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Renting Movies is less than ideal

1st let me say, I love the Apple Tv. But as I discovered over the weekend holiday, renting movies through the Apple service is, well, terrible. This post is meant to be constructive critisism - I love all the features of it, except the rental process - here's why...

I expected the service to work like Netflix - streaming, able to watch right away.

Not so - we had guests over, and didn't feel like running to RedBox, so we rented a $4.99 movie through the Apple TV. I have a 10Mbit cable connection, so it's not a connection problem, but the movie said "loading...." and then eventually said, "ready to watch in 3 hour, 45 minutes"....eventually it went up to 7 hours...we were eventually able to watch about 2 minutes of it, and then it paused, seemingly because it had to download more.

Needless to say, we couldn't watch the movie that night...so I let it "download" overnight. We were expecting more guests the next night, so we waited to watch it until the early evening.

When we were ready, we starting watching - about 1 hour into the movie, my kids interrupted us, and we had to pause the movie. Mistakenly, I hit the MENU button instead of pause (on my iPhone remote app)....this mistake appararently empties out the cache, because we had to redownload the entire movie....which I might add, we were not able to do, because when we tried to do it, it was past the 24 hour period.

Most frustrating. Someone on another post said the AppleTV doesn't "store" anything - but I disagree - since it would not allow us to start the movie until the entire thing was downloaded. If it truly doesn't store anything, it should, or, at a minimum, "warn" the user if they hit the menu button that they will lose everything if they proceed.

Thanks for listening.

iPhone 4, Windows Vista

Posted on Nov 29, 2010 11:46 AM

Reply
122 replies

Nov 29, 2010 12:25 PM in response to ShorePatrol

Netflix and apple use different processes for streaming. The first does so instantly but degrades quality based on connection. Apple loads content, then will pause/buffer based on connection.

Is 10Mbit your advertised speed or what you were actually getting at that given moment because there is a difference.

It's been clearly stated that there is no storage in ATV2. There is a flash drive used to cache streamed content. Stuff happens, like hitting the wrong button, so you learn and move on.

Nov 29, 2010 1:16 PM in response to vazandrew

Sorry but Apple is CLEARLY having issues with iTunes movie streaming as countless posts in these forums have indicated with the the new ATV2. I've rented hundreds of movies via my original ATV over the last two years with no problems at all and HD movies were ready to play in 15 seconds or less and almost never stopped streaming.

Fast forward now to my new ATV2 and the user experience so far has been the complete opposite. Sometimes HD movies stream fine and then another movie immediately after will stop 10 or 15 times to refill the buffer. It's like playing russian roulette now to watch an iTunes movie. My Netflix also works fine on the ATV2 and on my PS3 which is only a "G" wireless connection. My PS3 can also display on the screen what resolution Netflix is in and what audio track is in use. I can literally watch the display go from low def to medium to high to X-high and that's where it stays. No problem. This is an ATV2 and iTunes issue, clear and simple.

For me, the wife has passed judgement, the ATV2 is going into the junk drawer and the old ATV is going back into service unless Apple fixes this up right quick. We're not having another movie night ruined. Cheers!

James

Nov 29, 2010 1:57 PM in response to vazandrew

While I'm very pleased that you haven't had any issues with yours, that doesn't discount the issues that myself and hundreds of others are clearly having as mentioned in thousands of posts already on these and other forums. I'll grant you that Netflix is obviously a different protocol and isn't totally a fair comparison but if you read my post, I also CLEARLY compared it to my original ATV and the new ATV2 streaming service is not passing muster. And having said that, Netflix HD file sizes are quite comparable to Apple's file sizes for equivalent programming so I guess maybe Netflix is doing it right?

NOTHING else has changed on my network or my service (15Mbps download speed) other than the ATV2 and movies are now hit and miss as to when we are going to have streaming problems. I can rent HD movies on my PS3 directly from Sony and we have no issues with their service and the file sizes are comparable as well for HD. I'm a two plus year ATV user who has watched close to 200 HD movies from Apple with almost no trouble so I'm not some noob who might have his network or systems setup wrong or "pressed the wrong button". I've done the upgrades, I've tested my network and bandwidth and no issues, everything else works just fine as it always has.

For me, the old ATV is going back into service until Apple sorts this out. At least the original ATV streaming worked as advertised.

James

Nov 29, 2010 2:14 PM in response to ShorePatrol

vazandrew,

You say stop comparing it to netflix...people just want it to work "as well" as netflix...nobody is doing a comparison in the way you suggest.

Since netflix is actually on the same device and works quite well, it's only natural to make a comparison, no matter what the protocol is...so relax.

You are correct, netflix quality is not as good - but quite honestly, at least it's watchable, right away.

And to answer your question, yes, my connection is advertised as 10Mbit, and I always get between 7 - 11, so it's not my connection. Check out the other posts, and other forums - this problem is wide spread. This IS a problem, and just because it works fine for you, doesn't mean it doesn't exist for other people.

Thank you, and good night.

Nov 29, 2010 2:54 PM in response to ShorePatrol

Well it has been explained many times that each uses a different protocol to stream. So it's not going to work the way way. They are two different services.

I never said Netflix has poor quality, but it depends on your connection. ISP's have been known to throttle connection for iTunes rentals too. Honestly, if apple degraded quality people would complain about that. There will always be something.

Yes, I know a lot of people have had problems but A LOT of people have had flawless experiences, it's not just me. It's based on certain configurations.

Nov 29, 2010 3:02 PM in response to vazandrew

Count me in the "it ain't working right" category. I've had the original ATV for 3 years and just got the ATV2 for the bedroom. Same streaming issues. benchmarked my net connection and got about 14 megabit down. Next I checked wireless strength in the room and had satisfactory results.

I had rented a movie in HD for my son two days prior on the original ATV. It was ready to stream within 2 minutes. My wife's HD rental of Bones last night said 7 hours until ready.

There IS some kind of a bug and I suspect it is in the ATV2. It uses a different OS than the original ATV and probably has either an issue with the network stack or a problem in its buffering logic. Just a very uneducated guess of course.

It may have something to do with router settings, which explains why only some people are having issues.

Dec 1, 2010 9:20 AM in response to vazandrew

When I look on these forums, I see evidence only of people having problems. I don't see posts saying ATV2 has radically improved the quality of life. Yesterday when I went to the Apple Store, there were no Apple TV displays. There weren't even any Apple TV's for sale on the shelves. Have you seen any Apple TV commercials? I trust Apple to fix the problem, but for now, the reality is that there IS a serious problem, one that very much needs to be fixed. If I can rent from X-Box Live, Comcast On Demand, Red Box, or McDonalds for the same price and availability as Apple TV \ iTunes and all those work and Apple TV doesn't, it is pretty obvious that my ATV2 will soon be gathering dust. Apple TV will either get fixed soon or disappear. I bought it for it's potential as an iOS device that can ultimately do wonderful things. Let's hope that happens soon.

Dec 1, 2010 9:29 AM in response to Bruce Hanson1

This is a support forum so naturally the posts started here are going to be about people having problems. You don't come here for support if you don't need support or don't mind helping people who do need support with their issues. Hundreds of thousands of people have purchased the new Apple TV. The overwhelming majority of them aren't having problems including myself. You're simply basing your "evidence" on a biased sample and making a classic mistaken assumption.

Dec 1, 2010 9:46 AM in response to newagemac

The reason I came here "newagemac" is because I do need help. My frame of reference and the only one I actually care about is my own. If ATV2 is working well for you, please look at my framework and tell me how it varies from yours. I want it to work. Please tell me if you see some ingredient you have and I am missing so that I can fix mine. The only tangible help I received from Apple is to tell me to make sure my software versions are up to date, something I did 30 sec. after they were available. I have Apple TV 2. My router is an Airport Extreme. I connect to the Internet via Comcast and a cable modem, and my connect speeds are relatively fast, at least by American standards, 15-20. I am honestly asking you if you can see a reason that makes yours work and mine not. I just want it to work.

Dec 1, 2010 11:16 AM in response to Bruce Hanson1

Well is your Apple TV connected by ethernet or wifi and are you having problems streaming other HD sources from the internet like Netflix HD material?

Also are you renting movies directly on the Apple TV or are you renting them on your computer and attempting to stream to the Apple TV with Home Sharing?

You might want to try rebooting your router and/or trying a complete restore of your Apple TV. And try turning off any antivirus programs or firewalls temporarily to see if that is the culprit. If that doesn't work, you should contact Apple again and request to speak with someone higher up if the initial person isn't able to resolve your issue. I would imagine they would be very concerned if people are having problems renting their content on their own device.

Renting Movies is less than ideal

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