Home Sharing drop out with Apple TV2

OK, count me in the hurt bag. I have a simple setup: one macbook pro, one aTV2. The aTV2 is hard-wired to my Verizon router. When I'm streaming music from the macbook pro to the aTV2, it frequently drops out/stops. It's really bad when streaming from iTunes, but it even happens if I'm using Airfoil to stream Pandora music to the aTV2.

I'm contemplating removing the cable so the atv is connecting wirelessly to the router, but have few hopes that will help.

Sigh. So count me another ****** off apple sucker.

Lumberjack,

I'm not sure whether you've seen the post by balord on 7 June on page 13 (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2776955?start=180&tstart=0). If not, he recommends blocking the ATV2's wireless connection with the router and just using the wired connection. I've done this and it has been working just fine.

It's worth a try until Apple fixes the bug.

Cheers

Lumberjack - It's worth trying anything - because, like you, I have only the ATV2 and a Macbook pro - but unlike you, my ATV2 is connected to my network wirelessly. I fixed my drop out problems by aligning my DNS settings. Now it works fine.

Good luck!

cheers

Cormanus,

I love the concept, but I don't understand the steps Balord mentions. How do I block the MAC address using airport utility? Block what MAC address? Network settings are pretty arcane to me. If you could give me a hint, I'd be grateful. TIA

Nancy,

I'd love to try it, but I have no idea what that means! Can you tell me how to align my DNS settings?

TIA

I ran Airport Utility to try to poke around and find some way to block the MAC address, but I don't have an apple router, so the utility didn't find anything to administer. Interestingly, it didn't even find my aTV.

So now I'm wondering: when I stream from my macbook to my atv, does the 'stream' go directly from my macbook to the atv, or does the data first go to my verizon wifi router and then get passed to the aTV?

Confused...

I can't answer your data flow question, but the issue around DNS settings is pretty simple - thank God something is! 1. On your MacBook pro click on Network in your System Preferences (Internet & Wireless panel), which should open you to your current location connection. At the bottom of the window is a button called Advanced. Click on that. It will open you to a window with a series of tabs. Click on the one labelled DNS. It will show you a series of numbers. Write them down.

2. Open up your ATV2 while also opening iTunes on your Mac - so that hopefully the two are connected. Go to Settings, click on it, go to Network, click on it - and it should tell you a lot of things - Network name, IP address, AND the DNS settings. They should be the same as the ones on your computer. If not - you need to change the settings on the ATV2. There's an option somewhere in there for changing. It will also tell you the signal strength - and if that is weak, that might explain your drop out problem.

My problem was that the ATV2 wasn't reognising my computer at all!

Good luck again....

One other thing....tonight, for the first time, I've had the drop out problem that you and everyone else has experienced. Rage! Tried everything to no avail - it just kept dropping out in the middle of the movie. So then I checked my network settings, and saw that the signal had dropped down to 2 bars. And when I went to my computer -i t wasn't connecting either. So I had to do the usual - turn the modem off, etc. And then, things were fine. The signal returned to 3 bars! We are sooooo slow in Australia. So maybe Lumberjack's query about "where the streaming" goes is vital. In my case - clearly so. If you're wireless and encountering difficulties, turn the modem off as a first resort.

So here's a new wrinkle. I have big dropout problems when streaming music from my macbook pro to my aTV2, but never have any problems when streaming from my ipod touch (2Gen) to the same aTV2. Anyone else have this experience? From both devices, I'm streaming both itunes music and pandora music, though not at the same time of course. Never a glitch when using the ipod.

Also, when I do have dropouts when using the macbook pro, I never get any error messages or alerts. Either the music stops playing in iTunes (i.e., the pause button turns into the play button, and the time counter stops), or the sound just vanishes with no change in iTunes or Pandora.

Also, I thought I would try the suggestion to turn off or block wireless entirely from the aTV, since I have it hardwired to my router, but when go to settings it says "To enable wifi, unplug the ethernet cable." So contrary to some postings here, it looks to me like plugging in a cable turns off wifi by itself. Is my interpretation correct?

This morning I turned off sleep and screensaver on the aTV2, and so far I've had no dropouts in music, going on 40 min now. Fingers crossed...

I might add that when I stream music from my macbook to aTV, I do not turn on the tv (which is hidden behind folding doors). Can't imagine this would make any difference, but perhaps someone could comment on this?

I'll also add that there is a long discussion elsewhere about the many, many problems that macbook pros have with wifi. So I'm still not sure if I have a Macbook pro wifi problem or an aTV2 home sharing problem. Sigh. Although I will say my macbook almost never exhibits any wifi problems when doing anything other than streaming to the aTV.

In my case I have noticed 2 types of problems with the ATV2. In the first, it can take a long time for a movie to begin playing and sometimes it just stops entirely. In the second, Home Sharing drops out. The fix that I have used in the first case is just to restart my network (in my case all the Airport Express devices I have). In the second, all I need to do is to turn Home Sharing OFF and then ON. These work always.

Lumberjack

Balord's theory was that plugging in the Ethernet cable did not completely disable the WiFi activity. The ATV2 has two Media Access Control (MAC) addresses--one for WiFi; the other for Ethernet--so it is possible to block one while allowing the other.

This morning I've unblocked the WiFi MAC address to see whether I again start having problems with drop out. I've also installed a network monitor, and so far can see no activity from the ATV's WiFi unless I unplug the Ethernet cable. But let's wait and see.

At the moment, I am mainly using the ATV to stream music to my stereo via AirPlay. I did have terrible drop out problems running it on WiFi, but since I've used just the Ethernet there have been no problems.

I'd be interested in the views of those with greater technical knowledge than me on the question of delays with movies starting. I've had the problem, but I've assumed it stems from a need to provide a sufficient initial buffer and that is a consequence of the speed of my Internet connection.

Just bought the ATV2. Having the same issue as everyone here. Streaming stops after 30 min or so. I also have to reboot hone sharing, iMac and ATV2. Only for streaming to stop again. No workaround fixes anything long term. Home sharing just fails.

SuperSizeit: I would definitely return it for a refund, if you just bought it. Why put up with this? I'd return mine except mine didn't start doing this droput stuff until, I guess, one of the software updates. Return it and get a Roku.

I have 2 Roku XDS boxes as well as an ATV2. Do a google search. Rokus have their own problems. You will find that none of these devices are perfect. The Roku won't stream from iTunes either. : )

Fellow frustrated atv2 owners:

I too was having drop off home sharing for the first few weeks of owning the apple tv 2. The connection to "my computer" would drop off while streaming music and movies. The homesharing computers would disappear and everytime I would turn on the atv2, I would have reboot to get them back. I was able to "Airplay" music from the computer it had dropped using the iphone remote app (which seems strange if the homesharing connection was lost). I also had a strange issue with the led light on the unit; it would turn off when the atv2 went into sleep mode, but minutes later would come back on and stay lit, even though the atv2 was still in sleep mode.

My atv2 has been working flawlessly for several months and I use it everyday and night, in fact I have since bought a second one for the bedroom. At one point I was going to return the atv2 and exchange it for another because I thought it was defective.

I wish I could tell you exactly what changed, because I am not sure myself. My problem was fixed when I did a couple of things. I turned off the photos and screensaver. The other thing I changed at that same time was getting rid of a wireless repeater that I had in the house. My main wireless router is an linksys E1000 and I was using a ASUS repeater. I think the atv2 was "connecting" to the repeater and the computers were connecting to the main router and this was causing issues with the components "seeing" each other. The other change I made at this same time was disabling the ANYNET+ feature on my tv (this is a feature that allows you to control components that are plugged into your tv with an HDMI cable); I think this was causing problems with the atv2. I also, of course have all the latest versions of iTunes and firmware for the atv2. Since doing these things I haven't had one single dropout, and the led status light only turns on when atv2 is on and working.

I was very frustrated with the atv2 in the beginning, but now that it is working the way it supposed to, I love it! I really hope that someone out there is able to diagnose the issue why so many people are having problems so that you all can enjoy your atv2.

Let me know if any of these suggestions help you out.