, there is an excellent US$9.99 application called AirParrot that makes it possible for any Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard," OS X 10.7 "Lion," or OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" to wirelessly mirror the Mac display on an HDTV.
Performance will vary depending on the Mac used and the task performed, but AirParrot has an assortment of settings that can be tweaked to find a quality/performance level that is acceptable, or at least usable, for your Mac.
AirParrot also makes it possible to mirror a single application without the rest of the desktop and wirelessly use an HDTV as a second display, both of which can be particularly useful. Even if your Mac supports AirPlay Mirroring, you may find AirParrot's extra features to be worthwhile.
This demonstration video also may be of interest for the full feature set that AirParrot provides:
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