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 SummerHologram,

    SummerHologram SummerHologram Apr 10, 2012 12:53 PM in response to vazandrew
    Level 1 (0 points)
    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...)

  • by Nollsy,

    Nollsy Nollsy Apr 12, 2012 4:19 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 12, 2012 4:19 AM in response to TWalkerPolk

    Absolute rubbish. We all may as well download movies illegally if apple are not going to fix these problems. Apple are happy to take our money without providing anything but frustration in return.

  • by Stevebrady,

    Stevebrady Stevebrady Apr 12, 2012 11:53 AM in response to SummerHologram
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 12, 2012 11:53 AM in response to SummerHologram

    Well do you know what, I have probably the worst Internet connection in the world, 1MB download. However, I have downloaded 3 films (a trilogy) and whilst they take a week to download, the issue is getting them to play when they have finally downloaded. I have watched the first 2, but the third is a real problem. It tells me that the the film is downloaded but wants a further 5 hours to load!!!! Every time I go back to it I get various messages of 4-5 hours loading time. It's just crazy. I have noticed that as soon as I purchase the money goes from my account, regardless of whether I can watch it or not.

     

    Apple this is rubbish and you are taking money for the purchase of a device that doesn't work and then for films that are not provided. Sort yourselves out please!

  • by Alley_Cat,

    Alley_Cat Alley_Cat Apr 12, 2012 11:59 AM in response to Stevebrady
    Level 6 (19,583 points)
    Apr 12, 2012 11:59 AM in response to Stevebrady

    Steve - may I suggest you try renting in iTunes as the download is protected there until the rental/view period expires and can be watched on AppleTV once fully downloaded under Computers>iTunes library name>Rentals which appears when there's a downloaded rental in iTunes.

     

    The problem with renting in iTunes is that many HD titles are not available there (at least in UK), but if you're on 1Mbps even SD will probably take half a day to download - I used to rent in the morning or overnight to watch teh following evening on AppleTV1 when I was on 1 Mbps.

     

    AC

  • by Stevebrady,

    Stevebrady Stevebrady Apr 12, 2012 12:17 PM in response to Alley_Cat
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 12, 2012 12:17 PM in response to Alley_Cat

    Thanks AC, I'll try that but I'm confused. The film has downloaded and tells me how long it is available to view for. If I download via iTunes, why is that different?

  • by Alley_Cat,

    Alley_Cat Alley_Cat Apr 12, 2012 12:36 PM in response to Stevebrady
    Level 6 (19,583 points)
    Apr 12, 2012 12:36 PM in response to Stevebrady

    Based on your internet speed AppleTV downloads enough of a movie so that the rest can download as you watch - it calculates how much it needs to get before starting to play.

     

    The trouble is AppleTV doesn't actually store the downloaded film or portion downloaded until it expires - instead it caches or buffers it in solid state memory.  If you  use AppleTV for other things, even just watching a trailer, it can causes the portion downloaded to be erased and for the process to start again from scratch.

     

    While it might take a little longer for the item to fully download to iTunes than to be ready to play on AppleTV doing nothing else, once it's in iTunes it's there for the duration until it expires - this will allow you to use AppleTV for other things plus you can rewatch the movie within the view period without it having do redownload from the internet to AppleTV.

     

    It should give a far more reliable experience once it's ready in iTunes.

     

    Apple's rentals are a fixed size in GB for a given film irresepctive of your connection speed whereas Neflix for example drops quality on slower connections.

     

    AC

  • by andyfrommaryland heights,

    andyfrommaryland heights andyfrommaryland heights Apr 12, 2012 1:28 PM in response to Alley_Cat
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 12, 2012 1:28 PM in response to Alley_Cat

    Make sense AC... Pity Apple hasn't bothered to respond to 48 pages of complaints with that same understandable info.  They could  benefit by offerring a more costly ATV that included a hard drive for caching/storage (like a DVR operates) and have two models for their customers to choose from and COMMUNICATING why you would choose one over the other.

  • by Alley_Cat,

    Alley_Cat Alley_Cat Apr 12, 2012 1:49 PM in response to andyfrommaryland heights
    Level 6 (19,583 points)
    Apr 12, 2012 1:49 PM in response to andyfrommaryland heights

    andyfrommaryland heights wrote:

     

    They could  benefit by offerring a more costly ATV that included a hard drive for caching/storage (like a DVR operates) and have two models for their customers to choose from and COMMUNICATING why you would choose one over the other.

    Yes thta would be ideal wouldn't it - the original silver AppleTV had either 40GB or 160GB drives for just that purpose so you could use one like a video iPod without internet or network connection once synced up with media.

     

    The more feedback the better to:

     

    http://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html

     

    AC

  • by Mark Wilder1,

    Mark Wilder1 Mark Wilder1 Apr 13, 2012 12:47 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 13, 2012 12:47 PM in response to TWalkerPolk

    I noticed the problem right after upgrading to the latest software for the ATV 2.  I'm using the Xbox 360 to stream movies now, not Apple.

  • by David Camps-Campins1,

    David Camps-Campins1 David Camps-Campins1 Apr 13, 2012 3:17 PM in response to Mark Wilder1
    Level 2 (399 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 13, 2012 3:17 PM in response to Mark Wilder1

    When the AppleTV2 was announced, I purchased a spare AppleTV1 because of the Hard Disk space. Download, sync to AppleTV1 and you are set. Streaming from the cloud and Home Sharing are not ready for prime time.

     

    I have a 50MB internet package and it takes forever to stream movies from the cloud. It would be really nice to have the next generation of AppleTV to have a Hard Drive.

  • by Xanderstone12,

    Xanderstone12 Xanderstone12 Apr 14, 2012 8:01 PM in response to David Camps-Campins1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 14, 2012 8:01 PM in response to David Camps-Campins1

    I tried to rent a movie tonight on mt atv2 and I paid 10 bucks for the rental. It will not play. Will I be charged? It says it will take 17 hours to load and then it throws a error. What should I do?

  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Apr 14, 2012 9:43 PM in response to Xanderstone12
    Level 6 (19,115 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 14, 2012 9:43 PM in response to Xanderstone12

    Why $10 ?

     

    Check www.speedtest.net to see speed

    Check www.istumbler.net (net stumbler for windows) for interference

    Make sure you're on your ISPs DNS

  • by Xanderstone12,

    Xanderstone12 Xanderstone12 Apr 14, 2012 9:58 PM in response to vazandrew
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 14, 2012 9:58 PM in response to vazandrew

    It's a movie called "god bless America" it's apparently available on iTunes before it is officially released so it was 10$ it looks really good and was made by bobcat goldthwait who I really like. He has another good movie called worlds greatest dad. It is on Netflix. Good flick.

  • by richigardo,

    richigardo richigardo Apr 16, 2012 10:28 AM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 16, 2012 10:28 AM in response to TWalkerPolk

    Hi

    I have got the following problem: When I rent a HD movie fron Itunes (I haven´t tried with a non HD) I can see the movie, but no sound at all. When I see a trailer it works OK (film with sound), When I see films from Netflix I have no problem.

    Until now I haven´t receive a satsfactory answer from apple.

    Can anybody help me?

    Thank you

     

    By the way, I live in Chile, Southamerica.

  • by Bradley_NZ,

    Bradley_NZ Bradley_NZ Apr 27, 2012 9:28 PM in response to TWalkerPolk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 27, 2012 9:28 PM in response to TWalkerPolk

    What a piece of junk.
    I’ve been purchasing rentals on the ipad no issues.

    Brought the new generation Apple TV, very first rental gave 170 min buffer to load.
    Changed it to 720p, now 80 mins. (have a 4mb connection) I let it buffer all the way to Press Play now or Menu to watch later. I press menu and start the movie the next day. It plays all the way to the buffer then stops. I can’t get to load. After trying many things I reset the Apple TV and it starts reloading the move from the start. I only have a 40gig plan so I can’t keep doing that.
    What a piece of junk. I’ve “reported a fault” and asked for my money back.

    What I simply can’t believe is issue is years old. Connection speed shouldn’t matter; they need to fix their rental movies caching problems. A poorly implemented solution if there ever was one. YouTube / Netflix  on my Sony BlueRay player seems to handle 1080p buffering and resuming no issues.

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