Airplay drop-outs on remote speakers

Question

Airplay drop-outs on remote speakers

Since iTunes 11 AirPlay has become little more than a joke for me at least.

First here's our set-up; main iMac controls iTunes library. The library resides on a 2TB TimeCapsule. Music is listened to on the main computer and wirelessly through an ATV (gen2) and two AirPort Express units at different locations.

Here's the problem - when listening to music controlled through the computer it plays back just fine through the computer, when you turn on the remote speakers (i.e. - ATV or APX) music starts playing no problem but then when the song changes the remote unit (ATV or APX) will drop-out.
When you go back to the computer the remote speakers are still visible & their box is checked but they are not playing. The only way to get them to switch back on is to uncheck & recheck the box.

This is really annoying, in fact it's made using remote speakers nearly useless.

The same thing also happens if I use the Remote Ap on my iPhone to control the library through the ATV or APX.

If you use the ATV to access the library the problem does not occur.

This has only become a problem since the really dodgey iTunes 11 came onto the scene.

Any ideas anyone?

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion, Late 2009 27inch 2.8GHz i7

Posted on Jan 29, 2013 2:41 AM

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Answer 1

robogobo

Level 2

352 points

Jan 29, 2013 4:38 AM in response to Adam Woodhams

yeah, there's definitely a bug in there somewhere. Make sure you submit a feedback report. I'm sure it will get ironed out. iTunes 11 was a huge departure from previous versions and it'll surely have some weirdness here and there for a while.

Just curious, do you have and older (802.11g or b) Airport Expresses in the mix? Is your Time Capsule firmware up to date? There are so many variables in these setups, you really have to be scientific while troubleshooting. My Airplay/ remorte speakers setup is really frustrating at the moment, too. I have an older Express in there that I suspect is a problem. But nevertheless it was all working fine before the 11 update.

Try this: see if turning on all speakers at once works for a few hours. That's the only thing that's flawless for me.

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Answer 2

Jan 29, 2013 9:35 PM in response to robogobo

Thanks robogobo.

Yes, they really have gone off-the-rails in a lot of respects with this version of iTunes. I've used iTunes since it's first incarnation & I'd have to honestly say this is the first version that has been a backwards step in features & performance. I just don't get Apples agenda at the moment. Removing useful features & replacing them with features that are difficult to use or are more cumbersome than the ones they replace.

But back on-topic... I have a Airport Expresses of various ages in the mix. None of which had any problems with streaming from iTunes until I 'upgraded' to iTunes 11.

My TimeCapsule is a new 2TB, firmware appears up-to-date (7.6.1)

And whether I have one set or three of speakers on it drops out.

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Answer 3

Feb 21, 2013 9:44 PM in response to Adam Woodhams

Hi Adam,

I'm wondering whether you solved your issue. I have similar issue. Songs stored in TC play wireless to Pioneer. I have intermitten drop-out.

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Answer 4

Mar 25, 2013 1:09 PM in response to Maorriyan

No Maorriyan, still having problems. There is something wrong with the most recent versions of iTunes, simple as that. Another problem I've also found is that even when on the main computer (not wireless speakers etc) a song will show that it is playing but the audio will vanish. You have to then pause the playback & restart to get the audio back.

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Answer 5

alex28

Level 1

4 points

May 26, 2013 4:25 AM in response to Adam Woodhams

I have problems too since I use the new itunes 11 with a vsx 922 pioneer system. the music does pause or does not start the vsx-922 or the sound continuously drops.

The only solution I found is to activate the whole Sytem's output to airplay in system preferences. Then I no more experience the itunes 11 problem

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Answer 6

alex28

Level 1

4 points

Jun 30, 2013 2:55 AM in response to alex28

I have tried to revert to itunes 10.7 but airplay still did had problems. So the itunes 11 installation seemed to have update the airplay daemon but the itunes 10.7 did not reinstall the airplay daemon.

The airplay on vsx interface on TV had some visual problems too.

That's when I went to the vsx 922 interface and saw that there was a VSX 922 firmware update !

that seems at last to solve the problem (tested under 10.7 for now, I am downloading itunes 11 in order to test if the problem is solved too under 10.7)

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