I purchased an HD movie and began the download, however it is taking an extremely long time to down load. As of this moment is it still not downloaded.
Mac Mini,
Mac OS X (10.5.5),
Apple TV is connected via Giga ethernet.
HD movies are several GB in size and can take several hours if your connection is slow, if your ISP throttles access to iTunes store downloads (some do) or if Apple's servers are overloaded by downloads.
I am having the same issue...I started downloading an hour back and it says it will take 2 hours ...its already 25% downloaded but it's not letting me play ...in past I was able to play the movie in 10 min max....seems something is happening...
I had the same issue tonight with a rented HD movie. It was EXTREMELY slow to load and would not let me start watching even with over 50% downloading. All times in the past it has been only minutes at most to have enough content that Atv would let me start watching the movie. Sounds like there may have been a server problem???
There have been comments about trailers and things taking much longer to start playing too since software 2.2 - perhaps they've changed things so that the devic has to buffer far more first.
I've not rented anything recently and have a fairly humble download speed so it usually takes hours to get a movie downloaded - consequently i usually rent the night before or early morning so it's available in the evening when back from work. Those with fast connections may be noticing the change more than I would.
Was this just a server problem on 11/14? I got on again this morning and trailers, etc were loading fine. I went ahead and spent $5 on an experiment and rented another HD movie. A couple percent loading in just a minute and I got the message my movie was ready to play.
I'm having the same slowness on my 12Mbps cable connection. I used to scream through the HD downloads and be ready to start within a minute or two. It's now been 1 hour and 15 minutes and I'm hovering at about 20%. Is it a Friday night thing???
I'm having the same issue on the 22nd. HD movies used to be ready to play before you could exit the purchase menu, now it's saying 3 hours and it's at 9% after 30 minutes...
For anyone tracking, me too at the time / date of this posting. Very slow movie download, says 1 hour before viewing. I don't remember this happening before. Running v2.2
Tonight Apple TV said it had a software update,s o I updated the software. Don't know if it's related, but I also have terrible download speeds tonight. 2 hours for a regular movie, previously this took 5 min at most
I'm seeing something very strange on my apple tv. I have 16mbps cable service, and various bandwidth tests (as well as qualitative experience) verify that I'm getting over 12mbps to our laptops. Prior to this week, HD rentals would be ready to play in almost no time at all. Now, movies report they will take about a day to be ready to play.
However, when I power down the projector, the Apple TV begins to download at full speed. Powering up a minute later, I see that the movie is ready to play and a large chunk has been downloaded - but then the download slows to a crawl again. Power down again, and the download returns to full speed.
I know it sounds strange, but I have repeated this multiple times this evening. And the response is immediate: the instant the projector turns on, the speed slows to a crawl, and the instant it powers down, the speed returns to normal.
Ok, just after I posted the above, I think I've fixed my problem - at least for now. I unplugged the HDMI cable from the Apple TV and plugged it in again. Maybe it wasn't properly plugged in before? (But the picture was fine...) In any event, downloading is now at full speed even with the projector on. Very strange. For those experiencing slow downloads, it might be worth a shot to unplug and replug the connections on your Apple TV.
Same here in Virginia as of Friday 11/21. Apple TV and iTunes downloading are barely above dial-up speed despite a tested 11 MBPS speed on my modem. Everything else working at normal speed (e.g. YouTube on ATV).
It's been working fine for over a year - normally HD podcasts start in about a second after selection, now they are taking up to 40 minutes to download a 4 minute podcast.
Minor update - I checked with my ISP and they don't see any problems with my modem, which matches my performance everywhere but iTunes and ATV. As a test I connected the ATV directly to the cable modem to rule out my router. Same problem.
The speed came back briefly Saturday AM, then dropped off again. The ATV is running 2.2 software and is on a wired connection. Weird.
Hi there - Sorry you're having these problems. Networking issues can be quite frustrating, as there are so many possible causes, not all of which are under your control. Sounds like you've done a lot to narrow the issue down.
I'd suggest, if you haven't already, unplugging and replugging your video connections - ensuring firm connections - even if you're not noticing any problem with your video connection. I did this while my AppleTV was running, and the speed immediately returned to normal (11 or 12mbps), with, so far, no problems since. The reason I tried this was because I noticed that the download speed plummeted as soon as the display to which my AppleTV was connected was turned on - and returned to normal as soon as it was turned off. I have no idea why this is the case but would be curious to know whether this solves anyone else's problems.
