black banshee

Q: Airplay audio cuts out intermittently

Hello, I'm having an issue with Airplay I can't seem to fix. When I play anything via airplay with my Ipad, Ipod touch, or Iphone, it will play OK for a minute or two but then the audio cuts out for 5-10 seconds. The audio comes back, but then it will cut out again repeatedly every few minutes. I am playing through my Airport express. I have two airport express units, and they both have the same issue no matter the source (Ipad, Ipod, or Iphone). I'm also using an Airport Extreme as my router. Since it's all Apple hardware you'd think it would just "work", but not in this case apparently.

I've searched for answers, here's what I've tried so far without success:

1) Disabled bluetooth on the source devices
2) Updated firmware on all devices
3) I've restarted/rebooted all devices numerous times
3) It's not a range issue, because I've placed the Ipod touch within inches of the Airport express. Same problem.

At a loss, any ideas folks? thanks.

Ipad, Ipod, Iphone, Windows XP Pro, playing audio through to my airport express units

Posted on Jan 1, 2011 7:19 AM

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Q: Airplay audio cuts out intermittently

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  • by Ed Adams2,

    Ed Adams2 Ed Adams2 Jan 1, 2011 10:44 PM in response to black banshee
    Level 2 (475 points)
    Jan 1, 2011 10:44 PM in response to black banshee
    Hi

    Are the Express units both connected to Extreme via wireless? From my experience its the Express to Extreme connection that is the issue.

    I have had many issues with this type of config, it is a lot more reliable if you cable (Ethernet) the Express units to the Extreme base station. Doing this has always fixed the stuttering audio fro me, even before Airplay came out.
  • by atamans,

    atamans atamans Jan 13, 2011 5:38 PM in response to black banshee
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 13, 2011 5:38 PM in response to black banshee
    I am having the same issue.. Here is my set up'

    Iphone 4 (latest firmware, not jailbroken)
    Time Capsule
    Apple TV ( Second Gen)

    I am trying to play music and audio cuts out every now and then...
  • by billypie,

    billypie billypie Jan 20, 2011 9:34 AM in response to atamans
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 20, 2011 9:34 AM in response to atamans
    I had the same issue and wasn't happy until I figured out a little trick that should work for anyone that can have a computer on whenever they want to stream music.

    You can just download the app called "remote" for ipod touch, iphone, or ipad and use that to stream your music. By doing this your music shouldn't cut out at all and you'll be able to stream all the music you have on itunes not just what happened to fit on your ipod. I've used this method for about a year and a half now and there has never been an audio cut out. As with airplay, I had just started using this new feature from my ipod touch and since the day I tried it the audio has consistently cut out on me after about 2 to 3 minutes of play time.

    I have come to the conclusion that it must be an embedded setting or something that would cause it to stop sending audio since the app just controls the computer and the computer streams it.
  • by kinmanc,

    kinmanc kinmanc Jan 24, 2011 3:59 PM in response to billypie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 24, 2011 3:59 PM in response to billypie
    billypie, I have also been using your trick to stream audios from the computer all long. A more direct way is to do the same is to do it in ATV2.

    But you can already do that without AirPlay. And I thought the idea of AirPlay is to let you stream anything from iphone or iPad, and not just what you have in your iTune library. When you are listening to Pandora on your iPod, and you would like to share it on your HT system, and that is when AirPlay can be useful. Moreover, you'd like to be able to do that away from your computer, say at your friend place.

    The fact that you can stream musics without audios drops from your computer, but not from your iPhone with AirPlay indicates there are problems with AirPlay. Just search this forum and you'll find tons complains on this. Let's hope that Apple take note of this and fix it in the next release.

    Having said that, I also noticed that having a high speed connection between the router and ATV seems to make audio drops disappear. I used to have audio drops frequently, until I installed a 11n bridge. That BTW also helped with watching HD movies on Netflix!
  • by Arthur_P_Johnson,

    Arthur_P_Johnson Arthur_P_Johnson Jan 29, 2011 8:13 PM in response to atamans
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 29, 2011 8:13 PM in response to atamans
    I actually am finding that airplay cuts out CONSISTENTLY after about 10 minutes or so. The airplay icon even disappears, so I can't re-connect until I REBOOT my iPad or iPhone. Using Airport Extreme with a d-link extender connected via Ethernet. Love my Apple TV 2nd Gen otherwise, but this is so frustrating!
  • by taylorvh,

    taylorvh taylorvh Feb 11, 2011 1:24 PM in response to black banshee
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 11, 2011 1:24 PM in response to black banshee
    I had the same problem. When I disabled streaming photos from my mobile me account to my AppleTV screen saver(I disabled the screen saver entirely and told the Apple TV to "never" go to sleep) it has worked flawlessly for me after that.
  • by jimmynono,

    jimmynono jimmynono May 6, 2011 6:51 PM in response to black banshee
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 6, 2011 6:51 PM in response to black banshee

    I agree with Ed Adams...I was having the same problem.  however I connected an ethernet cable from my router (verizon DSL) directly to the Apple TV 2nd Gen.  So far its working perfectly...

  • by agoulet81,

    agoulet81 agoulet81 May 31, 2011 12:17 PM in response to jimmynono
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 31, 2011 12:17 PM in response to jimmynono

    I am having the same problems and am getting really frustrated with my apple products!  I have an iPhone 4, iPod Touch 3G and an iPAD 2.  All of the devices have the same problem where we play music via AirPlay and it plays for 10 mins then cuts out intermittenly which is very annoying when trying to listen to music. 

     

    I have read other options to solve this but the whole idea is to be able to walk around the house and stream music from my devices to my speakers instead of using the Remote app and going from there.  Also I do not have the abilitly to have the airport station plugged into my router (D-Link DIR-655) as they are on different floors of my house.  I was thinking about getting an apple TV for my Home Theatre system but I am strongly thinking about getting some other device, like Boxee that plays all media types and is 1080p.

     

    I have an LG laptop with the latest iTunes and all devices are updated regularly.  Any ideas to answers are greatly appreciated.

  • by Dale_Pensacola,

    Dale_Pensacola Dale_Pensacola Jun 20, 2011 4:48 PM in response to taylorvh
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 20, 2011 4:48 PM in response to taylorvh

    Mine started working when I connected my Mac to my "normal" network instead of the faster 5GHz one.

  • by Paul Wieland,

    Paul Wieland Paul Wieland Jun 27, 2011 11:00 AM in response to black banshee
    Level 2 (269 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 27, 2011 11:00 AM in response to black banshee

    Same issues here streaming audio to Apple TV2 from an iPhone 4 (both up to date) using a current model Airport Extreme. I am watching the logs on my Airport Extreme and saw two events when the audio cuts out:

     

    Jun 27 13:16:19          Severity:5          Associated with station 5c:59:48:2a:d8:2a

    Jun 27 13:16:19          Severity:5          Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 5c:59:48:2a:d8:2a

     

     

    5c:59:48:2a:d8:2a is my iPhone. It appears as though the iPhone loses wireless connectivity for a split second then starts back up again. Maybe there is a bug in the power saving code in iOS or something. Hopefully Apple fixes it soon.

     

    I'm running a ping against my iPhone waiting for it to cut out again. Hopefully I see some packet loss which would confirm my suspicion.

  • by Creeper74,

    Creeper74 Creeper74 Jul 24, 2011 8:42 PM in response to Paul Wieland
    Level 2 (364 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 24, 2011 8:42 PM in response to Paul Wieland

    I thought this was the culprit as well.  It has been a constant thorn in my side for months!  I was originally running on a jailbroken iphone, so I thought it may have had something to do with that.  Once I restored the phone to a non-JB state and the problem persisted, I assumed it has something to with the wireless in iOS, since my airport express is using a wired connection.  also, when i stream to the AE from itunes on a pc, the problem never occurs.

  • by toblerone777,

    toblerone777 toblerone777 Aug 2, 2011 9:45 PM in response to Creeper74
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 2, 2011 9:45 PM in response to Creeper74

    I was going to suggest using AirFoil for Mac, but realized you're talking about i-devices. I would delete this post if I could...

  • by Tjerja,

    Tjerja Tjerja Aug 23, 2011 7:50 AM in response to black banshee
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 23, 2011 7:50 AM in response to black banshee

    I noticed the same error... I just plugged in a new airport express in my living room and wanted to stream audio from itunes (my laptop) to my marantz 603. I noticed frequent dropouts. When I opened up airport utility, and looked at the access list of my airport extreme, it hadn't added the mac-adress/Airport ID of my airport express... When I manually added the mac-adress/airport ID of my airport express in the accesslist of my airport extreme device, all was good, and it flawlessly streamed music immediately... All a matter of 'access-rights' i guess..

     

    I think it's an error in the automatic configuration script. Try to do it manually and you'll be fine I guess. Also, don't forget to check the airplay share settings in itunes and airport utility, you all have to manually give access rights with/without passwords.

     

    Good luck!

  • by toblerone777,

    toblerone777 toblerone777 Aug 24, 2011 2:04 PM in response to Tjerja
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 24, 2011 2:04 PM in response to Tjerja

    Hey, thanks for your response, but I wonder if you could elaborate a little bit.  I've opened Airport Utility on my laptop and looked around, but I don't see any mention of any "access list" or anything where I can input the MAC address of any of my devices.  I do see something that says iTunes speaker password.  I have that blank.  (I think that may be a new feature..?)  Is that revelant at all?  I wonder if I should try setting a password?

     

    If you'd be so kind as to list some steps to find what you're referring to, I'd be very grateful.

     

    Thanks in advance!

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