Q: Home Sharing drop out with Apple TV2

ATV2 is not supposed to show in iTunes.

Only ATV 1 had that feature.

ATV2 is supposed to STREAM content from your home shared libraries ... even if you have multiple ones in your household. There is no content stored there.

Too bad it is broken for many of us! :-(

Rrriiiight.....thanks.   But I can download movies onto my ATV2 (when it works) and view them....I interpret that as not just a streaming function. And the download is MUCH quicker than onto my computer.  So maybe it's not actually a download? I'm streaming from the net? Those movies do come with the warning that I can view them ONLY via the ATV - in other words, not on my computer.  Which I would want to do only if someone else was using the TV.

The only way I can actually play my content from my library is to use another device (Ipad, Itouch, Iphone, etc.)and use AirPlay, since my library is invisible to the ATV2 since the software upgrade.

I can't figure out how to get Shuffle working when I play videos from the Ipad though through AirPlay, if I do a singular video it works fine but shuffle seems to put a thumbnail on and then I hear the music but get no video.

By far, the ATV2 is the most disappointing Apple product I've owned, and I've spent way too much of my own time trying to figure out why it has such crappy product support!

I have decided with 4 calls to apple support and so much time wasted, I am going to return this product. I will also monitor this blog until they get it fixed. Maybe the fix will come with ATV3!

last 2 days have been a nightmare. constant drops. resetting apple tv, itunes, computer, router. changing channels, etc. Even my 9 year old daughter said the apple tv is a piece of crap.

Time to push out an update apple.

OK Gang, I think I may have an answer to this ATV2 drop issue. After spending nearly 4 hours with a  tech senior advisor at Apple we had worked through every possibility that we thought might be causing the error, to no avail. He did say he was escalating it up to engineering to see if they might know of this issue (and I directed him to this discussion). He told me that he should hear back from them by the end of the week and that we are to touch base next week to share notes on what we found. In the mean time and after I got off the phone with him I decided to play around with my router and adjust some settings to see if the router might be causing the problem. Here is what I found. After adjusting many of the settings I found that turning off any  "Multicasting & QOS" features seemed to fix the problem. I have had no drops since then. I thought at first it may be an issue with the wireless security (WPA Only vs WPA/WPA2) but that setting change did not work. I know have Home Sharing working on my ATV2, 2 iPads and 2-PC's. I can play movies on all simultaneously without interruption. My current configurations are as follows:

DLink Router (Dir-685 w/Firmware 2.00NA)  

Windows 7U PC Running iTUnes 10.3.1.55

ATV2 Running 4.2.2 (2203)

iPad 1 w/3G Running 4.3.3 (8J3)

Few things to note.

1. Ensure that your firmware for your router what ever you use is updated to the latest version.

2. Once you have your firmware updated turn off any Multicasting feature and QOS on router

3. Reboot Router

4. Not sure if you need to do this but I did, on the ATV2 under settings-general-reset I " Reset All Settings"

5. On ATV2, Rejoin network and turn on Home Sharing

6. On iPad I reset network settings under settings-general-reset, then rejoin network

Now once this was done everything seemed to work as advertised. I hope this helps some if not all of having this problem. Please let me know if you are still having any issues and I can try to see if I can figure it out for you.

gb from GBO Tech

OK - so I looked at my router Linksys Cisco WAG120N settings on line an it is set up as:

For  multicating: VC 

QoS: UBR

The  "help" section gave these descriptions for the different settings available:

Multiplexing

Select LLC or VC, as used by your DSL connection. If necessary, check the documentation for your DSL service.

QoS Type

Select from the drop-down menu: CBR (Continuous Bit Rate) to specify fixed bandwidth for voice or data traffic; UBR (Unspecified Bit Rate) for applications that are none-time sensitive, such as e-mail; or VBR(Variable Bite Rate) for bursty traffic and bandwidth-sharing with other applications. Note: If the QoS Type setting is CBR, then the SCR is not configurable. If the QoS Type setting is UBR, then the PCR and SCR settings are not configurable. If necessary, check the documentation for your DSL service.

PCR

If using UBR for QoS, this rate is determined automatically. Otherwise, enter the desired Peak Cell Rate (PCR) value.

SCR

The Sustain Cell Rate (SCR) sets the average cell rate that can be transmitted. The SCR value is normally less than the PCR value.If the QoS value is UBR or CBR, this rate is determined automatically. If you are using VBR for QoS, enter the desired value.

Autodetect

Select Enable to have the VPI and VCI settings automatically detected, or select Disable to enter the values manually. This option should only be used when there is a single Virtual Circuit (VC).

Virtual Circuit

Refer to the data from your DSL provider, and enter the correct VPI and VCI values.

DSL Modulation

Select the appropriate mode: MultiMode, T1.413, G.dmt, G.lite, ADSL2, ADSL2+, ADSL2 L, ADSL2 M or ADSL2+ M. Contact your ISP if you are not sure which mode to use. The upstream and downstream rates vary by mode.

Any idea what I should do as there is no "OFF" selection.  To me the logical selection would be VBR, purely because of the description for its' use.

Advice would be helpful.  I have written to Apple with a complaint  (snailmail) and as yet have not had a reply.

Message was edited by: roryfromhamilton

Thanks for this post. Having followed earlier advice to block the ATV2 through the wireless router and run it over a physical connection, I've not had any problems. However, in the interests of science, I'm more than happy to try this approach to see what happens.

Trouble is, I'm going way past my (very limited) technical competence. I think I can understand conceptually what both QoS and multicasting are, but the implications of turning them off are not clear to me. For example, what will happen for other users on my home network is there is no multicasting? More importantly, perhaps, is whether it will affect my VOIP service.

I have a Billion 7401VGPR3 router. In the settings, the QoS section shows:

It looks to me that QoS is not set, but it is not clear to me. What, for example, would happen if I turned the Time Schedule setting to "Disabled"? My suspicion is nothing, because it looks to me like I would have to name QoS settings and save them for this to have any effect. Is that right?

The only area I can find where multicasting might be turned on is IGMP which shows:

I'm not sure what would happen were I to disable IGMP Forward All.

I'd appreciate any guidance. I should add, I guess, that these settings have not changed since I got the ATV--so they were like this before I blocked the ATV through the wireless router.

Cheers

Message was edited by: Cormanus

Linksys WAG120N once in router setup go to applications and gaming - QOS and disable WMM Support.

Then under administration disable IGMP.

let me know if this works.

Cormanus try disable IGMP. Let me know if this works.

Rory. The QOS on the main setup screen is for the WAN (Internet) not your LAN (Home Network)

Thanks for that.  Have done that and will report back in a day or two.

Thanks GB. I've disabled IGMP and disconnected the cable. So far so good. I'll report back in due course.

By the way, with reference to your earlier post, it started working before I had a chance to reset anything on the ATV, so I haven't followed that part of your instructions.

Cheers

Sorry to report GB that, while I had no drop out problems on the day after I tried this, I then went away for a day or so, came back and found I had to reset the ATV to get it to see my iTunes library. Same problem I was having.

Back to the cable for the time being.

Message was edited by: Cormanus

And another!! I have the same problems with my ATV2. The first problem I came across was that everything was so slow - it could take 10-15 mins before a video would start. When it did start, it would stop somewhere without completing and it would take a long time to restart. I would just lose patience with it. I read in these forums about resetting/restarting my network (all my equipment is Apple by the way except for my broadband modem). I tried using 5GHz spectrum, 11n etc. This would work for a while and then the whole thing would act up again. I then discovered that when the thing acted up, Home Sharing would dropout. When I turn off Home Sharing and then back on again, the system would work for sometime and dropout again at random intervals (but so far not immediately. I can often watch for long periods). I really like the Apple TV concept. It does seem to be a software/firmware/driver problem. I have all the latest software versions. I cannot comment on the quality of earlier versions as I never tried them. I believe Apple needs to study this problem more to resolve it. I read somewhere that beta releases of iTunes and ATV firmware does fix the problem. Shouldn't Apple put the fixes into the current releases or rush the release?

Stephen