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Slow streaming of rentals and purchased content

We seem to be experience slow streaming from our Apple TV2. The last movie we rented on our account we were unable to watch "instantly". After ~5-10min of initial download of the Hunger Games we were able to watch 5 minutes of the movie and then it stalled. After waiting a further ~5-10 minutes, we gave up, and ordered the movie on demand (in 1080p HD) from our cable provider with instant and stall-free streaming.


Our Apple TV is connected to our Time Capsule through ethernet cable and is directly connected to our cable modem


Our internet subscription provides speeds of 40-50 megabits/second consistently. I have set the HD content on the Apple TV to 720p to hopefully mitigate this issue.


What do you think could be the problem?


Are there any solutions?


We are begining to question the use and benefit of the Apple TV if we are unable to use it effectively.


We also experience the slow streaming experience from purchased content. We have purchased some TV shows through iTunes and have tried to play them from the Apple TV and it seems to take an excessively long time to queue up (~5-10 minutes).


Looking forward to some helpful suggestions.

AppleTV 2

Posted on Aug 28, 2012 7:23 PM

Reply
18 replies

Aug 29, 2012 7:57 AM in response to vazandrew

I have insured that DNS is set to automatic.


There does not appear to be any specific time this occurs. I have used speedtest.net while we were experiencing the probleming thinking that there was lots of traffic and was able to record the 40-50megabit/s results.


As an aside, this problem only seems to be with items being rented/purchased/downloaded from iTunes. Netflix and home sharing are performing as expected.


Hopeful to hear more suggestions....


Thanks

Aug 30, 2012 6:51 AM in response to vazandrew

Use Google’s Public DNS Server To Fix Apple TV Streaming Problems


1. Navigate to Settings >> General >> Network and select Configure TCP/IP.


2. Select “Manually” next to Configure IP.


3. Dont change the IP address or the Subnet Mask and Router Address. Just click "Done".


4. Set the DNS Address screen with the following: 008.008.008.008 and click “Done.”


You should now be able to stream more smoothly on your Apple TV.



If this works for you, please buy a cup of coffee for a complete stranger or some other selfless, random act of kindness.

Aug 30, 2012 8:33 AM in response to BenFinklea

It had already been established above that using the ISPs DNS is recommended, and using others will end up causing issues.


From Apple (there are many other places to corroborate).


http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3623?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Verify DNS and network settings

If you are experiencing abnormal wait times when attempting to purchase or rent on your Apple TV, it could be due to changes made to your network settings (such as the DNS address on your Apple TV and/or router or base station). You should use the default DNS entry supplied by your ISP, on both your Apple TV and router. Changing the DNS entry may result in a longer time before playback begins. Also, you should configure your Apple TV to use DHCP for the network setup, unless you have a custom network with specifically-assigned IP addresses.

To configure your Apple TV to use DHCP, from the main menu, go to Settings > General > Network > Configure TCP/IP. In the Network Setup page, select the "Automatically" option.

User uploaded file

Once you've confirmed that your Apple TV and router or base station are using DHCP without a custom DNS entry, power-cycle your Apple TV, router or base station, and broadband Internet modem.

Aug 30, 2012 7:44 PM in response to vazandrew

Changing my DNS to the google recomendation has resolved my slow streaming! At least for today...


I find it terribly frustrating in several of the threads that the blame is being put on ISP's. I gather from my lurking over the last couple of days that at least I am not alone... Maybe this resolution is purely temporary but I was ending up being unable even to view a preview (<2min) without the streaming being stopped or interrupted because it was downloading too slow.


I will certainly not be purchasing any more itunes content for rental until I am confident that this issue is being resolved in the community.


Thank-you everybody for all the troubleshooting help...

Aug 30, 2012 10:35 PM in response to vazandrew

@vazandrew you keep saying that it's not a permanent solution yet I keep getting notes from people telling me that it fixed their problem. Apple's text you site above doesn't definitively say that it will cause problems. It says that you "should" use your ISPs DNS and that not doing so "may" cause delays in streaming. Well, alright. But doing that causes broken no-streaming Apple TVs. What is it going to say? Our partner Netflix built a crap CDN and refuses to fix it so please use Google's DNS servers? LOL. I think perhaps not.


If you have a solution to these poor people's problem then please post it. Don't just come along behind me and say it's not a permanent solution. If you've got one then give us the permanent solution, man! 😁

Aug 31, 2012 6:36 AM in response to BenFinklea

The ISPs DNS is the permanent solution. There are many more cases where users have problems with 3rd party DNS and have to switch back.


That article is just one source, you can easily find others and ISP DNS is always recommended.


The majority are not having issues and the areas that are affected by the servers aren't going to be permanently solved by changing the DNS. The issues will come back eventually.

Slow streaming of rentals and purchased content

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