Apple TV taking a long time to download an iTunes Store movie rental

vpn ip

I would be interested to know how many users of ATV that are experiencing slow downloads have their router DNS pointing to a DNS server other than their default ISP DNS server.

My ATV was almost unusable (slow) using OpenDNS but when I changed to the default ISP Dns sever it became super quick. Videos available to watch within seconds of purchase. This is an issue that Apple have previously highlighted.

Of course it is unsatisfactory that I can choose which DNS server to use.

aahz123 wrote:

Sorry vazandrew but I have to agree with dacanete and jon8979.

Uh, I don't think you got the sarcasm in which I thoroughly drenched my message. 😎

Admiraltk wrote:

I would be interested to know how many users of ATV that are experiencing slow downloads have their router DNS pointing to a DNS server other than their default ISP DNS server.

My ATV was almost unusable (slow) using OpenDNS but when I changed to the default ISP Dns sever it became super quick. Videos available to watch within seconds of purchase. This is an issue that Apple have previously highlighted.

Of course it is unsatisfactory that I can choose which DNS server to use.

Due to the poor performance of my ISP's DNS, I set my router's DNS to Google months ago, and while I have not ever rented or purchased anything with my ATV, I did watch some previews when I briefly connected my ATV to a TV to check some settings last week, and they started right away.

No one here works for Apple or iTunes, sorry

I bought my apple TV (gen 3) two weeks ago and we settled down to our first HD rental (TinTin) today after a nice Easter dinner and with Easter eggs ready for munching.

Needless to say we experienced the same problems reported previously:

Dowload 8hrs, then 11hrs so we ended up watching something less exciting on netflix.

I have a virgin media account with 20mb connection with a wired (powerline) ethernet connection to my new netgear router so expected this to be no problem.

After looking at the above thread I tried chainging my DNS setting on my apple TV with no success (then reset back to automatic). Turned off automatic feedback to apple. No success. The a restart which seems to have worked - I've left the movie paused so we can try to watch it later.

One of the earlier threads mentioned a reset/restart had a 50% chance of success. I suspect this is the case and would therefore expect the problem to be an apple TV problem rather than an ISP problem.

One further point, I did have a look to see if I could download the movie on my PC (once already started on the apple TV) and this does not seem to be possible which is a shame. The itunes version of the movie also was £3.49 verses £4.50 on the apple TV. If the problem persists I may end up using this route and playing from the computer in the future. That aside this failure is a real shame as I am thrilled with the use of the apple TV to access my music collection using imatch (meaning I can leave my PC off!) which was the primary reason for purchase.

I've jut recently got my Internet back on, and updated my apple tv and immediately had this problem..

One thing I want to point out is the difference between rentals and purchase's

Most situations when renting in SD the downloads do begin within minutes

When purchasing and movie in HD it goes from a 3 hour estimated time to 12 to 24 up to 124 hours

I've tried a coupe things, cause its

Obviously not my Internet connection

With a estimated 124 hours before playback I restarted my apple tv (not reset). And ten noticed my time zone setting were set to update automatically, with this enabled I started in Dallas, it automatically updates to Houston Texas, then Chicago and finally cupurito (somewhere in south America) so I turned update automatically off and set to Dallas.

Not thinking this would affect the time at all, I said out loud to my wife "where can I contact apple I want my money back" and immediately it went from 124 hours to ready to watch.

So I'm not promising anything i haven't check further into the problem cause I'm about to enjoy this movie right now.

*** So either try threatening your apple tv or make sure you time zone is indeed correct and auto update is off.

Please let me know if this helps

Anyone else????

Unfortunately I am having the same problem in Spain with a US itunes account. I tried yesterday to see a movie with my kids at 18:00 and today at 15:00 there were still 8 horas remaining.

I followed the advice from "I have an Iphone too" and I restarted the apple TV and set the time zone to Dallas but the only thing I got was to go back again to 35 hours download remaining and start all over again.

This performance is really pathetic and I was surprised there were so many comments about it since 2008 and Apple keeps on selleing this product. Hope somebody else can give us some light on this issue

What is your speed (speedtest.net)

Check istumbler.net (net stumbler for windows) for interference

Make sure you're using your ISPs DNS

Accessing other content or turning off the device will flush the rental, requiring it to reload

Utter crap for me too for any downloads from the store - all I can get is a max of about 500-700kB/s on a 100MB connection. Appauling service!

Sorry, it looks like it might be my PC - please ignore my post.

Guys, this thread saved me from throwing ATV away. After a recent upgrade movie downloads have been a matter of renting and then waiting until tomorrow to watch. Now I am back to only 10 to 15 seconds to start watching. These are the changes I made...

Stopped using Google Open dns. Didnt appear to make an immediate difference even though I rest IP address.

Reset ATV back to default settings, then Re entered my iTunes account... Left time zone as Cupertino.

It's now back to how it was when I first got it.... Awesome!

Try changing your Photo Stream Settings. I turned off Shared Photo Streams on ATV and that seemed to do the trick. Hope this helps.

Hi, posted on a new strand tonight... but same issue and terrible support...

I seem to be experiencing an issue with download speeds on iTunes right now. This affects all my machines (AppleTV, Mac Mini, Retina with SSD etc).

My network is very fast, and I have no other issues with other providers, including downloads to the apple TV.

I called AppleSupport tonight and Brad stepped me through all the tech support responses to the mac mini and network.

The conclusion was that it was at 'their end'

I said this wasn't very satisfactory, and given my expectation is to be able to download and stream a movie on a Saturday night could I escalate the call.

Brad was very good and very helpful, he escalated the call and after 5 minutes I spoke to Joe.

Joe recapped the information and we discussed for about 5 minutes. When I asked Joe directly if I should simply change my expecation to knowing I have to download a day in advance for an Apple movie he HUNG UP ON ME. (Brad had taken my phone number, so I assume if we had been cut off by mistake he would have called me back)... I AM SHOCKED by this behaviour Apple. I was asking a simple honest question, I was not giving the guy a hard time, simply asking if I need to reset my expectation because Apple servers and network do not have the capacity to deal with the current loading at the weekend.

When a movie takes 5 hours to download and I have a 86M connection there is obviously something wrong. Apple please stop dodging the issue, if there is a problem here just be honest with your customers and we can at least set our expectations realistically.

Do other people have download issues like this? Has anyone else been treated this badly by Apple Support?

I am having the same problem but this is my first download are there any tips to speed it up?