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Level 1

60 points

Why is Apple TV 4 playback so choppy?

I Have 5 Apple TV's and have had no issues with any of them. 2 are gen 1 devices and 3 of them are the small black gen 3 units.

I just purchased a new gen 4 and plugged it in to replace one of the gen 3 units. Setup went great. Connected by ethernet cable to an Airport Time Capsule and 56mbps Internet. Sees the Internet and everything seems normal, but playing my iTunes content from my iMac is almost impossible. Stops constantly for long periods of time, never seeming to cache ahead enough to play smoothly. After trying several movies, all with the same issues I disconnected it and plugged the gen 3 back in. Everything streamed smoothly. Same Apple movie purchases. Same network. Same settings. What gives with that? Shouldn't the new Apple TV be faster rather than impossibly slow?

Any ideas how can I speed it up?

Posted on Jan 18, 2016 10:17 PM

48 replies

Jan 21, 2016 3:08 AM in response to Winston Churchill

I have this same problem with my new 4th gen - I have stuttering in both video and audio. Even when I pause and let the entire TV series episode buffer (grey bar all the way to the right), the playback stutters. My connection is fast enough where the Apple TV 3rd gen did not stutter ever.

I have the Apple TV connected directly via ethernet cat 5e to my router, and the Apple TV is directly connected to my TV via HDMI and optical audio out.

I have:

Automatically update Apps is OFF.

Diagnostic: Send to Developers is OFF

Diagnostic: Send to Apple ON;

Last Diagnostic in Queue (there are quite a few);

tvcontrold_2016-01-21-xxxx-Apple-TV.ips

...

Exception Type: EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)

ExeptionCodes: 0x0000000000000001,0x0000000186b9a8a4

Triggered by Thread: 4

...

Thread 4 name: XPC API Misuse: Underflow of transaction count. Dispatch queue: com.applexpc.transactionq

Thread 4 Crashed:

...

Obviously a bug.

I have turned on send feed back on the Apple TV in hopes Apple reads the error and fixes the problem....

Jan 21, 2016 3:12 AM in response to Winston Churchill

>>There isn't a problem with the Apple TV (unless you actually have a defective one) and no amount of complaining will change that.

Is it possible to have points removed or your level dropped for your pompous response?

Jan 21, 2016 5:57 AM in response to geoffrey.lacy

I'm not here to provide answers that people think they want to hear. I'm only here to tell it how it is.

If you think it's the Apple TV take it somewhere else to try such as a neighbours network or a network at an Apple Store and then see who's the pompous one here.

Jan 21, 2016 7:03 AM in response to Winston Churchill

I explained choppy playback on locally stored movies. iTunes Home Sharing folder. I plugged it in using Ethernet and AC. Same problem, choppy playback. I plugged in the ATV 3 and 2 and no problem smooth playback. Simple. The ATV 4 is defective. The new one is also choppy at times, but not as much as the other one. So obviously the software is flawed.

Jan 21, 2016 7:16 AM in response to SuperSizeIt

As I keep suggesting, go and test your Apple TV on some other network, you'll soon discover what it is that's defective, works perfectly well for me.

Jan 21, 2016 7:18 AM in response to Winston Churchill

Seriously? I plugged it directly on Ethernet. lol If you say so. lol

Jan 21, 2016 7:24 AM in response to SuperSizeIt

Yes seriously, I have them working just fine on both wifi and Ethernet. Go and test yours somewhere else.

Let me also clarify an earlier statement I made about there being nothing wrong with the Apple TV 4, there's plenty wrong but that doesn't include home sharing from an iTunes library in respect of playback smoothness.

Adwiz Author

Level 1

60 points

Jan 21, 2016 1:32 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Winston, I appreciate your input. But it does appear that there are problems with the ATV 4. Just because not everyone has the problem doesn't mean there isn't one. Many Apple products have, in the past, suffered from known issues that not everyone experienced. The WiFi problems with the early iPhones comes to mind. As I recall, fewer than 20% of iPhones actually had the problem but it created a huge issue because that amounted to thousands of people. It would have been absurd to say, "Oh, I don't have a problem so obviously there isn't one." Apple eventually acknowledged that there was a problem.

If the same network shows no issues with five Apple TVs and serious issues with one Apple TV then it's not the network. That's a given.

I ran the SpeedTest app on the ATV 4 and it showed download speed of 57.14mbps. So the ATV is seeing the network and seeing it at full speed. That should allow a full 8Gb HD movie to download in less than 20 minutes. While the other 5 devices, including the really old Gen 1 ATVs download super fast with no stuttering or stopping, the Gen 4 doesn't. It downloads a few Mb and then stops. Continuously. Obviously there is nothing wrong with the network itself or at least one of the other 5 devices would have a problem. That's logic 101.

Taking all my gear including my 27" iMac over to a neighbor's house and plugging it in there to test would not prove a thing. If I had no other ATVs then yes it would make sense to take it somewhere else but when I have a house full of them that is an absurd concept. This stuttering happens whether I play a purchased movie or run one off the iMac over the internal network. It does NOT happen with 5 other ATVs of different and older model numbers.

Jan 21, 2016 1:44 PM in response to Adwiz

Adwiz: Yes, there's definitely a problem with the ATV4 as you've described. I experience the exact same issue. I have an ATV3 and ATV4 side by side connected to my TV. The ATV3 always plays movies flawlessly whereas the ATV4 will most of the time falter with stops & starts. The buffering progress bar always keeps ahead for the ATV3 whereas for the ATV4 it barely keeps up and will get overrun with the playback and stall waiting for more data as evidenced with the spinning cog wheel.

My best solution to this ATV4 issue to to rent or purchase a movie on iTunes, wait for it to download completely and then use Home Sharing on the ATV4 to play the movie. This works most of the time, but not as consistently as the ATV3 does.

I've communicated this issue to the iTune Store Customer Support and they recommended my solution for downloading the movie via iTunes Rent/Purchase and then using Home Sharing or even AirPlay to have the movie playback without long annoying pauses.

I believe Apple is becoming aware of this issue.

Jan 21, 2016 2:59 PM in response to Adwiz

Thats a lot of words to avoid the obvious. Test it somewhere else, you'll soon see whether it's one of a small number of defective Apple TV's you think there are or whether it's your network.

Jan 21, 2016 5:32 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Winston:

Surely your request has been met to have the ATV4 tested at more than one location. Adwiz and I are at different locations and we present the same exact issue as best I can see. So what's your new advice ?

I don't believe its a matter of the ATV4 being a production assembly defect, but rather an internal software/hardware issue for some of us.

vazandrew

Level 8

40,366 points

Jan 21, 2016 5:35 PM in response to BarryXSharp

You are both currently within a network where the issue is occurring, each would need to test elsewhere to verify.

Jan 21, 2016 5:41 PM in response to vazandrew

vazandrew: I don't see that as being necessary nor pertinent to assessing this issue. However, just to settle this I will test my ATV4 at my son's house who has a different ISP and his own home LAN. Of course he doesn't yet have this issue as he does not own or use the new ATV4. Now if the issue persists at my son's house will that satisfy you and Winston or will you again say, the issue is happening at both my and my son's house and needs to be tested again at another location ?

Jan 21, 2016 5:41 PM in response to BarryXSharp

I really couldn't care less what you do now, If you aren't willing to test the hardware under controlled conditions, there is nothing further to discuss. At least others reading this can see the basis on which you have made your claims and hopefully won't give up trying to resolve their problems because of them.

Jan 21, 2016 5:43 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Winston: Please define clearly what you mean by "controlled conditions". Don't worry, I certainly will persist in having this problem resolved.

Why is Apple TV 4 playback so choppy?