Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Home sharing problems with ATV

W

wwohl

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 2, 2013
135
25
Equipment involved:
Mac mini 2012 i7 16gb with 500gb of movies on HDD. OS on SSD. Updated software.
Connected to Router via Ethernet.
ATV3 connected to router via Ethernet. Software 6.2
All mp4 files.

I frequently have streaming issues when trying to play content from my iTunes. I'll get permanent scrolly wheels and the movie never plays. Or, if it does, it will stop multiple times while trying to buffer throughout the movie. Sometimes it works perfect. Sometimes it doesn't work at all. Restarting computer and or the atv3 only sometimes fixes the issue.

The ATV has no issues playing content from iTunes Store.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Bill
 
J

jdblas69

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2012
270
129
If you have not already done so, give your router a reboot. I find that tends to solve buffering issues among many other home sharing issues.
 
W

wwohl

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 2, 2013
135
25
Gave the router a reboot and got it working

This issue is happening about 50% of the time. Buffering requires rebooting equipment. Either the router or the ATV.

Should I expect improvements if I upgrade the router? The current router is a cheap netgear N router.


Would a better router make a difference being that both devices are connected via Ethernet? Been looking at the Asus RT-N66u

Thanks
 
J

jdblas69

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2012
270
129
For curiosity have you tried running homesharing via wifi to the apple tv? The fact you have it hardwired via ethernet should give you the best performance. However it would be interesting to test via wifi and see if you still have those buffering/performance issues.

Could also try signing out and signing back into homesharing on both itunes on your mini and apple tv.

Have you tested the ethernet connection with a different ethernet cable, perhaps a faulty cable??

If your router seems to be performing well with devices/connections unlikely the router is the cause.

Lastly you could try and restore the apple tv.
 
P

priitv8

macrumors 601
Jan 13, 2011
4,038
641
Estonia
wwohl said:
The current router is a cheap netgear N router.

Would a better router make a difference being that both devices are connected via Ethernet? Been looking at the Asus RT-N66u
Click to expand...
Netgear has some special AV-router.
I use AirPort Extremes myself and I have a feeling that Apple has buit in a non-configurable QoS for media streams into it's network devices.
So I have never had to configure anything on it (regarding QoS), it just works.
 
W

wwohl

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 2, 2013
135
25
Fixed

Two things

First, my buffering issues are fixed. I had not considered the router since I was hard wired. I knew it was only single band wireless N. What I didn't realize was that it didn't even support gigabit ethernet. So the ethernet connection was pretty slow.

Now, the ATV3 does not support 1000mbps gigabit ethernet either. At least now, the communication from router to mac and back is gigabit level.

The new router is the ASUS RT-N66U and its perfect. Full 1080p videos start instantly, never get hung up and are usually buffered way way ahead of where we are currently watching. Frequently, by the time I'm 5-10 minutes in, the whole movie is buffered. These file sizes range from 1.3 to 5 GB

In addition, airplay works 100x better with iOS device on dual band 5ghz network.

Second, Im now using plex with plexconnect on the apple tv. Works great. Equally stable to the iTunes environment and a way better appearance than what home sharing gives you..

Thanks for your help
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom