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 vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Jan 20, 2011 12:15 PM in response to arpanc
    Level 6 (19,185 points)
    Apple TV
    Jan 20, 2011 12:15 PM in response to arpanc
    It works perfectly fine for me
  • by Kobejo,

    Kobejo Kobejo Jan 21, 2011 12:17 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 21, 2011 12:17 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    server stopped responding, it takes ages to load and no improvement in sight.
    This really ****** me off.
    I'm thinking of giving my ATV2 back due to the fact that it doesn't do what it is supposed to. It's like buying a car which only drives occasionally.
  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Jan 21, 2011 12:20 PM in response to Kobejo
    Level 6 (19,185 points)
    Apple TV
    Jan 21, 2011 12:20 PM in response to Kobejo
    Have you done any troubleshooting? It does work but you have to take some factors into consideration (connection speed, wifi, dns etc)
  • by Paul Siegferth Jr.1,

    Paul Siegferth Jr.1 Paul Siegferth Jr.1 Jan 21, 2011 12:53 PM in response to Kobejo
    Level 1 (48 points)
    Wireless
    Jan 21, 2011 12:53 PM in response to Kobejo
    Bottom line is that this thing is very buggy and doesn't work like an Apple product should. This isn't a situation where a bad one slips through the cracks, read the many complaint here and elsewhere. Very disappointing. Hopefully a magic cure comes along soon.
  • by sredding,

    sredding sredding Jan 21, 2011 6:28 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 21, 2011 6:28 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Same issue here. Picked up my new apple TV since my DVD player finally died. Get home and selected a movie to watch with the kids and I get a message that it will be ready to watch in 13 hours and 51 minutes. Are you kidding? Did an internet connection test and it looks fine.

    Any solutions?
  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Jan 21, 2011 7:35 PM in response to sredding
    Level 6 (19,185 points)
    Apple TV
    Jan 21, 2011 7:35 PM in response to sredding
    Did you look up your actual speed? Have you changed the DNS? Are you wireless or wired?
  • by DMW5,

    DMW5 DMW5 Jan 22, 2011 6:42 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 22, 2011 6:42 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    I dont believe this is a problem with apple's servers. I believe its a problem with atv2. I own the first generation and atv2. Same night, same time, same movie. Apple tv2 said that the movie would be ready to play in 5 hours (dont believe that by the way). First gen atv was ready to play this movie in under 2 minutes. When I called apple about this the said it still could be my network and after an hour of trouble shooting he concluded that there was likely something wrong with my atv2. He arranged for a visit to my local apple store where the apple genius tested the hardware and said there was nothing wrong but exchanged my unit for a new one. Sadly I am still experiencing the same problem of unacceptably long download times. I will say that apples service on this issue was nothing short of stellar. All of apples employees were helpful, polite, and knowledgeable. However, I still have a problem. Its true that there seem to be a lot of comments regarding this issue but think of the likely millions of atv2 that have probably been sold. If only 1% of people had problems that would be 10,000 and if only 10% of those left comments here we would see 1000 comments. Not sure if we have that many. Something is wrong and apparently no one really knows what (or they are not admitting it)
  • by Paul Siegferth Jr.1,

    Paul Siegferth Jr.1 Paul Siegferth Jr.1 Jan 22, 2011 8:13 AM in response to DMW5
    Level 1 (48 points)
    Wireless
    Jan 22, 2011 8:13 AM in response to DMW5
    The returns are staggering compared to other apple products. Two coworkers have made returns. People who comment on these boards are a minuscule percentage.
  • by InTheTriangle,

    InTheTriangle InTheTriangle Jan 23, 2011 10:30 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 23, 2011 10:30 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    I just recently purchased a new Apple TV G2. We have tried renting two HD movies with many of the same symptoms described here. I am hardwired into a CAT5 network that on average gets 10Mbs down speeds.

    I am not using my IPs DNS, I am using OpenDNS. I have no problems with NetFlix on the iPad, nor NetFlix on the Xbox either. I also have no problems streaming movies on the XBox.

    Has anyone out there received additional information from Apple?
  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Jan 23, 2011 10:46 AM in response to InTheTriangle
    Level 6 (19,185 points)
    Apple TV
    Jan 23, 2011 10:46 AM in response to InTheTriangle
    Switch back to your IPs DNS and see if that helps.
  • by InTheTriangle,

    InTheTriangle InTheTriangle Jan 23, 2011 4:53 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 23, 2011 4:53 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    I DHCP the home network. So while sort of a pain before I checked back here I hardcoded IP, DNS,etc. Using the IPs DNS did the trick. Thanks.
  • by su58643,

    su58643 su58643 Jan 23, 2011 6:04 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 23, 2011 6:04 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    I have Apple TV 2nd Generation and I rented a movie for the wife and I. It then stated download time was 8 hours!!! I called tech support and they said I needed a faster internet connection.... I'm running the fastest Time Warner has available... waited until the next day. Played the movie... half way through I hit menu instead of pause by accident. I went to go back to the movie and I had to... AGAIN... wait for the the movie to download!!! Are you kidding me????? I spent $100 on this thing and my wife is of the belief that we were completely RIPPED OFF with this. Apple has to fix this! This one problem got me back to my Netflix account where I am receiving DVD's in order to make sure we can "Pause" and accidentally hit the wrong button and not have to wait EIGHT HOURS for playback!!!
  • by Big Apple Brooklyn,

    Big Apple Brooklyn Big Apple Brooklyn Jan 25, 2011 8:34 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 25, 2011 8:34 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    I agree with all of you, I recently purchased 3 apple Tv's one for me and two as gifts. I frankly have to say that it is the worst investment that I have ever made in apple, The movies never download and the rented movies on my i tunes don't even get recognize by the atv. And as for my associates, well they have the same problem as too. After countless of failed attempts by the apple store to fix the problem, it is a true disappointment to say I would like my money back. It does absolutely nothing of what it was promised to do, the mere fact that apple has no solution is a reason that I suggest you all return them and get your money back.
  • by gadz,

    gadz gadz Jan 26, 2011 10:27 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 26, 2011 10:27 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    I have had many of the problem described.
    I have a ATV 1 and used it in an area with FIOs without any problem, although download time started to get longer and longer on fridays and saturdays
    Moved to and area Timewarner cable and real problems started. I bought a new atv2 and was unable to see any movie...22 hours to view a movie. I was also loosing internet radio connection on my ATV1. Needing reboots. I was also unable to download movies.
    Since then I got rid of the ISP supplied modem and router and installed a new highly rated modem and a Airport extreme.
    Situation has improved drastically. Internet Radio is working fine now, movie download is still 20 minutes and had to suffer several interruption both on itune store and netflix
    I have tried several DNS it never changed a thing for me. I am back on the ISP DNS.
    I noticed though than when I do network download test, if I am testing with a local server i get the advertised 15 Mbps download, if I test with a server 100 miles away, I get down to 1.5 Mbps. How do I know where the streaming servers are?

    Still working at it...to get to ontime
  • by Krissypaps,

    Krissypaps Krissypaps Jan 29, 2011 6:10 AM in response to gadz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 29, 2011 6:10 AM in response to gadz
    My ATV2's performance has improved significantly since I replaced my cable modem, which was 5 years old. I rented "The Town" the other day from iTunes. The download took about 20 seconds and the movie played perfectly as soon as I hit the play button. I've had similar success with the 2 TV episodes I rented.

    I had the same problems as the original poster, along with frequent pauses while watching Netflix shows, with the ATV2 I got in December, which I returned to Apple for a replacement. When I had the same problems streaming from Netflix using the replacement ATV2, I was going to return it to Apple for a refund. And then I decided to try upgrading my cable modem. That solved the problems I had trying to rent from iTunes. I still get occasional pauses and dropped audio when watching Netflix shows.

    Note that I am not trying to use it wirelessly. I couldn't stream from Netflix wirelessly with my Neflix enabled TV so I purchased the Netgear Powerline 200 ethernet bridge, which resolved that problem. I'm using the bridge with the ATV2 as well.
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