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Apple TV is Downloading movie rentals very slowly

I rented Mission Impossible tonight, but Apple TV said it would be ready in 52 hours and 10 minutes. I checked my connection, and it's all good, I did a speed test and got 22Mbps download speed, so I can't figure out what the problem is.

I have been having more and more issues with my Apple TV lately. Rentals are taking longer, or the movies play to a certain point and then we have to wait for the streaming to catch up to a point and then the movie will start again.


Has anyone else experienced any problems like this, and have you found a solution? It makes for a very frustrating user experience, and everytime it happens I get a bit more turned off by the Apple TV product.

Mac 24", Mac OS X (10.0.x)

Posted on May 13, 2012 12:24 AM

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105 replies

May 13, 2012 1:42 AM in response to xuamox

This really doesn't sound right.


Might be worth mentioning your Country as sometimes problems can be country specific.


Always worth unpowering the unit and restarting if it's misbehaving.


Have you tried steraming content from iTunes locally recently - if that's ok then it's not LAN slowness, and given your 22 Mbps internet connection it's not likely to be that.


Could be Apple's servers in your region, your ISP throttling connections to Apple (unlikely) or a variety of nebulous networking factors.


Are you using your ISPs recommended DNS servers - some others apparently really slow access to Apple's media servers for some reason.


AC

May 13, 2012 8:03 AM in response to xuamox

Netflix works differently, altering quality for the worse if the connection is slow.


The Apple TV receives a fixed size file as a stream - if the internet speed is slower than required to give that real time rate it has to buffer.


Even 1080p HD would get by on 8 Mbps so your 22 Mbps should work fine.


Check your ISP throttling rules and also your DNS erver setup (I think OpenDNS caused problems and Google's DNS).


AC

Jun 27, 2012 5:12 PM in response to xuamox

Same problem here in Toronto for myself and the only other person I know who uses Apple TV(second gen) exclusively for movie rentals.

The last month or so my downloads have been painfully slow.

My Internet speed is insanely fast and all of my other devices work fine.

I found another thread from users in New Zealand complaining of the same issue.

Could this be a country specific problem?

Apple TV, fix yourself or I will smash you against the wall and kill Steve Jobs... Wait... That's not right...

Jun 27, 2012 7:15 PM in response to PSGB

I am sort of glad to hear that I am not the only one experiencing these issues with Apple TV. I am sure I am not the only one. Perhaps it has to do with how Apple is able to deal with loads on their servers. Maybe too many users requesting the same movie at the same time can cause strange delays. Some days are better than others, but gone are the days where we could just sit down and choose what movie we want to rent. You can't depend on Apple TV and rental service to deliver the content on demand. Now I just rent the movie and whatch it a couple of days later. It's really frustrating because I love Apple products, but in this case, something is not working correctly. I have tested my Internet connection and download speed (25 mbps with Shaw.ca Extreme Package). I have contacted Shaw to ensure they do not throttle the connection. My wireless connection in the home is fine. So I just don't know what else to check. If anyone has any ideas I would really appreciate it.

Jun 28, 2012 3:01 AM in response to xuamox

I'm in the UK with an Apple TV Gen 2 (9Mb/s broadband speed checked) and have conclusively failed to rent one single movie since I bought this a year ago. Every time I try all I get is "connection error please try later" Playing movie trailers and everything else is fine.

On saturday I tried again with the same error so figured I'd try and rent the movie direct from iTunes Store on my laptop, hey presto, 2 mins later I'm watching my film via my Macbook Pro hooked up to my TV.


So the big question is: Why can not Apple TV stream a movie like the iTunes Store can?


Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks.

Jul 2, 2012 6:08 PM in response to xuamox

Same deal here in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I had an Apple TV 2 and the downloads were ready to watch within seconds. As soon as I switched to Apple TV 3 my download speed for movies slowed to a crawl. Even lowering the resolution to 720p doesn't help (much). Downloading a movie still takes over an hour whereas with ATV 2 it was ready to watch in under a minute.


Curiously, for about 3 days several months ago my downloads speeded up and movies were ready to watch in seconds again. Then things went back to the usual slowmo. I use my ISP domain name and have no throttling (Shaw too) and my wifi speed never falls below 16 Mbps.


Lots of calls to Apple Care with no resolution.


Very, very frustrated.

Jul 4, 2012 11:01 AM in response to xuamox

Hamilton, Ontario. Same issues here. Recently upgraded to 22 Mbps and now my appleTV-2 is virtually unusable. I have been blaming ISP as it coincided with the speed change. Curious if we have more than the appleTV in common. Perhaps the hardware to connect to the internet? I'm running a CellPiPe 7130 firmware v1.0.4.4R3WH. Not using CellPipe wireless. The CellPipe is wired to my Airport Time Capsule in bridge mode. AppleTV2 is wirelessly connected to the Airport. Local itunes content streams fine wirelessly. Radio streams across appleTV2 no problem. Seems to be specific to movies and movie trailers.


Message was edited by: synaptech

Jul 4, 2012 2:22 PM in response to xuamox

I even get, that the download takes a while... but even when a movie has loaded to my iPad , is

able to be watched on iPad , you then try to use apple TV to link it to the smart tv ,

it seems to stall and take for ever to load , it will not stream instantly as was expected. flick. back to

Ipad and the movie plays ??

apple TV is the slow part in this all....

Brig

Apple TV is Downloading movie rentals very slowly

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