Apple TV 2 has big problems homesharing - fixes? firmware update needed!

Me too - AppleTV2, MacBook Pro, all the latest updates. I can play music for about 3 minutes before, I have to turn off home sharing in iTunes on the Mac and back on again.

This is ridiculous. I have similar issues with 2 airports. I utterly despair with Apple these days. Lots of hidden software updates, doing lord knows what to the configuration, nothing seems to be tested. Awful quality. And the only solution is this black hole of a forum where misery loves company, otherwise queue up at the genius bar - which is not a solution for network issues like this. Bring on Open Source and open systems, can this consumer model scale and continue at Apple?

If I had as much money in the bank as Apple I'd spend some of it on SUPPORT!

Update: I changed the Lease Renewal on my Apple Extreme Network Settings from 1 day to 365 and immediately got rock solid Home Sharing.... Lasted about 5 days and then bit by bit the loss of home sharing crept back. Now it's back to every couple of minutes or so, which is maddening. I've switched the lease renewal back to one day and it's still as bad as before.

I've also discovered that using AirPlay to stream movies from my iPad doesn't work either. I tap on shared library in the video app, start a film, tap on the airplay symbol and select the ATV I'm viewing and I just get audio on the ATV (as if I was streaming a music track) and the video plays on the iPad with no sound. I fired up my TED app and experimented air playing the movies in that app, which worked fine. It's just the movies in my shared iTunes library where AirPlay fails.

I CAN mirror my iPad desktop. That worked but attempting to play a shared movie that way was impossible with major time lags and pauses.

Also trying to stream from the ATV shows I've previously purchased (because I can't play them from my shared iTunes library as every couple minutes home sharing is lost) is painfully slow on numerous occasions with regular long pauses.

So right now the only thing I can watch on ATV is Netflix and YouTube.

I am really, well and truly fed up. I have three ATV's, all now expensive paperweights :-(

Is your computer using DHCP with manual address? Changing it to that has fixed mine for three weeks now.

Change it to what? Seems like you left the most important word out..

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. On your Mac check your network settings (System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi > Advanced or System Preferences > Network > Ethernet) and the chances are it'll say "Using DHCP".

If you change this to "Using DHCP with manual address" and then enter something like 192.168.1.10 (the last number can actually be anything up to 255 except 1 which'll probably be your Airport Extreme).

Press OK, restart everything (that's probably not needed but best to anyway) - so your computer, ATV, Airport - and then see if that helps.

I have my router give out static ip-addresses to all my devices. Is that as good as turning off dhcp and giving all my devices static ip addresses in there own network settings?

I'm not sure to be honest. Theoretically it should be exactly the same?!

Perhaps try what I'm suggesting on your computer though as it doesn't take too long. I appreciate you're probably at the point where everything is too much hassle and you just want to threw it out the window.

(That's where I was three weeks ago until accidentally doing this manual IP address thing).

So I tried this. I set my iMac ethernet connection to using dhcp manual address and created the address. I then restarted my Apple Extreme Router but I lost all internet connection..by network diagnostics it reset it back to Using DHCP and allocated an IP address.

Am I missing a step?

One thing I do know, is that you really shouldn't upgrade the firmware on your apple tv with the update function.. Upgrade with iTunes using a micro USB cable.. Perhaps restore is the best option here..

NitoTV has said this many times and I believe him.. Not using jailbreak anymore, but I do believe this is the best way to update your firmware.

Well, out of desperation more than anything, I reset the renew lease period back to 365 days and it's all working again.

I know it won't last but at least I get my weekend back... Sheesh. In 12 years of loyally being an Apple only user this is the first time I've begun to question my allegiance.

No, that sounds about right - no idea why that didn't work. As long as your Airport Extreme is set for DHCP and your Mac was set to "Using DHCP with manual address" (not just "manual address").

I know what you mean about questioning loyalty to Apple. It all proves that Apple equipment is the same as everything else in essence (albeit with a nicer experience when it does work).

The main problem is that they don't tell anyone that there's an issue - people are far more tolerant to things like this when they know it's in the process of being fixed or looked-into.

Ahh well, it seems the reason the manual address didnt work previously was that I needed a different IP address config to the one you mentioned. When I used 10.0.1.xx it worked, as in I got Internet access. I then switched back the lease renewal to 1 day and fired up a TV show on my iTunes library through my ATV and waited with baited breath. It lasted 3 minutes and then lost Home Sharing again....sigh.

I've now switched back to Using DHCP and reset the lease renewal to 365 days again and I have - albeit temporary - a working ATV again.

Its clear that a range of options suits different peoples situations, which is strange but ultimately we need Apple to sort this mess out... thanks for your help btw tillathenun, much appreciated, even though sadly it didnt work for me..

I discovered last night that the Remote App works streaming to the ATV... Could be worth checking out

I think it has to do with the latest release of iTunes. It kept dropping out so I copied the video file over to a laptop that I had not upgraded iTunes on yet. It played fine without any hickups and without me changing anything else.

Just got to remember to keep Nancy Reagan in mind when it prompts me to upgrade my iTunes; Just Say No

Inda....you need to read the rest of this thread. Some of us haven't even updated iTunes.