ATV4 Wtf over

[ajohansson]

been a long time user of ATVs.

Added a 4 to the mix and its a total PITA.

Frequently fails to hook to my itunes library but the rest of my ATV3s are fine. Says to check to make sure computer and atv4 are on same network. They are hardwired. Funny thing is that it sees the library but when i select it then comes the error.

Once in awhile the home hub/homekit just stops working.

Any most frustrating is feequently i have no hdmi output at all. I have unplug the power cable to ATV4 and plug it back in.

Its got the latest updates and all. On a wired network for the ATV4 and the mac.

I search and i hear the same issues. What gives with these things.

Mine is not the 4k. Just the 32 gig version.

Any help appreciated.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Hi there!
Have you tried using it on the 5G WiFi setting instead of Ethernet?
Is there a reason why you opted for the Ethernet approach? I remember many people fighting over the fact the the ATV4 only goes up to 100mbps on its Ethernet port here on MacRumours at the time and many were saying go the WiFi route.
Being honest, 7 years of Apple TV and i've never tried using Ethernet - my router is in a different room to my lounge etc.

Have you tried signing out of Home Sharing your ATV and signing back in? I remember having to do this each day at one time on my ATV3 when I wanted to use Home Sharing back in the day. I traced it back to when I quitted iTunes on my Mac & the relaunched it - for some reason the ATV would just try & connect & would simply continue forever trying to do so.

 

[ajohansson]

I appreciate your help but those arent really fixes in my opinion.

I opted for ethernet because it sits about 2 feer from my router. Figured thats pretty stable. I dont know why ethernet vs wifi would affect the thing not even producing a picture despite being plugged in at least a few times a
Week. Very frustrating.

100 mbps should be plenty big just to hook to the damn itunes. Honestly if i have to sign in and out of itunes everytime i have to use the atv4 for moving watching i will take it back and find some other option for home automation. I actually have a calendar setting to restart itunes everyday at 4am. This is to alleviate the so called problem of too many atvs connected to the itunes. Many people say there is a limit but some people say thats a myth. Once i took the advice of restarting it everyday automatically i have never had an issue with the atv3s connecting. Now just this atv4. And to be clear it sees the itunes home shared account. Its when i select it it then says cant connect. When i have had issues before with atvs if i selected “computer” it would say cant find a library. It finds library just fine but wont connect to it.


Hopefully i can figure this out. We just cancelled directv to stream and if i cant Will probably just get a roku stick for streaming tv and put an ATV3 back in for the itunes movie watching because this thing is not stable enough.

Unless i can figure this thing out in a week with some sort of solution its going back. I really wish it would work as im a huge apple fan.

 

[JWort93]

Are these iTunes purchases, or movies you have acquired yourself? You could try using something like Plex instead of iTunes for the server, and then use the Plex App on your Apple TV. If they are iTunes purchases, you will probably have to use something like TunesKit to remove the DRM from the files before they will work with Plex though. Otherwise, if you aren't worried about a Data Cap, I would just stream your movies from iTunes in the cloud on your Apple TV, instead of relying on a computer.

 

[thisismyusername]

Honestly, this is one of the main reasons I stopped putting my movies in iTunes years ago. It's just not reliable at all (not to mention really limiting). Plex is much better.

only goes up to 100mbps on its Ethernet port

100mbps is more than enough for anything anyone would possibly do with an AppleTV. Even streaming 4k movies doesn't need anything remotely close to that.

 

[ajohansson]

These are not purchases in itunes but locally stored movies. i have not had any issues with itunes as a media server at all once i did the restart itunes at 4am trick. its been stable for over a year with having 5 atv3's/

So i put the atv4 on my 5gz network. No change.

I restart itunes on my mac mini which is running my itunes library and voila it comes back alive on the atv4. And to reiterate the atv4 can see my itunes media account when i click computer. Its when i select it gives the error. Frustrating.

Atv3's never have an issue.

This still doesnt address the issue of no video output despite the light being on. Have to power it off and back on via the power cord.

I think its back to bestbuy with this thing. And a roku stick in its place. now got to figure an alternative to homekit that will work with my alarm system.
[doublepost=1521741980][/doublepost]i think im gonn a just use an old ipad mini as the hub. will see how that goes.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

These are not purchases in itunes but locally stored movies. i have not had any issues with itunes as a media server at all once i did the restart itunes at 4am trick. its been stable for over a year with having 5 atv3's/

So i put the atv4 on my 5gz network. No change.

I restart itunes on my mac mini which is running my itunes library and voila it comes back alive on the atv4. And to reiterate the atv4 can see my itunes media account when i click computer. Its when i select it gives the error. Frustrating.

Atv3's never have an issue.

This still doesnt address the issue of no video output despite the light being on. Have to power it off and back on via the power cord.

I think its back to bestbuy with this thing. And a roku stick in its place. now got to figure an alternative to homekit that will work with my alarm system.
[doublepost=1521741980][/doublepost]i think im gonn a just use an old ipad mini as the hub. will see how that goes.

In fairness, instead of the Roku which is horribly plasticky, why don't you try the Apple TV 4K? I've been using it for Apple Homesharing my music along with watching blogs etc from my MacBook since November and it's been 100% flawless.
The A10X chip is damn fast and just a brilliant experience. Personally, I find the ATV 4K is the ATV that the ATV4 should of been. THey've thought of everything with this box. It causes me zero stress!!! And that's how it should be after a day dealing with business and clients. I sold on Ebay my Panasonic 4K BluRay player last week as in the 3 months that i'd had it, it had been used once. I was ripped the 3 or 4 discs that I wanted onto my iTunes and preferred using the ATV than using the disc player.

Have you been in touch with Apple about your problem?

 

[ajohansson]

In fairness, instead of the Roku which is horribly plasticky, why don't you try the Apple TV 4K? I've been using it for Apple Homesharing my music along with watching blogs etc from my MacBook since November and it's been 100% flawless.
The A10X chip is damn fast and just a brilliant experience. Personally, I find the ATV 4K is the ATV that the ATV4 should of been. THey've thought of everything with this box. It causes me zero stress!!! And that's how it should be after a day dealing with business and clients. I sold on Ebay my Panasonic 4K BluRay player last week as in the 3 months that i'd had it, it had been used once. I was ripped the 3 or 4 discs that I wanted onto my iTunes and preferred using the ATV than using the disc player.

Have you been in touch with Apple about your problem?

My multiple ATV3s works fine. No issues at all. So why should i get an ATV4K? I dont watch or rip in 4k or have 4k tvs. I bought it for the homekit hub and youtube tv and sling which roku will do. I would just get another atv3 and run my homekit hub on an old ipad mini.

I tried to return to bestbuy but ist over their return policy. I contacted apple and they think its a hardware problem and i have to take it to genious bar on monday.

For now i have the homehub disabled and updating an old ipad mini that was just sitting in a drawer and run the home-hub on it for the weekend to see how it works. Will let you al know how it goes at genius bar.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

My multiple ATV3s works fine. No issues at all. So why should i get an ATV4K? I dont watch or rip in 4k or have 4k tvs. I bought it for the homekit hub and youtube tv and sling which roku will do. I would just get another atv3 and run my homekit hub on an old ipad mini.

I tried to return to bestbuy but ist over their return policy. I contacted apple and they think its a hardware problem and i have to take it to genious bar on monday.

For now i have the homehub disabled and updating an old ipad mini that was just sitting in a drawer and run the home-hub on it for the weekend to see how it works. Will let you al know how it goes at genius bar.

I'm really sorry that you've had such a crappy experience buddy!
Best of luck with the genius bar and please keep us updated.
ATV4K is worth it just for the A10X chip which is capable of anything. Apple have had 2-3 years to design & perfect it over the ATV4 - for me, damn good reasons to go for the newer model rather than an old 2015 design.
IMO the ATV4 really needs to be £99 - it's old stock. It's cheeky of Apple - a bit like that old damn MacBook Air in 2018. Personally, i'd drop old stock because that's what they are - outdated. In reality, a bad experience is not good for Apple long term.

 

[ajohansson]

well they swapped the unit out. Still had issues with the connecting to itunes even though I can see the library. Talked with higher up apple engineer and they said that well I have too many appletvs (7) all trying to connect to the itunes. Thats why i have itunes restart automatically every morning on schedule at 4 am. It was all good with the apple tv three units but now this ATV4 just hiccups the whole thing. And low and behold this morning had to hard restart the unit because of the no video output. Calling back apple engineers I want a refund.

So I used this thing for itunes movies 99.% i rip that have no drm on them. I bought this ATV4 when I wanted to cut cables and run my homekit. So ATV4 has youtube tv and sling which I needed. So I was researching alternatives and came across the new Plex format. Downloaded plex on to my mac mini thats running itunes. Pointed it to my itunes folders and could not be happier. I already had 4 ROKU tvs in the home that have PLEX built in. I have a ROKU express in one bedroom and ROKU stick in another and all running PLEX perfectly. I am going to get a ROKU ultra to replace this ATV4 and gonna hook up my old ATV3 to do any itunes purchases I may want since i already have it.

So Apple your ATVs need to run with itunes like a plex server. There is absolutely no reason Itunes should not be able to do this.

 

[JackieInCo]

I have three 4KATVs and I will only occasionally have this problem and restarting iTunes on the host computer will solve the problem. A few times, I've had to also restart the ATV. It doesn't happen that often to be a problem for me though, last time was early this last week.

 

[ajohansson]

yes if i restart itunes on host computer it will reatach. for me like every other day. a pita. why there is limit on homesharing is beyond me. So far plex has been awesome. The fact that I already had the roku tvs and players to get youtubetv and sling was an added bonus. Plex works great on those devices and I can search for my movies which i cant do on my atv3 units.

 

[Tech198]

Hi there!
Have you tried using it on the 5G WiFi setting instead of Ethernet?
Is there a reason why you opted for the Ethernet approach? I remember many people fighting over the fact the the ATV4 only goes up to 100mbps on its Ethernet port here on MacRumours at the time and many were saying go the WiFi route.
Being honest, 7 years of Apple TV and i've never tried using Ethernet - my router is in a different room to my lounge etc.

Have you tried signing out of Home Sharing your ATV and signing back in? I remember having to do this each day at one time on my ATV3 when I wanted to use Home Sharing back in the day. I traced it back to when I quitted iTunes on my Mac & the relaunched it - for some reason the ATV would just try & connect & would simply continue forever trying to do so.

Because cable is always preferred and reduces interference... Also if u can hook it up via canle over a much shorter distance, why not ? One less thing to worry about.

Usually signing out and back in on either the Mac or Apple TV, including iTunes Store, is the first step to fixing any problems...

After that, a restore,, usually via Setting menu, but i bypass that approach and restore with iTunes over USB-C cable.

Seems to work every time,

Changing computer/iTunes library names sometimes helps. But i never had to do that