Why is my movie download speed suddenly so slow?

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Level 1

15 points

Why is my movie download speed suddenly so slow?

Greetings.
Our ATV has been working perfectly fine for months.
We were out of the country for 10 days, so, instead of standby, I made sure all electronics were turned off. We're back, and everything started up just fine, including ATV, dsl modem and wireless router.
So far, we've been downloading a movie for over 30 minutes, and it is STILL not read to play. ATV keeps saying 'ready to play in 2 hours'.
The modem and router lights are blinking away, but, it's moving agonizingly slow.
Has anyone out there suffering from this?
What can I check or troubleshoot?
I ran the ATV 'network test', and it tested my download speed, and uploaded to Apple (so it says).
Then, nothing.
Any advice would be appreciated.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on May 20, 2009 7:24 PM

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Answer 1

pheare

Level 1

34 points

May 20, 2009 7:30 PM in response to rhsATL

this happened to me as well for a period a few months ago. I never did figure out what was causing it, but I know it wasn't my internet connection. I'm pretty sure it was something on apple's end.

Assuming your internet connection is fine (do a bandwidth test to find out), there is likely nothing you can do. Give it a day or 2 and see if the problem still persists.

If you do a search on this, you will find many others who have had the same issue. I think some traced it back to their internet provider throttling the bandwidth for atv downloads.

Message was edited by: pheare

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Answer 2

rhsATL Author

Level 1

15 points

May 20, 2009 7:55 PM in response to pheare

Throttling my bandwidth???
I pay good money for that and I'll be burning hot mad if that's what they're doing.
It's too late to watch the stinking movie tonight since it is STILL saying '2 hours...'.
We'll have to wait until tomorrow night for it to finish downloading.
Another strange thing I've seen tonight is regarding watching trailers.
I started watching one, and it took quite a while to start playing, when, usually, it starts playing almost instantly. Also, it sort of restarted the download a few times, then finally finished.
Has Apple made any official statements about this problem?
Thanks as always.

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Answer 3

pheare

Level 1

34 points

May 20, 2009 8:39 PM in response to rhsATL

Yep, those are the symptoms - movie trialers take forever to play as well; not unexpected really when you consider how long the movie is taking.

It could be apple's problem, it could be some issue somewhere else out in internet land, who knows. All I know, is I don't seem to have the problem anymore. I'm sure it will clear up for you as well.

Make sure your movie is still downloading if you tried watching a trailer after starting the download. If I recall, starting a trailer while downloading pauses the download - though I could be mistaken here.

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Answer 4

rhsATL Author

Level 1

15 points

May 21, 2009 6:39 AM in response to pheare

Thank you for your responses.
The movie finally finished downloading some time last night.
I played around with the trailers this morning.
Only HD trailers are incredibly slow. And, they seem to suddenly stop, and restart during playback.
The LD trailers are fine.
You said it cleared up after a while.
How long did it take?

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Answer 5

pheare

Level 1

34 points

May 21, 2009 7:12 AM in response to rhsATL

I don't remember exactly - I wasn't really testing that much.

For awhile I just started planning my movie rentals better. i.e. rent the day before I wanted to watch.

The one day a few weeks later I decided to pay attention to how long it was taking and I was good to watch a HD rental about 20 seconds after the download started.

I'd give it a couple of days and try again.

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Answer 6

amop

Level 1

7 points

May 22, 2009 9:46 PM in response to pheare

I've been having the same trouble as well for a few months. HD trailers used to start almost instantly, now they take quite a while to start. HD movies take forever. It was like this until around the end of last year. Very frustrating. Have rebooted the ATV, updated software, etc. No relief.

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