Video Buffer Issues...

In essence, putting the 'Alien' movie aside, when I watch Crave(tv) there is never any buffering that takes place when picking something to watch, the bar is always full. When I seek a part of the content it then buffers to load it.

I found this to also be the case with Sundance Now. I got YouTube just to see how that would play out and it worked fine, I could see the video I went to buffering. I think it may be when a service doesn't have its own buffering technology or custom interface/media player and it uses what I ascertain to be Apple's own interface that things get messy?

I'm not trying to blame it all on Apple, I really am not, but lets face it, this IS Apple's media player/streamer and therefore the core of the programming is coming from Apple; like you or someone else said, it is the developers job to implement their own features and this is just my guess... if they don't than the system defaults to Apple's features.

All intriguing things to try.

One app specifically that I've been watching where the progress bar doesn't buffer properly is Crave(tv) which if you read iTunes reviews is laden with frustrated/unhappy campers. Makes you wonder what Bell's developers are doing... sitting around laughing?

The movie comes with the original version and the Director's Cut/Special Edition re-released around 1990 (I think).

If I play the movie, the standard movie, by pressing "Play" at the title screen where all the movie details are, such as; its year, whether it is HD or 4K, etc... the movie plays with a proper buffer, but if I go into the iTunes Extras and play the Director's Cut (you can only find the 'DC' in the Extras) it'll then take you to a page where you can select the introduction to the movie, the movie itself (but it's the 'DC') and then the commentary for the 'DC'... You click on the 'DC' and it'll play, but with a full progress/buffer bar rather than the standard version that gives a proper buffer.

I'm not sure how much better I can explain it other than with pictures.

I figured that since Apple is showcasing the movie that it is all within their format. They use .m4v which is their own proprietary format. Maybe this format is the issue but that'd be ironic seeing as its their own.

In my experience, Apple makes simple things complicated.

I got the Apple TV as a last resort to enjoy content I had purchased awhile ago. My content plays but the inaccurate buffering problem is certainly another quark that'll make me think thrice about buying an Apple product, again.

For such a 'prestigious' company, they sure seem to have a lot of problems. And I realize movies are licensed by their owners but that still leaves Apple responsible for it by hosting them - just like Google or Samsung would be.

This sounds an awful like the stigma I hear all the time about Apple.

"Apple products work fine / they are the best of the best, if you [the customer] are having a problem... it must be all in your head."

How do you contact a developer?

I pay for 40Mb (down) and 10 (up). I have a modem connected to a TP Link router.

The modem is a modem only, not a hybrid modem/router.

YouTube buffers fine, iTunes does as well, it is only other apps.

According to a Google search, which gave me an answer from Apple, 1080p needs about 12Mbps to work fine, so I should be more than clear.

I'm not saying you are wrong, I'm just not sure if this is the case.

I'd like to augment upon my buffering problem...

I recently bought the Alien Quadrilogy on iTunes and last night I watched the first Alien movie but the Director's Cut. And apparently the progress bar was full again when usually it loads itself up. The movie played fine so I didn't pay any more attention to the matter.

This morning I put on Aliens (the sequel), also the Director's Cut/Special Edition and it too had a full buffer bar. However since it is morning and I'm more awake and in the mood to experiment I thought I'd test Apple TV; I exited the movie and went to the standard version of the movie, when it popped on screen it properly buffered the beginning of the movie versus going to the Director's Cut and it did not properly indicate buffering (I also restarted the Apple TV to see what that would do... nothing).

And since I'm on this peculiar anomaly I suppose I may as well mention that all of the iTunes trailers and Extras never show a buffer, which up until now, I kind of just figured that the trailers were small enough in size to buffer in seconds or maybe even pre-load before I got a chance to click them - as for the 'Extras' this is where I've noticed the buffer problem. Playing a movie from the "Play" button next to the "Preview" button works just fine, but playing it through iTunes Extras seems to cause everything to improperly buffer (movies and TV still seem to play, but nevertheless, how am I to know how much of the movie has loaded?).