ATV2 & ATV3 Home Sharing Issue

[Deadeyeshark]

Here's my set up, 3 x ATV3 and 3 x ATV2, two are wireless (both ATV2) the rest are wired. Router is an Airport Extreme and this is extended with three Airport Express'.

It seems I can have at least 3-4 ATV's accessing home sharing, but at least two always state they cannot connect to the library, I find this a little strange as my screen saver photos which access the home share still work. I have tried the following

All ATV's are set to never sleep.

Completely resetting the network.

Doing the above and disabling/re-enabling Home Sharing.

Disable HS and then close down itunes, open and re-enable.

Anyone having a similar issue or can suggest another work around?

:-)

[paulrbeers]

What are the size of video files you are playing back? Theoretically 4+ blu-ray streams wouldn't even max out a network, but just curious...

Per Apple Support, you should have an unlimited amount of iOS devices/Apple TV's that you can use over homesharing, so I am not sure why you would be running into this...

http://www.apple.com/support/homesharing/getstarted/

[Deadeyeshark]

This is happening without any activity on the network, I only every play 1080p content from iTunes or ripped DVD's, so nothing major.

One thing I haven't tried and I'm not sure this will work, I have my main Mac's (which runs the Home Share on iTunes) network cable running into a NetgearProSafe 24 port switch rather than the Airport Extreme, it will be a pain in the backside, but do you think it will make a difference to run the Mac directly from the Airport Extreme?

[lexvo]

I had a similar problem and it looks like firmware 5.2 solved it for me (I'll be sure after some time I guess).

There are a lot of discussions about this on Apple's support site. There are also a lot of solutions mentioned, but unfortunately solutions don't work for everybody. See for example:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

[paulrbeers]

Originally Posted by Deadeyeshark

This is happening without any activity on the network, I only every play 1080p content from iTunes or ripped DVD's, so nothing major.

One thing I haven't tried and I'm not sure this will work, I have my main Mac's (which runs the Home Share on iTunes) network cable running into a NetgearProSafe 24 port switch rather than the Airport Extreme, it will be a pain in the backside, but do you think it will make a difference to run the Mac directly from the Airport Extreme?

I wasn't asking about your internet connection, I was asking about your network (i.e. your ethernet/wifi). If you are pulling 4+ blu-ray rips that is quite a bit of data. Is it a gigabit or 100mb? Just wondering if you are saturating your network....

[Deadeyeshark]

Originally Posted by paulrbeers

I wasn't asking about your internet connection, I was asking about your network (i.e. your ethernet/wifi). If you are pulling 4+ blu-ray rips that is quite a bit of data. Is it a gigabit or 100mb? Just wondering if you are saturating your network....

I have a number of switches and most are 100mb, i think only the Airport Extreme is 1gb, i never saw the value in upgrading because the ethernet ports on the Apple TV are only 100mb.

[paulrbeers]

Originally Posted by Deadeyeshark

I have a number of switches and most are 100mb, i think only the Airport Extreme is 1gb, i never saw the value in upgrading because the ethernet ports on the Apple TV are only 100mb.

Yes but your server which is connected to your 100mb switch means it only has 100mb worth of bandwidth (which works out to 12.5MB/s theoretical and only around 10MB/s actual) bandwidth right? You are trying to send 4-5 video streams (some of which are 1080P!) through a slow (by today's standards) Ethernet connection. Yes all the AppleTV's are only 100mb, but your server is feeding all of them thru that same SINGLE slow connection. Think of it like a shower head. You have multiple little streams coming off of it right? But what feeds your shower head? A big water pipe. If you were to choke that water pipe to your shower head then all the little streams would suffer right? I'm not saying it will completely fix your problem, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to upgrade to gigabit.

Your server to switch needs to be a fast as possible. Everything else hanging off of it can be any speed, but that one single connection feeds everything....

[Deadeyeshark]

Originally Posted by paulrbeers

Yes but your server which is connected to your 100mb switch means it only has 100mb worth of bandwidth (which works out to 12.5MB/s theoretical and only around 10MB/s actual) bandwidth right? You are trying to send 4-5 video streams (some of which are 1080P!) through a slow (by today's standards) Ethernet connection. Yes all the AppleTV's are only 100mb, but your server is feeding all of them thru that same SINGLE slow connection. Think of it like a shower head. You have multiple little streams coming off of it right? But what feeds your shower head? A big water pipe. If you were to choke that water pipe to your shower head then all the little streams would suffer right? I'm not saying it will completely fix your problem, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to upgrade to gigabit.

Your server to switch needs to be a fast as possible. Everything else hanging off of it can be any speed, but that one single connection feeds everything....

I take your point and it is something I knew I would have to do at some point, looks like I've hit the wall! Not only do I have to consider six ATV's on the network, also have 2 PC's 3 Macs, Sammy SMART TV, 2 x blu ray, 3 x Xboxes and 1 PS3, then add on my wireless accessories, 2 x iphones 3 x ipads, PSP. I'm sure theres other stuff too! The 100mb switches are heading to eBay and 1gig switches ordered.

My only other concern is the quality of the network cabling, given these cables run all over my house to replace them all would be quite daunting, not to mention adding even more cost, does this make much difference?

Thanks for your help with this. However if this doesn't work - I will hunt you down to the end of the earth, or at least my wife will lol

[paulrbeers]

Originally Posted by Deadeyeshark

My only other concern is the quality of the network cabling, given these cables run all over my house to replace them all would be quite daunting, not to mention adding even more cost, does this make much difference?

Thanks for your help with this. However if this doesn't work - I will hunt you down to the end of the earth, or at least my wife will lol

1. As long as the ethernet is Cat5e you shouldn't have any issues. If it is just Cat5 you SHOULD be okay. My old house was wired with Cat5 and all but a couple of runs in my house were capable of gb (who knows why, I never really looked into).

2. Hey now! I did put the disclaimer that there were no guarantees that it would fix your problem! With that said, I'm glad we are on opposite sides of the Pond.