Apple TV 4th - Home Sharing to share iTunes content slow buffer

Hello guilhermeluis,

If your home sharing experience is slow with your Apple TV (4th generation), take a look at the Wi-Fi troubleshooting steps in the resource below.

Get help with Home Sharing
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203311

Get help with Wi-Fi networks on your Apple TV
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204400

Take care,

I'm happy to report that installing the December 8, 2015 tvOS 9.1 update fixed my buffering issue.

Happy Holidays everyone.

I have both a Gen3 and the new Gen4 Apple TV's. I also live in a rural area with a relatively low speed internet connection (5 Mbps max, 3-4 Mbps typical). The Gen4 Apple TV is much much poorer performing on streaming online iTunes video content than the Gen3.

I have tested with both TVos 9.0 and the newly released 9.1 last night.

Example: Watching the same 2:00 minute Standard Def Trailer on both:

• Gen3: Buffers for about 10 seconds, then plays the entire trailer without pause: from start to finish: 2:10 for a 2-min clip
• Gen4: Buffers for 10 seconds, plays 4 seconds, buffers 2:30 then plays to end: from start to finish: 4:45 for a 2-min clip

I have repeated this several times to make sure I didn't just have a bad internet connection for a short time.

My guess is that in high speed internet situations (>15 or 20 Mbps) there may be no noticeable issue. But in 4Mbps connections, the new Gen4 is not buffering correctly.

Anyone else that still lives in the 90's with "only" a 4 Mbps connection?

Jim near Boulder

Thank you HeyJP, it's good to know I'm not alone.

Also on "10" Mbps rural Internet, which we all know is running at 5 or less most of the time, and my AppleTV 3 will play iTunes movie content with minimal buffering, Netflix, Crackle, etc play on my AppleTV 4 with minimal buffering, but iTunes content specifically will alternate between "Your movie will be ready in 45minutes" (or 1hr 15 or 2hr 30), and then suddenly playing. While the iTunes movies are buffering, I can switch to Netflix and load a 1080p movie in a matter of seconds. Router is a TimeCapsule (AC, current model) wired to the ATV, and the same problem occurred switching back to my old N router to troubleshoot, so that's not the issue.

Have you tried switching resolution for iTunes app content down to 720p? That seems to have helped me, but it's frustrating when non-iTunes stuff loads in 1080 no problem.

MIke,

i one-upped you on the 720p and already went to Standard Def. So, so 1990's. :-( I guess that should be one-downed you!

juat afraid the Apple gang living in the land of gigabit internet don't even know how to test under 5 Mbps.

Jim near Boulder

IT didn't work for me. Same problem, generally 1080p content purchased from Apple no less....