Apple Tv 3rd Gen Slow!

What exactly do you mean when you say 'running slow', do you mean that the video takes a long time to download.

The first thing to check would be your internet download speed, you can do this at www.speedtest.net.

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.

Us too. Our Apple TV 3 is extremely slow as well... when compared to our 1st Gen (160GB). When streaming or downloading content (YouTube, movie trailers, etc), it is almost unusable. I've tested them both in same room, different rooms, different tv resolutions, etc. I've tested on a WiFi that connects directly to our ATT U-verse router (12Mbps) and one that bridges through an Airport Time Capsule. In all cases our ATV3 is much slower than our 1st gen. ??? Bad ATV3 unit? or is there a known slower connection speed issue?

The most likely explanation for your observation is that you have a problem on your local network.

My ATV3 was so slow that I've sent it back. We have a brand new airport wireless system, Netflix was lightening quick but anything through iTunes even at 720p (ie an episode of Justified) took at best 15 mins to start playing & then buffered throughout. Apparently Netflix searches for the quickest transfer whereas Apple is fixed in it's delivery (DNS or something?) hence the problem!! Shame really!

That's not quite how it is. NetFlix uses adaptive streaming, it can vary the data rate of the stream according to your Internet connection speed. If you have a slow Internet connection speed this will result in a lower quality movie.

ITunes guarantees its quality, and if you have a slow Internet connection speed the movie will take longer to download.

NetFlix streams can have a data rate as low as 0.5 Mb per second, whereas even the standard definition of iTunes movies has a data rate of around 2 Mb per second with HD versions at 5 Mb per second or higher.

I've noticed the same problem. I changed 2 of my gen2 ATV for a Gen3 3 days ago. The most recent movie I've rented says 9hrs before its ready to play. My network and Broadband have remained the same. speed test shows 15mbs download speed.

I've also noticed that I get a lot of intermittent 'noise' on the screen. Horizontal white lines accompanied by loud cracking. It has also dropped the home share 3 times while streaming video.

I had no problems at all with my 1&2 Gen ATV, but so far I'm very dissapointed with the G3.

Just tested the theory - Expendables on HD on Netflix loaded via wireless in less than 10 secs and the quality was fine. I think Apple need to take a leaf out of Netflix's book.

I disagree. If you have an adequete network then iTunes content will work just fine. Just rented something the other day and it started after 5 seconds. As stated Netflix adapts to your connection in order to stream instantly.

iTunes content is fixed and ends up being better quality, this would suffer if they used the adaptive model.

I'm averaging 15.12 mbps on speedtest. That should be enough shouldn't it?

For speed yes. What about interference (www.istumbler.net) and are you using your ISPs DNS?

All I know is my AppleTV3 is getting worse everyday. I bought it the day it was released and it worked fine. Now, HD shows take hours to download and I can't even watch SD shows without sitting through perpetual buffering. My AT&T Uverse speed is always in the mid to upper teens. Someone please explain what else is causing these problems. I can watch Netflix or Hulu on my Roku with no trouble, it's just AppleTV.

Are you referring to Netflix or iTunes content?

For iTunes, if speed is fine then check for interference and ensure you're on the ISPs DNS

For Netflix, some servers allocated to ATV sem to be problematic and causing issues for some users

I'll try to make myself as clear as I can. I am not that handy with this stuff so please excuse me. My problem resides with watching shows I own that are located in the iCloud. If I try to watch something that I purchased awhile ago, say an episode of The Wire, when I attempt to download the episode, I am told it will take up to two hours. That's in SD. If I try to view a show that was recently purchased on AppleTV in HD, the buffering makes it impossible to watch.

If I switch my TV to my Roku box where I have access to Netflix or Hulu, I don't have the problems with buffering or downloads that take hours.

What confounds me most is that I did not experience these issues when I first purchased AppleTV. Initially, I was extremely pleased with the product, especially compared with the original AppleTV I've owned for years.

Now, you're recommending that I try to find a new, faster ISP DNS? I'll look into iStumbler to try and make some sense of it. If you have any other recommendations or suggestions I'm open to ideas.

Thanks,

Paul