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 LawsonStone,

    LawsonStone LawsonStone Oct 15, 2011 8:19 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Oct 15, 2011 8:19 PM in response to TWalkerPolk

    I'm having the same problem. Netflix streams okay. But I have not yet been able to watch the one iTunes rental I have tried. First time it was going to take 8 hours to load, so i let it load overnight, next day it said it was ready to play. So that evening I tried to watch, but it now said 4 hours to play...

     

    I've used Apple gear since 1984. This is the most disappointing piece of technology I have ever owned. No way to plan an event with family or friends since we'll all end up wathcing the progress bar and 5 Hours 23 Minutes remaining...

     

    Just plain disappointiing.

  • by grahambrownmartin,

    grahambrownmartin grahambrownmartin Oct 17, 2011 3:37 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 17, 2011 3:37 PM in response to TWalkerPolk

    I'd like to add to this thread as I'm also at a loss to understand what is happening here.

     

    I have a 50Mbps cable Internet connection (Virgin Media UK and actually a good one!). It test's regularly and runs anywhere between 25-48Mbps even at peak times so more than enough to stream rented HD movies to my ATV 2.

     

    However I have yet to watch a single rented HD movie on the ATV 2 without it stopping repeatedly throughout the playback to an extent that the whole watching experience is so miserable as to be unwatchable.

     

    The rentals say they are ready to play almost immediately after paying for them and even if I wait a while they never play without stopping and I mean never.

     

    In 2 years of running an ATV 1 on the same Internet connection I never had this problem. I could rent an HD movie leave it to start downloading for 10-15 minutes and it'd play start to finish without a single stop.

     

    Also on the same connection I run a PlayStation 3 that also streams rented movies without stopping.

     

    I've run speed tests on the connection while the ATV 2 stopped in the middle of the streamed movie and I'm not seeing any particular dips in speed so it seems that the ATV 2 just stops.

     

    My ISP is uncapped and is not throttling otherwise it wouldn't work fine when I switch to the ATV 1.

     

    The ATV 2 streams perfectly from a Mac Mini on the same network that I use as an iTunes server that holds 100's of SD & HD movies (some ripped from Blu-Ray so high bandwidth).

     

    The ATV 2 also seems to have occassional problems streaming HD theater trailers and occasionally stalls on YouTube clips that run perfectly on other iDevices and Macs attached to the same network.

     

    I have also run the ATV 2 as the only device attached directly via ethernet to the cable router with all Wi-Fi off so nothing else is connected and it still won't stream the HD movies without stopping. Sometimes it stops and just sits there with the timer going round and round. I've tried this at different times of the day even mid-morning when local network contention is low.

     

    On playing trailers I've noticed with the ones that don't play that if I sometimes go back to the menu and reselect them they will play all the way through. So there's a sense that the ATV 2 is buggy yet I'm running the very latest ATV 2 4.4 (3140) OS and I can't pinpoint the problem.

     

    So my conclusion is that the ATV 2 is piece of junk when it comes to the task of renting and streaming HD movies yet it seems crazy to have to return to the ATV 1 and miss the software upgrades and AirPlay capability of the ATV 1. Yet the ATV 2 is not fit for purpose and does not do what it says on the tin. This advert from Apple here: http://www.apple.com/uk/appletv/ is just BS - it doesn't work or at least not for me.

     

    I had some success, but did not completely test, with HD rentals on the ATV 2 when I switch Dolby Digital audio to off. Why this would work is beyond me but seeing as I have a fairly good HDTV and surround sound set-up it also seems crazy to play my ATV HD movies rentals in stereo rather than surround.

     

    I would appreciate any advice from anyone who has managed to make the ATV 2 work reliably with HD movie rentals - this is a consumer product that should work out of the box but my experience so far has not been good beyond using the ATV 2 as a glorified iTunes streamer from my Mac Mini.

     

    The ATV 1 proved far more reliable.

     

    Can anyone help?

     

    Thanks for listening!

  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Oct 17, 2011 4:04 PM in response to grahambrownmartin
    Level 6 (19,281 points)
    Apple TV
    Oct 17, 2011 4:04 PM in response to grahambrownmartin

    I have had may rentals, they all start immediately and play with no interruption. The usual network tests that I would reccomend it seems you have tried. Are you using your ISP's DNS? Just as a test, have you tried letting the film load completely (I couldn't tell if you had tried this)

  • by grahambrownmartin,

    grahambrownmartin grahambrownmartin Oct 17, 2011 4:31 PM in response to vazandrew
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 17, 2011 4:31 PM in response to vazandrew

    Thanks for trying to help Vazandrew.

     

    This was a recent upgrade from an ATV 1 made about 4 weeks ago. Nothing has changed with my Internet set-up and the I'm using the ISP's DNS.

     

    When I rent an HD film on the ATV 2 like yours it reports that the film is ready to play almost immediately and sometimes the film will begin to play without a hitch but will then stop after 5 or 10 minutes. I can restart after a while and then it plays some more before stopping again. Sometimes it's almost impossible to get it to start again.

     

    The last time this happened I left the film to, I assume, load over night - in fact for nearly 24 hours because this was the time the rental period gave me to rent the film as I'd already started watching it in the foolish notion that I might actually be able to watch the film from start to finish like the gold old days of DVD. Alas after 23 hours and attempting to watch the film again presented exactly the same symptoms and eventually I ran out of time to watch the film and it deauthorised (I have requested a refund from iTunes, again).

     

    It does not seem as obvious as it did on the ATV 1 that the rented film has in fact loaded or perhaps I'm missing something but clearly the point here is that I've changed nothing other than the ATV model itself. I have simply exchanged the working ATV 1 for the ATV 2 and the ATV 2 doesn't work. I have a second ATV 2 which was intended for another room and it exhibits exactly the same symptoms.

     

    This is most odd as clearly you are not having these problems but also given the length of this thread since this time last year there are also many people who are experiencing this problem and those who've had the problem aren't reporting any miraculous solutions.

     

    This is a shame as I was hoping to find one!

  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Oct 17, 2011 5:55 PM in response to grahambrownmartin
    Level 6 (19,281 points)
    Apple TV
    Oct 17, 2011 5:55 PM in response to grahambrownmartin

    Did you leave the ATV on when you left it to load? Since you have a fast connettion it shouldn't take long to load fully into the cache. I think they load in about 45-50min for me, with 14mbps. When a film is loaded you will notice that the progress bar is solid grey.

     

    I usually suggest loading into iTunes and streaming for those on a slower connection but I know that isn't a solution here.

     

    Yes, very odd. If I come across something i'll let you know.

  • by Macaby,

    Macaby Macaby Oct 17, 2011 6:28 PM in response to vazandrew
    Level 3 (912 points)
    Oct 17, 2011 6:28 PM in response to vazandrew

    Does the speed of the incoming connection mean much IF the choke point is on the system servers?  I assume they are Apple servers, but who knows?

  • by LawsonStone,

    LawsonStone LawsonStone Oct 17, 2011 6:59 PM in response to Macaby
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Oct 17, 2011 6:59 PM in response to Macaby

    Likewise, if my ATV2 handles Netflix streams fine, and all other internet performance is fine, but iTunes rentals take 4-12 hours to load, then that really does suggest the problem is at the server. My strategy now is to download rentals to my MacBook Pro and then watch them via Home sharing or Airplay.

  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Oct 17, 2011 8:28 PM in response to Macaby
    Level 6 (19,281 points)
    Apple TV
    Oct 17, 2011 8:28 PM in response to Macaby

    How can you confirm it's a server issue?

  • by StuartH,

    StuartH StuartH Oct 18, 2011 12:33 AM in response to grahambrownmartin
    Level 1 (59 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 18, 2011 12:33 AM in response to grahambrownmartin

    I too am with Virgin Media and don't have issues with streaming or downloading content from other sources, including my xbox.

     

    ATV2 seems to have been very hit or miss - mainly miss for us when attempting to download movies to watch. We get a couple of successes then the problem resurfaces. The firmware is updated every time a new release shows and our wi-fi is consitent. ATV2 is NOT!

     

    This is a public forum and Apple will only respond to direct messages. The notion that this is a hobby for Apple is undermined by the acceptance of revenue. I play tennis for a hobby and don't charge people to watch - even when I'm not playing well or keep people waiting before I arrive on court...

  • by Vincent Smith1,

    Vincent Smith1 Vincent Smith1 Oct 18, 2011 11:17 AM in response to grahambrownmartin
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Oct 18, 2011 11:17 AM in response to grahambrownmartin

    You are correct saying ATV2 it is a piece of junk!  There are way to many people talking about the same issues you have

  • by Vincent Smith1,

    Vincent Smith1 Vincent Smith1 Oct 18, 2011 11:21 AM in response to vazandrew
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Oct 18, 2011 11:21 AM in response to vazandrew

    I have had many rentals and they don't start immediately.  You're fortunate if yours does.. The product is inconsistent, therefore unreliable.  Would one purchase a vehicle that might start or not, or take several hours to start.

  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Oct 18, 2011 12:58 PM in response to Vincent Smith1
    Level 6 (19,281 points)
    Apple TV
    Oct 18, 2011 12:58 PM in response to Vincent Smith1

    I'm not the only one, there are many people without issues. You won't see them here as this is a forum to help people with problems. It is a streaming device and one needs a reliable network to have a good experience.

     

    I have seen posts and the majority come down to the network

  • by Macaby,

    Macaby Macaby Oct 18, 2011 1:05 PM in response to Vincent Smith1
    Level 3 (912 points)
    Oct 18, 2011 1:05 PM in response to Vincent Smith1

    I don't consider it a piece of junk.  In "merry old England", you might be violating the libel laws with broad based statements such as yours that have NO basis in fact for everyone, certainly not me.  I realize I will open myself up to charges of being just another "fanboy". However, with all the Apple products I've owned, they all worked the way they are advertised. 13" MB, 15" MBP, ATV, ATV2, IP 3, 3G, IP4, IP4 S, Nano 5, iPad 2 and a couple other devices, so put me down as a FANBOY. 

     

    I''ve never had any trouble with downloading movies from iTunes.  Then again, I don't need to watch them 10 seconds after I order.  I usually give them about 10 minute headstart and the watch without ANY pausing or other problems.

     

    Last night I checked out "air play" and was surprised how good it worked with the latest ATV2 software update.

     

    There may be a lot of people here (maybe 100 or even a 1000) that are not happy with the ATV system.  Everyone of them who bought the system from Apple could have returned it for a full refund. 

  • by MrToaster,

    MrToaster MrToaster Oct 18, 2011 2:03 PM in response to MrToaster
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 18, 2011 2:03 PM in response to MrToaster

    Update to my post on October 9th, 2011.  After successfully (temporarily) fixing the issue with the ATV2 and being able to watch my purchased movie without any streaming issues at all, I was watching a bunch of Vimeo movies last night and low-and-behold, 30 minutes in to watching, the ATV2 came to an instant crawl again.  This coincided with me fast-forwarding too far while I was watching a video streaming and then trying to back up (download indicator spinning constantly).  I backed out completely to the main menu and then went back in.  Still downloading but EXTREMELY slow now (5 minutes to get 5 seconds of HD video).  Tried a few other Vimeo videos... same speed.  Went on my computer, everything worked super fast, no issues at all.  Back to the ATV2, still slow.  Turned it off and turned it back on.  Still super slow.  Changed my DNS settings back to my ISP and restarted it.  Voila!  Worked fast again.  I originally thought it was my ISP throttling certain ports that the ATV2 uses, but now I'm pretty convinced it is some glitch in the ATV2.  Powering it off and on does not seem to fix this issue.  Next time if this happens, I will just set the ATV2 back to factory settings and see if that fixes it right away.  Keep you all posted.

  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Oct 18, 2011 2:17 PM in response to MrToaster
    Level 6 (19,281 points)
    Apple TV
    Oct 18, 2011 2:17 PM in response to MrToaster

    Not using your ISP's DNS will usually cause issues.

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