streaming movie weird problem

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A number of users are having a problem with excessive buffering on ATV4 which makes HD films unplayable, when they work fine on the identical set up & network on ATV3. I have a call into Apple, referred them to at least two forums highlighting this. It has now been over 7 days and they still have not come back with any response.

I'm having exactly the same problem, with some HD movies stopping and starting, on two new 4th gen Apple TVs. It doesn't affect all movies but consistently affects at least two movies that I have. The problem only exists when playing from the iTunes library on my computer. Streaming the same movies from Apple's servers works well. I have a 2nd gen and a third gen Apple TV and they stream these locally stored movies from the computer with no issues. I have tried streaming the movie from two different computers and tried both wifi and Ethernet between the router and Apple TV and it makes no difference. Anyway, my local network is involved whether I'm streaming from my computer or from the internet and Internet content works fine. The problem is consistent with at least a couple of movies that I have, but doesn't seem to affect others. I've tried deleting and redownloading one of the movies and had the same problem again. I've tried restoring one of the ATV4s but it did not make a difference. Apple support could not help, since I had already tried everything that they suggested. Hopefully, this is resolved with the next tvOS update. For what it's worth, one of the two movies that I have issues with is also "Avengers-Age of Ultron"

Apple are consistently denying this problem despite very obvious evidence that it exists and affects some people very badly. There are many calls to log the problem with Apple. I am surprised that they see fit to launch a box to stream video that doesn't stream video. If anyone had purchased a TV which did not play TV, then they would take it back. The strongest message to Apple (who are now not even acknowledging a response to the problem I raised with them), is to return the goods as unfit for purpose and get a refund. I have now returned two units without issue from the retailer.

It is frustrating,but typical, that the problem is not acknowledged by Apple. However, because playback from the Internet works fine, I don't believe this to be a hardware problem and it can hopefully be fixed via an OS update (whenever that may be). So for now, complaining and/or returning hardware seem to be the only way to get Apple's attention.

One other thing I've noticed, even for locally stored video that seems to play normally, is weird behavior of the buffering progress bar. When playing back video from my computer the buffer bar never progresses more than a few minutes ahead of playback. At times it even moves backward to the playback indicator before stating to advance again. When streaming from Apple, the buffer bar continues to advance, as expected, until the movie is fully loaded. On ATV4, this never happens with locally stored content, but ATV2 and ATV3 continue to add to the buffer until the movie is fully loaded

I have the same issue with watching media stored in my local networked iTunes Library. With previous generation Apple TVs, movies used to continue caching ahead (I used to pause the movie and let about 25% of the movie pre-load before starting to watch it). This method doesn't work with Apple TV 4 and I'm having all kinds for problems watching some movies (the movie will stop, start, stop and sometimes not start). All OS software, Apple TV OS and Airport Extreme (current generation) are up to date.

I don't think this is a problem with the router set up. Never had this problem with previous Apple TVs and it happens on machines that are connected via ethernet (the 2015 iMac that holds my main iTunes Library and one of my Apple TVs are both connected via ethernet on the same network).

Some recent HD movies play fine (Jurassic World), while others (Trainwreck and Inside Out) are simply unwatchable. I've restarted all machines and AirPort Extreme. I've also tried deleting the problem movies and re-downloading them, the problem remains.

I know we're early on with tvOS software, so I'm hoping this is resolved soon!

Hey there, I just wanted to chime in and say I am having the exact same problem. Its does not effect all my movies or all my HD movies though. It does affect those I have not watched in awhile and newly purchased movies. I hope it fixes soon, because I would rather watch movies on my computer than stream them from iTunes.

Yes I am having the same problem, and yes it is reported on many internet forums on the Apple TV 4. It is some kind of buffering problem and affects only home shared locally stored videos. I Have a large Mac Pro Server with all my videos locally and I do not like to have to run them from Itunes Stone online partly because it is a pain to use and sort thru my purchases on the screen and partly because I like local control I have always had. I hope apple acknowledges and fixes this soon

Apple released tvOS 9.1 today. It appears to have fixed the problem. Video streamed from my computer now seems to buffer normally.