TWalkerPolk

Q: Apple TV HD Rental Streaming Problem

I wanted to create this topic to ask if others are running into the same issues I am with streaming rented HD movies. I go to play the rented HD movie and am transferred to a screen that says "Loading...." for about a minute or two. Then, that message is replaced with one that says "Ready to play in [xxx] minutes"...with horribly long times listed (my movie was rented last night, and as of this evening, it shows "Ready to play in 232 minutes").

This seems like a MAJOR flaw with the Apple TV. I have no problem viewing YouTube, HD Netflix movies, HD trailers, etc. I have even been able to watch an HD TV show rental within about 5 mins of selecting it. Seems like there may be a major flaw in the streaming process for HD Movie rentals over the Apple TV.

If you haven't tested this yet (or if you have no issues), please post what is happening with your HD movie rentals.

TWP

Note: I have rebooted everything, used my Airport Express with the ethernet cord directly into the Apple TV, over wiFi, adjusted the distance between my router and the Apple TV. Nothing has worked.

Dell Laptop m1330, Windows 7

Posted on Oct 8, 2010 9:05 PM

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Q: Apple TV HD Rental Streaming Problem

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  • by Borja Marcos,

    Borja Marcos Borja Marcos Nov 14, 2010 3:49 PM in response to humpy76
    Level 1 (145 points)
    Nov 14, 2010 3:49 PM in response to humpy76
    Anyone having these problems can try a simple fix.

    Apple uses Akamai's servers for streaming. Akamai has a network of servers hosted at many providers, so that you get the content from a server in theory close to you. Close to you in network terms, of course.

    And sometimes there can be issues with a particular server. The server is chosen based on your DNS server choice.

    Something you can try to do is to change your DNS servers. If you are using your ISP's servers you can try Google's (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) or OpenDNS' (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220) and see if it helps. Doing this, you will be served by a different Akamai server pool.

    If you have configured the IP address manually you can change the DNSs on the Apple TV. If you are using DHCP, change the settings on your router.
  • by Ptrotsky,

    Ptrotsky Ptrotsky Nov 16, 2010 5:28 PM in response to Borja Marcos
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 16, 2010 5:28 PM in response to Borja Marcos
    Looks like things have improved significantly. Rented an HD tonight. Had one freeze but running smoothly now for 20 minutes.
  • by DavidPR,

    DavidPR DavidPR Nov 16, 2010 6:15 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 16, 2010 6:15 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    This is totally bogus. I waited so long for this and now I am so disappointed with APTV . The only thing I can stream is from my computers. In Puerto Rico we do not have access to Netflix so I depend of renting "instant" movies from iTunes. But 3 out o 3 tries I get the same thing... waiting 100 minutes or more. And if you happen to decide to watch something else the loading stops.

    And now it has been stuck in 34 minutes for the last hour... Just pure junk.

    This is stupid. I want my money back! Apple lied to me. This is not instant streaming at all.

    Does anyone knows if I rent through my computer itunes and download the movie if I can then stream it from my computer to the Apple TV?
  • by DavidPR,

    DavidPR DavidPR Nov 16, 2010 6:38 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 16, 2010 6:38 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Ok. After hanging up in 34 minutes for the last hour I turn it off and now it tells me that the movie will be ready to be watch in 69 minutes. In other words, is 10:30pm and I have been waiting to instantly see a movie I rented 4 hours ago. Unbelievable.

    The HD version of the movie is only available for iPad and Apple TV and I can only download the regular version onto my computer. Incredible.

    In that time I could have gone to the near blockbuster or Redbox, eaten dinner and watched the movie and return it. Unreasonable.

    About the only use I have for the stupid black box now is to stream the content I so foolishly bought from iTunes into my computer.

    Why should we try to make things work for Apple? Have they become as incompetent as Microsoft?
    To say that "eventually Apple will come up with a Fix" is to excuse incompetence. They should deliver a product that work. Period. Apple just killed Apple TV.

    Heading to the store for a refund tomorrow. Giving up on Apple TV.

    Message was edited by: DavidPR
  • by Ptrotsky,

    Ptrotsky Ptrotsky Nov 16, 2010 7:30 PM in response to DavidPR
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 16, 2010 7:30 PM in response to DavidPR
    Mine is actuall better now- only one freeze and then home free for 1:30 minutes. I do have iTunes on upstairs. Maybe that helps. Did you upgrade iTunes yet? Anyway- it worked 99% better.
  • by dgalvan123,

    dgalvan123 dgalvan123 Nov 16, 2010 8:51 PM in response to DavidPR
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Nov 16, 2010 8:51 PM in response to DavidPR
    @DavidPR:

    How fast is your internet connection? You can go to speedtest.net to test it.

    If it's anything lower than 5-6 Mbps, you should not be surprised that an HD movie (typically several GB) takes a while to download. If it's more than that, well then yes there is a problem on apple's end.

    I only ask because I was having identical problems as many people here until I realized it was just my internet connection being too slow (1.5 Mbps). I upgraded my connection to 10 Mbps and the problems are solved.
  • by Ptrotsky,

    Ptrotsky Ptrotsky Nov 17, 2010 8:35 AM in response to dgalvan123
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2010 8:35 AM in response to dgalvan123
    Since our neighborhood has worked with Time Warner we now have speeds as high as 12 Mbs. Used to be in the 1-3 range. So much improved now.
  • by mychalmccabe,

    mychalmccabe mychalmccabe Nov 18, 2010 12:14 PM in response to dgalvan123
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2010 12:14 PM in response to dgalvan123
    Speedtest shows my download rate at 20+Mb/s, rates as 3.3 of 5 stars. I've had trouble with Netflix streaming, blackout and sound loss as well as purchased movies. Netflix sends me an email with a link to claim a 3% credit each time it happens. With purchased movies, streaming from iMac to the AppleTV the sound tends to dropout. My son's given up on the AppleTV entirely.
  • by mikebuz,

    mikebuz mikebuz Nov 18, 2010 2:59 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2010 2:59 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Same problem as others here. The HD movies take forever to load. Last time it took all evening, and apparently, that was the express lane. Today, I fugured I'd start loading in the morning before going to work so it would be ready when I got home. But I got home to a 141 minute wait that hasn't moved a second for the past 45 minutes.
    This certainly lowers Apple's rep in my eyes, not just that the product is defective, but that they know it's defective and ignore the problem as long as they can fool enough customers into buying their product.
  • by MightyMac,

    MightyMac MightyMac Nov 18, 2010 8:53 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (55 points)
    Nov 18, 2010 8:53 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    I am having this same issue. After testing it against my 1st gen Apple TV, I can see that it is an issue with gen 2 only. However, the long load times occur during my ISP throttling times 7pm-12pm every night. Gen2 requires high speed to function properly and as a work around I download a few hours in advance of watching, as I find the buffered video saves to the flash drive and averts the problem for me. It is frustrating, but as there are many posts and views on this topic, I am confident Apple will address this issue soon. I am sure there is some firmware update that can make the new Apple TV a little more forgiving when connection speeds drop a little. Fingers crossed. There is bound to be an update in the next week as iOS 4.2 nears release. Hang in there folks and don't give up yet. Gen 2 is too cute to throw out. Personally I feel the our ISP plays a big part in this too.
  • by iguana70,

    iguana70 iguana70 Nov 20, 2010 4:55 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 20, 2010 4:55 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Throw us into the mix of having difficulties. Tried to watch an HD movie and average wait time has been about 200 minutes. In regards to our broadband, we don't have the fasted speed on the block, about 3mb but it works flawlessly with Amazon on Demand HD via our Samsung TV. So I know it cannot be our broadband.

    We set it up to have Apple give us a call. I am going to request a refund and dig a little bit to see if there is a fix in the pipeline.
  • by iguana70,

    iguana70 iguana70 Nov 20, 2010 6:49 AM in response to iguana70
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 20, 2010 6:49 AM in response to iguana70
    Ok, I just got off the phone with Apple Support. I first spoke with a first level. Of course they had me try everything under the sun. I guess they have to due to script. I was then sent to a Senior Advisor. He tried a couple more things.

    I tried unplugging ATV2, stop loading, turning off HD rental, resetting router, hard cable to the router, bypassing the router and plugging directly to modem. It varied from 200 min to 1700min.

    They sort of acknowledged that a problem exists. Standard company posturing. We know there is an issue but we are not admitting it.

    I think what they are doing is in the information gathering stage for the engineers. So all who have this problem, *please call in*. The more calls they get on the issue, the quicker a fix will come out.
  • by jpr76,

    jpr76 jpr76 Nov 20, 2010 7:50 AM in response to dgalvan123
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 20, 2010 7:50 AM in response to dgalvan123
    me too - on a 10mbps service I was regularly getting < 5mbps realised at peak times (fri & sat nights) - this was causing me real grief with streaming HD from the store (streaming from my library never a problem).

    Upgraded to 20mbps service. Now I always get > 5mbps even at peak, problems gone.

    I think if you do the maths then about 5mbps for a typical HD movie is the minimum speed to be able to have the stream keep ahead of the clock...
  • by iguana70,

    iguana70 iguana70 Nov 20, 2010 9:17 AM in response to jpr76
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 20, 2010 9:17 AM in response to jpr76
    We do plan on upgrading 3 to 10mbps. Since we ditched the dish, we now place a heavier burden on our broadband. On a good day, we might get close to 3mbps however this has been quite adequate for our Amazon On Demand HD through our Samsung TV. We have rented several HD movies and they play quickly and without so much as a hiccup. Even Apple support said that 3mbps was good enough.

    I think they have a real issue here with their on demand.
  • by gbod,

    gbod gbod Nov 21, 2010 4:44 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 21, 2010 4:44 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Add me to the list of those having problems. I have observed that my DSL modem/router resets everytime I try to play a rented movie. Weird. I have no problems with youtube, netflix, podcasts or streaming from computer, but every time I press play on my rented movie, my router resets and drops the connection. I have reset both the Apple TV and my router to no avail.
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