Michal Ždanský The AirPlay protocol is an ideal way to stream images over Wi-Fi, but it has a lot of limitations. Thanks to Reflection, one of them falls because, in addition to Apple TV, it can s Reflection OS X computers can also receive a TV signal.
After installing and running Reflection, your Mac will start reporting as an AirPlay receiver. The app itself has no graphical interface, if no iOS device is connected you will only see an icon in the Dock and a menu in the top bar. As soon as you connect your iPhone or iPad, an image from the device will appear on the screen embedded in the appropriate frame.
It can be changed according to the rotation of the display and you can also choose the color for it according to the device. Reflection displays the streaming video either in a window or full screen. A great feature is the ability to record images including sound, which users will appreciate especially when creating screencasts. Exported videos are uncompressed in MOV format.
Now I come to who the app is for. It can be used perfectly by bloggers, editors and developers who need to capture what is happening on the screen and do not want to jailbreak for it. However, Reflection is also great for presentations when you want to stream video from both a Mac and an iOS device. You only need to have the projector connected to the Mac and, if necessary, activate the AirPlay connection and voila, you project the image from the iPad without having to switch cables.
In addition to AirPlay Mirroring, Reflection also supports classic AirPlay, when it displays a wide-angle image in 720p resolution from supported applications. You can thus play a video or start presentations. Reflection can also handle streaming from a third-generation iPad in higher resolution, but I didn't have a chance to test the app with the new iPad.
Reflection video review
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Practical experiences
I've been using Reflection for a few weeks now and have managed to shoot a few videos with it. However, my impressions of using it are very mixed. First of all, the streaming is not nearly as smooth as I would imagine. Every few minutes, the framerate drops to an unbearable value and the result is a choppy image. However, I'm not sure if this is due to Reflection, the AirPlay protocol in general, or my router. I had similar problems with the second generation Apple TV. Unfortunately, I don't have another router at hand, but I know that mine isn't exactly top-of-the-line, so I would attribute part of the blame for the transmission problems to it.
To my surprise, even more demanding 3D games were streamed like new Max Payne, unfortunately not without occasional chopping, as I described in the previous paragraph. However, the second problem is only related to Reflection and it concerns the sound. If the transfer goes on for longer, one of two things regularly happened to me - either the sound dropped out completely, or the speakers started to make a very loud grunt. This could only be done by turning AirPlay Mirroring off and on again. However, the strange thing is that the recorded video did not have this problem and the sound played normally.
The last problem that I encountered several times is the poor stability of the application. Most often, Reflection crashed when exporting the recorded video, which also lost you. Another time the crash followed dropping the framerate below five frames per second.
Summary
Reflection is a very useful utility, which I will certainly continue to use for creating review videos, but I am sorry for the errors that the application suffers from and significantly reduces its usability. We can only hope that the authors will work on stability and catch other flies as well.
You can purchase the application directly at developer sites for €14,99. You won't find Reflection in the Mac App Store, Apple probably wouldn't let it there.
[button color=red link=http://reflectionapp.com/products.php target=”“]Reflection - $14,99[/button]
in the next OSX, it will be implemented directly into the system, if I remember correctly.
It's different. OS X will be able to send the signal, not receive it.
and if you don't want to buy Reflections for 15e, you can install XBMC for free. although it can't record, it can play back. and recording can certainly be done as well
I think XBMC can only AirPlay, not Mirroring
I tried airplay in xbmc on the imac - with the help of an ad hoc created by the imac, so there was no router or ap in the way. I was streaming from an ipod touch 4g and it was quite choppy.
Has anyone tried to compare it with AirServer?
I use AirServer and I don't have any of the above problems.
I would just add that the supported devices are iPhone 4S, iPad 2,3 :)
Even older machines can AirPlay, but not Mirroring, so it's about halfway :-)
Just:(