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Ahin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2007
3
0
Has anyone managed to hook up multiple Apple TV's drawing from one iTunes library such that one Apple TV is the master? What I would like to do is have my 'living room' Apple TV and my 'bedroom' Apple TV playing the same song at the same time... and if I changed the song on 'living room' then it would automatically change to the new song on 'bedroom'.

Thx for any help!
Ahin
 
So I'm guessing you can't stream to it like you can with airport expresses? I just recently was playing around with the 'multiple speakers' function and thought it was cool that I could walk from my computer to my bedroom where my stereo is and still hear the same music...

Sorry I'm not any help, but I kinda wish that AppleTV was really just a 'Airport Express Video,' with or without the harddrive... that would certainly solve your issue.
 
Maybe another update will provide the streaming capability. I use that multi-speaker function fairly often, so I'd certainly miss it.
 
I have three Airport Expresses around the house for this purpose. I also have an AppleTV and soon another for the bedroom. I would love to see the airtunes option come to the AppleTV so I can play music through my Airtunes from my AppleTV.

As for OP . No there is no option to do that on the AppleTV.

Kevin
 
Wait... so one can simultaneously broadcast to multiple airport expresses? Please let me know if that's true/ if there are any peculiar tricks to the setup. This would most certainly solve my problems and in a rather cost effective way.

Thanks!
Ahin
 
Wait... so one can simultaneously broadcast to multiple airport expresses? Please let me know if that's true/ if there are any peculiar tricks to the setup. This would most certainly solve my problems and in a rather cost effective way.
Yes, it is possible. I don't think much if any tricks are required. Apple must have documentation somewhere, but I believe the main idea is to have one of those Airport Expresses as your base station and the others as range extenders. (The setup is done through a very nice and user friendly way, where you just answer some questions in everyday English.) Once they are setup, the bottom right corner of iTunes will list each of them as separate speakers with a multiple speaker option in the bottom. If you select that option, a small window pops up where you can select which ones you'd like to broadcast to.

Of course this is for audio only. :)
 
As far as setting them up it is as easy as setting up any other Base Station, maybe even easier. You can set them up as your main router, as an extender or even just as a client so you can use just the Airtunes or print server functions. I have an Extreme N Station as my main router. Then I have the 2 expresses set up to extend range and one not. They are all named for the rooms they are in. Then when you open iTunes on any computer on that network you will see a new window pop up at the bottom of itunes. YOu can then decide to play music through "Computer" any of the single expresses or select "Multiple Speakers" and that will open a separate dialogue box. Here you can select none, all or some. The cool thing I found out was separate computers can play to separate airtunes at the same time. So if I am in kitchen I can play music from my imac up stairs to the kitchen airtunes and my girlfriend can play music from the laptop to the airtunes in the bedroom. No tricks or anything .. its just that easy. YOu have to make sure if you have older expresses that you have your firmware up to date. It did not always do these things.

Kevin
 

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Amazing. Thanks for the help! I'm gonna try to set it up with one Apple TV... just to make my life complicated. But I appreciate the help!
 
As far as setting them up it is as easy as setting up any other Base Station, maybe even easier. You can set them up as your main router, as an extender or even just as a client so you can use just the Airtunes or print server functions. I have an Extreme N Station as my main router. Then I have the 2 expresses set up to extend range and one not. They are all named for the rooms they are in. Then when you open iTunes on any computer on that network you will see a new window pop up at the bottom of itunes. YOu can then decide to play music through "Computer" any of the single expresses or select "Multiple Speakers" and that will open a separate dialogue box. Here you can select none, all or some. The cool thing I found out was separate computers can play to separate airtunes at the same time. So if I am in kitchen I can play music from my imac up stairs to the kitchen airtunes and my girlfriend can play music from the laptop to the airtunes in the bedroom. No tricks or anything .. its just that easy. YOu have to make sure if you have older expresses that you have your firmware up to date. It did not always do these things.

Kevin

So, you must have a stereo in every room to hook those bad boys up to?
Also, moving a step further, I have one mac mini. What if I get two airport expresses, have one for outside speakers (backyard) and one for in bedroom. Is it possible to get one song playing to the backyard on my screenname and get another song to play in the bedroom where the wife would be on her screenname at the same time?
THAT! would be cool.
 
Never tried it with one computer and multiple sign ons. Ill give it a go tonight and see how it works.

Kevin

And yes we have something in almost every room as we need to have music aroud at all times. :D

Living room - Onkyo 6.1 Receiver - Yamaha 6.1 Wood Cabinet Piano Black Speakers
Bedroom - Yamaha 6.1 Receiver - Yamaha 5.1 Speakers
Bathroom - Symphony iPod Stereo Dock (cheapy because we dont want to kill an expensive one with steam)
Office - 5.1 Logitech speakers hooked to Griffin Firewave Sound card on 24in iMac
Kitchen - Logitech Z4I speakers hooked to Airport & iHome alarm CLock for ipod

:D
 
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