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 Adrian_W,

    Adrian_W Adrian_W Jan 8, 2011 6:38 PM in response to mrunonby
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 8, 2011 6:38 PM in response to mrunonby
    Yes. Same problem. 8 hrs before I can watch on most movie rentals.

    I got appletv 2 on release day. Back then you could watch a movie rental after a few minutes.

    My Internet connection and internal network haven't changed.

    So I called apple support today to complain. They are aware of the issue, said the tech rep ... and went onto say the fix right now is ... Wait for it ..... don't use appletv to rent HD movies !!! Rent them on your computer and stream them to appletv instead. I mentioned many movies are not in hd to rent on the computer and wasn't the primary point of apple tv, to rent hd movies ?

    He didn't reply and didn't have any more words of wisdom.
  • by dantheman0316,

    dantheman0316 dantheman0316 Jan 8, 2011 8:41 PM in response to Adrian_W
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 8, 2011 8:41 PM in response to Adrian_W
    I am also experiencing the same pause/resume problem with my Apple TV2. I just rented Salt and it started to play just fine. When I paused the movie for a couple of minutes the Apple TV reported that it will be ready to play in 2 hours and 31 minutes. I tried pressing the play button several times on my remote, but the movie did not resume. This does not make any sense, because the download progress bar clearly shows that there are several minutes of the movie already buffered after my pause point. This is an unacceptable software bug. If Apple does not fix this problem very soon, then I will have no choice but to return the device.
  • by DMW5,

    DMW5 DMW5 Jan 8, 2011 9:54 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 8, 2011 9:54 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    There must be seriously something wrong with the ATV2. I have both the original apple tv and the 2nd generation. Last night I wanted to watch a movie, fired up the ATV2, 2 hours later, still needed 4 more hours before i could watch the movie. So out goes the hockey puck and back in goes the old apple tv. Rented the same movie and literally within seconds it was ready to watch. So I dont believe this is a problem on apples side as some suggest but a problem with the new ATV2. In fact does anyone have one that works properly? If so, then mine is going back to the apple store.
  • by Massimo_D,

    Massimo_D Massimo_D Jan 9, 2011 12:10 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 9, 2011 12:10 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    I'm having the same issue. Started downloading last night at about 8pm, thing is still downloading now. But it seems as though the download stalls. I have to come out of it and start watching a YouTube video or trailer and then I see it speed up a little, but quickly slow down again.

    The thing I find interesting is that it's behaving exactly the same way as my iPad and iPhone does with streaming hd content. It starts, then stalls, and takes literally ages to finishing downloading. Isn't AppleTV based on iOS now with iPhone internals? From day one I haven't been able to stream hd to my iPhone/iPad and it seams to have the same issue on AppleTV.
  • by HamishC,

    HamishC HamishC Jan 9, 2011 3:59 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 9, 2011 3:59 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    I tried last night switching off the Send data to apple, but it stopped me downloading the movie. I had to switch back to sending the data to apple before it would connect to the server. Could watch previews without any issue.

    Will try again next time I watch a movie, anyone else tried this yet?
  • by eggyonekenobi,

    eggyonekenobi eggyonekenobi Jan 9, 2011 4:09 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 9, 2011 4:09 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Hi
    I'm having exactly the same problem.
    The latest fil got to loading from 1h16m down to 15m and then stopped.
    I had thought it's because I live in the back of beyond and don't have a high speed connection. YouTube and the rest work perfectly.
    Really annoying - thinking about sending the thing back to Apple.
  • by bewareofmonkeys,

    bewareofmonkeys bewareofmonkeys Jan 9, 2011 6:46 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 9, 2011 6:46 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Same deal. I tried streaming a movie for first time both with NetFlix account and also with Apple TV movie rental and:
    1. Netflix stops every minute to pause and buffer
    2. AppleTV told me it would take 24+ hours before I could watch "The Town" (first movie I tried)
    This aint gonna work. I'm going back to getting NetFlix DVDs in mail. They should really warn people about this. I'll use AppleTV for itunes and photos on TV though, but this was a joke.
  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Jan 9, 2011 9:23 AM in response to eggyonekenobi
    Level 6 (19,281 points)
    Apple TV
    Jan 9, 2011 9:23 AM in response to eggyonekenobi
    If you don't have a high speed connection, that would be the first thing to cause issues.
  • by mrunonby,

    mrunonby mrunonby Jan 9, 2011 9:56 AM in response to mrunonby
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 9, 2011 9:56 AM in response to mrunonby
    Regarding my last posting, under Settings, I did have "send to Apple" disabled and still experienced the poor download performance.
  • by Lance Mcvickar,

    Lance Mcvickar Lance Mcvickar Jan 9, 2011 12:21 PM in response to bewareofmonkeys
    Level 1 (100 points)
    Jan 9, 2011 12:21 PM in response to bewareofmonkeys
    I would just like to add that I have never had issues with the atv2 and Netflix and I have two of them and they work perfectly with Netflix. I have had issues with apple hd rentals though, except I upped my Internet speed to 30 Mbps download with cablevision and my last movie was glitch free, we shall see if it stays that way.
  • by brockstr2001,

    brockstr2001 brockstr2001 Jan 9, 2011 3:08 PM in response to UKGreg
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 9, 2011 3:08 PM in response to UKGreg
    I tried UKGreg's suggestion on the previous page, along with upgrading all of my software, including Airport Utility, and was finally able to watch The Town HD within a minute. It sputtered 3 times while watching the movie for less than a minute but, considering it was Saturday night prime time, the experience was bearable.

    Definitely, switch off "Send Data to Apple". This is under Settings-General and give it a few minutes. Worked for us.

    Also, it will probably be useful to all, including Apple, to include your location, ISP and download speed on these posts.

    We are in north central PA, Windstream is our ISP, and we get a pretty consistent download speed of 5MB with less than 1MB upload wirelessly using Airport Extreme

    Message was edited by: brockstr2001
  • by Arturo1953,

    Arturo1953 Arturo1953 Jan 9, 2011 7:53 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 9, 2011 7:53 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Same problem here. Internet connection 5 mb.

    I can watch youtube HD videos without delay. E. g. "Home", but I have to wait for rented films.
    I just have rented "Inception", I waited more than an hour to start viewing, not as bad as many of you, but I still have to plan ahead. Once started, it ran seamless. Since this film has a complicated plot, I wanted to review some scenes. I had to wait for ATV to buffer again the whole film.
  • by Rhodie999,

    Rhodie999 Rhodie999 Jan 9, 2011 9:09 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 9, 2011 9:09 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    The Apple Tv is way to slow. I have Network specialists look at my home setup. They have directed the apple tv through my wireless network to make sure it is not behind or effected by any firewalls. We are unable to watch videos through this system. Shaw has the same movies for rent at the same price, so I guess I wasted money on something that just is not ready for the market.
  • by mr_gbaldwin,

    mr_gbaldwin mr_gbaldwin Jan 11, 2011 2:28 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 11, 2011 2:28 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Same problem here. Tried to rent The Town this weekend on my new x-mas Apple TV and it wanted 8 hours and 13 mins to load.

    The selection is lame, but at I can watch Netflix movies without the ridiculous delay.
  • by Adrian_W,

    Adrian_W Adrian_W Jan 14, 2011 4:03 PM in response to mr_gbaldwin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 14, 2011 4:03 PM in response to mr_gbaldwin
    According to Apple support, they say its a issue with a recent iOS update on the AppleTV. They are aware of the issue, and say that the next update will fix the issue. I'm assuming that will be iOS 4.3, that was seeded to developers a few days ago.
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