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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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771 replies

Apr 10, 2012 12:53 PM in response to vazandrew

An awful lot of us are having problems - you'd hardly expect every person with a problem to find their way on to this thread (there are bunches of other threads about similar problems). I think most people just give up.


We bought the box to use to watch HD television. It advertized itself as hosting Netflix, vimeo, youtube and Itunes. It only does the first three in a way that's compatible with spontaneous television watching.


We haven't had it long, I have absolutely no interest in attempting to set it up differently or better. Some day we'll get a faster connection and a way to hard wire ATV3 to our ethernet port (it's in a different part of the house - we have other things to do besides have people come over and install new outlets right now). I just wanted it to work (and it does, for Netflix, which is nice). It also works for streaming vimeo atmospheric videos, like having a fish tank or a set of nature documentaries in a doctor's office (I'm trying to make myself feel better about the $99).


Anyway, to anyone who happened on this thread before they purchased the thing, just view it as an accessory to your iPad. My old iPad didn't have enough storage to download HD films and keep them around for any length of time. So, I bought a new one with lots more storage (I suppose that's the point?) And, we do plan ahead for watching. Sort of like the old days of going to the video store (or having Netflix delivered). Instead of making a spontaneous choice of movie (which I would never do with this device, not from iTunes anyway), we decide what we're going to watch and I set up the downloads to my iPad while I'm asleep or at work on the T1 connection (works better just to do it while sleeping). So that's my work around. Low tech.


I view my iPad now as a remote control for the ATV3, to play iTunes. The iPad downloads faster anyway and sometimes makes a show (especially an hour television show) available in about 30 minutes. I was glad to read this thread and realize that people with much higher download speeds than ours are having the same (or worse) problems. Maybe throttling. Peak usage times are much worse (Friday nights, all day Saturday and Sunday). So I try to plan for that.


It was also good to know that every time we do anything different with the ATV3, we have to start our streaming over again. That explains a lot. So we let it go when it is taking time to download (and occasionally, it's a bit slow even on Netflix - that's probably our ISP), and revert to watching satellite TV or iPad youtubes while it works away. In future, I think we'll just use it for youtube, Netflix and iPad airplay showings. I sure hope Netflix sees the opportunity for themselves, though and makes more recent offerings available.


I am guessing that of the top movies shown on the ATV3 on start up, most will never be watched - but many will be rented and then abandoned in frustration. I'm glad I read the thread before deciding to try and watch something as low on my priority list as Hugo or that new Brad Pitt movie. The idea we had was that we might occasionally just stream some random thing we wouldn't otherwise have rented while doing household chores or working online - but that won't be happening. There's nothing wrong with being more deliberate in one's entertainment choices, really, but I do wonder how much money Apple makes from the movie distributors for simply advertising those films (probably a lot). Then, they make more money from people who are either willing to wait for hours to view a film or who give up on the project altogether.


I wonder if the film distributing companies realize that in many cases, this leaves a bitter experience and no desire to try and actually watch the movie? Perhaps the movies all suck and they don't care, either. It would be an excellent way of making quite a bit of money off of movies that suck (and the fact that movies keep stuttering and losing sound and then taking 30-40 more minutes to start again right at a central plot point is supposed to drive us back into the theaters? That's not going to work with us...)

Oct 9, 2010 7:57 PM in response to TWalkerPolk

I purchased two apple tv's. One for me, and another for my parents. They are on High speed DSL and a speed test is showing 3 download speed. Im on Cable High speed with 8 download verified with Speakeasy speed test. I'm seeing the same download delays on both units. Both networks are simple set ups using Apple Airports, and im getting full bars on the Apple TV signal meters.

Im seeing some shows downloading fine, while others have massive delays. For instance WKRP episode one started almost instantly, while the new Wolfman movie was 130 minutes delay. To further test my network, while the Wolfman delayed, I opened netflix on the apple TV and ran several movies without issue.

This tells me the problem is on Apples end. Its my bet that they didn't expect this number of people to jump on so quickly.

Oct 10, 2010 1:35 PM in response to TWalkerPolk

I am having same problem. Went to watch a movie last night with the wife, rented it and then it said loading ready to view in 78 minutes. It was on wireless at the time, thought this might be the problem so I spent 10 minutes re-running all my cables to plug it in via ethernet, it did not work. Still said 78 minutes, was bummed but we thought maybe you just need to "pre-rent" right? So, come back today to watch it (Apple TV has hibernated) and go to watch, it says 78 minutes again. I think the problem is it needs to buffer the movie but once it does that it losses the buffered stream after so long or after hibernation. So, the only potential work around doesn't work either. Some one has to do something because this literally negates the ENTIRE point of the Apple TV. With this much wait time, I could just rent the movie from playstation store or use Netflix. In fact, that is what we ended up doing, watching a "free" Netflix movie after paying $5.00 to Apple to rent a movie. Now my 30 days are counting down and I can only watch the movie when I have 80 minutes to sit around and wait BEFORE I even want to watch the movie. *** Apple! Someone please tell me what I am doing wrong and how I am just being stupid so that I can get this to work right and actually start enjoying this $100 (what is for now completely useless, albeit nicely designed black box).

Oct 10, 2010 7:36 PM in response to TWalkerPolk

Me too. First night we got the Apple TV installed I shelled out $4 for a movie rental. The movie started okay, but then about an hour into it it got stuck, said "Ready to play in 48 minutes." Then it just never got unstuck. Eventually had to disappoint the kids and give up.

Since then I've tried a few free TV show rentals with various incarnations of the same problem. Seems like streaming of HD rentals is seriously broken--at least for me. I'm sticking to Netflix streaming until there's some news from Apple that this is fixed.

Search Google for "Apple TV ready to play in minutes" and you'll find lots and lots of people are experiencing this problem. Also lots of people reporting this problem on Twitter. I don't know why the gadget blogs haven't picked up on this yet--Apple news is really hot, and a new product launch with problems is particularly juicy news.

Oct 10, 2010 10:01 PM in response to TWalkerPolk

I experience this problem with the rental shows, but also with the HD trailers and with the higher quality video podcasts and youtube videos. I am convinced it is because of my slow internet speeds. i pay for "up to 3 Mbps", but typically get between 1.5 and 2.5 downstream.

Based on the file-size-to-show-duration ratio of iTunes shows (example: a 720p HD tv show rental on itunes downloads at 1.44 GB for a 44 minute show), I estimate that you need a 4.4 Mbps or higher actual bandwidth to get real-time streaming that starts soon after you order it. (Just divide the first number, 1.44 GB, by the second, 44 minutes, to find that it takes about 4.4 Mbps to watch that show. Your actual download speed has to be higher than the bit rate of the movie file itself: that way the movie will download faster than the movie can play, and you will never catch up to the stream and hence it should start playing immediately. Since my bandwidth is ~1.5 Mbps, I have to wait for the ATV2 to buffer a significant portion of the show if I am to watch it without catching up to the stream.

That said, several people are posting here that they are experiencing the problem even though they confirm they have streaming speeds of over 5 Mbps. Don't have an explanation for that, but the fact that my problem is not limited to the iTunes rentals but also makes me wait for the other videos on apple tv implies that bumping up my bandwidth should help. I'm getting "up to 10 Mbps" service installed in a week. I'll let you know if that makes a difference for me.

Oct 11, 2010 1:23 AM in response to dgalvan123

I am beginning to think that my issue is a network problem.

Both times I have rented an HD film from ATV2 it was Sat and Sun night (peak demand). Both films were ready to play pretty quickly and started normally. After a pause of the film for 2 mins, when resuming play their playback stalled and I was given wait times (sometimes ridiculous such as 130 odd mins, sometimes 20-30 mins). Either way, waiting for the duration the film announced it was ready to play again but upon playing it stalled again and re-entered the cycle! In both instances the films were not fully cached at the time. I seem to have no problem with fully cached material.

My broadband (Virgin Media Cable in the UK) claims up to 10mbps. After running a speedtest last night (during all the problems), I was only getting 2.3mbps download.

Today (off peak time) I am getting 10mbps! Unsurprisingly, no problems with the ATV stream from itunes!

I wonder whether the issues we are facing are actually because our ISPs are not producing the 'goods' at peak times!?

Oct 11, 2010 1:25 AM in response to TWalkerPolk

I just read all the posts in that thread. I don't experience that at all. Streaming rentals is blazing fast. OP said that sometimes it worked within about 5 minutes...5 min is TOO long.

Did any of you tried to rent in iTunes on your computer instead to see if the issue is from the Apple TV or not ? Maybe your ISP deliberately slows down the connection from Apple servers...

Oct 11, 2010 6:44 AM in response to jpr76

Yup, I'm with Virgin Media in London, UK and I'm having exactly the same problem with the same 10 meg pipe. At peak times my streaming to ATV2 is squeezed heavily and causes the "loading" problems discussed here but on say Tuesday afternoon, I have no problems at all. I would definitely say my issues with streaming are directly attributable to supply/demand issues at peak times with my ISP. Guess I may have to go to 20 meg which is seriously boring!

Oct 11, 2010 7:59 AM in response to Living In A Box

Living in a Box - I spoke to Virgin today and despite giving them comparative speed tests they claimed all was well with my system and accused my home setup as being faulty!!

I have bitten the bullet and gone for an upgrade to 20mbps to try and solve the problem......I am only getting 2.4mbps at peak times on the 10mbps package.

Incidentally the Virgin media operator didn't seem to know the difference between MBps and Mbps - so he was accusing my imac of being too slow by a factor of 10!! 🙂

Oct 12, 2010 7:07 AM in response to TWalkerPolk

I am beginning to think this entire problem has more to do with Apple's servers than our network connections. I have been trying to watch Robin Hood since the day I got my ATV2 2 each time it tells me I have these lengthy load times before I can view it. Two days ago I went to play again and again it was going to take 90-100 minutes before it was ready to play, this was the third or fourth time I had starting loading this movie. Anyway I let it set and later it showed it was ready to play, unfortunately it was too late in the evening to begin it. Last evening I finally had time to watch and when I pressed play it came up and said it would be ready to play in 30 minutes blowing my chances again to watch it. I hit menu and then play again and this time it said it was ready to play immediately and when I pressed play it went to authorize and then played. The funny part was for all the load time it didn't show any data buffered except a small portion of the bar which continually loaded as the movie played the entire time. This tells me that the "Loading" and "Ready in ## minutes" are not valid messages showing buffering but something to do with the response of Apples streaming iTunes servers. It's funny that with all the chatter of problems on this Discussion site that Apple has been entirely silent and unresponsive to our issues. Love it when it works but until it's fixed I don't think I'll be renting anymore movies from iTunes, I'll just use what works on it instantly as it should.

Apple TV HD Rental Streaming Problem

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