Q: Funky streaming problem with one particular app

That's what I suspected, though I hoped there was something I could do. Thanks!

Diana, I've only got one ATV. In iTunes on my ooooold iMac (which doesn't even have Airplay) it appears as Apple TV.

I've spent more time investigating this and found that I was wrong (or fuzzy) about some stuff, mostly because I couldn't replicate the problem while I was posting.

I only have one ATV, and at various times it appears as Apple TV, Apple TV (3), and Apple TV (4), or a combination of any of them. Here's a combination of iPod screenshots:

I was also wrong that the variations only appear when using the News app; they come up in Podcasts, Safari, or whatever else I have that streams content. According to what Diane says, this probably means the ATV is losing the network. I assumed it had no network problems because watching or listening to any ATV app is smooth as silk; the same thing goes with playing iTunes from my early 2009 iMac's iTunes library (although the iMac doesn't actually use Airplay...).

Diana, I'll read up on sources of interference and go through the troubleshooting steps in your links, and will post back on the results. Wish me luck!

8/11/16 update:

Trying everything suggested in Diana's links made no difference, so it must be a problem with the app. It's a little frustrating when my devices don't work as expected, and it would be nice to be able to effortlessly stream audio content from the Touch to the ATV whenever I want, many worse things could happen. If it starts to really bug me I could always get another Airport and some speakers for the LR.

Tthanks for the suggestions!

Thanks, Diana. I've got WPA2 personal, and since I have no idea what dual-mode or TKIP are, I assume I don't have them.

I'll find out how to get the logs from my router (I assume you don't mean the Airport) and will report back when I have more data.

On second thought, don't  I need data from the Airport to know when the ATV has tried to connect? If so, how do I view the Airport's logs?

I'm finally back on my desktop, so hopefully I can give you some helpful info.

My Airport Express is connected to a DSL modem. Network Preferences says the network's security is WPA2 Personal. On the Mac, when I click on Airport Express in Airport Utility, the Airport's status says "Setup over WAN" and "Double NAT" (is that "double" a problem?), and the ATV is listed under its wireless clients.

For what it's worth, Airport Utility on my iPod Touch lets me click through to the wireless clients' details, which say the ATV's connection is "Excellent."

My understanding is that the ATV is connected to the Airport, not the modem, but I can't figure out how to get the Airport's logs. Any tips?

Things are looking up--I think. Yesterday I realized that although I reset the ATV last week and set it up again, I never really double-checked all the settings. Rather than trying to guess at what might be wrong I reset the ATV and meticulously went through every menu to make sure my iTunes sign-in and Airplay, Home Sharing, and anything other settings I could find were right. I must have fixed something, because since then Airplay from all apps has worked just fine and I haven't seen ATV 3 or ATV 4 in the Airplay menu.

I don't know whether the problem was fixed by some setting I corrected after the reset or the reset itself, but I'm crossing my fingers that the problem the ATV or its settings rather than network or Airport issues.

Diana, I appreciate your informed suggestion, but I have no idea what double-NAT is or which settings makes the Airport a router versus an access point, and stuff about it on the internet is just completely inscrutable to me. I guess I could reset the Airport to factory settings and recreate the network from scratch, but it sounds like just another opportunity to break the network and have to flail around until it works again, which I've done often enough that I'm still pretty phobic about it. Internet access from my phone, desktop, iPad and iPod are perfect, so unless the network starts acting up again, I'm going to let sleeping dogs lie.