Apple TV 2nd Generation slow streaming for Movies from my iTunes

Same here, I have a super fast draytek wireless router and it still doest speed it up!

I purchased two apple tv's. One for me, and another for my parents who live 20 minutes away from me. 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 for the wi fi, and im getting full bars on both 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.

I am having these same issues. Here is what I have going on:

I am on 3mbps DSL connection (no choice). I have an airport extreme in view from my location, Apple TV 2nd gen, and a brand new iMac 27".

Netflix works within 15 to 20 seconds no matter what I choose. That's fine and expected. Youtube works about the same as old Apple TV. But when I want to watch a movie from MY library, it takes about 30 seconds or so.

Now, if I try to watch an HD movie, it takes virtually forever (I'm not talking about downloading these. They already exist on my Mac). I quit waiting after about 15 minutes. At first I thought all of my movies/Apple TV, but then I realized it was the HD choices only. All other movies play fine.

But ***? My old Apple TV's played WAY faster than this one. Is it just me?

And I know why Apple made the store, and the store only on the front menu, but why the **** did they take away the convenience of "My Movies" from there. And "Recently Added". I used that ALL of the time as I work a lot and would forget what I had recently bought.

I want to be a fan, but until an update comes out to fix this speed issue, I'm on the fence.

I've got exactly the same thing. If I rent something it streams fine, but if I try and play something I've bought in iTunes, it takes forever to load up, then routinely plays faster than it streams, especially if it's a big big file. I've got 4 out of 5 bars on the wi-fi in the room, but think there might be an issue with the wi-fi if other computers/iphones/ipad are also using the network...

So possibly (for me) a wi-fi issue? But even so, disappointing that Apple TV is so slow..

I'm having the same issue. I tried to rent Iron Man 2 HD Saturday night, and it said "Loading..." forever, and when I went in to check the details, it told me it would be 287 minutes before I could watch it. 😟

Tried the same thing with Curious George 2 for my kids. It said it would take 82 minutes to load.

So, went to Netflix, and streamed stuff right away.

Why should I rent stuff off of iTunes if Netflix can deliver right away?

Apple, you're losing money here...

I finished a movie in iMovie and saved it for apple tv and played it once and it worked fine. I came back late and tried to watch it again and it took 25 min for it to load from my computer. I even got upset about 10 min through and just unplugged it and plugged it back up and restarted the computer and router. It started loading again from the same spot and finished out the 20 min.

I know for a fact that it was the correct format, it was apples format. I don't understand, but has anyone else had this kind of problem? and any idea on how to fix it?

I have the same problem with mine: the Apple TV 2 is so slow to start streaming movies I initially thought it wasn't working at all. I'd select a movie, and after many minutes of no result I'd cancel and try another. Turns out it's just so slow I though it wasn't functional.

My setup: movies on iMac (current model 27" i7, OS X 10.6.5), stock internal drive, Airport Express running 7.4.2 in 201.11n only mode 2.4 GHz), no other computers or devices on the network.

I tried swapping in a wired router and connected everything via Ethernet, but it made no difference.

Also tried selecting a movie, waiting the incredibly long time for it to start streaming, and then cancelling out and starting all over with the same movie (to see if it caches). The problem persists.

I wondered if it was the size of my movie library. I have about 230 movies in iTunes. So I tried leaving the Apple TV in "browse your movies" mode overnight to see if it needed time to prefetch things from the movie library. That didn't work either.

I've tried a couple dozen movies from various sources (home movie from iMovie, DVD ripped by Handbrake using both "Apple TV" and "Apple Universal" settings, and Ripit), without any change. I'm going to try the many-chapters idea and made a movie with tons of chapters to see if that helps (will report back).

Apparently many complain about this terrible sluggishness: -- Recently got ATV-2 and had it set up quickly: my network @ home is around 2-2,5 ( around 8-12 in office) - 1/ however, it takes forever until I can play/stream a film. This as well true if the film already is on my computer ( last gen MacBookPro), and I am talking many minutes ( something 40-50 plus !!) . 2/ Much worse even, if I try to download a film directly: 4-5 hours !! - I checked network- speeds by speedtest, they are as above mentioned and constant; I operate Airport Extreme.. Performance is nightmare and even for the fast one it's simply unacceptable. 3/ In one instance I had a rented film onto my computer - thats at least what iTunes says - but cannot open it ( error when trying to replay/stream). -- My country does not offer Netflix, YouTube not really enough. Thus, only music and photos remain - all is a major disappointment, I have to say. -- Any idea what I could do ?( I am stuck with the network speeds mentioned).. - Give all up ?

We just got one, tried to download a movie........13hrs to download. we ADSL2 wireless. This thing really *****, we will be taking it back

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, worked fine before... They just wont start playing anymore, just a loading sign and nothing! Anyone have the same problem ?

Streaming HD movies from my library worked just fine before the 4.1 update yesterday...!!!

Any suggestions are welcomed.

This is also my problem. I have a gen 1 apple tv that probably had the same problem but it was unseen because of the onboard hard drive. There must be a design performance spec for streaming speed. Here's what i think is my problem; the data goes wirelessly from my MacBook Pro to my Airport Extreme then wirelessly to an Airport Express and again wirelessly to my Apple TV. I suspect too much wireless traffic on my network and am thinking about switching the last connection (because they are close in proximity) to a network cable.

Any feedback is appreciated

I'm having the same problem. Streaming from the iTunes Store or Netflix work relatively fine (Netflix does stutter more often than when using my Roku box with the same television), as does sending video from my iPhone or iPad to the Apple TV 2, but when streaming from my Home Shared iTunes library in the other room, the content trickles over so slowly it's just unusable. Sitting here right now, I've got probably 35% of a 22 minute TV episode, and it's been over 15 minutes now.

Judging by how many views this thread has, many are at least interested in this problem, if not experiencing it.

I am experiencing the same problem of streaming my movies from iTunes via Homesharing. It takes close to 45 minutes every time. This was not always like this, as it was instant before I upgraded my ATV2 firmware in order to use the Airplay functionality with the iPad and iPhone. Bad move that was.. I shouldn't have updated, as now I can't instantly watch my movies. Since renting HD movies directly from the ATV2 takes about an hour for them to load, I never used it much. However, with this last update, now I can't watch any movies at all without waiting an hour. This is terrible and unacceptable! Since I'm international, I can't stream Netflix movies either.. So basically, I'm **** when it comes to watching movies on the ATV2, until Apple decides to fix this.

The problem is not your connection, but Apple's. It appears they don't have enough bandwidth to handle the demands of streaming HD video. It takes about as long to buffer their streaming product as it did to start a video on their old video/movie rental system. I think the only change on their side has been the elimination of the purchase option.

Shame on Apple for not stepping up to the bar and providing fast load times.