Problem streaming HD Movies to Apple TV through home network

still an issue for me. cannot play movies from my imac through homeshare. waiting 30+ minutes and it will play for 30 seconds then buffer again. this is for movies that worked on apple TV pre itunes 11 and apple tv 5.1.1. network speed is not an issue. using apple extreme. all other servies work normal, just cannot homeshare movies that worked normal before. can play same movies via airplay from ipad. have turned off Dolby, but no luck.

I have a Apple TV 2, and ever since I upgraded to 5.2.1 I can no longer reliably stream local movies via Homeshare. If I restore my Apple TV, it will work properly for a day or so, but after that, I have to wait at least 5-10 minutes to stream any video from my Mac via iTunes and Homeshare. I have tried updating router settings as well as disabling Dolby in the Apple TV settings with no improvement.

I do not have issues with streaming my music, nor is there an issue watching content via Netflix.

What did Apple do in the latest firmware update to cause this? It literally happened the day I updated my firmware.

I connected my Apple TV 2 via Ethernet and all my issues vanished. It appears that the 5.2.1 firmware messed up my Apple TV's ability to speak wirelessly with my Mac. Go figure, now I have to run a wire up into my living room. There goes the idea that the Apple TV can go anywhere in my house.

This is still a problem. Why Netflix can work and apple with my content local is a conundrum. Fix it apple!

I feel your pain.

In the past when I've had this problem, I have found that DNS settings seem to magically alleviate the problem for a while. This makes no sense at all to many people, but in short, it's a CDN or Content Delivery Network issue. What happens is that some DNS servers {cough}Google{Cough} don't give the user back the geographically closest nodes within the content delivery network.

Kinda like if I asked where the closest Walmart is to me in Los Angeles, and all my DNS server knows is that flagship store is in Arizona and on top of that it's directing me and everyone else to the same doors on that store, etc. Hokey example, but you get the idea.

I've seen my download speeds improve DRAMATICALLY from hours to minutes by switching from Google to OpenDNS

I wish they would eliminate this once and for all and allow you to tell the system where you are instead of relying on DNS information. Heck Blizzard figured that out a zillion years ago with World of Warcraft.

So try a different DNS server and see what happens. Try OpenDNS (which used to have the same problem but they apparently fixed it), or your provider's DNS, or other nearby DNS servers and see what happens.

So I just got off the phone with an Apple Technician and he helped me walk through the steps on how to fix the playback issues as reported by many of you. If you have already attempted the "Turn of Dolby Digital" fix to no avail, then this might help. Apparently there was something out of sync between my wireless internet modem and the Apple TV, so we needed to unplug both devices.

First:

1) Unplug your ATV from its power source.

2) Then unplug your wireless router from its power source. Leave the device off for at least 1 minute.

3) Turn your router back on.

4) Once you see that your computer is reconnected back to your wireless internet, THEN replug your ATV to its power source. The device should start up automatically.

Well there you have it, this helped fix the playback issues I was experiencing. Hope this helps all of you as well!

Also a good idea to exit/reopen iTunes as well.

I had issues streaming anything from my iTunes to my ATV3. Tried resetting with no luck. Finally called Apple. They said that despite my streaming from files on the Mac to the ATV, it still went out to the Internet. I tested my web connection and it was 4.96Mps. They said that while Netflix and MLb.TV have an ability to play at a slower speed, Apple does not. 8Mps is the minimum. They suggested direct connecting from Mac to ATV with Ethernet and that did the trick. Don't pretend to know why content loaded on my computer would need to go out to the web and back to the ATV when the computer sits 5 feet away from the router and the ATV is 3 feet beyond that, but apparently it does. There is little to no buffering, and the movies play fine now.

Hope this helps someone else.

Hi

I have ATV3 running latest version. Its connected on wired ethernet not wireless as I dont trust wireless to stream my video even though there should be no prolems.

My video like others is still hit/miss with the higher bitrate/def videos being more of a problem than the lower /standard def ones. Annoyingly i can stream to my XBOX360 no problem, any video but ATV is very selective.....

The ATV connects direclty into hub used by my macbook. I have BT Inifnity so bb speeds are not an issue.

Apart from re-encoding all my HD films to SD any ideas ?

Si

Same problem here. For the last couple weeks streaming my purchased movies from iTunes has been brutal -- 22 hour wait times etc ... I tried the fix stated above to no avail. I've had my Apple TV3 on ethernet and WiFi and it doesn't matter.

I know it sounds crazy but check to see if you're using one of the public DNS services like OpenDNS or Google DNS. If you are, find out what the your Internet carrier's DNS servers for your area are. Try those in your AppleTV instead. This also makes a difference doing iTunes downloads on your Mac or PC.

Anecdotal evidence:

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/12/31/0110226/beware-of-using-google-or-opend ns-for-itunes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVrzIYTYxiY

Tried tonight 11/23/2015 to stream Inside/Out HD from iTunes on a mid 2010 MacPro with 12GB memory using Home Sharing. Movie was purchased from iTunes and downloaded to MacPro. Network is gigabit hardwired ethernet from MacPro to Apple TV 4. Did not work for me tonight. Movie kept pausing. Tried same movie on my AppleTV 3 and it played without any issues. Obviously the Apple TV 4 needs some software problems fixed which are not yet available.

I am having the same issue. I'll start a movie and it will start pausing and acting like it is buffering. I've tried my old Apple TV and the movies play back fine, so it's a problem with the new Apple TV.

Same problem here. I've downloaded HD movies to my iMac and I'm streaming those to my new Apple TV. Within about 7 minutes the movie will start to stutter and skip, then it seems to try to buffer, but it'll skip ahead a little, start playing for a few more mintes, then it'll do the same thing over. I thought it was maybe a corrupt download, but I've downloaded the movies over and over again, the. I got my old Apple TV out and reconnected it, no more issues, they all play back fine, tried the new Apple TV again, and it still has the problem. It's the new Apple TV. It can't play downloaded movies or Tv shows across a network. I hope they resolve this soon, I've got a huge library and stream my shows all the time. This is unacceptable.

WWith the new release, has your issue been resolved or is there still an issue of buffering?