Airplay out of sync...

Hi All,

Not sure if this has been covered already in a thread, but couldn' t find it..

I have a problem with Airplay getting out of sync. I have 3 Apple TV's connected to BV3, AV9000 and AV5, and I also have a Beolit 12 that I use to stream music to.

When I stream to more than two devices, after a while, sometimes almost immediately, the music gets out of sync, no matter if I stream from my Mac, iPhone or my iPad or use the app "Remote" to stream from one of the Apple TV's ( version 1 with HDD).

One of the Apple TV's are connected via ethernet cable directly to the Airport Extreme ( 802.11 n, dual band). The other wireless ATV's and the Beolit 12 are on the 2.4 Mhz frequence. Usually I have my Mac on the 5 Mhz, but it doesnt seem to matter...

Any ideas what to do?  Would a Playmaker do a better job than the Apple TV when it comes to streaming music ?

/Peter

 

I would try first with Airfoil, before Playmaker. It helped me with similar problems about loosing  sync, but not same as yours. 

Hi Milos,

Thanks for your suggestion, I tried with Airfoil too, same problem no matter if I stream to one any of the Apple TVs or to the Beolit 12...

/Peter

Peter:

Any ideas what to do?  Would a Playmaker do a better job than the Apple TV when it comes to streaming music ?

Sadly I can't comment on the synchronisation issue (I've never experienced that with my Apple TV/Airport Express devices).

However, I can assure you that the Playmaker would NOT do a better job. Although the sound quality via my Playmaker is far superior to the Airport Express, like other people have said, it drops the connection a lot. A lot. It's frustrating.

Just as a comparison, I had an Airport Express in this room for about six years and it rarely lost the connection. Since installing the Playmaker, in April, it loses the connection most days, often for up to 20 seconds. Nothing has changed apart from me swapping the Airport Express for the Playmaker in exactly the same position.

Thanks for you input, Moxxey!

You are probably right that a Playmaker will not solve this specific sync issue. It might as well be a router problem. Will put some more effort in testing various possibilities..

As you mention dropouts, it might be a router problem too. I used to have a Netgear router and at that time I had only one Apple TV (ver.1) and two Airport expresses. I also had dropouts all the time, then I switched the Netgear to a Airport Extreme (both n-standard) and the dropout problem disappeared.
The specs were similar on the two routers, but the Apple Extreme was dual band and even if I had all wireless equipment on the 2.4 Ghz band, I hardly ever have dropouts anymore.

 

Peter:

As you mention dropouts, it might be a router problem too.

I don't get any dropouts on the Airport Express or Apple TV devices. Only the Playmaker. It's very poor at keeping a consistent connection. It's not a router issue. The Playmaker is about 3 metres from the router. It couldn't be any closer. I have an Airport Express in the other side of the house, five brick walls away, which keeps a better and more consistent connection (ironically, controlling the audio on the BeoSound 8 in the kitchen).

Compared to the Airport Express, the Playmaker is a superior device in terms of audio quality, but not for keeping a consistent connection.

And I have an Apple Extreme powering the wifi network.

moxxey:

Peter:

As you mention dropouts, it might be a router problem too.

I don't get any dropouts on the Airport Express or Apple TV devices. Only the Playmaker. It's very poor at keeping a consistent connection. It's not a router issue. The Playmaker is about 3 metres from the router. It couldn't be any closer. I have an Airport Express in the other side of the house, five brick walls away, which keeps a better and more consistent connection (ironically, controlling the audio on the BeoSound 8 in the kitchen).

Compared to the Airport Express, the Playmaker is a superior device in terms of audio quality, but not for keeping a consistent connection.

And I have an Apple Extreme powering the wifi network.

Moxxey, are you running the newest software on your Playmaker? We have about 7 of them around our shop and they are always connected. I thought it was one of their best qualities besides the audio. We are using only MKI versions at the moment. 

 

 

ahh..ok..well then I suppose its the Playmaker itself then...

I have the opposite problem with my Beolit 12. Once it gets online, it's very stable, but takes forever to connect.

I guess there is more to work on in the area of wireless HiFi...

BeoMegaMan:

Moxxey, are you running the newest software on your Playmaker? We have about 7 of them around our shop and they are always connected. I thought it was one of their best qualities besides the audio. We are using only MKI versions at the moment.

Ah, you know... A little B&O here, a little there

At 3m I would run a cable for a week and see if the dropouts disappear

Peter:

I guess there is more to work on in the area of wireless HiFi...

That is an understatement. The low level of the technology is quite complicated, and there are many interoperability issues between different chipsets from different manufacturers.

It's not too surprising that Apple devices work with Apple devices. Others are mostly doomed to hit an untested combination sooner or later.

Often these incompatibilities can be circumvented by trying different parameters, but it is a lot of trial and error, and many devices don't let you tweak that much aside from the basic settings.

Did you find a solution to this? We have two Beolit 12, one A8, a Playmaker/BL6000 and it all sounds great. We just got a BeoPlay V1 and an Apple-TV, and the sound on the Apple-TV is out if sync with rhe rest. It is not posdible to use the V1 with the rest of the units - which the shop promised would work. The shop is trying to fugure out snd sre very friendly, but haven't a solution so far. Any further ideas here? Thanks!

Please pardon the typos on my tiny iPhone screen :-)

Hi Travellers4fun,

No, actually I don't try to play that often on all units simultaneously anymore, since the "out of sync" problems usually starts after 20-30 minutes almost half of the time I try it, so I stick with using only one of the Apple TVs or the Beolit at the time.

In my case, I have the version 1 on all 3 AppleTV's I have and all are connected via Scart since I only have older TV's (BV3, AV9000 and AV5).
Maybe it's just the sound transmission from the AppleTV to the TV/Soundsystem that causes the delay, since it works fine for you to stream directly to the other Wireless B&O Units? I imagine you are using a newer AppleTV and HDMI, which should be fast enough to a V1, I would presume..

So, you never had any out-of sync problems streaming to your beolit's and your A8 simultaneously?

I found this thread on Apple's websited https://discussions.apple.com/message/21403171#21403171
It seems as if some TV's or amplifiers has an option in the settings to adjust. Not sure if that is possible on a V1 though..

/Peter

 

 

 

I guess the out-of-sync problem is not related to your Apple TV, but to the Beoplay V1. The delay is caused by the V1 sound processing. I tried something similar with my Sonos system, and always had an out-of-sync between the V1/Sonos and the other Sonos units. Changing the sound processing parameters on the V1 didn't help. This phenomenon is typical for all A/V type if devices.

I ended up by connecting my Sonos directly to my BL8000 via a Powerlink switch.