TWalkerPolk

Q: Apple TV HD Rental Streaming Problem

I wanted to create this topic to ask if others are running into the same issues I am with streaming rented HD movies. I go to play the rented HD movie and am transferred to a screen that says "Loading...." for about a minute or two. Then, that message is replaced with one that says "Ready to play in [xxx] minutes"...with horribly long times listed (my movie was rented last night, and as of this evening, it shows "Ready to play in 232 minutes").

This seems like a MAJOR flaw with the Apple TV. I have no problem viewing YouTube, HD Netflix movies, HD trailers, etc. I have even been able to watch an HD TV show rental within about 5 mins of selecting it. Seems like there may be a major flaw in the streaming process for HD Movie rentals over the Apple TV.

If you haven't tested this yet (or if you have no issues), please post what is happening with your HD movie rentals.

TWP

Note: I have rebooted everything, used my Airport Express with the ethernet cord directly into the Apple TV, over wiFi, adjusted the distance between my router and the Apple TV. Nothing has worked.

Dell Laptop m1330, Windows 7

Posted on Oct 8, 2010 9:05 PM

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Q: Apple TV HD Rental Streaming Problem

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  • by jwmgough,

    jwmgough jwmgough Nov 22, 2010 7:38 AM in response to gbod
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2010 7:38 AM in response to gbod
    Once again Apple is ignoring a very prevalent and widespread problem. Rented two movies and most times got the "ready to watch in xxx minutes", even after resuming watching. And, the countdown (days and hours) keeps ticking, although you can' watch because they are still downloading. A reply to a support call ended up with a reversal of rental charges, but it is evident that the bug is still there.
  • by Diplomac,

    Diplomac Diplomac Nov 22, 2010 11:52 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2010 11:52 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Just downloaded the 4.1 update. Does it affect the HD streaming problem? Has anyone checked?
  • by Joemax,

    Joemax Joemax Nov 22, 2010 3:56 PM in response to Diplomac
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2010 3:56 PM in response to Diplomac
    No fix with the 4.1 update here in the UK. Just unplugged my ATV2 to see if it helps having a sharp injection of fresh electricity.

    Its getting to be a pain not being able to enjoy a rented movie during my short life span left on this earth

    Theatre trailers (HD I believe) play fine after a 20-30 pre-load. HD movies either never seem to be ready to play or stop and wait every so often. Usually at an interesting moment in the movie.

    BTW - I am currently seeing nearly 800kB/s d/l speed so should be good to start watching after a few minutes of pre-load.
  • by dgalvan123,

    dgalvan123 dgalvan123 Nov 22, 2010 4:08 PM in response to Joemax
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Nov 22, 2010 4:08 PM in response to Joemax
    Joemax wrote:
    . . .
    BTW - I am currently seeing nearly 800kB/s d/l speed so should be good to start watching after a few minutes of pre-load.


    There's your problem. I used to get 1.5 Mbps and could never watch the HD movies. Then I upgraded to 10+ Mbps and it works fine.

    Your problem is your bandwidth. HD content is big (something like 1.5 GB per hour). 800kbps is just not going to cut it.
  • by Joemax,

    Joemax Joemax Nov 22, 2010 4:19 PM in response to dgalvan123
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2010 4:19 PM in response to dgalvan123
    No not kilo bits, Kilo Bytes... so over 5 Mega bits per second Plenty fast enough to create a nice buffer before starting to play. And should download a whole movie in around an hour into the 8GB of ATV2 memory. Have 2 movies already in there that I've watched. One HD (was stop start pain in the behind) and one SD. The SD one obviously started pretty soon and was not an issue as it loaded faster than it was playing.

    I just re-plugged my ATV2 back into the mains and the movie that was still saying 'loading' all evening (6hrs) now says 29 days left. So I assume its now ready to play. Will start it tomorrow as I don't want the ticker to start on my 48hrs to watch.

    Will see if this has cured the 10hrs before its ready to play times that I am being told...
  • by siggibg,

    siggibg siggibg Nov 22, 2010 4:20 PM in response to dgalvan123
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2010 4:20 PM in response to dgalvan123
    I just updated my Apple TV to OS 4.1 and now I can no longer stream HD movies from my iTunes library to the Apple TV... They just wont start playing anymore! Anyone have the same problem ?
  • by davidshellyruthie,

    davidshellyruthie davidshellyruthie Nov 22, 2010 8:59 PM in response to siggibg
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2010 8:59 PM in response to siggibg
    same thing happened to us. yesterday was perfect. today we updated apple tv to 4.1. and then tried to watch green zone - got a note that basically read... movie ready in 2hrs 32 min, then it read 3 hrs 42 min, then 7 hrs, 23 min. so i moved my airport expresses around hoping that would help. same notes. so i tried a different flick - robin hood. same thing happened. thought maybe this was all due to the update to 4.1. mr. jobs - "***!"
  • by Joemax,

    Joemax Joemax Nov 23, 2010 12:12 PM in response to siggibg
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 23, 2010 12:12 PM in response to siggibg
    OK. So I have enough bandwidth to download an HD movie in about an hour and a half max... rent an HD movie this afternoon, come to watch tonight and its downloaded about 10 mins of movie. So for that last 5-6 hrs the ATV has done jack all.

    With 8Gigs of RAM it should just download and be sat there waiting for me.

    Even the movie we 'rented' yesterday has only downloaded about 15 mins.

    Whats the point of this device ?

    Shows so much promise, but fails to deliver unless you have a T1 line into your home.

    I'll be wanting my money back Mr Jobs. Your team couldn't even fix the issue with the update yesterday.

    Off to Twitter now to spread the word (to my 1500 plus followers) that ATV (v2) is not worth the effort.
  • by hanami,

    hanami hanami Nov 24, 2010 2:01 AM in response to Joemax
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 24, 2010 2:01 AM in response to Joemax
    I was trying to watch an SD movie I rented on Monday night at 11pm (GMT+8) and I couldn't get past 15 minutes without the apple TV re-streaming. I tried again on Tuesday morning and it was fine - no interruptions throughout the movie.

    Thinking back, Monday 11pm was around the same time iOS 4.2 was released for worldwide download so I could only imagine the amount of hit the servers took when millions of user swarmed to the iTunes to download the patch!

    Perhaps you guys can try streaming at different times of the day, just to narrow down the issue.
  • by Ptrotsky,

    Ptrotsky Ptrotsky Nov 24, 2010 6:49 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 24, 2010 6:49 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    No problems here- currently watching a movie with ZERO problems.
  • by DarthVarner,

    DarthVarner DarthVarner Nov 24, 2010 8:24 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 24, 2010 8:24 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    I have similar problem. Had to wait every 10 min for the movie to rebuffed. Took an extra 30 to 40 min to watch a movie from iTunes. Other movies on a different day were ok. Did the network test but there I no feedback for what the speed was. I am not sure the purchase was a good one yet. I am using a wireless connection with an apple time capsule at 5 Ghz setting. Time capsule is plugged into Ethernet and close to applaud.
  • by Ptrotsky,

    Ptrotsky Ptrotsky Nov 24, 2010 8:58 PM in response to DarthVarner
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 24, 2010 8:58 PM in response to DarthVarner
    No problem here- just watched two movies without a problem.
  • by David Schachner,

    David Schachner David Schachner Nov 24, 2010 10:01 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 24, 2010 10:01 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    I'm also having (and have been having since day 1) the slow rental problem. I rented a movie tonight, waited two hours to begin watching it, got ten minutes in, then got "ready in 4 hours 25 minutes" after it was already half-downloaded. I'm on a 16 MB/s cable connection (advertised) that I actually just tested and got over 18 MB/s on.

    I'm considering going back to the Roku I had temporarily. Amazon Video On Demand is truly instant.

    I bought my ATV on Amazon, but I'm going to be pestering Apple to give me a refund if they cannot explain to me what they are doing to fix this widespread problem.
  • by Devang Patel,

    Devang Patel Devang Patel Nov 25, 2010 12:10 AM in response to David Schachner
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 25, 2010 12:10 AM in response to David Schachner
    i was having the same issue with all my devices. everything would cut out and i would have to reboot my router...my internet service provider is ATT and i have a Uverse router. i went to their online support and i was able to chat with a tech support agent and they ended up changing the channel of my router and that has resolved my problem....i am currently steaming pics from my iphoto library to my apple tv and my wife is streaming music from her iphone at the same time...support tech stated that usually they have the router set to a generic channel that usually has a lot of traffic.
  • by Washy.25,

    Washy.25 Washy.25 Nov 27, 2010 8:17 AM in response to Devang Patel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 27, 2010 8:17 AM in response to Devang Patel
    I'm having the streaming issue after updating to the latest firmware (I think its 4.1). Streaming is HD was fine until then so I know the issue isn't my ISP. I have 7mbit download.

    I noticed it's not just the movie either. It takes almost 3 minutes for even the poster icons to appear in the movies selection page.

    Do new ports need to be open for the latest firmware?
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