Black Box Appearing on AppleTV (1st Gen)

This is the annoying "dot" people are referring to, if anyone fortunate enough not to encounter it...Unfortunately it happens far too often on my device on both rented or purchased films.

These images are from American Sniper which I bought on itune last week for £13.99 (HD)...it may not look much to those who has never experienced it but it is SOOOOO ANNOYING! This "dot" appears from the very beginning all the way until the end on EVERY SCENE.....

Renting/buying films on itunes is like a Russian roulette!

If this happened on a conventional DVD then it would be considered a faulty item, therefore you would be entitled to a full refund.

It's incredible that a massive firm like Apple has yet to come up with a fix for this issue.

Whilst I haven't found an answer it seems we are not alone

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5289991

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4952058?answerId=23319654022#23319654022

also seem to have this issue as well.

My issue is currently with the iTunes Store Support team.

I have similar but the black box is slightly lower down, is about 1/4 from the bottom of the screen. I was beginning to start to think my AppleTV was broken till I saw this.

I have clean rebuilt my Mac Mini and redownloaded Movies, changed my DNS Settings to see if could download from elsewhere.

Movies play back fine on my iPad mk1 over Home Sharing and my iphone 4s and locally on my mac mini 2009. My TV doesn't have HDCP on the HDMI port so I feed via Component. Switched to a Monitor with HDMI port and still same thing.

Does your black box disappear if you exit the movie then resume playing from the position you exit the movie.

If I restart from begiining then the black box reappears.

Also does it also look like it is an overlay and you can see the Movie in the Background through the Black Box.The Blacks on my TV are better then the Black on my TV so wasn't until I hooked the AppleTV upto a Monitor that noticed this.

I have even tried synching the Movies to the AppleTV and playback locally. Still the same result.

Planning on Raising with Apple via the Report a Problem. If I get it resolved will post here

I haven't got a solution, however AppleCare have basically confirmed that not a setting in my iTunes or AppleTV. Don't believe is a hardware issue, and AppleCare believe that is content related the same as I do.

AppleCare person put through to iTunes support who basically tried to say was a technical issue either with my AppleTV or mini and I should speak with AppleCare about support options.

AppleCare person has been excellent and has escalated through to the Software Engineering.

With the location on the screen, being where Subtitles appear then I suspect that is something to do with the new subtitling options in the last update for the AppleTV mk3.

I borrowed my friends Mk3 and you don't get the issue with it when playing the same files on the Mk3.

I think the problem has been that people who have had the issue have mostly been rentals, so have simply taken the refund rather then actually getting the issue resolved.

Basically I would advise that if you have this, or something similar raise a case with AppleCare so that it gets more visbility, and thus more likely to be resolved.

have exactly the same issue. weird thing is, it is not on all movies. just some. and yes, i can also see the movie playing behind the black rectangle. so for example, have downloaded tinkerbell and the little mermaid, both via itunes, both on my ipad, which i then transferred to apple tv when at home and syncing.

they play perfectly on the ipad. but when i watch on apple tv the little mermaid is fine, but tinkerbell has a black rectangle.

I have basically given up on this know. I cannot see Apple fixing this now.

I have managed to find a hdcp compliant hdmi to component convertor that works.

As such I am looking at getting an ATV mk3 and connecting into the tv with the convertor.

Apple don't seem interested in fixing this, so should really withdraw the support for the mk1 with iTunes.

Next stage is plan on leaving reviews on iTunes whenever hit this issue with a movie as it is very disappointing that Apple won't fix this. Yes the Mk1 is old and replaced yet Apple state that it is still compatible with iTunes content which it clearly no longer is.

I don't know if anyone else actually raised this issue with AppleCare however they don't seem to be bothering beyond refunding the users.

I have the same problem and posted to a different forum. It didn't do much good:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6346912

It may be time to upgrade to the next generation of AppleTV.

I have had the same issue for over a year. I have an Apple TV 1 with integrated hard drive. It's only with HD movies that the problem occurs. I've yet to get resolve for the issue.

Having the EXACT same issue on SOME movies rented OR purchased on my 1st gen Apple TV. Is there a fix other than buying a new Apple TV?

I have the same issue while renting movies on my AppleTV Gen 1. The small greyish box goes away if I stop the movie and then resume playing.

Just sounding in to say that I have the exact same issue--it started a few months ago, and only happens with rentals (including SD ones).

Really freaking annoying