Apple TV - painfully slow buffering

For what it's worth, my problem seems to have been fixed by changing back to my ISP-provided DNS. I was previously using Google's DNS. I have read elsewhere on these forums that not using the ISP-DNS can be a problem, and it looks like it was for me. Hope that helps someone else.

After I did the software update my ATV completely froze. I didn't have the micro usb cable so I took it back to where I purchased it, they restored it to factory settings and I secessfully rented the clint eastwood movie trouble with the curve in 1080HD. Was ready to play in seconds and did not stop to buffer once.

I have not tried my other issues (buffering from from computer to the ATV). But at least the rental worked.

Just tried chnaging the DNS settings as suggested above and thus far it seems to have resolved the issue.

Same issue here... I now have a 2-3 month history of demanding/receiving iTunes refunds for rental fees when the movies stalled repeatedly during playback due to slow buffering. The kicker here is that the issue presents itself on both my current-gen ATV's in the same way, yet on both all other streaming (Netflix, YouTube, Hulu) all work flawlessly... it's only iTunes movie rentals that have this buffering/stalling problem. Also, it's not 100% consistent... we rented movies Sat and Sun nights this weekend... and Sat worked fine, but Sun was effectively unwatchable. The tell-tale warning for me is when I view the 2-min previews before renting movies... most of the time, it takes nearly 10 mins for these previews to buffer before they will play. No always, but most of the time.

As mentioned earlier, Apple has been receptive to giving refunds for these faulty rentals, and I have received emails on the issue offering basic (unsuccessful) suggestions for fixing the issue, but I have yet to get any REAL support. A real shame, since I have 3 ATVs total (2 current gen and one old HDD version) and use them for all our on-demand rentals... but now we may have to seek an alternative.

If you happen to have a Dual band router, have you tried to switch to 5Ghz fro, 2.4Ghz or vice vera? Just somethnig else you might try.

If other content like Netflix, Youtube, and Hulu stream just fine, doesn't that preclude any router/network issues?

I would think so, but I really don't know what the bandwith requirements of Apple iTunes might be compared to Netflix.

It's a similar situation as on their mobile devices and YouTube. Everything else streams just fine, but YouTube will just sit there and buffer all day. Some people have had luck changing their ISP DNS servers to Google servers, and magicly correct the issue for no logical reason.

My only current complaint is AirPlay video from my Phone, to the Apple TV. Buffer times longer than the 3 minute video I am trying to watch....

Sorry to say that I have no solutions - but I purchased a new ATV3 last week and have all the same problems:

- Streaming from iTunes store is impossible with long wait times throughout (720p)

- Streaming from a local iTunes computer is impossible with long wait times throughout

- YouTube Airplay via iPad1 works totally fine

- ATV1 works totally fine (I switched back and forth between ATV1 & ATV3 for testing)

I'm not sure this is an isue with the local network as everything else works fine. But it maybe that ATV3 is more intolarat of older devices on the same network - but that doesn't explain why YouTube Airplay works fine?

I've kinda had enough as my ATV1 is a joy - I'm returning the ATV3 and will switch back to the ATV1 for now.

Will report back if Apple has anything useful to add - they must be aware of this by now?

Cheers

Ben

I just got another refund on that slow buffering rental ('Flight' with Denzel Washington... easily my 5th or 6th refund so far this year) and just as with previous problem reports, I requested some real support to fix the issue... beyond just getting a refund. I want this issue fixed so that I can confidently rent movies 'on demand'... not an hour or two before I really want to watch them to potentially avoid some weird buffering issues which ruin the experience. The only suggestion I got from Apple was to try renting via the computer, then moving the rental from the computer to the ATV device to see if that helps. I'll try it to perhaps inform some troubleshooting, but that is not a real fix. I (we) should be able to rent a movie via iTunes on our ATV devices without sturggling thru this nonsense and without real support.

Man, this is frustrating.

Have played with my network in an effort to make it work better (made it 802.11n only)

And after mapping my home's wifi using the excellent (and free) Netspot I've determined that the wifi around both my ATV's is fine (signal to noise ratio). Couriously my ATV1 has one bar extra strength than the ATV3.

Still no luck though.

I'm currently erasing and reinstalling all the software to see if that makes a difference as well.

My setup:

• ATV3 is connected to my AT&T U-Verse modem via Wi-Fi.
• I get speeds of 12-16 Mbps with my iPhone 5 connected to the same Wi-Fi modem. I'm assuming the ATV3 would get similar speeds.

Results:

• Movies from Netflix, Hulu stream fine through ATV3.
• Movies stored on my PC stream fine from iTunes to ATV3.
• YouTube is painfully slow to buffer. It will buffer a few seconds, play what's been buffered until it gets to the end of the buffer, stop, and then take forever to buffer another few seconds of video. (Not sure whether this is related, but I have the same problems viewing YouTube videos on my iPhone 5. It does not matter whether I am on Wi-Fi or 4G LTE, nor does it matter whether I use the official YouTube app or try viewing a video through the mobile YouTube website with Safari or the Chrome browser for iPhone. So maybe this particular issue has something to do with YouTube itself?)
• Videos played through AirPlay are painfully slow to buffer. Any video that I try to play from my iPhone 5 to the ATV3 takes forever to buffer, even videos that are less than a minute in length. It doesn't matter whether the videos were ones I captured with my iPhone 5 or if they are videos I transfered to it--they are all slow to buffer. Nor does it matter if I use AirPlay Mirroring or not to view videos from my iPhone to the ATV3.
• Viewing iPhone photos through AirPlay Mirroring show slight lag when flipping through them with the iPhone.
• iPhone games played through AirPlay Mirroring show no lag.

I haven't tried using a direct Ethernet connection to my ATV3, but that might only affect buffering for YouTube videos played through the YouTube app on the ATV3. Even so, many previous posters have said they noticed no difference in buffering between connecting their ATV to a Wi-Fi or Ethernet Internet connection.

I'm surprised there continue to be so many others with similar problems but few solutions to them.

Another rental, and another round of issues. I'm now almost halfway thru 'Life Of Pi', and the movie took 10mins to buffer before flagging as 'Ready To Watch', then I waited another 10 mins for buffering before I pressed the PLAY button. Sure enough, 15 mins later the playback stalled for a good 10 mins while it buffered, then did so again at apprx 45 mins into the movie... where I sit now, buffering, while I write this note!

However, this time I noticed that both 'stalls' happened right at chapter changes. On this movie, the two stalls (thus far) occurred right at the Chapter 3-4 change and right at the Chapter 9-10 change... so somehhow the buffering is chapter-related and causing problems.

Again, as stated previously, I have no other issue with my ATV's (2 ATV3's in the house, plus an ATV2 in the garage). Streaming radio, Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, etc... all work fine. It's only iTunes movie rentals that have this presistent problem. So far, aside from rental refunds for 6-7 movies, no meaningful support from Apple... VERY frustrating.

Quick update... at 1:14 into playback of 'Life of Pi', it stalled again in the middle of a chapter. I hit the menu button all the way back out, then pressed PLAY again to 'Resume Playback'. I received notice that said my movie would be ready to watch in 30 mins!!! At the effective midpoint of a 2-hr movie, I need to wait 30 mins for the movie to buffer!!?!?!?

I restored my ATV to the original software setting and then didn't do the software update and all my movies rented from the itunes store stream fine now. I had issues before with the slow buffering.

now I simply don't do the software update out of fear.

Perhaps I'll try that as part of the troubleshooting/diagnosis (since posting here and many, many emails to Apple have been met with no meaningful Apple response or support), but I'd really hate to think that this is the 'real' fix... to run old versions of the SW and never, ever trust any update, ever.

APPLE... you listening...?