Airplay audio cuts out intermittently

Drew - I don't run AE and still have the problem. The only wireless actioin happening in my home is between the router Comcast provided, and my PC running Home Share, and still the problems. So far my only remedy has been to plug my PC directly into the router via eithernet cable. By the way, when running Air Play directly between my iPhone/iPad (without Home Share) and an Air Play speaker, I have no problems. I'm thinking Apple needs to address this because we shouldn't have to band-aid solutions.

Dan

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.

Hi everyone,

the problem with airplay is not caused by other routers or network speeds. My Airport express is working verry good at my home, i use it al the time! Never had troubles. However, when I go to work, with my laptop and airport express, and wanna use it to stream music and alow people with the use of remote and itunes dj to choose music, so i dont have to do everything myself, the troubles begin, now thats not because of heavy traffic on the network, but my gues is , at my work there are a lot of different networks en distortions in the airea, music can some days play perfectly , without any interuption, and suddenly it can cut out frequently without any reason, my gues is that airplay is verry sensitive to distortions of other networks etc.

what i wanna know is, is it possible to alter the settings of the airport express so its network becomes lesser sensitive for other distortions?

I am having a similar problem. I can stream airplay with all of my devices (iPhone 4s, Macbook Air). It will intermittently drop the audio in and out when I try to use either of my iPads (1st or 2nd generation). An interesting side note is that my phone and computer show full strength on the wireless connection, and the iPad shows two of three bars. I have even made sure the all of the devices are on the same access point. I have read all of the troubleshooting on the apple website, and nothing has helped. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Are you sure it's an Airplay problem and not a HomeShare problem? I've never experienced the problem using only Airplay from my iPhone or iPad. HOWEVER, that's not the case once I introduce HomeShare via my PC and a wireless connection to my router into the mix. In fact I even get pauses from the speakers hardwired to my PC which is running HomeShare. After extensive testing via trial and error, I've found the only way to end pauses is to hardwire, via eithernet cable, my device (PC) running Homeshare to my router. Once connected, no more pauses, not from my PC, iPad or iPhone.

Best of luck, and hoping someone has a better answer.

Dan

I have experienced audio drop outs using an iPad -> Apple TV 2 via AirPlay. When the iPad is using 5GHz wireless, I get the dropouts. When the iPad is using 2.4 GHz wireless - no dropouts. In both cases, the Apple TV 2 is on the network using 5GHz wireless. Everything is wirelessly connected via new model Cisco consumer router. That last comment was for Apple Support 🙂

Good Luck, Apple!

That is exactly what it was!!!! Thank you for your input. Maybe I should read apple support more carefully next time. :-)

Just curious, with your new router how can you tell if the iPad is really using the 5 GHz band? Are you using a different SSID for the 5 GHz band, which both the iPad and ATV 2 are connected to?

That's it... different SSIDs with different WPA2 pass-phrases. One's called Krutschcom-High and the other is called Krutschcom-Low.

As posted before, I had these drop out issues with both my iPhone 4 and iPad 2, both connecting to the same Apple TV 2 using a new Airport Extreme.

I discovered that my issues were being caused by WDS. I had a WDS setup using an Airport Express in my garage and a second older Airport Extreme just to improve signal around my property. For one reason or another, I decided to try my network without WDS at all, and viola, the AirPlay drop out problems are completely gone.

I can now stream Pandora for days on end and not have a single drop out issue.

Same for me. Different SSIDs. I just ended up disabling the 5g band and my problems went away.

That's not the problem. I already tried that! I used my airport express to create a seperate network. Only the airport express was running the wireless network. Different ssid, tried to take away all the possible troubelmakers. But that didn't help me at all. I tried all i could, nothing works! And on top of That, some days it's working like it should, other days , you get trouble all day long. Try whatever you want, it aint gonna work! Thats for sure. My gues is that AirPlay is very sensitive to a specific type of distortion or interference, but What can we do About it? :-s

It seems like some things are getting figured out with this problem....I have a little bit different situation that i have not seen mentioned yet.

I have an ipod touch and an iphone and 3 airport express units in my house. When i stream music from my ipod and use airtunes it runs fine with no drop outs. When I stream music from my iphone it plays for about 10 seconds and then drops completely.

Anyone have any idea on why this might be?

I have this problem as well. I have only an Extreme and an Express. Many people suggest the solution is to set up the ethernet (hardwiare) the Express to the Extreme. Does this not defeat the point of "Air" play? After all, we are in a wireless world. And, of course, many of us do not have an ethernet connection available near our Express (which in my case is attached to my stereo in the living room).

I bought the Express to extend my network and get a better signal at the far side of the house. Frankly, it was rather ineffective. The Express is half-way between my computer at the far side of the house to my Extreme on the other side. When my computer found the Express, it did not improve my overall download speeds.

However, my wife like the idea of the Airplay feature so much (streaming from Ipad to the stereo), which was located near that half-way point, we decided to keep it anyway.

In our case, using Airplay from the computer to the Express works flawlessly. Using Airplay from the iPad to the Express also works flawlessly. However, using Airply from the iPod Touch to the Express cuts out every minute or so.

I am still trying to find the solution! Yes, I can use the "Remote" app so that my Ipod controls my computer and the computer sends the signal to the Express via Airplay. That works fine, as long as my computer is turned on and iTunes is turned on.

Yes, I can set up the ethernet so my Express talks to my Extreme hardwired. Not my preferred solution!

I don't think there is a "solution" to this problem. Apple needs to fix it. Sorry I can't provide a solution, after reading all these comments, suggestions, and trying various suggestions, I have come to the conclusion that the "transmit" (uploading data rate) for some Appled devices (in my case, my iPod, but not my wife's Ipad) is what is causing the issue.

Just my two cents.

Same problem here, and it all started after I decided to "upgrade" my Buffalo router with the new Airport Extreme... Yeah sure great upgrade!

After spending over $300 on networking equipment from Apple, my solution is to hard-wire the Aiport Express to the Airport Extreme. I can say that this fixed the problem for me, but like Colin said, it really defeats the purpose.

I would like a refund Apple, I really don't like your networking equipment.

I'm really ****** about this!