Airport Extreme/AirDisk Apple TV - Not streaming...

What is the "chain of command" within an AEX/AirDisk AppleTV environment?
I've got my media drive (external usb) connected an Airport Extreme so that my laptop can access the media wirelessly. I have iTunes setup to use the external as it's library. There have been no problems with my laptop accessing this rather large library wirelessly (>150gb).
AppleTV, however, will not stream this content. It's been trying to load for over half an hour now.
Is data streaming from the external to my laptop, and then streaming again to AppleTV? Shouldn't APTV use my iTunes/laptop as more of a control panel instead of streaming the data twice?
Any tips? 40gb is not sufficient for my library - i want access to all of my media. Yes, I am on an N/G network, so it's less than optimal, but I've been able to stream this media withiin a G network before.
Thanks

Alan just called me and we spent 30 minutes brainstorming about this, so I simply must try to put up the stuff we came up with
Firstly, I only own a Mac Mini and an Airport Express. I am relatively new to the Mac community (although have been a huge fan and have followed the tech side of it for a long time), but here's what we came up with.
In a nutshell, it is round-tripping from the hard drive, to the laptop, back to the airport, and then to the AppleTV. How'd we come up with this? Stop me at any point if I'm wrong... assumptions:
- Airdisk uses samba to share the hard drive over the network with any Mac connected to that network.
- Airdisk is available to any mac that is properly configured through regular IP (say, it's a samba share that's located on the IP of the router - your mac is already connected to the router, so it connects to the drive at router_ip/sambashare)
So at any point further, the Airdisk is just a dumb file server located on the Airport Extreme that serves up USB drive contents (I don't mean "dumb" in a derogatory sense, more than it was designed to do the least possible, for efficiency, such as a dumb terminal).
The AppleTV, however, finds "sources" as other iTunes libraries. Judging by Apple's previous implementations for such things, they are using Bonjour (aka Rendezvous, aka multicast DNS Service Discovery), to discover basically iTunes libraries (using the same discovery suffix that iTunes uses to find other iTunes instances on the network, say ".itunes.local").
So since the hard drive is not advertised as an iTunes library, it won't be directly found. Instead, AppleTV finds the iTunes that's running on your laptop. It starts streaming content from that iTunes library (again, from your laptop). Your laptop in turn needs to collect the content before sending it over to AppleTV. It does this, again, over the network using Airdisk.
So essentially, you have a packet follow this path:
AppleTV requests for content from laptop (packet travels through Airport extreme to laptop)
Laptop requests for data from Airdisk (packet travels from laptop to Airport)
Laptop receives data from Airdisk (packet travels from Airport Extreme to laptop)
Laptop sends received data to Apple TV (packet travels to Airport Extreme, and then to the Apple TV)
So essentially, while you are streaming a movie with a lot of content, the packet is going roundabout to the airport extreme, and then to the apple TV, instead of going directly from the AE to the ATV.
Does that make sense? Essentially, there's all this roundabout overhead for the packet to travel.
I could TOTALLY be wrong. I would love it if Apple chimed in and proved this theory wrong
But I think this is ok because the functionality to make the AppleTV stream directly from Airdisk is easy to add, by just patching the software. All you'd need to do is have samba shares as possible sources, instead of just other iTunes instances. You'd still be getting stuff from an IP address. You'd just change the protocol.
Anyway, I hope this didn't get too convoluted. I'd get Alan to make up a picture. He's the graphic designer. I'm just a gearhead. (Used to be "PC Guy" turned Mac guy the moment I found out OS X had a Unix underbelly 5 years ago)
Intel Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.9) Airport Express

Similar Messages

Airport Extreme and Apple TV for streaming

If I have an Apple TV and if I buy an Airport Extreme, can I stream pictures, music, movies and the iPhone's screen to the Apple TV that will be connected to the Airport Extreme?

Hey Tony,
You can use AirPlay Mirroring to mirror exactly what’s on your iPhone to your HDTV via Apple TV. These are the requirements for using AirPlay Mirroring:
iPhone 4s or later
Apple TV (2nd or 3rd Generation)
Connect your iPhone and your Apple TV to the same Wi-Fi Network
Sounds to me like with the inclusion of your AirPort Extreme, you meet all those requirements. You can read more about it here along with how to set it up:
iOS: Use AirPlay Mirroring
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5209
Welcome to Apple Support Communities!
Take care,
Delgadoh

HT1218 After a recent iTunes update attempt iTunes no longer functions and the airport extreme base station is not accessable on our computer. We still have wifi but cannot access the base station software.

After a recent iTunes update attempt iTunes no longer functions and the airport extreme base station is not accessable on our computer. We still have wifi but cannot access the base station software.

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate the response. I tried that approach this evening and it didn't work for me. (Technically it worked for me, when I was hardwired into my base station, but would not work for me wirelessly, which is my main issue.)
Again, using the approach you recommended works only if I have my ethernet cable attached to the LAN port so my computer is communicating directly to the base station through the hard wire. I am able to scan for my base station and make setting adjustments normally this way too.
As soon as I disconnect from the LAN port and try to go wireless is where I run into problems. The Base Station's wireless network I created is available to choose in the top right corner of the monitor with all of the other available wireless devices/networks -- but the network I created does not have access to the internet. I am also unable to configure my Base Station wirelessly. When my Airport Utility tries to scan for the Base Station and Network, it cannot find any Apple Wireless Device. It's like the Wireless Network in my base station is not sending out a signal.
Is there a way to resolve this issue?

How can I get Time Machine to back up an external hard drive (iPhotos) that is attached to airport extreme base station. Note: Time machine is usb to macbook pro and external drive with iphotos is usb to airport extreme base station. Help please. Thanks!

How can I get Time Machine to back up an external hard drive (iPhotos) that is attached to airport extreme base station. Note: Time machine is usb to macbook pro and external drive with iphotos is usb to airport extreme base station. Help please. Thanks!

Once you have the drive connected to your Mac, click System Preferences (gear icon) on the dock
Click Time Machine
Click Options
Be default, the hard drive will be Excluded from backups. Click the drive to highlight it, then click the "-" (minus) button at the bottom of the list to remove the drive from Excluded items.
The drive will be backed up on the next Time Machine pass
Everything above assumes that the hard drive has been formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as Time Machine will only backup drives in that format.

Streaming DVD movies over Dual Band Airport Extreme Airdisk

Hello,
This is my first post in the discussion forums. I have been a long time reading of the discussion forums. I recently bought a late 2009 dual band Airport Extreme base station. I have been trying to stream DVD movies (TS_VIDEO) using the Airdisk feature. What I did, as an experiment, was to hook up the dual band Airport Extreme to my 2009 Mac-Mini using an ethernet cable from the base station to the Mac-Mini. I enabled file sharing on the Airport extreme base station. I hooked an external hard drive to the base station via a USB port on the base station. I mounted the Airdisk on the Mac-MIni. When I play the ripped DVD movies (TS_VIDEO) from the Airdisk I get a lot of stuttering using Front-Row. According to the Apple customer service reps, this is normal behavior. Can anybody comment on if this is normal behavior.

An uncompressed DVD should have a maximum data rate of around 6 or 7 Mbps and so be well within the nominal 300 Mbps of an 802.11n network - even allowing for the slower actual speeds attained due to networking overheads and weak signals. However, given that you have the latest Airport Extreme it sounds like you may be suffering from the common fault many are reporting in these forums, in which disk transfer rates are very, very slow over the 5GHz 802.11n connection. Look at some of the other threads here. It is clearly a fault in the current design (not a fault with your particular unit) and something that Apple are apparently aware of. Most are hoping it will be resolved in an updated firmware at some point in the future.
Edit: I just re-read your post and notice that you said you used a physical connection between the Airport and the Mac Mini. Thus no wireless involved. Nevertheless, others have reported poor data rates with disks connected to the unit, and so this may still be the issue. Check out some of the other threads here.
Message was edited by: Paul Howland2

Can I stream content on AirPort Extreme to Apple TV?

Hello,
I am considering purchasing a AirPort Extreme. I am wondering if I can stream the content saved on the hard drive through Apple TV?
Thanks.

Do you have a hacked (JB is term used here).. atv1 or atv2 the answer is yes..
If you have a standard ATV or ATV3 which is not hackable.. then the answer is no. Your files can be stored on the disk plugged in.. but there is nothing in the AE to stream it... it is a router not a media computer. It has no brains.. at all..
See the poem.. Banjo Patterson. The man from ironbark. http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/patersonab/poetry/ironbark.html
There were some gilded youths that sat along the barber's wall.
Their eyes were dull, their heads were flat, they had no brains at all;
That is what you need to think of the Airport Extreme.. it has a flat head.. dull eyes..no brains.. Same applies to the TC btw.. where other brands might include DLNA server, itunes server.. twonky media server.. apple has none.. So you must hava a computer running to pick up the files from the AE or TC to stream it to the network. so the ATV.. can pickup the stream and send it to video.

Airport Extreme 2nd Gen - can not retrieve or assign an IP address

I had two 2nd gen Airport Extreme base stations. One connects to the internet, the other bridges the network to my office where I have wired devices connected. The office base station was no longer allowing me to connect to my USB drive for time machine backups, but all of the wired devices were routing to the internet properly.
I purchased a new base station (5th gen), bringing my total to three extreme stations and two express base stations (one express for an old wired network printer, the other for streaming music).
The old main base station is moved into the office, and the new base station (5th gen) becomes the "main" internet access point. I reset both devices and they install without a hiccup. Ditto the new express stations - they connect without having to reset them. Everything works as it did before the upgrade.
I take the old office base station (the one that would not allow me to backup via time machine) and do a factory reset. It reboots, the light flashes yellow (not surprising). I hook an old macbook (10.6.8) up to the old base station (and turned off the wifi) using a wired ethernet cable the ethernet port is assigned an IP address (10.0.1.2) via DHCP. My other macbook pro (10.8.5) running the latest AirPort Utility sees the old base station using wifi (under other wifi network). I select the old base station it automatically connects it to my new base station stating:
"This Airport Extreme will now be set up to extend <my new 5th gen AirPort Extreme base station>"
I change the default name and click next.
Now when the old office base station boots it will not connect to the network - it still flashes yellow. It will not assign itself an IP address, the macbook plugged into the ethernet port (using dhcp) shows (under network settings):
"Ethernet has a self-assigned IP address and will not be able to connect to the internet."
(the 169.... number)
Now the funky part. I manually set the wired ethernet's IP4 configuration (IP, subnet, router and dns server) on the old Macbook running snow leapord (10.6.8) - remember the wifi is turned off - and bingo - I am connected to the internet. All the while my old AirPort Exreme continues to blink yellow. If I manually assign an IP address to the AirPort Exreme's light turns green.
Clearly the old device is working. The ethernet port works, the wifi works - routing traffic from the wired ethernet through my home network and out to the internet. My AirPort utility on all my macs can see the base station, and can configure it (via wifi). I have even tried (via wifi) downgrading the firmware to 7.6.3 and then to 7.6.0 and the back up to 7.6.4. The only thing it will not do is give retrieve an IP address, or assign an IP address to wired devices.
Any ideas?

I attempted to see/access (via the Disk Utility on my iMac) two drives already connected to my AirPort Extreme, but could not.
These drives are shared "network" drives, which Disk Utility cannot access. Disk Utility will only be able to access a drive if it is connected directly to a Mac.
If you need to format the drive(s), partition them, etc., you must do so with the drive connected directly to the Mac, then move them to the USB powered hub location at the AirPort Extreme.
These drives are available through the Finder and are used for Time Machine
Apple does not officially support Time Machine backups to a drive connected to the AirPort Extreme, but some users seem to be able to make this work.
1) Can I see/access USB drives (properly fomatted and visible/accessible in the Finder window) attached to my AirPort Extreme (2nd gen-firmware version 7.6.2)via a powered USB hub?
Probably. Some users find that one powered hub will work for them while another might not. To "see" the drives, you must first click on the AirPort Extreme icon under the SHARED heading in the Finder. Then, if the drives are formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled), each drive will appear as a folder. Double click the folder name to mount the drive on the desktop.
2) Can I use my iMac (running Lion 10.7.4) to create a concatenated disk set with USB drives (of varying size) attached to my AirPort Extreme via a powered USB hub?
The drives will all appear as separate drives, which must be accessed separately. If you were thinking of trying to start Time Machine backups on one drive and have them continue automatically on another drive when the first drive is full, that will not work.

Can i use airport extreme, with apple tv and pc without the internet

While renting/buying films on itunes is all well and good, my wireless capacity is poor, if i buy airport extreme, without connecting it to the internet, will it stream my films on itunes from the PC to apple TV?

...if i buy airport extreme, without connecting it to the internet, will it stream my films on itunes from the PC to apple TV?
Yes. An Internet connection is not required. However, of course, the AirPort or your Apple TV will not be able to stream content from the Internet.

Airport extreme hosted hard drive not recognized by Disk Utility

Hi, all. I've had success for a month now hosting a 4T hardrive wirelessly via my Airport Extreme. I use it for Time Machine backups and remote storage. So I'd like to repartition that hardrive via Disk Utlity, however Disk Utility no longer recognizes the 4T hardrive hosted via my Airport Extreme. How can I get my Airport Extreme external drive to show up in Disk Utility so I can format it again?

I'm not sure you're aware but I wanted to let you know that using an external drive connected to the Airport USB port as a Time Machine backup device isn't supported/recommended by Apple. don't be surprised if you think it's working and you go to use it to restore from a crash, and you can't. Just a warning.

Help with new Airport Extreme (and network name) not recognizing Time Capsule and other Airports in the home

I had a Time Capsule running in an AV Cabinet and it made too much noise as it backed up and ruined soft/quiet music passages (and created far too much warmth as well). So, I visited the local Apple store and the guy I met worked through a few solutions with me. I decided on an Airport Extreme for the audio cabinet, and would move the Time Capsule to another room where it would not create noise interference.
So, I have the Airport up and running perfectly well. I changed my wireless network name and password.
I cannot get the Airport Express and Time Capsule to show up on my network. They both just blink that brown/orange color on the front. When I go to the Airport Utility, it does not pick up the Time Capsule or Airport Express. I have tried unplugging and plugging back in and scanning for devices, but dont know what else to do. Are they still looking for my old network? Is there a way to reset them??
Thanks for any help.

I've tried the option key on both--the AEBS offers 14 options, including Automatic, while the TC offers 8 options, and no Automatic. The AEBS lists (among others) 802.11 a/n-b/g compatible, 802.11 a-b/g compatible, or 802.11 n (5 GHz)-b/g compatible. The TC offers 802.11.n (b/g compatible), 802.11n only (2.4 GHz), and 802.11n only (5 GHz), among others...
I had already followed the instructions in the link you supplied, except that the wireless options don't quite match...
I am currently trying 802.11n (5GHz)-b/g compatible on the AEBS and 802.11 (5GHz) on the TC, which gives me a rate of 270 on my n devices and 54 on my g devices, according to the Airport Utility.
This might be the best I can do, without buying a new TC. Thanks for any advice you can give...
C.

Airport Extreme, Airdisk, and Vista - large file problem with a twist

Hi all,
I'm having a problem moving large-ish files to an external drive attached to my Airport Extreme SOMETIMES. Let me explain.
My system - Macbook Pro, 4gb ram, 10gb free HD space on macbook, running latest updates for mac and vista, external hard drive on AE is an internal WD in an enclosure w/ 25gb free (its formatted for pc, but I've used it directly connected to multiple computers, mac and pc, without fail), AE is using firmware 7.3.2, and im only allowing 802.11n. The problem occurs on the Vista side - havent checked the mac side yet.
The Good - I have bit torrents set up, using utorrent, to automatically copy files over to my airdisk once they've completed. This works flawlessly. If i connect the hard drive directly to my laptop (macbook running bootcamp w/ vista, all updates applied), large files copy over without a hitch as well.
The Bad - For the past couple weeks (could be longer, but I've just noticed it recently being a problem - is that a firmware problem clue?) If i download the files to my Vista desktop and copy them over manually, the copy just sits for a while and eventually fails with a "try again" error. If i try to copy any file over 300mb, the same error occurs.
What I've tried - well, not a lot. The first thing i did was to make sure my hard drive was error free, and worked when physically connected - it is and it did. I've read a few posts about formatting the drive for mac, but this really isnt a good option for me since all of my music is on this drive, and itunes pulls from it (which also works without a problem). I do however get the hang in itunes if i try to import large files (movies). I've also read about trying to go back to an earlier AE firmware, but the posts were outdated. I can try the mac side and see if large files move over, but again, i prefer to do this in windows vista.
this is my first post, so im sure im leaving out vital info. If anyone wants to take a stab at helping, I'd love to discuss. Thanks in advance.

Hello,
Just noticed the other day that I am having the same problem. I have two Vista machines attached to TC w/ a Western Digital 500 gig USB'd. I can write to the TC (any file size) with no problem, however I cannot write larger files to my attached WD drive. I can write smaller folders of music and such, but I cannot back up larger video files. Yet, if I directly attach the drive to my laptop I can copy over the files, no problem. I could not find any setting in the Airport Utility with regards to file size limits or anything of the like. Any help on this would be much appreciated.

PLEASE HELP!!! AIRPORT EXTREME IS GREEN BUT NOT CONNECTING TO INTERNERT!!!

Please, I'm begging of fellow man, women and children to help me figure this out!
What Happened:
I had my Internet and everything working before I went to work at 3 PM. My girlfriend got home around 4 PM and all of a sudden the my Internet was not working. I had to call my ISP, Comcast, and we had tested Internet connectivity which worked perfectly fine which is how I am typing this now. After that, I looked up some things that would remedy the situation. Power cycling the modem for minutes, seconds and hours. Also, I have tried to plug both the modem and router without plugging any Ethernet cord in to both of them, wait for them to power up, hook up the Ethernet cord and nothing. I have done factory resets on both the modem and routers and created a totally new network to see if that was the problem and noting. I have also changed the IP addresses, Subnet Masks, Router numbers, DNS servers and Domain names and nothing. I was stupid and did not get a protection plan on it, and my warranty JUST expired a couple of weeks ago, so I have barely had this router for a year. As all indications go, it is saying that it's connecting to the Internet, but when I go to my Macbook Pro and check the system preferences it's saying its connected to the airport, but when I do the assist me function and go to diagnose or assistant and test everything, the Internet and Server are yellow and everything else is green. I DON'T KNOW THE ISSUE!!!
Hardware:
Modem - Motorola Surfboard: Model SB6121
Router - Apple AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-FI
Any and all advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated. I do not want to have to purchase a brand new router after just purchasing this one last year for over $150. I'll be eagerly awaiting your help. Thank you in advance.

@Mark Scott, are you referring to my cable modem or the apple router. I'm currently connecting to the internet just fine connecting the ethernet cable to my Macbook Pro laptop directly and having everything connecting just fine. Its when i try to connect wirelessly to the AirPort Extreme router is when I am unable to connect. If you were referring to the connecting the router directly to the computer and seeing if there is an internet connectin, I don't think that would help anything at all. Please let me know if this is what you meant and I will try it anyways.

Using airport extreme with apple tv

Hi, I am by no means an expert on these matters so, I thought I would put my question out there for the experts to comment on. I currently use 2 Apple TVs on my wifi network and am wondering if I connect the Apple TVs via ethernet cable to an airport extreme, would it improve the download and streaming of content to the Apple TVs?
Current system, iMac OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 (14D136), 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5, 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3, ADSL internet, network has good coverage throughout the area. Many thanks.

It can't improve upon the bandwidth delivered by your ISP, but what it will do is avoid the vagaries of wireless communication. Whenever practicable, use Ethernet. The AppleTV will automatically favor Ethernet over Wi-Fi.

Airport Extreme Card - USA version not compatible with Europe?

I'm having some problems with the Airport Extreme Card in my Mac Mini i.e. my connection to the internet is mind numbingly slow when using it. I have no issues when I hook it up directly with a LAN cable and I've used a friends Macbook to connect to the wireless router and their connection works perfectly.
My specs...
AirPort Card Information:
Wireless Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x168C, 0x86)
Wireless Card Locale: USA
Wireless Card Firmware Version: 1.4.3.1
Current Wireless Network: SpeedTouch3C84E7
Wireless Channel: 11
Now here's where I think the problem lies, I bought this machine in the US but am now living in Belgium...you'll note that the card locale is set to USA. My friends machine has a card locale of worldwide and I think this difference is causing the issue. I found another thread that mentions using a USA card in europe limits the number of available channels but I'm still in the dark as to what to do about it.
Is the locale changeable via a software setting or is the hardware different...maybe there's a firmware change I could make?
If it's hardware is this something my Apple store can switch for me?
If I'm really stuck can I switch my router to the US settings to fix the issue?
Any other ideas?
Thanks for the help!
Chris

hi. I think that the only difference between USA and worldwide cards is that ww cards have additional channels (12 and 13). You should be able to use your mini in Europe.

Airport extreme usb printer does not show on macbook

I have been trying to set-up a printer on a Airport Extreme through the USB cable. However, the printer does not show under "Printers and Scanners" and the help on-line has not helped at all.

Unfortunately, not all USB printers are compatible with AirPort base stations. In addition, the AirPort's USB port does not support the "advanced" printer functions, like scanning, copying or faxing, of multi-function printers.
To see if your printer is compatible, take a look at this iFelix Unofficial AirPort Printer Compatibility link. If your printer isn't listed, it doesn't necessarily mean it won't work, but simply that it has not been verified. iFelix also provides the following workaround for printers not on the list that would certainly be worth a try.
Also you can try this Apple Tech Support article to see if it will help: Printer troubleshooting for AirPort Base Stations and Time Capsule
Finally, check out this IBM support article to see if your printer is listed as having a Postscript or PCL3 interface. If it does, then it will most likely work with the AirPort's USB port. Printers that use the "HP LIDIL" interface must be connected to a computer directly and will not work.

Airport Extreme/AirDisk Apple TV - Not streaming...

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for