Q: Home Sharing drop out with Apple TV2

I have several responses from you that state it is a wifi/router issue when in fact that i personally have home sharing drop off but I switch it to Netflix and no drop off or any buffering of any kind. The problem is with the home sharing and not the wifi because everything works on the ATV2 when home sharing drops off. Apple needs an answer for this.

I agree 1000% & have emailed "Apple" and have said the same in the email...Yet I'm still waiting,it makes me hesitant as I have heard they refer to apple tv as a hobby & not as an important part of their product line....Will have to wait and see the out come.

I replied before on this discussion mentioning that buying a new Netgear N900 routher fixed the issue and returning the Apple Time Capsule fixed it for me and people didn't have the same results, I guess if you don't have Quality of Service (QOS) and other items like the Apple Time Capsule (Airport Extreme) doesn't have it won't keep the connection, yes, Netflix and others work, but they're not coming from the laptop over wi-fi, Netflix is coming over the internet.

Yes, I know Netflix is coming from the internet through the exact same wifi router that had no problem ATV2 and iTunes used just fine before all this update rigamarole. As a matter of fact when I switch to my iMac wifi signal, iTunes still drops and then I can still stream Netflix through the ATV2 with my iMac. So it still is an issue with iTunes and ATV2 dropping the iTunes and Apple still can't get it right. Many posts have stated that they still have a problem with iTunes dropping when connected by wire, so that is another issue that is pointing to an iTunes issue.

Under the Time Capsule using Airport Utility I adjusted the following:

WPA Group Time Out Key to 999 Days, so it won't timeout every hour and selected use wide channels, so the TimeCapsule (Airport Extreme) is working fine so far

louislite wrote:

 

Under the Time Capsule using Airport Utility I adjusted the following:

 

WPA Group Time Out Key to 999 Days, so it won't timeout every hour and selected use wide channels, so the TimeCapsule (Airport Extreme) is working fine so far

It's not a good idea to have the decryption key staying for 999 days, except you want to share all your wireless transmitted secrets with a IT-Geek in the neighborhood.

If the drop outs in the sharing occur on the CCMP-Key rotation the reason is most likely that either the Computer or the ATV meanwhile had switched the radio band and therefore the BSSID it's connected to.

On this, for Time Capsule or Airport Extreme (same settings) some other steps are reasonable.

On the TC / APExtreme:

Set back the time out to a meaningful value e.g. once a day.

Give the 5GHz a dedicated name (wireless - options) to prevent the station(s) from band hopping.

Enable wide channel on the 5GHz

For video streaming set the multicast rate at least to medium.*

Eventually disable "Guest Network"

Check that on security "WPA2 personal AES" is set.

On the ATV:

Prefer to connect to the 5GHz wireless if the signal is sufficient for the location** of the ATV.

If the 5GHz signal is not sufficient, fiddle with the location of either the ATV and the base to improve it or stay with the 2.4GHz 802.11n wireless.

*) Multicast rate: If you set tthe multicast rate medium or high, only clients on the network that are within range and can achieve the speed you set will receive transmissions. If you set the multicast rate low, eventually the ATV is able to receive streams but eventually the transmission rate is insufficient to stream high quality video signals seamlessly.

**) The radio conditions on the ATV's location are very important for a good streaming experience. Do not hide the ATV in or behind furniture, beneath or behind the TV or other equipment. Place it as high as possible with a free line of sight for the build in antennas to the TC/AP-Extreme, even thru walls. If your situation does not allow a proper placement, eventually wire the ATV to the base or a nearby (but better placed) AP-Express.

For the users of other wireless bases:

Check that the base, if possible, use "WPA2 personal AES" and not the (on older bases often default) WEP or WEP+.

If 2.4GHz 802.11n is used, disable 40MHz "wide channel"

Lupunus

My ATV is now displaying an music icon. When choosen it asks to subscribe to itunes match to share your music in icloud (not yet available in itunes but hopefully soon)... do we think this may resolve the problem???

northchatham wrote:

 

My ATV is now displaying an music icon.... do we think this may resolve the problem???

No.

It's just one more new gimmick but not a solution for your problem.

Lupunus

You suggest this wireless solution - but mine's wired and having this issue. Even after trying above wirelessly it still does it - dropping home sharing after about 20 minutes or so.

Netflix is fine - it's just anything music or video from the homeshare. I have also had 2 apple tvs - 1st and 2nd gen and until this update never had this issue.

This is total BS and apple needs to fix ASAP.

jaybrewer wrote:

 

- but mine's wired and having this issue.

 

dropping home sharing after about 20 minutes or so.

Netflix is fine

If Netflix is fine and the ATV is wired to the router, your Internet connection and the ATV is ok.

You can narrow down the problem to the connection from the source of stream (your computer) to the router.

Unfortunately you give no more information. Mac? Windows? Wired or wireless? and so on....

And remember that every setup, computer, network is unique and even if a issue sound similar you can be pretty sure that it is definitively not the same as yours.
On that my advice to "louislite" is about louislite's issue and not about your's.

Lupunus

iTunes: 10.5

Mac 10.6.8

Apple TV2 - 4.4.2

Home Sharing a Libary on a Mac Mini with iTunes 10.5

Everything wired ethernet on an Airport Extreme (both atv and mac mini using ethernet cables to it)

After I watch a movie - let's say Dark Knight from the shared itunes Libary using Home Sharing at about 25 minutes the movie will stop and the Apple TV goes back to the main menu screen. I can then browse to the shared library under computers and start watching it again. After about 25 minutes or so it will do the drop back to the menus.

Prior to the update I have had zero issues.

That's better than me (and most other people). We have to either sign out and back in to home sharing on the ATV or computer, or restart iTunes.

Just to chime in, having the same issues here, and they're really my only issues with the AppleTV.  Details:

- Windows 7 x64 PC running latest version of iTunes (10.5)

- AppleTV 2 with latest update (4.4.2)

- Netflix works flawlessly, as does video content (ie. TV shows/movies) rented through the Apple store or stored on the cloud.  In other words, if it's from the Internet, it works without a hitch.

- I don't store much video locally in iTunes, so can't comment much on video STORED LOCALLY - as I said, video rented and stored remotely works perfectly

- When playing from iTunes music library, music stops playing anywhere from 10 to 40 (usually less) minutes into my playlist.  This seems to happen mostly at the end of a song/beginning of the next, but I've seen it happen a few times mid-song.

- Home Sharing Library disappears and isn't accessible - solution is to restart iTunes or turn off/turn on home sharing; if you wait long enough (several minutes), occasionally I've had it randomly show up again or the song it got stuck on randomly start playing.

- I unfortunately only had AppleTV a few days before the 4.4.2 update, so I can't for certain say if the dropouts were happening before.  I didn't *think* they were, but I honestly didn't play enough music the first couple days to say for sure.

- I use a wired connection to wireless switch connected via N to my router, but I've tried G on it, as well as the built in N and G on the AppleTV instead, and more different network configurations (frequencies, settings, security, etc.) than I can count.  Problem is the same regardless.  I cannot try wired at this time.

- I've tried adding the various TCP and UDP port exceptions to both Windows Firewall and my router's with no difference either.  (I even [riskily] tried turning both firewalls off temporarily just to make sure this wasn't an issue.)

- I have 7 devices connected through these switches, and none have any notable issues.

- I've noticed pushing from my computer with iTunes (ie. AirPlay) works quite a bit better than pulling from the AppleTV.  I hardly ever have drops while pushing, so this is my "workaround" for the moment. 

- I've noticed when this happens, if I look at iTunes, sometimes the icons at the bottom of the screen appear corrupted  Essentially, the Airplay icon (and the other icons near it), which are normally on the right side of the bottom of the screen, are now on the left side of the screen jumbled up/overlapping the icons that are normally there (shuffle play, repeat, etc.).  This is corrected with a resize of the window.

I'm still fairly happy with the AppleTV, and when the Music Match feature is ready, it may provide the usability I desire, but this problem is quite frustrating as otherwise this product is making me very happy.

I'm aware for a lot of people it's come down to a network issue, but I've tried everything I can think of apart from getting new networking hardware (something I'm not willing to do as this is fairly new equipment and has worked perfectly for everything else I've thrown at it, including most other AppleTV functions). 

So I'm at a loss.  I feel since a lot of people are experiencing this since the last update, there's definitely something in either iTunes or the AppleTV that may be causing this in some situations.  But I don't know what that possibly could be.

I also think it's home sharing/itunes related.

I did fix my problem though, and I'll share how after I explain which problem I had.

I was in the "everything works, but when watching something streaming from an itunes machine over home sharing, it would quit at a random interval."

I solved mine by disabling everything else using home sharing.  I have 2 iphones and an ipad and I can FORCE it to drop the appleTV stream by trying to bring up shared libraries on any of those other devices.  Thus, I KNOW what's causing it.  My only fix was to disable home sharing on those other devices.  Now, I have no drop outs on home sharing streams on apple tv.

I strongly recommend anyone try it until apple fixes it.  It SEEMS that home sharing cannot support multiple concurrent users, thus the drop outs when another device queries the home share on itunes.  For those with multiple appleTVs, I dunno.  I want a 2nd one, but am not buying one until I know apple has fixed home sharing.

WolfpupNX wrote:

 

...but I've tried everything I can think of apart from getting new networking hardware (something I'm not willing to do...

Don't bother. I've tried a couple different routers with and without a switch, wired and wireless.

No change.