Minor Video Stutter

I am so disappointed with my new Apple TV 2. No matter what I try I get horrible video stutter with video shared from a PC running iTunes. I have even see this on some movies I rented on the Apple TV. I have it connected to a 1 year olf Samsung 58" Plasma TV. I have tried it on a 55" Mitsubishi DLP TV with the same horrible stuttering. I have my Apple TV connected via ethernet cable on a gigabit network. I am seirously considering sending it back and going with either a Boxee Box or Google TV.

Well I was confident something would be done, as Aple were admitting it was a problem with the Apple TV2, but I had a phone call from my contact at Apple support, she asked me to supply her with video of the problem occuring as they were unsure as to what it is.

So I set up my video camera and captured a few seconds of Knight and Day which showed a small example of the problem. Not as clear and obvious as other movies but Apple were not willing to pay the cost to rent anything from their library to be able to video the problem such as on Tangled which has been the worst of all the movies I have rented so far.

I do not think they have a clue and are just playing for time. Too busy working on the next new and greatest project and can't be bothered with the poor fools who were suckered into buying the old crap.

Not feeling to good about Apple at this time. They just want to waste my time and blame my TV which works perfectly with every other device I have.

Fingers crossed again. Wonder if they will phone me this friday and ask me more stupid questions?

Jesus, it's obvious that the atv2 is not able to output 24p movies in 24 Hz (actually 23.976 Hz), but upsamples it to 50/60 Hz. It must be an error in the hardware design that is preventing a software fix. Apple doesn't seem to have the knowledge of basic 101 media player design, no one else with the slightest interest in AV would forget such a basic feature as 24p playback these days. Apple should stick to what they are really good at: making computers. I'm getting rid of my atv2 and buying a Boxee Box.

Sent video samples to Apple on 1st July, and have not heard anything since.

I think they are wasting time now and not really bothered.

Cannot believe they have wasted so much of my time, and theirs, on a box selling for £99.00, that is just stupid and there is no way I will be considerring buying any new products from them until it is sorted one way or another, a Full refund or fix it! I don't mind which but do it now rather than waste any more of my time.

I also bought a boxee box and it plays high bit rate 1080p files in proper 24p. Pretty good.

ATV2 is just Apple's hobby. They don't take it too serious.

Chris

I think you are right Chris, Apple keep blaming my Toshiba TV rather than admitting any fault or liability.

Will post when I get a (final) response from them.

Had a final phone call from Apple today, saying the case is closed as there is no issue they can find with my device, there is no further troubleshooting they can do.

Was told the best they can do is I take my ATV2 into an Apple store and get them to look at it.

So not their problem! Very defensive and aggresive attitude form the person who called me, who said there is no email or hard copy of the report but there is an incident number which is not made available to the public so I cannot see anything in writing regarding this issue.

Feel so frustrated and annoyed at them for having this attitude.

Will definitely not be buying any further Apple products as it seems they are not interested in their customers anymore.

This will probably be my final posting about my Apple TV 2 problems;

After hearing from Apple customer relations department that there was nothing more Apple could do as it was not their problem anymore I took my Apple TV 2 into my local Apple store to seek the advice of a genius.

I would recommend this to everyone, do not bother with customer services or phone support as they do not care, take you product straight to the Genius bar, it is free and they will be able to understand your problem and deal with it for you.

I spoke to Nick and Andy who gave me a replacement (brand new) out of the box Apple TV 2 just to check if it was the box I had or a general problem with all Apple TV 2 boxes.

Tested on their instore Sony all singing all dancing TV and no problem, no stutter and no issues. So it is definitely my 4 year old tv that is the problem.

Tried new box and same issue appears so definitely an inherent fault.

Phoned Toshiba and explained the issues, they accepted responsibility as the TV is over 4 years old there is nothing they can do. According to them the TV does not handle the signal from the Apple TV 2 as it is newer than the TV was designed for.

Good thing about this is that this gave me a new reciept so I should be able to get a refund as it is only a week old now.

So there you have it, I will be visiting the Apple store later in the week to get a full refund and put the money towards a Boxee as the Apple TV 2 does not like older TV's and I will definitely not be upgrading my TV for another 5 or more years yet.

Anyone else having issues still or just given up?

Haven't had time to post here for some time so sorry about that.

Just wanted to let everyone know since the latest update 4.4.2 and 4.4.3 there is now a setting for video frequency under the Audio/Video settings option.

This allows various resolutions up to 720HD in either 50 or 60Hz, so although Apple technical support denied any problems this indicates that there were issues and they were working on it.

For my older TV (3 years old) I now set to 50Hz and all seems well with no more stuttering appearing.

Thanks for the info, although that (probably) doesn't solve the stutter problem on 24p movies. The big issue for me is that aTV2 can't output 24 Hz (23.976) and has to do a 3:2 pulldown to 50/60 Hz. That causes stutter on 24p movies.

Must admit I have not viewed a lot of movies since the upgrade but everything I have watched so far has been flicker/stutter free.

Will watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 streamed from my Mac at the weekend and report back, I believe this is a full HD 24p movie. There was one scene in paricular when all the Death Eaters were around the long table with Voldermort walking behind them which showed a really noticable stutter as the camera panned following him.

Also will try to rip a few DVD's and see how they look.

Was told by an Aple Genius that the next update will be to 1080p so not sure if they are confused with the next generation ATV or if it is even possible to upgrade the ATV2 to 1080p.

We will see. Eventually.

I have the same problem - bought my ATV2 a month ago. The fact it seems to affect both PAL and NTSC alike tends to support the 24 fps/3:2 pulldown theory. Like most of you, I have spent a great deal of time trying to isolate any other possible causes: TV, TV settings, AV receiver, HDMI cable, encoding method and have got nowhere. Can anyone see Apple addressing this issue?

I have now tested Harry Potter and the Deathly hallows from my digital download on itunes to the ATV2 and the same problem occurs, with settings of 50Hz or 60Hz.

The problem still exists and considerring my previous talks with Roisin Kelly, Senior Technical Support at Apple, broke down and she denied any problems with the ATV2 and blamed my TV outright, although not in writing, I doubt they will do anything.

According to her senior Engineers have looked into this matter and confirmed the ATV2 is perfect and not at fault.

Ok, I'll try to explain it so even Senior Technical Support at Apple will understand it 😉 : The ATV2 can't output 24 Hz (actually 23.976) and has to do a pulldown (conversion) to 50 or 60 Hz. Since 50 and 60 is not divisible by 24, the ATV2 has to double some frames. The extra frames is causing stutter.

A simple question to ask Apple would be: "Can the ATV2 output 720p@24hz?" If the answer is "no" (which it is), then it has to do do a pulldown, hence: stutter. There's nothing to deny, that is how it works.

The problem is complicated by a number of facors:

1. The real problem is that Apple do not consider stutter a problem, because "that is how the ATV2 works". They have not specified that the ATV2 is capable of 24 Hz output so there is no spoon, eh, problem. Stutter is a feature you get when you buy an ATV2.

IF there would have been a way to make the ATV2 stutter-free, to ouput 720p@24Hz, Apple would have implemented this in a firmware update a looooong time ago. But I don't think that it's possible on the current hardware platform.

2. Most people wont even notice stutter, the're used to seeing it. All NTSC DVD:s have the same problem: not many are complaining.

3. Some TV:s can actually remove the stutter! I've had a Toshiba LCD that could do a reverse 3:2 pulldown and remove the extra frames, restoring the original 24 movie frames. It was like magic: all my imported NTSC DVDs (I live in Euro-land) was suddenly stutter-free. I now have a Pioneer plasma that unfortunately can't remove stutter.

So, the ATV2 is not a very good mediaplayer when it comes to movies; any cheapo player from WD-TV, Tvix, Netgear, Xstreamer can output 24p@24Hz these days, so if you want stutter-free movies, wait for ATV3 or look elsewhere.

Thanks for spelling it out for me. I am also in Euroland and also have a Panasonic (VT30) plasma ... and the same micro stutter particularly visible on pans. I did however test drive a WD-TV (latest model with 1080p/24hz capability) last week and it was no better - exactly the same stutter. I'm convinced that 24hz is the issue but I'm wondering whether there is an issue with the Plasma technology. I bought the ATV2 on the strength of a demo by a friend with a Sony LCD TV and the HD playback was flawless.