The hobby known as tv

Apple TV has been referred to as a hobby by company executives even though in its version 2 incarnation, has managed to sell over 2 million units. Since I’m not a channel surfer and rarely “watch” television, this sort of device was never a high priority on my list. However, with a growing collection of documentary style videos accumulating on the computer and a periodic desire to watch them on an actual flat screen television, I decided to pick one up to test.

This is where things did not go so smoothly as originally anticipated. My iTunes library showed up under Computers but streaming the videos turned out to be slow and problematic where the loading spinner would just spin for several minutes. More often than not, the video would not even load. The problem worsened as eventually, my iTunes library would no longer even show up. YouTube videos however worked without fail which meant the issue was with Home Sharing and/or AirPlay. When I purchased my iPad, one of the first applications I purchased was Air Video (to stream video from my computers). So I tested to see if I could use Air Video to stream some of my media back to Apple TV via AirPlay; this worked without any major issues except for a few loading error problems with higher resolution videos. This meant that Home Sharing was the culprit.

Searching for “apple tv 2 home sharing disappears” turned up this long thread titled “Home Sharing drop out with Apple TV2” at the Apple Support Communities discussion forum. Browsing through the tv forum also revealed other annoying issues such as “An error occurred loading this content. Try again later.” message. I immediately noticed a trend in reading the various threads as far as troubleshooting and finding a solution; mainly that there was quite a bit of voodoo involved for those who eventually got their Apple TV to work. Going back to my IT days in troubleshooting network related issues, the one thing I learned is that solutions which seem to be a result of voodoo related steps are more the result of coincidence than actually fixing the root cause.  Anything else is bandaid fix.  My M.O. has always been to try and find the actual problem and fixing it there as opposed to relying on bandaid fixes. Upon reading the support page for “Using AirPlay” (especially the troubleshooting portion at the bottom), the lightbulb went off and it told me the issue I and many are encountering are network related mainly due to the way Apple has implemented Home Sharing.

As soon as I saw Apple’s suggestions which centered on the network (same WiFi network, making sure all devices are located on the same physical switch/router and temporarily disabling firewalls), my focus immediately went to how Home Sharing works. To keep this simple, Apple makes use of Bonjour (zero config networking) for service discovery. One of Bonjour’s limitations is that it works only within a single broadcast domain. In my setup, I have several switches (including a Cisco and D-Link Gigabit ethernet switch) plus two Airport Extreme Base Stations (AEBS). The two AEBS’ operate in bridge mode and are connected to each other via cat5 Ethernet cable (the 2nd Extreme is setup for roaming to extend the range of my wireless network). The entire internal network is on the same private IP subnet. The problem however is between the Cisco (which has a bit more intelligence in its configuration) as well as the two Airport Extreme’s. The Mac mini which has the iTunes Library which I wanted to share to the Apple TV is connected via gigabit ethernet to the D-Link which is located in my home office. My main AEBS (which I’ll refer to as A) is also connected to this switch. The D-link itself is connected via crossover cable to the Cisco. The other AEBS (which I’ll refer to as B) is connected to the Cisco and located near the living room providing coverage to that area since the AEBS in my home office does not provide a strong enough signal strength to the living room. Roaming is of course setup by configuring both Extremes with the same SSID names.

This setup is enough to throw curve balls at Bonjour though. Using my iPad configured on the same wireless network, I used the Remote app to test. When I was near AEBS-A, the Mac mini’s iTune’s library showed up and I was able to select it to control playback on the mini. Once I headed out to the living room where AEBS-B took over, the library disappeared and my Apple TV popped up instead. Sure enough, heading back to my home office, I would lose the Apple TV and regain the Mac mini. Thus even though I’m still connected to the same WiFi SSID, the fact that they are on separate access points (even though they are both operating in bridge mode) seems to be enough to throw Bonjour for a loop. If I connect the Apple TV via the physical ethernet port (which I did temporarily but don’t plan to permanently since the television is at least a 75 foot cable run from where AEBS-B is located), the Home Sharing issue disappears for wired devices but not for the wireless ones such as when using the Remote app. Home Sharing the library on my MacBook Pro, if I leave it in my home office, the Apple TV can’t see it. Once I bring the MacBook Pro out to the living room, the library pops up on the Apple TV. The “solution” that I went with was to move all my video media onto an old white MacBook which I placed on a cabinet in the living room. This isn’t the most ideal but it is the most headache-less one since Air Video streaming to the tv via AirPlay often times glitches badly after a few HD videos (where I have to quit and restart the server as well as the app on the iOS device).

Now I see why Apple is still considering the product a hobby. The general consumer has enough difficulties with less technically sophisticated devices (like setting the time or programming the timer on their VCR/DVD recorders).  While Apple has made the technical portions of the setup as easy as possible, the fact remains that the lower level network presents potential stumbling blocks which allows a product like this from “just working”.  For people who have a simple network setup with a single wireless router, it should work as advertised.  For others with more advanced topologies, there are going to be issues.  Working around those problems still requires a level of technical knowledge which goes beyond what the average consumer cares to understand. Which is why there are all these voodoo tips and tricks to try and “solve” some of the issues being encountered. When it comes to consumer electronics devices surrounding the home entertainment system, one should not have to be their own computer technician to get this type of device to work. What I see in the discussion forums reveals this product isn’t quite there yet for the general masses. The company already knows what a mess the television and related products (recorders, set top boxes) are as far as not being the most user friendly, and therefore, likely does not want to add to it by mass marketing it like the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad until it can be made a bit more “idiot proof”.