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

If it involves home-sharing it has nothing to do with apple, it is using the local network.

If you have under 7mbps it will take awhile for HD rentals. If you are using wireless, that won't be as reliable as ethernet. Firewalls will also cause problems as well as high traffic areas and multiple devices in use simultaneously etc.

Message was edited by: vazandrew

I disagree as all media on my local network streams just fine over my 10/100 Ethernet connection to the ATV2. I have even tried the 802.11N WiFi connection to the ATV2 without issues. The bottleneck has to be Apple's server farm bandwidth as all other local network and internet sites stream HD video just fine.

Question is what if anything is Apple doing to resolve this issue, maybe they should hire Netflix to help them.

Netflix degrades content based on connection. iTunes content downloads to the flash drive on ATV and will start once enough has loaded so it can play uninterrupted.

@vazandrew That is true I suppose, but I have never gotten any indication that they "Netfilx" has adjusted the down speed as I believe they do. The quality has always looked the same fro Netflix about the same as iTune Store. I spoke with Applecare today, and was told they have had lots of complaints about the load speed and are working on it.

There are two issues with the ATV2 that need fixed. I have a slow DSL internet hook up, but could still rent a movie with my ATV1 and start watching it in under 15 minutes or so. With my ATV2, I have to wait at least 1 hour to start watching an SD movie. Of course, we will never rent an HD movie on the ATV2 - tried that once - 61 hours for load time.

The second issue deals with restarting a current rent. We rented a movie tonight and let it take 55 minutes to load before we could start watching it. I assumed that if I stopped it for a few minutes (I needed to change an audio setting in the menu), that I could restart the movie without it having to totally reload. No deal. We had to wait another hour for reload. This seems like a simple software update fix. Anyone know if they are working on this?

I agree with Rhettdean, it is a second nail in the coffin when you have to start the download of a TV or Movie being rented from iTunes on the ATV2 because you left the screen where the download is being done. Apple told me I should be able to do other things while the download was running, nope you can't.

Another thing is there is no notification when the show or movie is ready for viewing, like in ATV1.

Think the ATV2 is a great product and also own the ATV1 (in the closet at this time), but they need to do some work on it. Wouldn't it be great to have an App store available, or maybe some plug extra storage.

I have the same problem the last few days. I have 1st and 2nd generation. The 2nd isn't a patch on the first. Loading a movie them takes forever and once I start to watch after 15 mins it freezes then starts after 10 minutes. Apple need to get this problem resolved,,, quick.

I am a really big fan of Apple and their products, and trust me I own most of them! But now after using my Apple TV and all the trouble I have had so far with with the latest firmware and seeing that they seem to have no interest in resolving it, at least not until they see fit I am starting to see how arogant they have become! This attitude makes me want to think twice before I buy their product agsin for sure, sad but true....

I was having the same problem after upgrading the OS on the Apple TV unit too. Music and photos stream fine over my network, but movies would take forever to load then never start playing.

One of two things fixed this for me.

1. I rebooted my iMac then downloaded episodes of "The Walking Dead" would play just fine in HD.
2. I also unplugged another Airport Express that we had in the house that connected to our printer.

Maybe there is an issue with too much home network traffic or it's as simple as restarting the computer used for home sharing.

Are you says that you are downloading the movie to the iMac via iTunes store and then streaming them over your home network? If that's the case then we are not talking about the same issue. My issue is with the very slow speed of the stream from Apple when you try to watch a video from their library. It takes as long as an hour to be ready to watch.

Same issue here. When I first set up Apple TV it worked pretty well. I was streaming movies from Netflix with minimal if any buffer time. Now, the last two times I tried watching anything it kept buffering. The last time was so bad that the movie paused and went back to the screen where you would start the movie from. REALLY frustrating.

R U saying that you are having buffering issues with Netflix too? My complaint has been solely with Apple's streaming movies delays. Even if I download the rental to my Imac it takes a long time to be ready to watch the movie. Once it ready to watch I have no issues streaming it from my Imac.

Your problem sounds more like an issue with you network in your house. R U using wiFi or ethernet? I have and "N" Wifi in my place and experienced issues with speed and streaming with it, but none with my 100 mega bit ethernet.

called apple care today regarding the slow downloading time... we rented INCEPTION last night on itunes and was surprised to see it'll take 7 hours to download...apple care rep confirmed this is because of internet speed in our home (ethernet), i asked why this is not a problem with netflix he replied their server streams movies differently...

Rep says apple is aware of this and is still in the process of improving this problem... so no fixes for the slow downloading of rented movies on itunes for now...

my lesson? just stick to netflix for now...unless i want to wait hours for a movie to download 😟

If you really want to watch the movies on your TV from iTunes and are having problems getting them through the Apple TV, you could rent them on your computer and they will be available to the Apple TV.