Yeah, even though my theater is about as cheap as is possible (total new cost about $600 for TV, ATV, BR player, Klipsch speakers, modem/router) it is not bad at all. There is a movie theater a block away and I find it is better to watch the movies at home. Even a fairly cheap TV these days can provide a better image than many real theatres. Just the projection lens in a real theater can defocus the image so it is not as sharp as a TV. I saw "Gravity" in the best 3D theater in my area, and I would say the same thing, real theaters have to be top notch to be better than even a minimal home theater.
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About my Apple TV problem with slightly unsmooth video:
The router also contains a VDSL modem and is an Actiontec V1000H, it was supplied by my internet company, Telus, I'm not sure if it is a special model customized for them so it can connect to their network and IP TV box. It is a 2 to 3 year old design and supports 802.11B, G, and N. actiontec.com
After you mentioned 802.11N being best, I checked the modem settings, I thought it was set to to handle multiple 802.11 modes but for some reason it was set to G only, so I reset it to G and N. An N-only setting is also available that is called Performance Mode so maybe that will be fastest and I may try that setting since I only need 802.11G for a couple of old devices that I rarely use anymore.
But I found something interesting. It turns out that since I have set up the Apple TV and Mac Mini to use wired network connections, AirPlay is running on the wired network alone and not using Wi-Fi at all. I thought AirPlay always used a Wi-Fi connection so this is a surprise to me. I confirmed it by turning off the Wi-Fi on the router and Airplay kept playing as before. Wi-Fi has always been turned off on the Mac Mini. I thought Apple TV had some hidden method to use Wi-Fi to talk to the router or Mac.
So I guess the slightly unsteady performance of AirPlay in my system is a wired network performance issue, Apple TV issue, or AirPlay issue that is unrelated to Wi-Fi. |
