Anyone else having slow HD downloads?

My speeds began dropping well before the holidays and still aren't good.

Issue solved (for me-- YMMV).

After reading through this and several other threads/forums, I tried most everything I saw.

Here's what DIDN'T work for me:

Unplug for several minutes.
Reset AppleTV settings (basic)
Reset Apple TV back to factory (then, after that, upgraded to current firmware)
Checking for throttling using Glasnost, as well as DLs with Netflix and PS3 (not solutions, but ways to test) All 3 showed no connectivity/download issues-- lightning fast.

Time to look at my Airport Express:

I had been on 7.3.2 for a long while as it seemed perfect for me, so I upgraded to the most recent firmware for my Airport Extreme. No good.

Then, instead of reverting to 7.3.2, I took it all the way BACK to 7.3.1— SUCCESS!

HD trailers load right away. I rented an HD movie and it was ready to watch in approximately a minute or so. Watched the movie while it continued to load- nary a glitch.

So for me, it was 100% AE firmware related, with 7.3.1 the one that gets things zipping along again.

So how do I roll my Airport Extreme firmware back to 7.3.1? Is that version still available from Apple downloads?

Message was edited by: akpfeiff

This page walked me through it:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1218

Was experiencing similar issue with slow downloads in iTunes of HD content.

Was using Googles DNS servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. Reverted to my ISPs DNS servers (Comcast) and speedy downloads returned.

Hopefully this information will help some of you.

Charles Williams2 wrote:
This page walked me through it:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1218

Thanks for the tip--I tried using their instructions, and it almost worked BUT, when I get to the last step and try to upload the firmware to my base station, 7.3.1 is not a choice. I choose "other" and then I am supposed to navigate to the update on my machine somewhere, but I cannot, for the life of me, find 7.3.1 anywhere. I apparently downloaded it with an earlier step i the process, but WHERE DID IT GO?? No amount of Spotlight searching has turned it up....Anyone???

Interesting thread. I found this while trying to debug a slow download via iTunes (Burn Notice, HD) on my son's Dual G4 Mac Pro hardwired to an Airport Extreme router, connected to Comcast in metro Denver on a Friday evening between 9:15 and 9:45 p.m. Yes, this is iTunes (not AppleTV) but the symptoms present identical to this thread. Poor performance starting over the last 45 days.

Using: $ sudo tcpdump -i en0 -s 0 -n

+see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3994 for details on tcpdump+

to find the server, and Activity Monitor to see the average bandwidth, I was able to determine that performance varied widely based on which server iTunes connected to. On three separate connections, achieve by pausing for about 1-2 minutes and then resuming, the average sustained bandwidth varied widely.

Approximate sustained bandwidth (for at least 2 minutes) from three different servers:

636 KB/sec a96-17-108-88.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com.http (Akamai)
340 KB/sec 204.2.160.250 (ntt.net. just upstream of: as-3.r21.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net)
1.6 MB/sec 204.2.208.80 . (different ntt.net server)

Yes, that last number was a sustained 15 megabits per second in prime time, over at least 5 minutes on Comcast, in a relatively dense urban neighborhood, on a Friday evening.

This certainly supports some of the anecdotal evidence where restarting resulted in different performance. There is probably some round-robin load balancer inserted in the initial DNS request.

Really had to get on with the show (and the glass of beer) so I didn't have time to isolate whether it was route or server based, but does not appear to traffic shaping, but could still be throttling on various routes, but on the surface, does appear to be more hosting server dependent.

Cheers,
- Phil

Message was edited by: Phil.H

Yes. I just got my Apple TV and was starting to think it was totally crap but glad to see this could just be a temporary problem.

I have also discovered a similar problem with painfully slow downloads from my AppleTV, and it seems to me the problem started when the software in the AppleTV itself was "upgraded" late last year.

I am on Comcast for broadband, don't have any problems with that elsewhere.

I have a Time Capsule for my WiFi Hub, and there's an Airport Express elsewhere in the house; both are on firmware v7.4.2. I've seen suggestions in this thread to go back to 7.3.x, that seems a bit draconian... but, I confess, I have no idea what else to try.

Before the holidays, I could start viewing an HD movie in about 2 mins.

Now it takes 30-60 minutes. Yesterday we tried to watch "Amelia" in HD and the startup took over an HOUR. Not exactly video on demand.

I'll spend some time with this thread, but in the meantime if anybody an point me to an obvious solution... thanks.

--PS

Add another customer that is experiencing terrible download time. Speed tests from speedtest.net give me a consistent 20 - 25Mb download. Previews start instantly. But, after I select rent, it takes up to 30 minutes before I can start watching. I've had ATV for about 1.5 years and never had this problem until about Nov. of last year.

I can watch Blockbuster OnDemand HD movies directly on my HDTV, which is true streaming HD video without a problem. But, I can barely use ATV these days.

I went through the various diagnostics within ATV "Settings" -- it said something about "this will help Apple TV improve your download times" or some such -- but it doesn't appear to have made any difference. I purchased one episode of a TV show (Damages) and 10 minutes later it had only delivered 1% of the file.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one having this problem, or that others started having the problem about the same time I did. But now I'm getting the sense that this is a systemic issue and Apple isn't doing a flipping thing about it.

Well, I found one solution to my slow Apple TV download problem.

I ordered a movie via Amazon Unbox on my TiVo instead. Same price, no delivery issues, filled the screen (no letter boxing), and I like the TiVo remote better anyway. AppleTV might have just lost a customer.

driver49 wrote:
I've seen suggestions in this thread to go back to 7.3.x, that seems a bit draconian... but, I confess, I have no idea what else to try.

I went through a big hassle trying to go back to 7.3.1, only to finally get the message that my hardware is not compatible with 7.3.1 ..ARRGHH! My download times are terrible--around 6 hours for an HD movie.

The same thing happened to me. I tried to find the downloaded 7.3.1 and could not. Did anyone resolve this issue? Where is it?

Well, my Airport software "downgrade" solution only worked for a day or so. Now I am right back to hours of download and HD previews basically not even playing. This is far beyond irritating, as the rentals were the #1 reason I bought the device.

I've run Internet Speed test quite often and never dip much, if any, below 6mbps. All other downloads, either to a Mac or Netflix via PS3, remain as fast as ever.

This is SOLELY Apple's issue.