Q: Apple TV 3rd Gen Freezing/Buffering constantly

I upgraded to 7 (actually it is 7.0.1 now, with the build nr 6912). I cant tell you, that I havent experienced this issue before, but it didnt occur very often, and although I thought it was very-very annoying, I lived with it, since 90% of the time it worked fine. Like I said, it still not acceptable, since it really should work every time you intend to use it, but I lived with that.

but now, as Ive written above, it doesnt work at all. it literally doesnt play one single movie. The best scenario is, that a movie starts, and then freezes in a few seconds.

Well, if you say, you have the same problem with fw 5.x, then it is not fw 7.x related, but then again, I havent had it before (I mean only relatively rarely).

Sorry, what I meant was: because I encountered stuttering problems in 6, I decided to stay on 5.3 till the problems would be solved. I read somewhere that 7 would be better.

OH, ok, sorry, I misunderstood you then. Anyway, the thing is, that I upgraded from 6 to 7 now. With5 it was fully ok, with 6 it was 90% ok, and now, with 7 it doesnt work at all. (congratulations, apple, beautiful development curve...).

In the meantime i restored it btw, and changed my router from an n airport extrem base station to an ac tp-link. Today. But no change at all.

I think they tightened the requirements for it to stream high-resolution things down to it's original capabilities.

Prior to 7, 6 worked flawlessly for me in 1080p or 720p, didn't matter which. Television shows, movies etc. Fine.
My internet connect was, and is, almost 6mbps.

Apparently, the necessary requirements for 720p is 8mbps, and 1080p is higher.
I think by upgrading the overall user interface with video, this tightened the holes regarding the download speed.

That's just my theory though, and it seems to ring true for me and my connection.
If I can figure out how to downgrade the firmware to a version before this one, I'll take it. I know there are some websites that have it downloadable.
If I can figure out an easy way to do it, without killing the whole thing entirely, I'll take it.
I hate not being able to watch things I pay for in 1080p, that streamed perfectly prior to this update.

If you find a way to do that, please let me know. I got an older firmware, but unfortunately I still couldn't downgrade it, the itunes didn't let me o it, it said, that "this fw is not compatibe with this itunes version", or something like this. it was a 6 btw, with itunes 12.

I Have the same issue. Buffering, pausing, then suddenly fast forwarding, losing siund, or getting raspy static sound. Here is something to ponder. I started netflix with chromcast, cuase its cheaper. It had the same exact issues. I had a lincsys router, super fast. I thought theissue was chromecast. So i tossed it in frustration, and bought apple tv. Same thing. I thought maybe its wifi, not compatible with app,e. I went to apple store and bought airport extreme. Installed with no probmlem. turned netflix on, same darn problem. No change whatesoever. I went online and read a whole bunch of stuff. I cinfigured network on apple tv manually, set the 8.8.8 stuff, turned airplay off, i tried everything. Noting works. It wasnt chromecast, its not apple tv, its not the wifi or the router. Im returning apple tv, and pple airport extreme. I spent $350 extra just for netflix. Where was my head? I got sucked into it trying to resolve the problem. I hate unanswered problems. Any other brilliant ideas?

Same issue as everyone is reporting. Just attempted to watch Monday Night Football and it was "buffering", "freezing", audio dropping every 30 seconds to a minute. Completely ridiculous this hasn't been addressed by Apple. I'm running ethernet and my connection is suitable and should be working fine. Tonight was the worst it's been. They need to stand behind the Apple and their customers. This is ridiculous.

My configuration: Apple TV 3 with latest update connected to 65" Panasonic Viera using Bose Lifestyle home entertainment system, Airport Extreme with a 100 Mbps connection.

The reason for confusion: As complained by everyone in this thread, the Apple TV stutters, freezes, stalls and buffers endlessly when I try to play my purchased movies but when I play a 1080p youtube video of even 60 min duration, it performs exceptionally well. What could be the logic?

Anyone else experiencing the same?

Nice to see this is still an issue. I can stream hulu on my laptop just fine at the highest settings, while the apple tv can't even load the hulu app's starting page (or its own itunes material) without freezing up. Ugh...

I Returned my atv. I even connected with ethernet and it made no difference whatsoever. The guy at apple said it has to do the speed of my internet. Well, its over 35. Why is it that i can watch it on laptop, ipad, wii, xbox, but not on tv. It would be nice help if those who have good success with watching netflix on tv, would share some detail such as, average speed of their internet, their internet provider company, whether they watch wired or wifi, how new or old their tv is. stuff like that. If you do, please dont get very techy, so the technologically challenged (me) can understand.

SHare your specs maybe we solve the mistery 

WOuld you tell us if the one at the kitchen is newer? Some say the tv firmware have something to do with all this.

THanks for sharing. I tried that as the last resort. Didnt make any difference for us. I ended up returning both the atv and the Irport extreme. I think in our home, wifi has interference fro outside cuz i see a long list of useres on the list. Well, good for you. thanks.

I am having the same problem with our ATV... I have reset the internet, modem, router, and apple TV. I have also done speed tests all say we have a fine connection. The Roku works as does our Xbox One. ATV won't load certain movies from our library (gets stuck on the load screen or gives some ludicrous time in which the content will be available to view .. like 349 minutes...) so we decided to try to airplay. We tried to airplay from our Macbook Pro and we got an error that said the move we bought from itunes couldn't be played on the display due to an HDCP error and that we should try a different display.... Basically we have been having a ton of problems with our ATV for the last year.. We can't get it to work and if it does work (randomly) it will only work for one movie or show... What ***** is we've spent a lot of money on Itunes and would really like to watch the content on something other than my macbook... plus the other frustrating thing is that all the apple troubleshooting sites are a little bit insulting (like check to see if your device is plugged in. yadayadayada) and always seem to say that it's our internet connection speed....  If it were the internet connection speed my Xbox, Roku, Macbook, iPhones, iPads, and iPods wouldn't be working on my wireless network.

Apple- get it together. I'm about to give up on all your products because for some reason you can't seem to et them t work. I shouldn't have to unplug, replug, reset, troubleshoot, speed test, modem switch everytime I want to use your product. Everything else has worked fine- it also seems like you're not responding to any of these issues (as I have tried to call, email, go into apple stores, talked to techs who INSIST it's just me and my internet... which this forum would seem to point out it actually isn't). I get it if there is a software problem or a bug that needs to be fixed- but at least address it so we can try to figure it out!!!!!!!!

I've about had it with this product... for something so expensive it should work- 99 percent of the time- especially with all compatible devices.

I am having the same issues with my ATV 2ndGen and a new 3d Gen.  For the most part they will  both play Netflix with only the occasional loading problem, but purchases on iTunes that I try and play through AppleTV will constantly either refuse to play at all or tell me it will be available in 1 hour 39 minutes or something ridiculous.  I just replaced my old Apple wifi router with a new Airport Extreme 802.11ac and it is still doing it although it did seem to rectify the situation a little quicker.  I have reset my router, I am up to date in all versions of my OS across all devices.  I have the fastest hookup my ISP offers although it is only testing at 32.28 Mbps this morning (They promised me "up to 100 Mbps" - liars).  This happens with both a purchased and rented movie or TV purchases.  Basically I am annoyed and frustrated.  Calls to Apple have yielded no joy.  Beyond updating software and resetting the modem they have no suggestions and refuse to acknowledge the problem exists.  Ditto at my local Apple Store. Clearly it does as evidence by the number of posts here.  I love using Apple TV (when it works), but at this rate I will move to Roku and Amazon.  Do you read these posts Apple?  We are frustrated.  Fix it please!