Adventures in Airplay

[branchandroot]

Apple TV continues to be an unsupported piece of shit hardware, and I have my eye on the rplay app coming out for Raspberry Pi, and another eye on developments in the digital receivers. Because it might be better to get a good /receiver/ from someone who knows how the fuck to do A/V electronics. Not that the old Technics isn't still going strong, but that kind of makes the point; a good receiver is way better than a piece of hardware the company calls a "hobby" and yet releases and charges a hundred bucks for anyway.

Fuck you, Apple, you have so lost my respect as a company, lately.

This post brought to you by the developing buzz and popping in my precious Bose speakers and the two hours of carting different bits of speakers and cable around the house in an effort to find some configuration that would test where the problem was. !Surprise, it was the Apple TV.

Notes so far, for fellow sufferers:

The wi-fi signal dropping problem can be mostly fixed by re-ordering your network in Settings > Network > little gear button. Put wi-fi on top, save, and restart. Note that iTunes itself is partially at fault, and will still drop the TV sometimes if you're changing settings.

Changing the Dolby setting on the Apple TV under General > Audio and Video does a soft re-set that helps with the static/popping/clipping. This does not fix the actual problem, which is that Apple TV is a piece of shit that can't send a clean signal, but it may alleviate the symptoms without having to do a full re-set.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for this info. My decent Sony 20-yr-old receiver bought it in a thunderstorm, and we're walking the edge with $80 junk now.

Know you Airfoil from Rogue Amoeba? It wrests control over the audio output/input so that you can specify each one. I think that iTunes would not be able to insert its crap in the loop.

[branchandroot]

Yes, I have Airfoil on board! It just isn't quite as unobtrusive as Airplay, when Airplay is actually working properly, and keeps wanting to reboot the whole computer for peripheral updates. It's definitely my fallback, though. I'm already using Airparrot for mirroring, because this is an early 09 iMac.

I'm definitely looking into receivers that can support mirroring, as well as streaming from apps.

[jesse_the_k]

receivers that can support mirroring, as well as streaming from apps.

Oh! Here I am thinking all 1972, that all the inputs to the receiver would need wires. D'oh. (Starts Googling like a fiend.)

[andreaphobia]

<shameless plug> chromecast </shameless plug>

[branchandroot]

The price is sure right. If Aircast or some other local video streaming option comes through, that could be a winner.

[andreaphobia]

Looks like they're working on it! http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/18/aircast-android-chromecast/

For $35, I kind of bought first to figure out what I'd do with it later. It can stream from chrome tabs, which is neat!

[selphish]

I work for a company that produces TV tuners for your computer, but it is kind of pricey. If you're curious to know more, lmk! 8]

[branchandroot]

A tuner is kind of the opposite direction from what I need the Apple TV for, but thank you!

[selphish]

What are you using Apple TV for? Just curious!

[branchandroot]

I pretty much only use it to stream music from my desktop to the good speakers in the living room without losing the office speakers, and to mirror my desktop to the living room tv for video watching. The desktop is the source, the tv is the remote screen. It looks like most tuners are set up to capture from the tv and stream to the desktop (which is also really cool, especially with all the bells and whistles for playback, but not what I need right now).

[selphish]

Huh. I'm guessing you don't have a PS3?

I'm trying to think of a good resolution for you. Let me ask the folks back at the office. Everyone's an HTPC enthusiast there, so hopefully we can come up with something that'll work for you.

[branchandroot]

*wry* No, I've never gamed. Alas, because it sounds like they make good relays.

I actually got the wretched thing more or less working. It involved some ridiculously unnecessary adjustments to my network, and to the settings, but it seems to be holding steady for now. If anyone at the office has a good idea for anything else that supports mirroring from a desktop to a tv, though, I'll be all ears. That's the real kicker so far, because Apple /just/ opened the Airplay api for use by other companies.

[selphish]

I am glad to hear it! Let me know if you run into any problems with Apple TV. While we obviously don't support it, we have competitor's products here in the office for obvious reasons. ;)

I'll let you know if anyone has any suggestions. I'm about to leave for work now, so hopefully once the engineers start stumbling into work (sometime after lunch) I should have at least something to say.