Sunday, July 12, 2015

Mac OS X 10.10.4 and Apple TV

Marco Arment:

It’s been almost two weeks since my Apple TV refused to see my iMac’s iTunes share, or since I had to restart iTunes and reboot the Apple TV or disable and re-enable Home Sharing to get them to (maybe) see each other.

In fact, it’s been almost two weeks since I’ve seen nearly any of the annoying, recurring problems that made me write, back in January, that Apple’s software quality had lost the functional high ground.

Not coincidentally, it’s been almost two weeks since Mac OS X 10.10.4 was released, which replaced the problematic discoveryd with the older, more reliable mDNSResponder. These system processes are responsible for tracking the network’s computers, names, and shared services, and discoveryd’s unreliability in these tasks caused erratic network problems like mine for a huge portion of Apple’s customers.

Currently, neither of our Apple TVs can stream video from the iTunes Store, either via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. Restarting the Apple TV no longer helps. The only workaround seems to be to use AirPlay from an iOS device. So hopefully there is another update forthcoming.

5 Comments RSS · Twitter

Have you logged out and back in again from the Settings on the Apple TV? I often find that works in many cases where a simple reboot has failed.

All is working fine here. I don't stream from Apple just iTunes connected over wi-fi.
Sounds like a router problem if you can't stream from Apple and iTunes, Try and reset it or do a temporary swap.

@Matt Yes, I have tried that.

@Steven I have tried rebooting the router as well as replacing it. And, as I mentioned, non-Apple TV devices can stream fine.

Michael, just use your Roku instead to access Apple video. Roku is a neutral Switzerland. They play well with all the online services. (Yes, I know. But that's why I've never did any content commerce with Cupertino in the first place...)

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