Apple TV Takes 10 Seconds To Turn Off!

Question

Level 2

289 points

Apple TV Takes 10 Seconds To Turn Off!

Hi,

Ever since upgrading to Take 2, my Apple TV takes 10 seconds to turn off. If I point the remote at it, holding down the play/pause button on the remote, it takes 10 seconds for the white light on the front to go off. Is this normal? I'm sure before the update it turned off much quicker.

I've tried doing a Factory Reset on my Apple TV, which wiped all my content off it and took the software back to version 1. And then I updated the software again, and resynced my content. And guess what, it still takes 10 seconds to turn off.

17" iMac 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, Mac OS X (10.5.2), 16GB iPod Touch, 40GB Apple TV Take 2

Posted on Feb 21, 2008 3:50 AM

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Answer 1

Arkouda

Level 4

3,365 points

Feb 21, 2008 4:17 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

I just hold down the play/pause button for a couple of seconds - emphatically longer than just clicking it - and then release. The Apple TV then switches off normally.

That's how I've always done it, so I don't know whether holding the button down for an extended period helps or hinders the process.

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Answer 2

Feb 21, 2008 4:25 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

I think that this is normal. I have found that you can hold it down until the light goes out, or you can hold it down for just a few seconds and the system will still shut down. I have noticed no difference from the old firmware to the new.

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Answer 3

Piel

Level 1

0 points

Feb 21, 2008 5:37 AM in response to William Potere

then you are lucky - as you will see in the thread called "Take 2 Update Causes Crashes, Freezes, Glitching" the performance and responsiveness of the AppleTV has dropped considerably. Menus are painfully slow and the remote is very unresponsive.

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Answer 4

Arkouda

Level 4

3,365 points

Feb 21, 2008 5:46 AM in response to Piel

My experience is totally different to yours: I am getting much better responsiveness on both my Apple TVs since the update. I notice that you are using Windows. Have you ruled that out as the source of your problem - even given that it is Apple's own iTunes software that you're using?

I have only one complaint - the need to manually sync to update the data on the Apple TV when an item is added or deleted from iTunes.

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Answer 5

Chenks

Level 5

7,435 points

Feb 21, 2008 5:52 AM in response to Arkouda

the menus are prefect for me also, no problems with responsiveness

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Answer 6

Rudegar

Level 10

170,742 points

Feb 21, 2008 6:30 AM in response to Arkouda

"notice that you are using Windows. Have you ruled that out as the source of your problem - even given that it is Apple's own iTunes software that you're using?"

well using windows would only cause problems if the menus was stream stuff
or if windows would somehow fragment his atv's hd more then a mac's itune would

fragmenting of the hd
or too full hd no more then 75% should be used really

could cause those issues

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Answer 7

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Feb 23, 2008 3:19 AM in response to Piel

The problem with my Apple TV Take 2 seems to be that the Hard Drive is really fragmented. When I go to turn it off, there's about 10 seconds of frantic Hard Drive activity, as if the Apple TV has a lot of stuff to write to its disk before it can switch off.

Again, when skipping through songs in My Music, the normally fluid graphics are pausing and stuttering as the Hard Drive crunches away for a second or two.

Is there any way to defragment the Apple TV's Hard Drive?

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Answer 8

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Feb 25, 2008 2:40 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

My Apple TV Take 2 seems to be getting worse. It took 1 MINUTE to turn off yesterday, again due to all the frantic hard drive activity!

Does anyone have a solution for this? It's really getting to the point where I don't want to use it, because it's so painfully slow and frustrating to use.

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Answer 9

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Feb 25, 2008 3:16 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

Well, I have to add...

TURNING OFF the Apple TV Take 2 at the wall, has temporarily solved this problem in that, I can now turn it on and off using the remote, in just a couple of seconds. Good. But how long again before the insane Hard Drive activity comes back and it takes me 28 seconds to turn it on, and 24-60 to turn it off?

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Answer 10

JohnnyDW

Level 1

0 points

Feb 25, 2008 5:22 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

Probably not what you want to hear but--NEVER turn OFF APPLE TV. I've been on since last April07 and have not experienced any issues whatsoever. Both upgrades installed smoothly and the unit still remains on and working flawlessly! Keep in mind the hard drive needs to spin to perform its magic and by turning it off you are periodically interupting its performance and stability.

Yes it costs a little more to keep APPLE TV on all the time, but the performance gain is worth the few extra $'s it costs to leave on all the time. Additionally, hard drives are designed to be on all the time.
MTBF rates provide for years of service when powered on continuously. Hard drive ON/OFF cycles can actually reduce MTBF rates. APPLE designed APPLE TV to be on 24/365-that's what they told me!!

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Answer 11

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Feb 25, 2008 6:53 AM in response to JohnnyDW

Hang on. When you say never turn off your Apple TV, do you mean with the Apple Remote or at the wall? Because the problem I was/am having is that my Apple TV can take up to 1 minute to turn off using the Apple Remote. And, as I understand, in this state, the Apple TV isn't really off, it's just Sleeping like a Mac does.

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Answer 12

JohnnyDW

Level 1

0 points

Feb 28, 2008 3:31 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

NEVER turn OFF your APPLE TV from either the remote or wall. This makes a big difference in HD
performance-dropping network signal!!

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Answer 13

Ran007

Level 1

50 points

Mar 1, 2008 4:02 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

Yeah, mine has become painfull slow too as I can hear the hard drive crunching away. I have 75GB available - just don't know what to do.

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Answer 14

Mar 2, 2008 12:43 AM in response to JohnnyDW

Why would turning off the AppleTV result in reduced performance the next time it is used? You wouldn't expect that from a computer?

The problem with leaving it on all the time is that it is very wasteful of energy. To be honest, the standby mode is not really standby at all... it just switches off the graphic driver. tests have shown:

normal operation - 22 watts
Standby mode - 17 watts... pointless!!!

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Answer 15

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Apr 7, 2008 8:52 AM in response to Brian Cutts

Well, the Apple TV 2.0.1 update solved me jerky graphics and 10 seconds to turn off problems (touch wood). So, that's great. Problem solved. Just a shame that Apple had to put us through 2 months of our Apple TVs working worse than they used to.

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