Ordered a movie rental through the tv.. Apple TV indicates 23 hours and 44 minutes to download. What minimum DSl rate do I need? Or could there be another problem?
Apple TV, Mac OS X (10.6)
I have the extra cost DSL that has a confirmed actual rate of 4 Mbps (nominal is 6 Mbps). It takes me several hours hours (more or less, depending on the movie) to download a movie so I start it when I go to sleep and it's there in the morning.
If you have standard DSL, the NOMINAL rate is something like 700 Kbps. However, most persons are unaware that the nominal rate is what you can expect if you live in a tent inside the phone company's C.O. (Central Office)! The further you are from the C.O., the lower your data rate. Consequently, if you're getting only 500 Kbps, then 23 hours is not all that unreasonable.
Sorry.
1080p HD movies require a recommended speed of 8 Mbps, 720p HD movies require a recommended speed of 6 Mbps, while SD movies require a recommended speed of 2.5 Mbps.
Winston Churchill wrote:
1080p HD movies require a recommended speed of 8 Mbps, 720p HD movies require a recommended speed of 6 Mbps, while SD movies require a recommended speed of 2.5 Mbps.
That's for streaming. I was referring to download time.
Actually, I had heard slightly less for streaming, 6M, 2.5M and 700K. I got this verbally from an Apple support rep. Where did you get your figures?
Edit... I have not yet tried to stream to my Apple TV. It's connected to a 720P television so I configured my ATV Apple Store settings accordingly. Hopefully I'll try it soon. I have a confirmed 4 Mbps Internet rate. If your figures are correct, I should see frequent stoppages. If my figures are correct, I shouldn't see any stoppages at all. I expect to report my results in a new thread when I try it.
I just located your figures. They're here (scroll down to the bottom). I'm still going to experiment with streaming 720SD to my ATV when I get a chance.
The Apple TV will work perfectly fine with slower speeds than those quoted, the figures quoted merely guarantee instant playback upon purchase/rental.
Streaming requirements for 'instant' play in footnote 4 here:
Yes, and it may also be worth noting, that a number of users have seemingly been unable to download anything, when their download rate drops below around 1 Mb per second.
It's important to separate downloading for storage and future use and downloading for real-time streaming.
If downloading for storage, the data rate doesn't matter except that it impacts the total amount of time for the download process.
If downloading for real-time streaming, a minimum data rate (8/6/2.5) is the ideal situation since that ensures that data will arrive at least as fast as it's consumed. If the actual rate is below that minimum, there is a delay prior to start to allow a buffer to build up a reserve.
In any event, it's possible that the buffer contents will empty prior to the movie's completion. If that occurs, the movie will stop playing until the buffer is replenished. Hence, stop/start during the play. I'm suspecting that the 1Mbps rate that you mentioned is the minimum required to prevent an unacceptable amount of stop/starts.
There should be no stop/starting whatever the download speed, the movie will not start until enough has downloaded to ensure continuous playback, one exception to this is when the connection is flakey and varies significantly.
The issue I mentioned earlier with very low connection speeds is not that the movie is continually interrupted but doesn't seem to download at all.
Winston Churchill wrote:
The issue I mentioned earlier with very low connection speeds is not that the movie is continually interrupted but doesn't seem to download at all.
Strictly a hunch but my belief is that that is because the buffer isn't large enough to hold the amount of data necessary to prevent stop/starts.
I agree with your other comment.
Ordered a movie rental. Apple TV indicates 23 hours and 44 minutes to download. What minimum DSl rate do I need? Or could there be another problem?
