Airport Express Airplay issues

Ive searched for answers, but I havent found anything that helps me yet.

I just bought an Airport express for the sole purpose of using airplay with a set of Swan M50s. I can usually get it to work fine with two different Iphones, but it hardly ever works with my cMBP (mid'12), and rarely works with my AppleTV.

I have it set up in bridge mode and it is connected to my network. I can go into iTunes as well as the AppleTV and select the Express as my speaker selection, it just doesnt work. Usually I get a time out error on the MBP, and with the appleTV, it seems to try for a minute, then ultimately go back to sending audio to the TV, even though when I hold select, and go into the speaker selection, the express is still selected.

It seems to work great with the iPhones, a little bit of lag initially, but nothing I cant live with. (it works with locally stored media, as well as youtube audio and Pandora on both phones)

The concept of this unit is great, it just seems to be so unreliable that is unusable for the #1 purpose I bought it for, which is playing my appleTV audio to it. It works once in a while, usually after unplugging it and plugging it back in, but I dont want to have to do that at least once a day for it to work properly.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

So, the last couple days, its worked a little more reliably with the appleTV, but usually will quit working after an hour or two. Then I cant get it to work again for the rest of the day.

Anyone think I just got a defective unit? or is Airplay from anything other than iPhones really this unreliable?

 

It is connected to my network.

I have a D-link DIR-655 router. I did what you said, and disabled the VMM setting in the router as others said in my google search, and everything seems to be working reliably now. Hopefully it will last, but so far so good.

Thanks!

 

Well, this kept everything working perfectly for about 24hours.. now i cant keep the express connected to my network anymore.. it will connect for about 10min and then disconnect and flash the amber light at me.

I give up, returning it tomorrow. First and only time Ive been let down by an apple product thus far.

 

I had tried that also. Seemed no matter what I did, I couldnt get it to work reliably with anything other than the iPhones. I ended up taking it back to the Apple Store yesterday. The guy at the store said it sounds like I had gotten a defective unit. I just traded it for another appleTV for the bedroom though. I will wait a few weeks to save up and just get a decent sound bar/surround system for the living room. My Swans are back on my desk hardwired to the MBP now.

Was disappointing, but it happens I guess.