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 IH8rust,

    IH8rust IH8rust Feb 6, 2011 6:31 AM in response to Krissypaps
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 6, 2011 6:31 AM in response to Krissypaps
    Purchase my ATV2 in Nov 2010 was having same problem w/ streaming so I was renting movies on Itune w/ my mac and viewing them on ATV because that was working.
    was waiting for the update, Last week I try it again in steaming w/ HD movie and it started in about 90 seconds and played just like it says on the box, pause for about 1 minutes no problem pause for dinner about 45 minutes and resume no problem
    dont know if my next experience will be the same but will keep you updated
    By the way my speed is 7MB and as you can see my list my equipment is all Mac product , don't know if that make a difference or not ?
    Gilles.
  • by Natick,

    Natick Natick Feb 6, 2011 6:32 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 6, 2011 6:32 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    OMG This slow load is a real problem. Even upgraded to the newest Airport Extreme dual band. it is so slow, I may have to return the Apple TV. A real overall painful waste of time.
  • by flavon,

    flavon flavon Feb 6, 2011 7:21 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 6, 2011 7:21 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    I am also experiencing this problem with very long download times. It's very frustrating. I have cable internet service and it's still slow. To even try and watch an In Theaters Trailer is painfully slow.

    What's amazing is that this is an obvious problem from all the responses on here but Apple has said nothing or done anything to remedy the problem and it is a PROBLEM!
  • by Lone VVolf,

    Lone VVolf Lone VVolf Feb 6, 2011 11:06 AM in response to flavon
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Feb 6, 2011 11:06 AM in response to flavon
    I am currently also experiencing these irritatingly slow download times. My neighbor also has the Apple TV 2, and has absolutely no problems. I just tried my device at his place, and it works great there. So it's definitely not defective hardware. I've basically narrowed the problem down to either an incompatibility with my Internet connection somehow, or buggy software from Apple. The same rentals and streams work perfectly on my notebook, so it can't be that my connection is too slow.
  • by tgibbs,

    tgibbs tgibbs Feb 6, 2011 12:48 PM in response to Lone VVolf
    Level 1 (70 points)
    Feb 6, 2011 12:48 PM in response to Lone VVolf
    Assuming that your neighbor has the same ISP as you, that pretty strongly implies a problem with either your modem or your router(s). You might ask your neighbor if you could try out his router
  • by Lone VVolf,

    Lone VVolf Lone VVolf Feb 6, 2011 9:50 PM in response to tgibbs
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Feb 6, 2011 9:50 PM in response to tgibbs
    Sorry, I forgot to mention, that he doesn't, which is what worries me. He has 16Mbit cable, I have 12 Mbit DSL.
  • by RichardNM,

    RichardNM RichardNM Feb 7, 2011 7:13 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 7, 2011 7:13 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    We rented a HD movie, and after a few minutes it said on the screen the movie was ready to watch, so we turned it on. Every 6 to 10 minutes the movie pauses to catch up for at least a couple of minutes. This is a 2 hour movie that at this rate is going to take 3 1/2 hours to watch. This ***** !! Is Apple going to do something about this ?? This is not the experience we were promised ! I gave away my Apple TV1. With that hardware we could download the film and know that it was there to watch. With Apple TV2 I am sitting here typing while the movie is frozen on the screen the the little wheel continues to spin. I hope Apple is reading these.....

    I am a long and loyal apple user, and a shareholder. I am ashamed of this experience !!
  • by jclorden,

    jclorden jclorden Feb 9, 2011 5:47 AM in response to RichardNM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 9, 2011 5:47 AM in response to RichardNM
    So, I sent my apple tv back through customer care and they sent me a new one. At the same time I traded up my Netgear b/g router for a new Apple Extreme and called the cable company (armstrong in MD) to come look at all of my wires.

    When I originally fired up the new ATV I saw that a movie I had previously rented on the old box (Truth in Motion, a free HD download I use as a test) was still in my top row. I tried to watch it and, like the first time, 8 hours... The ATV then downloaded something automatically during the movie load, perhaps new firmware, and now - perfect... works like a charm.

    I don't have a lot of answers because in a very non-scientific method I tweeked a bunch of variables without testing the effect of each seperatly, but I can say that I don't think it's the third party distribution. The reason is because when my ATV was not working well I was able to load the same HD movies on my ipad in a reasonable amount of time. I would assume that this conntent was coming from the same provider that my ATV was pulling from.

    Message was edited by: jclorden
  • by grpullar,

    grpullar grpullar Feb 10, 2011 5:43 PM in response to tgibbs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 10, 2011 5:43 PM in response to tgibbs
    No offense tgibbs, but after reviewing several discussions, it looks like you are either a biased "AppleHead" or an Apple employee.

    If it is the latter, I would hope that in the future you identify yourself as such. Seriously, trying to dissuade those of us that have taken the time and effort to read and report our problem is unethical and poor business. I am on my third ATV and each time I took back to the "Genius" (different stores in different cities mind you) they said they were surprised that I was having problems. The Genius is surprised? Really? Considering the "China-Deny-It-Ever-Happened Approach" (remember the iPhone issue???)to admitting product issues and failures, Apple is on its way to becoming the mediocre behemoth company that it has so often ridiculed in its marketing. You should print off the 400+ POSTS and send them to your boss to influence a decision from Apple rather than trying to make us drink the KoolAid.

    If it is the former, you should stop drinking the KoolAid. Its not sugar free and its fattening over time.
  • by Gary Meyers,

    Gary Meyers Gary Meyers Feb 11, 2011 11:08 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Feb 11, 2011 11:08 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    I've been having issues just downloading "standard" versions of movies. They choke anywhere from 10 to 40 mins in. The only solution I've been given by Apple is to pay $29.99 (one third the price of the device) to have someone talk to me or the only other solution is to start downloading a rental about 2 hours before I plan on watching it. Then it buffers enough to screen the entire movie. Not the way I expect an Apple device to work.

    Message was edited by: Gary Meyers
  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Feb 11, 2011 11:10 AM in response to Gary Meyers
    Level 6 (19,115 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 11, 2011 11:10 AM in response to Gary Meyers
    What is your actual internet speed and are you using wifi? Have you changed DNS settings?
  • by francist001,

    francist001 francist001 Feb 13, 2011 1:52 AM in response to benoitgl2000
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 13, 2011 1:52 AM in response to benoitgl2000
    I rented HD "Letters to Juliet" and downloaded completely to iTunes(about 4 GB over an hour) on Road Runner HS cable. There was no apparent option to stream until that download was completed. The Apple TV2 over ethernet/Belkin router was setup properly but had to reboot Apple TV after first try as got stuck in downloading computer library. The second time it started and went about 10 minutes before losing signal. Went again this time for about 45 minutes and then again lost signal. Gave up and watched on the computer w/o any problems with ability to pick chapters and quickly move back/forward unlike the computer to Apple TV to HDTV streaming attempts. Not sure what the problem is wrt the streaming but definitely do not like not being able to do anything other than start/stop when using Apple TV streaming.
  • by Lone VVolf,

    Lone VVolf Lone VVolf Feb 16, 2011 11:36 PM in response to francist001
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Feb 16, 2011 11:36 PM in response to francist001
    So, after trying everything I could think of to solve the problem on my DSL connection, I bit the bullet, and ordered a new, faster, cable modem connection. Got it installed yesterday - problem solved. For more information, below are my stats for before and after:
    BEFORE: http://www.speedtest.net/result/1159771076.png
    AFTER: http://www.speedtest.net/result/1159777297.png

    It seems that an 8-10Mbit connection is just not enough for a good streaming experience. Sad, but true.
  • by Airsculpture,

    Airsculpture Airsculpture Feb 17, 2011 2:35 PM in response to vazandrew
    Level 4 (1,416 points)
    iTunes
    Feb 17, 2011 2:35 PM in response to vazandrew
    If various people say it's the ISP, why when redeeming a digital copy of a movie from iTunes ( 1.79 GB ), this takes 6 minutes to download, whereas when viewing a streaming movie from Apple TV ( 5-6 GB ), this takes 2 hours plus to start playing and stalls throughout the movie to catch up on itself ?
  • by LostAccount,

    LostAccount LostAccount Feb 17, 2011 4:02 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (125 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 17, 2011 4:02 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    There seem to be a lot of views here.

    Please refer to http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3623 if you are facing this issue…Article Title: Apple TV (2nd generation): Troubleshooting movie and TV show rental performance
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