[SOLVED] Video files are stored on an external drive - but can't stream to ATV

[ss957916]

I have all my iTunes video files stored on an external drive which connects to my Macbook Pro via Airport Disk (using an Airport Extreme).

When streaming videos to iTunes, it's all great.

However, when streaming them on my Apple TV, the Airport disk keeps disconnecting itself.

How can I stop it doing this?

 

[mstrze]

All I can say is that I was also having issues with wireless devices such as AppleTV being disconnected and such. My external drive where my library is connected is attached to my computer via FW, so I don't have that additional wireless issue, but I am guess you are having a lot of interference from various sevices. MAYBE even a neighbor with a new phone or a wireless network on the same frequency?

It seems like my upgrade to Snow Leopard brought most of my issues. I think its handling of wifi devices is not quite up to par yet. Otherwise for me it was a great upgrade.

Try changing the channel on your Airport to find a less-crowded channel...if you can go 802.11n then I highly recommend that (I would, but I have a crappy PC laptop that needs to access the network at 802.11g speeds so I am currently running 802.11g/n )

 

[Cave Man]

We had a Seagate Free Agent as our Airport drive and it would go to sleep after a period of time. The only way around this was to unplug it and reconnect it. A pain in the arse, for sure. The solution was to get a drive in a Rosewill enclosure that didn't go to sleep.

 

[ss957916]

mstrze: I've actually locked my Extreme to two distinct networks, and my MBP and Apple TV both use the 802.11n network - they're also both just a few feet away from the Extreme.

Caveman: I thought the same, but what's odd is that the external HDD is still spinning when it disconnects. Furthermore, if I watch a video in iTunes, it never disconnects. Seems to happen only when I then make that additional leap to streaming it to my Apple TV.

It's very frustrating that all the hardware and software is Apple and it doesn't work.

 

[ss957916]

For what it's worth, I thought I'd post how I made it work.

I had locked my Extreme into two distinct networks - 'Extreme' for 802.11 b/g and 'Extreme (5GHz)' for 802.11n

I had my Macbook Pro and Apple TV connected to the 'Extreme (5GHz)' n network.

However, when I simply changed my MBP to connect to the 'Extreme' non-n network and leave my Apple TV on the n network, it's all been working fine.

In my head, that shouldn't work. Surely my MBP is on one frequency and my Apple TV is on another frequency - yet they're still happily talking to each other. How does that work?!

 

[NJuul]

For what it's worth, I thought I'd post how I made it work.

I had locked my Extreme into two distinct networks - 'Extreme' for 802.11 b/g and 'Extreme (5GHz)' for 802.11n

I had my Macbook Pro and Apple TV connected to the 'Extreme (5GHz)' n network.

However, when I simply changed my MBP to connect to the 'Extreme' non-n network and leave my Apple TV on the n network, it's all been working fine.

In my head, that shouldn't work. Surely my MBP is on one frequency and my Apple TV is on another frequency - yet they're still happily talking to each other. How does that work?!

They are not talking to each other, they are talking to the airport extreme

But I don't understand why it didn't work before, if this is the fix....

 

[ss957916]

They are not talking to each other, they are talking to the airport extreme

But I don't understand why it didn't work before, if this is the fix....

Ah - ok. So when I stream a video to my Apple TV (bearing in mind iTunes needs to be open on my MBP to do so) the video file goes from my external drive to my Extreme, beams from my Extreme to my MBP, iTunes does its business, beams it back to my Extreme and the Extreme beams it to the Apple TV?

Is that right? It's a very long-winded way of doing things...

 

[romanticf16]

Seagate Free Agent Drives

We had a Seagate Free Agent as our Airport drive and it would go to sleep after a period of time. The only way around this was to unplug it and reconnect it. A pain in the arse, for sure. The solution was to get a drive in a Rosewill enclosure that didn't go to sleep.

The drive controlers in the base of these cases can only be controled by a Windows computer. When New, they can be set to "run continously"; then when the drive is reformatted for a Mac, the Mac will control turning the drive on and off. I have both the Free Agent and Free Agent Pro Drives, and the same applies to both models.