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Freshly Squeezed Reviews: Mirroring for The Rest of Us? [AirParrot v1.43]

Aug 8, 2012 | Reviews | 1 comment

Product: AirParrot v1.43

Author AirParrot <http://airparrot.com>

Price: $9.99, single user; $29.99 5 seat license; 10 min. trial period

Requirements: OS X 10.6+ and AppleTV 2 or 3

Test Rig: 2009 MBP 13″, 256 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM; Insignia 42″ LED, 1080p. 60Mhz

Alright! Mirroring for the Mac has finally arrived. Well … for a relatively few of us. Those with recent Macs.
But what are the rest of us to do? Fortunately, someone anticipated that question.
“AirParrot lets you AirPlay your Mac’s screen to a second or third generation AppleTV. What you see on your Mac’s screen will appear on the AppleTV, wirelessly!”
Well, this sounds good. I mean, I’m tired of jumping through hoops so I can watch Hulu Plus by mirroring my iPad  over to my Apple TV, then putting it on my HDTV screen, then zooming it to Cinema Mode. (Addendum: As I write this, Hulu Plus has quietly been added to the ATV 3. But with AirParrot, if you don’t own an Apple TV 3, you don’t have to upgrade now. You think Hulu Plus was feeling the heat? You don’t mess around with an 800 pound gorilla.)
So, just what can a parrot do?

THE JUICE

Installation is, of course, a breeze. All you have to do is drag AirParrot to Applications, open AirParrot, then select the device to mirror to by clicking the AirParrot icon in the Menu Bar.
And what does AirParrot provide?

  • “1080p Mirroring. Watch videos, view images and mirror your desktop in full 1080p resolution with AppleTV 3!
  •  “App Mirroring. Mirror a specific application without the rest of your desktop or applications cluttering the screen. (OS X Only)
  • “Desktop Extension. Add more space to your desktop by creating a virtual monitor and extending your desktop to your TV. (OS X Only)
  • “Desktop Mirroring. Mirror your desktop to any AppleTV so others can see exactly what’s on your screen.You can adjust under scan, set your max frame rate,

THE PULP

Thanks to AirParrot, you don’t have to have the latest and greatest. You can have to have the something recent and decent.
Now, in my workflow, now that ATV3 has Hulu +, my need for mirroring is taken care of. I don’t do anything that I have a need to place my desktop on my screen. But Air Parrot does provide me with something priceless: Desktop Extension.

THE RIND

Unfortunately, my MBP apparently doesn’t make the cut. I can’t adjust the resolution any higher than 1080p on my machine. Ergo, I can’t use Desktop Extension, the one feature that I really needed. I was hoping to place FCPX’s palettes and timeline on my 13″ and the canvases on the HDTV. But, it’s not to be.

You can, however, transfer a single app to the extended screen. Can’t say I can think of a use for such a function, but perhaps you have one.

Although I must say that the picture quality of my mirrored desktop was excellent. So, if you need AirParrot for mirroring, you’re most likely in luck. However, when I played a video off of YouTube, it was very choppy and AirParrot didn’t transfer the sound.Until  installed the audio driver, that is. Then I was greeted with some sort of garbling sound. Most obnoxious.

AirParrot also falls victim to DRM. So, anything you bought from the iTunes store (video or audio) most likely will not play.

SUMMARY

AirParrot might be mirroring for some of the rest of us.
So, before trying to figure out how you can legally sell your first born on eBay so that you can purchase a new Mac to get the one function that we all desire most from Mountain Lion, I recommend that you download the free trial and see if AirParrot does what you would like it to do with your system.
As for me, back to my dreamy dreams.

RATING: 4 out of 10

©2012 Frank Petrie / ympnow.com

1 Comment

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