2 Apple TVs in same house = problem with airplay

[Spoony]

Hopefully you guys can help.

Here is my situation. I use a PC (no Mac) I have an iPad and iPhone and have 2 Apple TV's on the same wifi network in my house. One is in my bedroom and one in the living room.

When I hit the airplay button on the ipad or iphone the drop down says " iPad, AppleTV, AppleTV". It will recognize that I have 2 Apple TVs in the house. Which is great.

Problems are:
1. I don't know which apple tv is which b/c they both just say Apple TV. Is there anyway to name them so I know?
2. the ipad will randomly decide which apple tv to play from. If I have the living room apple tv off and the bedroom one on it will sometimes stream to the bedroom appletv and sometimes nothing will happen b/c I think it's trying to access the living room appletv. It's just odd and a bit frustrating.

I'm sure this topic has been discussed here before and I'm sure there are other people here that have more than one apple tv that maybe knows what I should do or if there is some easy fix.

At the apple store the non genius employees had no idea how to fix it. They said I do get one apple care phone call so I'll use that but wanted to get some information before I called.

This is my first ever problem with the software on an apple device so it's a bit annoying but ok since every other thing i've ever owned is either confusing or never works. I'm sure there is an easy fix but I was a bit shocked that there is a problem b/c there seems to never be problems in my experience with apple products.

 

[ecschwarz]

Hopefully you guys can help.
When I hit the airplay button on the ipad or iphone the drop down says " iPad, AppleTV, AppleTV". It will recognize that I have 2 Apple TVs in the house. Which is great.

Problems are:
1. I don't know which apple tv is which b/c they both just say Apple TV. Is there anyway to name them so I know?
2. the ipad will randomly decide which apple tv to play from. If I have the living room apple tv off and the bedroom one on it will sometimes stream to the bedroom appletv and sometimes nothing will happen b/c I think it's trying to access the living room appletv. It's just odd and a bit frustrating.

You can rename each of them easily. Just go to Settings > General > Name. You can pick a pre-made one or give it your own. This is what will appear in AirPlay menus. Also, iOS devices tend to try to use the last thing that was used for a/v outputs. The Apple TV is never "off", so the iPad is sending out the signal to it, it wakes up, and then it starts streaming. I only have one Apple TV in my apartment, but I always make sure to set AirPlay back to my devices (iPad and iPhone) when I'm done.

At the apple store the non genius employees had no idea how to fix it. They said I do get one apple care phone call so I'll use that but wanted to get some information before I called.

They're dumb...especially when it comes to the Apple TV. I bought one that was DOA and brought it back and they tried to argue that just because the LED wasn't turning on on the front, it was fine. Eventually, a manager came by since everyone else was clueless and exchanged it. Can't fault them since it is the odd duck in the lineup and isn't as "sexy" as iOS devices or the Mac.

 

[Spoony]

Thanks, I'll try renaming them the way you said and see if that fixes the problem. I'll let you know how it goes.