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User profile for user: fgarcim
fgarcim Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Hangs and freezes while streaming movies

After an extensive search, I cannot find anyone having the exact same problems I am having with my apple tv after I upgraded to SL. Here's my setup:

apple TV v2.4 40GB
new 17" Macbook Pro with OS X 10.6.1
iTunes 9.0.1 with library on external FW800 drive
Computer is wired to router and Apple TV is connected wirelessly.

I have 3 Apple TVs that I have used with different computers for a while now. At the moment I only have the aforementioned setup. Everything was great until I upgraded to Snow Leopard. From that moment on it became impossible to watch streamed content. I have about 1.5 TB of video content in my iTunes library (half of it is my daughter's cartoons and whatnot) and only keep Photo albums on the apple tv itself. Everything else is streamed. But since I upgraded to SL my streams keep hanging for a few seconds up to a few minutes or completely freeze. It can happen 10 seconds into the movie or 10 minutes in. Usually in the first couple of minutes though. Sometimes before the movie even starts (I get a black screen and it hangs there). Sometimes I can press menu and get back to the selection screen; sometimes the apple tv is completely unresponsive, as if it is waiting for some stream to come in before it can do anything else. I can also get a frozen image but the sound keeps going; then all of a sudden the video catches up with the sound, be it 20 or more seconds later. In short, it seems my iTunes is broken.

I have no way of confirming this, but it seems like iTunes is having pauses/hangs during the streams so that the apple tv can only stop until it gets fed more data. Which sometimes never happens (I got tired of waiting once or twice and decided to unplug/replug the apple TV). It is nothing like the normal buffering. Movies that played perfectly before SL are now unwatchable.

I have tried a factory restore of the apple TV with a subsequent update to 2.4 again. Unlinking and re-linking to iTunes. Nothing worked so far. I would definitely appreciate any help in solving this issue. My daughters are completely distraught and are driving me crazy with their constant "when will you fix it?" pleas.

Macbook Pro 2.93GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Sep 27, 2009 4:47 AM

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11 replies
User profile for user: capaho
capaho
User level: Level 4
3,673 points

Sep 27, 2009 7:56 AM in response to fgarcim

Streaming problems since SL, which included an updated version of iTunes followed by two subsequent bug-fix updates, is becoming a common complaint here. I am inclined to believe there is a bug in iTunes that is responsible for this problem. Another member reported solving the streaming problem by doing a factory restore of their ATV, but I think just re-pairing it with iTunes as if it were a new ATV might also work.
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User profile for user: Alley_Cat
Alley_Cat
User level: Level 7
20,548 points

Sep 27, 2009 8:16 AM in response to capaho

I have a feeling it may be iTunes.

I've got 2 internal boot drives, 1 running Leopard until I'm happy with Snow Leopard and compatibility of a few apps, the other running Snow Leopard, a fresh install I'm gradually migrating things to.

Now yesterday I was having dropouts when using AppleTV2 as an Airtunes speaker for some music - never experienced this before, it's always been stable, unlike my older Airport Express which used to become incredibly choppy.

So I blamed Snow Leopard, then realised I was booted into Leopard not Snow Leopard. I only updated to iTunes 9 a couple of days ago, so to me it suggests iTunes 9 rather than Snow Leopard.

One of of the other Mac sites there were big moans about iTunes 9, but the interface is so much faster on the whole I like it. I don't like the white background on some screens but there we go. The small icons and lack of adjustable cover size in grid view are a bit of an annoyance on a 1920x1200 monitor though.
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User profile for user: Chenks
Chenks
User level: Level 5
7,435 points

Sep 27, 2009 8:22 AM in response to Alley_Cat

i stream everything from itunes9 and leopard (primary server), and itunes9 SL (occasional stream), and have had not streaming issues at all.

in fact i am currently watching Tropic Thunder streamed over N wifi from the leopard server and have had no drops at all.

i didn't have to remove appletv from itunes and re-add when i installed itunes9.
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User profile for user: capaho
capaho
User level: Level 4
3,673 points

Sep 27, 2009 8:23 AM in response to Alley_Cat

I have a feeling it may be iTunes.


I agree. It seems there has been a sudden increase in complaints about streaming, as well as complaints about non-synced content not showing up as available in the ATV menu, all since the release of iTunes 9.

I only updated to iTunes 9 a couple of days ago, so to me it suggests iTunes 9 rather than Snow Leopard.


Windows users have also been complaining, which would mean that the problem is not OS specific. A further implication of iTunes.
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User profile for user: Alley_Cat
Alley_Cat
User level: Level 7
20,548 points

Sep 27, 2009 8:31 AM in response to Chenks

There's no denying some people have no issues at all.

I personally think the majority of problems people experience are network related especially when using wi-fi.

As we know no two wi-fi network setups are ever identical in terms of exact physical locations, wall thicknesses, devices and potential conflicting devices/networks.

There must be a spectrum of reliability, and perhaps your is towards the better/stable end of the spectrum - mine is pretty good most of the time but occasionally falls over.

It would not be inconceivable for a change in itunes/OS behaviour to show up deficiencies in a poorer network whilst the good one is unaffected.
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User profile for user: Alley_Cat
Alley_Cat
User level: Level 7
20,548 points

Sep 27, 2009 8:34 AM in response to capaho

capaho wrote:
I have a feeling it may be iTunes.


I agree. It seems there has been a sudden increase in complaints about streaming, as well as complaints about non-synced content not showing up as available in the ATV menu, all since the release of iTunes 9.


The library was updated on installation of iTunes 9.0 as I recall, another area of possible fault would be itunes library corruption that doesn't migrate properly to the new library format.
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User profile for user: Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
User level: Level 10
122,487 points

Sep 27, 2009 9:26 AM in response to Alley_Cat

Alley_Cat wrote:
There's no denying some people have no issues at all.

I personally think the majority of problems people experience are network related especially when using wi-fi.


Me too!

However there is a pattern to those that do and those that don't in some cases. It's not unusual to see posters with tv problems posting in a number of posts in other sections such as itunes, ipod, safari, imovie etc etc.

I know the mac is supposed to be easy to use but it's still a computer and should still be maintained, the number of people who just install the latest update of anything without even doing so much as repairing permissions beggers belief.
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User profile for user: fgarcim
fgarcim Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Sep 27, 2009 4:52 PM in response to Winston Churchill

*Update*

Ok, the problem seems to be fixed. Unfortunately three things happened at once so I cannot be certain which one actually fixed the issue. This is what I did:

- changed wireless channel
- sync'd the tv with NEW content
- threatened the tv with being my daughters' new soccer ball

After I updated to SL and iTunes 9, the first thing I did was to repair permissions as well as to rebuild directories (using DiskWarrior) on all my drives. It never occurred to me to actually add sync'd content to my tv since my pictures were already on it. When I did the factory restore to try and fix my streaming issues, whatever content I had on it was of course erased. I chose not to sync anything while I troubleshot it since I didn't want to wait a few hours while data transfered. Only last night did I finally sync my iPhoto albums again. Today the first thing I did was to check this thread and I immediately changed my wireless channel. The sync was over too so I went up to the tv and threatened it for a while before trying to watch a video. To my surprise, everything seems to be working flawlessly!

I would like to thank everyone that posted and I hope this helps anyone having the same issues I did. =)
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Hangs and freezes while streaming movies

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