Q: Apple TV HD Rental Streaming Problem

So exactly how to switch it over?

Thank you!

Same problem here!!! 20 hours to download???? This ruined move night with the wife as we didnt have alernatives and ended up watcing big bang theory reruns.....

Also, dont understand all the posts re changing settings.....i thought Apple products "just work" without changing settings......

Dissapointed as our whole house s Apple from the old iMacs to the newest iPads...

Maybe i'll pick up a Roku or something...

I'm pretty much to the point where I'm not going to order movies through Apple any more.  My download speed is between 16-18 MBPS.  I'm trying to download to my Mac Pro and then push it to Apple TV, and even there I'm barely getting 1 MBPS and it says I have 8 hours remaining.  Netflix streams just fine. 

Ok over 50 pages of comments, people still having problem... Does Apple ever read any of these?  Why has there been no help forthcoming.  Two and a Half years later and I am still having this problem.  I no longer rent movies through Apple. 

No, Apple does not read not participate in these user forums. Typically problems are network related but if found otherwise you can contact them directly to express

New to the discussion forum but what I did find out after talking to Apple support about this today is that all their iTunes content servers reside in the US (I guess for tax reasons). Not sure if Google and Microsoft are doing the same thing.

This means that in the evening in Europe when people want to watch movies, US is in "full speed" on internet usage.

This causes a massive drop in the performance compared to watching a rental during the day or something the kids watch before noon on a rainy day.

As the ATV (v3) I have does not store anything, watching movies during the evening will be a challenge always.

There are two "simple" solutions Apple should consider:

1) Get buffer/mirror servers in EMEA and APJ for a better quality. Paying 100+ euros for the ATV and then rentals 4+ euros per movie should at least provide some kind of guaranteed service level.

2) If you have a network drive at home, ATV could buffer the rental movie there in a format that can only be watched once from the ATV. It is just a question of providing the possibility, should not be rocket science.

Both require Apple to server their customers by either making their IT architecture aware of global usage or adding a feature in their product.

50 pages of issues and still no improvement... With all the talk of the Apple entering the TV market with actual sets, rather than just the box, I would have hoped to see the rental service would be considerably better by now.

I have an ATV and watch Netflix, YouTube etc no problem. I also have a Samsung Smart TV in another room. Netflix, YouTube iTV Player and BBC iPlayer are all fine. Even Acetrax movies is fine.

The only issue I have is with renting through the iTunes store on my Apple TV.

I completely agree with Jayrton that as a UK user, the issues are at their worst in the evenings, just when we want to watch or rent a movie.

Agreed. 50 pages of issues spanning over three years and the problems have not been resolved. They are unique to ATV and the iTunes store. Sounds like ATV is a bad way to watch movies.

Mine works now but not sure what I did to make it so:

I swooped from power line Ethernet to wireless connection to my wireless router.

I set the date zone back to Cupertino.

I updated the Apple TV software.

I upgraded my broadband to 60mbps from 10mbps.

That's basically all I did.

Hope it helps.

Decided to sell the Apple TV. The network problems continue and very few movies have Finnish subtitles. There is no or very little localization for smaller countries so I will move to use something more localized.

I've been doing lots of tests on my network today.  Comparing wifi, to ethernet, to ethernet over power.

It's all good, I get a very consistent 14mbps.

So why do rented movies download so slow to the AppleTV?  Come on Apple this is something you have to fix.

I have had the ATV for a while and finally decided to rent a movie. Ha. All I get is the thing turning circles in the middle of my screen. I checked my wifi speed and it is usually running between 8 to 19 mbps. I can view the previews fine.

I typically view movies over my directtv internet box which works fine. I am ot sure why I bought an ATV???

Ever since I changed my DNS servers I've had no problems.

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

208.67.222.222

208.67.220.220

I've rented two films recently and managed to get Apple to refund me as I couldn't watch them on my Apple TV. They recommended that I downloaded it to my PC or iPad first next time, so that's exactly what I did today. After downloading the film for 1.5 hours (hd) to my iPad we started watching it and it still hangs every few minutes on playback. I've tried everything and I've come to the conclusion that it's the Apple TV hardware itself as it plays fine on my iPad.

I for one will not by renting another film from Apple.

I had the same problem.

AppleTV with v5.3 firmware.

It has nothing to do with network.

It is an issue with the device itself.

Slow loading went away for me after unplugging unit from powercord.