Apple TV video freezes but audio continues

I’ve got an update on this issue. I think it’s a power load issue affecting my modem which is impacting my Apple TV differently than my other devices.

I’ve tried Ethernet (direct to router) as well as powerline (which had a good signal) and the problem continues. Now it mostly freezes altogether, not just the video.

However, while trying out the powerline adapter, I noticed that the failure coincided with my house’s AC unit cutting on. I assumed it was affecting the powerline specific functions, so I switched back to WiFi. Last night, it was working fine over WiFi (watching MLB.tv), then the air cut on and my connection froze. I switched back to powerline and it started streaming again. Later AC is off, it cuts back on, and the feed drops again. I then switched back to WiFi and logged into my router from my laptop and pulled up the performance chart. I made the air cut on. This time, the connection didn’t drop altogether, but the game feed got blurry, skipped, then jumped back a few seconds and started going again. The bandwidth charts for both WAN and LAN flatlined for just a couple seconds on my router screen.

So I think the load required to start the AC is making the modem basically hiccup briefly. And while the rest of my devices just lag and reconnect without me noticing, something about the Apple TV makes it think it’s completely lost connection if the hiccup is long enough. It then takes some action from me or just waiting for a little bit to make it try to reconnect.

I’m going to move my modem to another room (on another breaker) and see if that doesn’t help. I also may try a battery backup. I had a device (plasma TV, IIRC) several years ago that would cut out during power fluctuations and the battery backup fixed that problem.

For those who know more than me about this stuff, does this sound plausible? Should the battery backup help?

Yesterday at 2:31PM you wrote...

"I had this problem until I turned Quick Start OFF in Settings > Apps > iTunes Movies and TV Shows. The problem occurred every 15-19 minutes."

You may have edited since then; not really following the topic. Turning Quick Start On, which is the default, also doesn't work.

Ensure your HDMI is a high quality cable and is connected properly. If that still does not work, then you may have too weak a Wi-Fi signal to stream video which would require beefing up your network.

I had this problem until I turned Quick Start ON in Settings > Apps > iTunes Movies and TV Shows. The problem occurred every 15-19 minutes when Quick Start was OFF.

I had this problem until I turned Quick Start ON in Settings > Apps > iTunes Movies and TV Shows. The problem occurred every 15-19 minutes when Quick Start was OFF.

I know how you feel, my AppleTV 4K hasn’t been working since update 12.3 have rang AppleCare multiple times to work through the problem and they have taken it up with the engineering team and they are hopeful it will be fixed in the next update (12.5). The only solution to stop it freezing and audio continues playing is to used the iTunes apps not the TV app as it stops at every 18 minute mark.

Scorpius23: Its a known issue and there is still an open ticket for it. Apple engineering has been working this ticket for about a month, just with me. Others may have tickets open as well. I have also provided three large log files to them for diagnostics. You are correct. It’s only in the AppleTV app. All we can do is hang tight, use the iTunes Movie app until they figure it out.

Exact same experience, except not always 18 minutes between freezes.

Apple TV 4K. tvOS 12.4.1. Did not experience this prior to 12.4.1. Have two different apple TV’s. Same issue on both. They were not at all bought at the same time.

Thanks to to this thread, I have found the workaround of starting movie through iTunes movie instead of tv app.

But, slightly frustrating having spent hours on call with apple support who found nothing in their knowledge base. I will continue the support ticket. To me, it seems to be something wrong in the network handling or in the buffering. I have cabled network, almost 1 Gb/s available and more than 50 GB free memory available in the Apple TV. More than enough to buffer several of the HD movies which have had issues.

I believe this probably affects many, but that most people never report these kind of bugs. Given that I have had to spend hours on the phone over several days, I do understand them. Must say though, that apple support is very professional though. They spend time on me and follow up. If all support had been this good...

Unfortunately if that were the case, then there would be many complaints, there are not. I also have a Apple TV 4K and am experiencing no problems. You can try doing a reset or a restart and see if that helps. If not, try another HDMI cable and see if that might be it. Finally if all the above doesn't work, please give AppleCare a call and see if they have some additional troubleshooting steps to take.

Another thought, is the HDMI going directly to the TV or are you connecting the Apple TV's HDMI cable to a receiver?

One thing I've noticed, is that if I start the video in the iTunes app I don't have the same issue. It only occurs if I start the video from the TV app. And again, this issue where the video freezes, but the audio continues on (which happens every 18 minutes), only started after the TV app update recently.

So I’ve had the same issues, and tried a variety of work around:

• swapped HDMI cables
• Switch from WiFi to Ethernet
• played via iTunes Movies / iTunes TV Shows instead of the TV App

The freezing video continued regardless (except Netflix), so I gave up and did a complete reset.

Its been a couple of days and no freezes so far *knock on wood*.

I've done the following....

• swapped ethernet cable
• changed DNS
• upgraded HDMI cable(felt really stupid doing this one but hey...)
• tried wifi over ethernet
• Finally, and I really didn't want to do this, I reset the whole Apple TV and had to spend an hour of my life getting the apps all signed in and the settings just right....
• I even took the Apple TV to a friends house in a different county(different ISP) and tried it. No joy.

None of that worked. The movies in questions still pause video at exactly 18 mins. At first I thought it was just Disney movies then I realized, after closely inspections, its OLDER movies in general. The only way I can watch these movies without the video stopping is to either watch it on my iOS device\Mac or to launch them through the Movies app directly instead of the TV app.

Remember when we bought Apple products because they didn't require hand-holding? Yea me too..

There seems to be 2 different problems here. To summarize, since 12.4 came out:

1. Purchased video that predictably freezes (but audio keeps playing) every 15-18 minutes on Apple TV HD. Turning QuickStart ON fixes this.
2. Purchased video that freezes (but audio keeps playing) unpredictably on Apple TV 4K. Some people say a reset fixes it for them, other have no relief. 4K owners keep trying and working with Apple Support and/or try a reset.