Airplay audio cuts out intermittently

That's great that this sorted the issue for you. However, I can categorically state that the root causes of this issue is not a "wireless" issue. At least not in all cases.

I can say that because in my setup, everything is wired. I'm playing from an iMac to a airport express plugged into the same a time-capsule (airport extreme) as the iMac. Mostly it cuts out when the volume is low (as I tend to have it at night - around 25% of full volume)). It can cut out for extended periods - several minutes, then may play again only for a few seconds before cutting out again. Most infuriating!

Additionally, I have wireless turned off on both the iMac and the express. Everything is up-to-date with the latest patches.

Whilst mostly at low volumes, it does occur at other times occasionally. Often with the express showing as unavailable as an airport device for a while before becoming available again.

I am convinved this is a client problem - that is, the machine sending (MacBook Pro or iPad, in my cases) cannot use 5 GHz wireless. If I configure my Apple TV 2 to use 5 GHz wireless and the clients to use 2.4 GHz, everything works fine. If I configure my clients to use 5 GHz, then I get intermittent audio drop outs.

Interestingly, my iPhone 4 only supports 2.4 GHz, so I've never seen the problem when I use my iPhone 4 to send audio to my Apple TV 2. This was the clue I needed to 'unravel' the mystery.

It's likely an AirPlay defect that exposes itself when using routers other than Apple's.

I see no 'network tab' in my airpot utlity (ver. 6.3.1) nor a 'range' field. Can you please be more specific? Would really like to listen to more than 15 seconds of music at a time. Ugh. Any clarification you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thx.

I'm beginning to believe this issue has something to do with my NIC/NIC settings/NIC driver or a BIOS setting. I just ran a Wireshark trace and I see the following right when I get my first stutter (and subsequent stutters):

192.168.1.71 is my main PC that has the stuttering, and 192.168.1.75 is my Yamaha RX-V473 Receiver. I sadly can't make heads or tails of this, and Google is proving less than helpful. I'm now investigating the following thread:

http://www.sysnative.com/forums/windows-7-windows-vista-tutorials/5721-how-diagn ose-fix-high-dpc-latency-issues-wpa-wind…

Time to relax for the rest of the evening and get back to troubleshooting tomorrow...joy.

-Snipe

There appear to be issues specifically with the iPhone 4S and AirPlay. I am certainly having problems but only with the 4S and not with any other of me Apple devices. Check out the below discussion thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3413370?start=105&tstart=0

I can also confirm that for the last 3 years I've also had so much stuttering that there's actually more silence than music in the transmission.

And this only happens when the device *sending* the music is on a 5GHz wireless network.

When I switch my Mac (which is transmitting music from iTunes) to my 2.4GHz network, everything's fine. When I send music from my iPhone (which is connected via the 2.4GHz network), everything's fine (well, aside from the 'popping' issue described here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2651422?start=0&tstart=0).

I tried Derek's fix of disabling IPv6. However, now I can't play anything at all, & I get the following error message in iTunes: "An error occurred while connecting to the AirPlay device “HTR-4065 92BDE8”. The network connection timed out." Switch my Mac to the 2.4GHz network, everything works fine again.

Crazy thing is-- I've had this problem over the last 3 years now. In that time, I've swapped out the Airport Express, gone through 2 more 'main' routers in my home, 2 new Macbook Pros, a whole new receiver + speaker system, etc. And the problem's still there.

That strongly suggests that Airplay is the culprit. I'm surprised this problem isn't more widely reported (at least it is here in this thread), especially with the wider adoption of Wireless-N (we're going to AC soon...). More surprising is that it appears Apple hasn't done anything to resolve it in 3 years.

Airplay sound occasional sound dropout s - Solved 🙂

Set up:

• DENON RCD-N7 Airplay Compatible
• ZyXel P-660H ADSL modem + router (very old no wireless turned on)
• AirPort Express 2009 (I guess 4. Gen), act as WLAN router
• MacBook Pro mid 2011, iPad 3 iOS 6, iPhone 5

Problem:

I was experiencing occasional sound dropout when I airplay to my Denon RCD-N7 form iMac , iPad and iPhone. I was also having sudden response issues from Bluetooth apple aluminium keyboard and trackpad too.

Analysis:

What I realize was around my apartment there are so many networks using 801.11g and more or less on same channels. I used a Mac wireless discovery tool iStumbler (Mac tool) for wireless discovery. In my AirProt Express radio mode was “801.11b/g compatible” and channel “Automatic”. If other networks are also using the same radio modes (801.11b and 801.11g ) and use same channels (1-13) like mine there should be a conflict.

Solution:

1. My first approach was to get out of 801.11b/g mode. I set the wireless radio mode setting of AirPort Express to 801.11n only (5 Ghz) mode in Airport utility (just type AirPort in spotlight search in Mac and you’ll find the program). Don’t forget to upload!
2. Then I realize the Denon RCD-N7 has no internet connection. Because it’s WLAN module is not n standards compatible. I changed the wireless connection of Denon to wired connection and hooked it up to the router. And it got immediately recognize from all of my Apple devices as an Airplay compatible device.

I thought AirPlay only works if a device connected over WLAN. But I was wrong!

Problem solved no more sound dropouts and no more problems with Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad.

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.

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.