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Buggy ESPN Monday Night Football experience

Am I the only one who has a terrible time with WatchESPN on the Apple TV? Specifically during Monday Night Football.


I am signed in using our COX account and trying to watch at work on my Apple TV 3 1st-gen. I have a clean 10Mbps-download, 2Mbps-up (and it can use every bit of that), great WI-FI connection, and just updated to 7.0.1 on the Apple TV. Constant video freezes while sound continues (telling you about the big play you cannot see) or no sound while video works, or both crap out so I have to constantly menu out and reselect the stream. Then, when it recovers, half the time the video looks like it is running at double speed and is not synced with the audio. Sometimes it works great for 5-minutes or so and then the video speeds up briefly and it looks like some kind of Benny Hill sketch. I only use the ESPN app for this one thing and it has happened every time I have tried it this season and last, thru multiple OS updates. To top it off, about every 10th time I get an "An error occurred loading this content. Try again later." error.


Is my connection too slow? I do not have a problem with any of the other Apple TV functions I use (mostly Netflix, HULU and Prime). The kids have no problem with the Disney channels when they are down here.


It is very hard to enjoy when I am constantly restarting the stream. Plus it only seems to happen during a big play.


I love my ATV but this is driving me crazy. Any ideas?


Regards.


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An unrelated comment; I never thought I would say that I miss the music and photos they played during the commercials last year, as I watch the Prius add for the 50th time.


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Apple TV (3rd generation), iOS 8.1

Posted on Oct 27, 2014 7:55 PM

Reply
8 replies

Oct 30, 2014 1:59 PM in response to toonzz

Hi toonzz,


So it sounds like you have isolated the issue to WatchESPN.


There are some steps you can try here.


Apple TV: Troubleshooting third-party content providers

If you have playback issues with a content provider's services

In most cases, you can isolate playback issues to your home network, your broadband connection, or a possible outage with a content provider. To see if your issue is affecting multiple services or a specific content provider, try another service. For example, play a movie trailer from the main menu.


  • If the issue is affecting multiple services on your Apple TV, see how to troubleshoot playback performance.
  • If the issue is affecting a single content provider on your Apple TV, restart your Apple TV by going to Settings > General > Restart. If the issue continues, you might need to contact the content provider.

Take care,
Nubz

Oct 30, 2014 7:46 PM in response to Nubz N.

I also have the same issues. As stated, this IS only with ESPN provider. I have a 50meg down and 12 up (direct connected to Apple Time Machine router) with the exact same issues. I have tried rebooting several times over the past few weeks. It has been this way consistently and prediectably for quite a long time now. I do not understand why. ESPN was always so reliable and dependable. But now I can only depend on having these issues whenever I try to watch ESPN.


I am surprised that there is not more discussion on this. It is hard to believe that there are so few of us, when it seems pretty clear that it is not an internet speed issue.

Nov 8, 2014 8:40 AM in response to toonzz

ATV 3 - have continuous issues with ESPN via ATV. Regular freezing, sometimes I get live audio, and the video stops, then cycles in a "fast forward" mode. I've tried restarting, powering down, etc - no success. Was hoping that another update would be coming soon to resolve this.


Also, while this occurs regularly on ESPN it also occurs on other content providers as well - typically live events are the most challenging.



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NOTE: I can watch this on my iPhone 5 with the Watch ESPN ap, and then throw it up on my TV with the AirPlay feature - really pointing to ATV as the issue on this.

Dec 9, 2014 7:36 PM in response to Kenneth Golovko

I agree, this seems to be limited to the appleTV since airplay from iPhone 6 works fine. It only happens with watchESPN though. Its almost as if espn is sending too high of a bitrate and the box can't keep up? maybe not but I am at a loss for what the problem could be. my connection is plenty fast(60Mbps) and the ATV has a excellent connection with a new airport extreme.


This never used to happen before 7.0.1.


Would be curious to know if someone hasn't updated their box past 7.0 and has these issues.



Oh and I will never buy a prius or be an att subscriber. please find some other advertisers!!!!!

Dec 9, 2014 8:12 PM in response to IUryan13

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***Update***


I really think it is the case of espn sending too high of a bitrate to the ATV. When I airplay from my phone, (this is during the same live event that I have been having issues with all night), it is a slightly lower picture quality ( i can barely tell but it is noticeable ) but there are NO issues anymore. I wonder if they are ignoring the bitrate limitations for the A5 chip and purely going off of the users bandwidth. this would make sense given my fast connection.


Curious to know everyone's thoughts.


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Dec 22, 2014 6:40 PM in response to toonzz

same as all the other posters. It's clearly an atv issue. I can use my ipad without any issue but the atv is always stuttering with video and/or audio lagging, video freezes, and audio drop out. It's funny how the nauseating Prius commercial with the too cute kids always seems to work as do most other commercials. Come on Apple, fix your streaming servers.

Buggy ESPN Monday Night Football experience

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