Apple TV Streaming Issues

Same issue here. It makes no difference if I am watching HD or non-HD TV or Movies streaming from my iTunes. I get video "skipping" once every minute or so. I know it is not the router issue or network speed issue.

I have also noticed that if I rent or buy a TV episode or Movie directly from Apple TV, then while try to watch anything from my iTunes library while the Apple TV is downloading the sound cuts out for about 10 seconds then comes back while trying to view the iTunes stream.

I believe it is the Apple TV hardware or firmware. I have seen the same issue on the first new ATV I had and my current one. I have also seen it on 3 other new ATV in different homes, two of which the owners stated they were not having issues. They did not see it apparently until I pointed it out. I admit that sometimes it can be subtle and one might miss it but usually is very noticeable.

So then my eyes have not been seeing things. The jitter/stutter or lag as described here is very subtle. I believe it's software/firmware. I also own a 1st gen model as well and do not have the jitter problem on that unit. Strangely, the jitter/lag kicks in about half way through the streaming process. Maybe it's a cache problem with the flash memory (apparently the new unit has 8 gb. of flash). Anyway, it's very annoying. Once you see it, you can never get rid of it. I posted today about it. Will be watching for a fix.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2614095&stqc=true

Well when my homeshare is actally working (see my other post for my woes in that area).

the stream from my laptop to my ATV2 is rather slow in loading a HD movie to start playing. And if you try fast forwarding again very very laggy. Whether its due to my laptop being wifi of the 'g' variety and not the 'n' variety I don't know.

Maybe I can get a 802.11n wifi usb plug and try that out.

I'd like to know if there are ANY satisfactory reports on streaming video on the ATV2 across a wireless network.

Me too.

Add me to the problem list. I'm not sure all the problems are the same, but here is detail on mine. I am trying to stream edited, finished, 720p home videos from iTunes on my computers to the Apple TV 2. I didn't notice this at first because it is hard to detect on something like my kids' birthday party where there is lots of sitting, singing, etc. It is quite subtle. But on a dance recital video where there is lots of leaping and spinning with a bunch of kids it is pretty apparent. It seems to start a few minutes into a video. You can see the video go into slow motion for short bits of time about every 10-15 seconds. It's like one of those movies with the martial arts where an actor goes into slow motion for a time at the top of a jump or such, but in this case the period of time is like a small fraction of a second. It only occurs on stuff I try to stream from an iTunes library over my local network, I don't see any problems with stuff the Apple TV streams directly from the Internet.

I have tried switching computers, switching between WiFi and Ethernet connections, re-rendering movies from the original 1080i source at lower quality level, resolution etc., nothing makes any difference. I agree with the other poster who said it seems like a buffering issue with the flash memory, since for me it doesn't start immediately when I play a video. Here's hoping for a firmware fix.

Steve

I got my Apple TV last friday and so far I must say this is the biggest piece of junk that I've ever bought from apple. It won't play a rented movie or content from my mac mini across a wireless network - which is the whole reason I bought it. I'll be returning it shortly.....

Same problem here.

I use a first gen apple tv and everything works fine, switch to my new 2nd gen and almost nothing works.

Slow thumbnail load times, long wait for library to load and even longer times for something to actually start playing, if it ever does....havent managed to watch anything yet, preview nor actual video from my library.

I hope its a firmware issue....

Ditto, I am loyal to Apple only because their products work great. This 2nd gen ATV was not ready for release. For me everything works fine, until I try to rent movies from Apple... the screen tells me it will take hundreds of mins to start the movie. Yet Netflix on the ATV works fine. So what this tells me is that either the Apple servers can't keep up or it is bs that they are "streaming" and instead they are really just sending the entire movie to memory in the ATV and of course that takes just as long as downloading to a HD in the old ATV or in any computer running iTunes. I just spent an hour on the phone with their Canadian support line... clueless... completely clueless... telling me I need more bw from my service provider, complete bs. Jobs must be running around firing people this week.

I think the 2nd Gen Apple TV is a pile of s**t, truthfully I wish I had never bought it. It is full of bugs such as not being able to see my downloaded movies or music or iphoto library. Even though the new update to iTunes seems to state that Home Sharing is on. I used to approve of Apple Hardware as not only is it nice looking but it is supposed to be dependable, this Apple TV is however not and maybe never will be, also we have been shafted by Apple who state that the hardware is only $99 in the U.S. which equals £62 yet we have to pay £99 for less offerings (ie: Netflix, TV programs).

I will never buy another Apple product as this Apple TV paperweight has lost them many points on my behalf. Oh well back to the dependable streaming on my Xbox 360

Received the new ATV yesterday and installed it today in about 10 minutes. Everything seems to work very well. All photos from iPhoto are available as well as as all the movies that I imported into iTunes as well as all the music. Did not notice the sync issues, but so far I'm really happy. The user guide is extremely useful.

Oops! Somehow I overlooked this topic when I posted this same issue as well. So you can add a me to for the streaming issue. I hadn't seen any sync issue's with the exception of Netflix. I've noticed an episode of Stargate Universe where the audio was out of sync. Otherwise I hadn't seen the audio sync issue so much.

I had a similar problem streaming from my Time capsule to my aic Mini and out putting it to my TV. For me it was my LAN cable check the cable if it is a CAT5 cable this should be written on the cable then it wont work, you need to upgrade it to a CAT5E cable or preferably CAT6, they only cost a couple of quid this will sort the juddering.