Apple TV Home Sharing Device Limit

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jont2001 Author

Level 1

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Apple TV Home Sharing Device Limit

I have 6 brand new Apple TV units and one windows computer running iTunes. My plan was to use the computer as a media server which I would put our DVD´s, CD´s and existing itunes movies, music and photos on. We could then access everything from the Apple TV units. At the moment I can:

Airplay music from the iTunes PC to all 6 Apple TV´s at the same time.

Airplay a single movie to any one of the 6 Apple TV´s from the iTunes PC at any time.

When any four Apple TV boxes are switched on I can access home sharing on the iTunes PC and stream four different movies or four streams of the same movie from the iTunes PC to the Apple TV units.

If I try and connect more than 4 Apple TV units to the home share I get a black screen saying couldn´t connect - please check itunes is running and up to date. This problem only happens when more than 4 Apple TV units are connected. Even when this error appears I can Airplay a movie from the iTunes interface on the PC to the 5th and 6th Apple TVbut I can´t connect from Apple TV interface to the home share on the iTunes PC (during this time the other four Apple TV units work perfectly)

I have tried multiple times with all combinations - any combination of 4 Apple TV units work perfectly well but I can´t add a 5th or 6th Apple TV unit.

All of the Apple TV´s and the PC are connected by Ethernet and have no problems streaming once connected to the home share.

I was wondering if this was an issue with itunes on the PC - if it is I will get a Mac mini and use that.

The itunes account I´m using for the Apple TV´s only has one PC registered to it at the moment. All the Apple TV´s say they are up to date and I´ve just updated the PC to the latest version of iTunes.

I am not expecting to be able to stream the same movie to 6 Apple TV units but I would expect to be able to access the iTunes share from all 6 Apple TV´s at the same time. If I had 6 different DVD´s I would be able to watch them in 6 different DVD players without breaching any copywrite so as far as I can see it shouldn´t be a problem.

I can only think its a device licencing issue - it seems I can´t use more than 4 Apple TV´s per home share although the Apple licence says maximum of 10 iOS devices but does Apple TV count as an iOS device? Is this a software bug or is it a licencing issue? My iTunes account shows only the one PC registered. When I connect the Apple TV´s the number of registered devices doesn´t change.

Anyone successfully doing something similar?

Apple TV, Windows 7

Posted on Feb 6, 2014 9:20 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 6, 2014 9:28 AM in response to jont2001

Welcome to the Apple Community.

I've never really been able to confirm how these restrictions apply, so far as I know there is a limit of 10 associated devices, which I believe is different to there being a restriction on home sharing.

Here are my thoughts on the matter.

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Answer 2

jont2001 Author

Level 1

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Feb 6, 2014 9:39 AM in response to Winston Churchill

Hi Winston,

Thanks for the quick reply! Its a bit confusing isn´t it. I could understand limiting the number of simultaneous streams of the same content for copyright reasons but 4-5 device limit seems a bit low - even a modest four bedroom house with children could easily have use for 6 Apple TV units! Its even more frustrating that putting the Apple TV boxes to sleep doesnt seem to "release" a home share without unplugging the Apple TV units from the mains power and restarting iTunes. I want to try with a MAC based iTunes account to see if it makes a difference.

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Answer 3

Feb 6, 2014 11:13 AM in response to jont2001

Whilst I'm not at all sure, I tend to think that associated devices don't include Apple TV's or if they do, they do so on a temporary basis only.

We now have 6 Apple TV 2 & 3's and havent had issues with them, but we may not have had more than 4 trying to connect to my library at the same time, but we've never had to unplug any of them to release the association, if indeed that's how it works.

The limit for associated devices is 10.

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