Minor Video Stutter

rented Nightmare on Elm Street last night (new version), and every so often a little stutter would happen. Did not affect the audio, only the video. VERY ANNOYING. Not sure if i will rent anything else from itunes now (well until a fix, assuming they are working on a fix!)

I rented How To Train Your Dragon this past weekend. There was noticeable stutter all over the place.

Well I was investigating further, and I have managed to correct the stutter/judder on my appleTV. My TV is a Samsung (PS42Q97HD to be precise)), and I have turned off the movie plus. The Movie plus apparently inserts extra frames to make watching fast moving (a panning) smoother.

Not sure how this effects the playback, but it has worked for me. Anyone with a Samsung could try this and see if it works.

I thought the same & disabled it as this was the same issue I had on my Xbox. I thought it made a difference at 1st, but after pausing my AppleTV, it started again. Still very annoying & I just can't pin point it

Well I've just backedup one of my DVD's using Handbrake & the standard AppleTV settings & have no issues with slow frames, so it seems to be iTunes content, which is just daft!!

Take that back, it's stuttering & lagging all over the place

Watched Kick-*** in HD last night, looked lovely but juddered throughout the movie, I found it very noticeable. Superman: Doomsday in SD played back as smooth as butter. They need to sort this out, quick!

So far it pains me to say that my Xbox is far better for streaming then this. I'm trying a restore to see if that helps, if not, then I have no idea as I've tried everything I could possibley imagine. Sometimes I can watch a film with no issue, as it will sort itself out, but other times every 5 mins the picture slows until another scene kicks in. Happens every so often, nightmare!

Just purchased Toy Story 3 HD from the iTunes store. I didn't notice any stutter until it cached completely. The stutter then became very noticeable, happening at least every minute or so. Played a just encoded DVD right after and noticed much stutter after after it was completely cached. I'm on a wired Gigabit network viewing on a Panasonic TV but I dont think either of those are factors in this issue.

Just wanted to post the latest response from Apple Support on this issue. They have been pretty good on the whole, although as yet no firm commitment regarding the cause of the issue, which in the circumstances is fair enough I think:

"I have been advised by engineering if possible to have your ATV tested with a good known network (for example an Apple Retail Store).

I fully understand that the stuttering remains even with a movie fully buffered on ATV. However I believe the reason why we want this tested with a good known network would be potential package loss on the way to your router/modem and beyond.

Drawing a conclusion based on the information and troubleshooting we have done so far I believe there is either a fault with the Apple TV, some incompatibilites with the devices being used (HDMI cables, TVs) or a network issue."

Following this, I asked Apple Support to clarify: Were they suggesting data loss within the downloaded files is a possible cause of the dropouts, i.e. that the files were somehow not intact? I said I thought this was unlikely, since the jumps in action do not appear at precisely repeatable points. For example, if you notice dropouts and then rewind the movie to replay, these will not appear in the same place twice, suggesting that all the data in the file is intact in the buffer, but not being played back correctly. I also suggested a side-by-side comparison with a 1st generation Apple TV using the same content. To which Apple Support responded:

"Packages dropping is a possibility, however if you can make out a frame that was previously missing when repeating the same part of the film that would probably indicate the file is intact.

It would be a good idea to test an ATV1 to compare the playback with ATV2. Doing this we can at least isolate this as a network issue or not. However in the end the best test would be the ATV2 at a retail store if possible (they will likely have several HD TVs and HDMI cables to test with)."

My issue is more of a slow down in picture then frames missing. I can understand what Apple is saying, but when other media devices stream fine on my network, it kind of put the AppleTV at fault. I haven't directly rented a movie yet as of fear of wasting my money on something that could be unwatchable. The issue i'm having is streaming content from my iMac which is directly connected to my router by an Ethernet cable.

As i mentioned before, my Xbox streams fine, so why can't this?

Thats disappointing if that is as far as Apple have got in regard to getting to the bottom of the issue. The fact that there are lots of us, around the world on different networks and configs all point to the atv2 being the problem. I have tested with a movie that plays fine streaming to my sony blu-ray player, to my iphone4 via component cables and the only time I get frame dropping is with the atv2.

If a movie is fully buffered and exhibiting the problem its the atv2 it cant be a network issue unless some process in the background is communicating with iTunes and causing a momentary blip. However the fault is random and not at set intervals.

Agreed

I do not have any confidence in Apple troubleshooting this issue. When I returned mine due to their lack of at least acknowledging this issue, I had been able to duplicate this problem on a total of 10 different New ATV units at 10 different homes. Sure there were a couple with similar network equipment, a couple with the same TV but overall a mix of equipment that differed enough to definitely point the finger at the ATV unit itself.

I have no doubt I could go buy a New ATV right now and duplicate this issue. As a consumer I jumped through way more hoops in testing this thanI should have. If they are not seeing it.. its because they are choosing not to.

In my opinion, going to apple and doing things at their request is not the solution. All it would really take is an orchestrated submission of complaints to a popular site that is not affiliated with apple. Once that site does an a public article and there is even the slightest chance of sales being affected.. Apple will get in gear and address the issue.

Message was edited by: rz22g

@rz22g

I couldn't agree more. However, the support agent who has been dealing with this issue is limited by the feedback he gets from the engineers, so I'm just being careful not to implicate him as he's been as helpful as he can be in the circumstances.

I have no intention of going in to an Apple Store to test this issue for them - apart from the inconvenience, it wouldn't help to get the problem fixed in any case. I would encourage everyone to submit a proper bug report, as the more users log this with the engineers the more likely it is that a fix will eventually appear. This is different to logging feedback:

https://bugreport.apple.com