Apple TV Download Ridculously Slow

It could be a server error. What country are you in? Also, do you have the latest firmwarefor Apple TV? Has the Apple TV worked as expected in the past?

I'm in Germany and I've been experiencing the same problem for the last month. Up until then, there was never an issue over my 100 MB DSL / WLAN Config. All typical troubleshooting (inkl. updates) has been done and all indicators point to an Apple Server problem / download degradation, since other streaming services, e.g. Netflix, function as usual.

Netflix and other services adapt to the connection. iTunes is at a fixed rate, higher quality, and needs to load a portion before playback begins.

What exactly have you done to troubleshoot?

If checking signal or doing network test on the device that will not account for issues.

I've been having the same issues (with a gen 3 apple tv, 720p). Signal strength to apple airport extreme AP is great. All other internet content streams fine (youtube at 720p streams fine). I suspect this is most likely an issue with Akamai (one of their servers could be hosed; it's happened before for other services). Apple uses Akamai to serve all their content. Unfortunately, there is nothing that anyone can do (and Akamai seems not to give a crap based on troubleshooting sessions I've had with them on other services); I've seen this go away over time.

Youtube would not be an apt comparison as its content is highly compressed, others would still be adapting to the connection. That being said, it could be down to location or ISP

Akamai is location based (what data center/server you get stuck to depends on your location).

csbiegel wrote:

Anyone else having a problem watching rented movies on Apple TV? Ready to play in 2 hours! My internet connection is 30+MB download, wireless signal strength is great, network test on the apple tv passes. I have already tried resetting everything (ATV, cable modem, ASUS wireless router). Wireless router shows Apple TV is only downloading between 1- 4MB MB/Sec. Seems like a server problem to me.

Same problem here. Everything was fine until this past week. Since I noticed on Friday impossibly long wait times before one can even watch something. HBO Now is slow but watchable. Anything directly via AppleTV/iTunes - rented movies, TV series, etc., take forever. A one hour TV show takes more than hour to buffer enough to start watching.

Issue is not ISP speed. I have FiOS and tests show it to be fine. Rebooting the AppleTV does not help.

I wonder if there are issues tied into Apple releasing iOS 9 that affect bandwidth for the iTunes Store/Apple TV.

Network issues can come at any time. Internet speed us only one factor. Check DNS, WiFi vs wired, diagnostics for network, if it's occurring at specific times, test at another location.