apple tv not preloading rented movies to watch later

Question

Level 1

8 points

apple tv not preloading rented movies to watch later

Everyone,

Apple TV 2 cannot be used for renting movies.

I rented a movie 8 days ago. It started downloading and I confirmed it was actually saving to the Apple TV. I thought I could come back later and watch the movie but NO. Now 8 days later with the Apple TV plugged into the Internet and powered up, I try to play the movie and I have to wait 2hrs for it to finish the download. It started downloading 8 days ago but apparently stopped and went to sleep. I wanted to have the movie ready by renting in advance but apparently you can only watch a movie if you start the process and wait captively. I thought these boxes had 16Gb of memory. What is this memory for, because it is NOT to store movies you rent now to watch later?

I am getting rid of Apple TV and deleting my iTunes account. It is easier to drive to the store and get a movie I know I can watch rather than start a download and then come back 8 days later only to find it never finished downloading and now, right at the moment I want to watch the movie, I have to wait hours. Never, never, never again. Apple ripped me off this time but at least I have the option of buying a PC next time I get a computer.

Completely disappointed.

Chris

AppleTV 2

Posted on May 15, 2011 5:06 PM

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Answer 1

vazandrew

Level 8

40,840 points

May 16, 2011 10:56 AM in response to jchrisf

First of all, it's 8GB not 16.

It's not used to store movies, there is no user accessible hard drive. Thus you can only rent and not purchase.

The flash drive is used to cache streaming content. If you power off or watch other content it will be flushed and require re-load. It is imperative to research a product before you purchase. This is how it works.

Also, if you have to wait 2 hours you must have a slow connection. All rentals start after 5 seconds for me as a result of having an adequate speed.

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Answer 2

May 16, 2011 11:14 AM in response to jchrisf

I also don't have such problems as my Internet service is fast enough to allow immediate viewing, however it's fairly obvious the Apple TV is not too friendly to users that have slow Internet connections.

I appreciate that some locations don't even have the option of purchasing faster connections, but on the whole most of the population has access to them and in such cases users should consider switching to a service that supports reasonable speeds for video.

If your location doesn't offer a better service there are a couple of things worth considering:

a) The Apple TV automatically defaults to HD rentals, you can change this in the settings, SD video being a smaller file may well download on slower connections (> 2.5 Mbps) fast enough to give you immediate viewing.

b) Movies rented on your mac/pc can be viewed on the Apple TV and movies are downloaded and saved on the mac/pc, so they can then be watched at anytime without having to be downloaded again.

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Answer 3

jchrisf Author

Level 1

8 points

May 16, 2011 11:46 AM in response to jchrisf

I seem to remember that the spec was 16Gb but on Apple's site, no memory spec is listed. My main point was that I rented a movie and it started downloading, and then stopped. I left the Apple tv on and connected to the network and when I went to watch the movie, it still had not downloaded (or buffered) 8 days later. The movie was smaller than 8Gb so I would still expect it to be able to buffer some of it. Perhaps this device is just for streaming only but it does not do that well. I am able to test my connection at 6Mb and yet the Apple tv often cannot get anywhere near that with its connection to iTunes servers. Perhaps it is my location or time of day, but this seems to be a common problem for many. This does not occur on my Macbook which loads the whole movie in about 10min. I suppose I will do that from now on. Why the great difference on the same network between Apple tv and a Macbook? If someone were computer savy, this might be an interesting question.

I certainly was on a rant when I wrote the original message. Vazandrew, you seem to have a personal attachment to Apple tv so I am sorry if I hurt your feelings with that. There is very limited research you can do on some of these products and often you have to get them and try them to really see how they will behave. $100 is not really worth my time to investigate too intensly. I have used Apple tv version one and this is certainly a different use case and I am sure that is Apple's intent. Now that I have tried Apple tv, I am going to try some other solutions to see if they fit me better.

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Answer 4

May 16, 2011 12:01 PM in response to jchrisf

If you think your Internet should be fast enough (6 Mbps should be) then you may well have an issue on your internal network. It would probably be worth looking into to avoid this re-occurring with any other devices you trial.

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Answer 5

vazandrew

Level 8

40,840 points

May 16, 2011 12:04 PM in response to jchrisf

It's not a matter of personal attachment. I am just stating the facts.

This is the chip

A Samsung K9LCG08U1M 8GB NAND Flash chip

Did you test your connection via www.speedtest.net ?

Also, if using wifi there can be interference.

Have you manually input DNS? Make sure it is using your ISP's

The fact that the video is below 8GB makes no difference. It doesn't store it. It is cached temporarily and can easily be flushed. If you accessed anything else during that time (you said you left it on, if you had turned it off that could do the same) that would be the issue. In any case the suggestions given by the other poster will do.

You could always try a restore if you haven't already. Or try looking on your internal network.

Yes others do have the same problems but one cannot base findings on here and generalize. Many solutions do come down to network issues.

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Answer 6

jchrisf Author

Level 1

8 points

May 16, 2011 12:26 PM in response to jchrisf

Vazandrew, et al,

I have used speedtest.net at my and other locations and it seems to be fairly accurate at the time I use it, meaning that I know the actual speed achievable changes depending on Internet, ISP, and destination server bandwidth loads. My Macbook uses the same WiFi (in same room) and same connection so if there was a connection problem, it should not be limited to the Apple tv, although it does seem that way.

A specific example, last night I was watching that movie and the last 15min did not load. I had the spinning cursor on Apple tv waiting for the data from iTunes servers and for an hour, it loaded nothing. All this time I am using my Macbook fine. Even my dog watched the screen like he also knew it was not working, but he's not talking.

I believe my expectations were more in line with Apple tv version 1 and I get that version 2 is another version. I do not expect to keep a library on Apple tv but I would like it to finish downloading once it started. I did not use it for anything else during this time. I believe the time delay is a networking issue but not necessarily something wrong with my network. Issues like DNS, WiFi interference, etc have been worked out with the other systems I have on site. The issue is unique to Apple tv. Perhaps somewhere there is an Apple tv configuration problem but as you know, there is very little for the user to configure here. I may take it to my university and see how it performs here. I am a postdoc in the electrical engineering department. If I find something out, I will post it here.

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Answer 7

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,560 points

May 16, 2011 1:13 PM in response to vazandrew

vazandrew wrote:

It is imperative to research a product before you purchase. This is how it works.

You cannot research this aspect by simply perusing Apple's product pages and I would not expect the average user to go to discussion fora etc to look for potential problems.

Nowhere on Apple's AppleTV product pages (at least last time I looked) does it specify a minimum internet speed requirement, explain that you cannot use the AppleTV for anything else whilst waiting for the stream to download sufficient data to watch, or say you'll have a crap experience with a slow internet connection. The box doesn't either as far as I can remember.

You and others are lucky to have 'adequate speed' but remember it's not always due to people choosing a slow connection - in many cases there is no faster option available where they live.

I feel the memory management of the ATV2 is poorly implemented - it should be quite feasible for at least one HD movie to be held in that solid state memory in it's entirety, and leave plenty for trailers/local media playback etc.

AppleTV1 was a far better experience for those of us with comparatively slow download speeds, and after a rental completely buggering up the other night after the download flushed due to watching a movie trailer, I'm strongly inclined to relegate to put version 1 back in the family room where we watch rentals.

AC

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Answer 8

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,560 points

May 16, 2011 1:16 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill wrote:

If your location doesn't offer a better service there are a couple of things worth considering:

a) The Apple TV automatically defaults to HD rentals, you can change this in the settings, SD video being a smaller file may well download on slower connections (> 2.5 Mbps) fast enough to give you immediate viewing.

b) Movies rented on your mac/pc can be viewed on the Apple TV and movies are downloaded and saved on the mac/pc, so they can then be watched at anytime without having to be downloaded again.

Point a) is quite valid, the annoyance with point b) is that you cannot rent HD in iTunes to replicate ATV1 functionality of downloading a movie. You could on an iPad and use Airplay i guess but that's a bit convoluted to say the least.

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Answer 9

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,560 points

May 16, 2011 1:21 PM in response to jchrisf

jchrisf

Please send some feedback on this issue to Apple at this address:

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

If enough people complain I hope they might consider improving the memory management on the unit so that at least one download could be held in it's entirety without other actions flushing the memory or at least without giving a warning and option to cancel. This could be enabled in Settings for users of slow connections/capped bandwidth connections. It really should be feasible to do and only potentially scuppered by a power off state (maybe not even then?).

Also I hope they will reconsider formal onboard storage in future iterations of the product - my AppleTV 1's won't last forever!

AC

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Answer 10

May 16, 2011 1:29 PM in response to Alley_Cat

AC, what do you mean when you say "you cannot rent HD in iTunes to replicate ATV1 functionality of downloading a movie".

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Answer 11

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,560 points

May 16, 2011 1:37 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill wrote:

AC, what do you mean when you say "you cannot rent HD in iTunes to replicate ATV1 functionality of downloading a movie".

If you rent in iTunes it downloads in it's entirety before you can playback in iTunes or stream the rental to AppleTV.

Problem is, at least in UK you can only rent SD from iTunes.

AC

PS - I know AppleTv 1 let you watch before it fully downloaded, just saying iTunes doesn't throw the rental away until it expires.

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Answer 12

May 16, 2011 2:09 PM in response to Alley_Cat

Are you sure you can't rent HD from iTunes on the computer, I'm fairly sure I can.

I see what you mean a little more about waiting for the computer to download in full, but the initial complaint is that it disappears and has to be downloaded again which doesn't happen on the computer and because they already have circumstances which means they have to wait anyway, that part doesn't make anything any worse.

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Answer 13

vazandrew

Level 8

40,840 points

May 16, 2011 2:13 PM in response to Alley_Cat

AC

Sorry, should have clarified my point.

It isn't just about 'perusing apple's product pages'. This is a streaming device and is advertised as such so you should make sure you meet certain requirements. You should do this research if you are considering any type of streaming device.

Here is where it mentions the minimum speeds

"For the best viewing experience when renting iTunes movies and TV shows on Apple TV (2nd generation), you need a broadband Internet connection. A sustained 6 Mbit/s or faster Internet connection is recommended for viewing High Definition movies and TV shows, and a sustained 2.5 Mbit/s or faster Internet connection is recommended for Standard Definition content. Internet connection speeds may vary depending on your ISP and other factors."

I am aware some areas don't have access to higher speeds, but one should be aware of these things ahead of time so you can make sure this will work with what you have available.

Anyway, it sounds like the OP does have the speed and the complaint has already been addressed.

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Answer 14

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,560 points

May 16, 2011 3:11 PM in response to vazandrew

vazandrew wrote:

Here is where it mentions the minimum speeds

"For the best viewing experience when renting iTunes movies and TV shows on Apple TV (2nd generation), you need a broadband Internet connection. A sustained 6 Mbit/s or faster Internet connection is recommended for viewing High Definition movies and TV shows, and a sustained 2.5 Mbit/s or faster Internet connection is recommended for Standard Definition content. Internet connection speeds may vary depending on your ISP and other factors."

Not sure where that's from - not doubting you - I'm sure it's genuine and looks kinda familiar - maybe a support page, but it isn't here as far as i can see:

http://www.apple.com/uk/appletv/

...not even on the Technical Specs page under System Requirements where I think it would be logical to have it.

Perhaps other countries' website are different?

AC

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Answer 15

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,560 points

May 16, 2011 3:17 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill wrote:

Are you sure you can't rent HD from iTunes on the computer, I'm fairly sure I can.

I've never been able to in iTunes as far as I can recall.

With AppleTV1 if you were on a slow connection it didn't matter so long as you were prepared to predownload one or more movies and allowed adequate time - while you could do so in itunes and later stream to AppleTV2, allowing it to be used in the interim, I can't see any options to rent HD in iTunes itself, only purchase.

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