How can I set the playback speed of podcast on Apple TV 4?

I experienced the exact same behavior. The only thing that has worked for me to restore proper playback speed is to reset the Apple TV.

I spent an hour on the phone about this very issue with Apple tech support this evening (January 26, 2016) and no other solution surfaced. And we tried pretty much everything.

I personally believe Apple simply left Playback Speed controls out of this version 1.0 of the app, but that our universal remotes (mine is a Logitech Harmony One) have the ability to accidentally (though irreversibly) trigger the function.

If Apple contacts me with a solution, I will come back and post it here.

I am experiencing the same thing. My Harmony remote screwed up playback of podcasts. Reset didn't fix, do you mean restore? Thanks!

Well, I chose Reset All Settings and that worked. Though I will say that choosing that put the AppleTV through what looked to me like a Restore, as it started me back at the white, multi-language "Hello" screen.

Just curious: is your universal remote a Logitech Harmony?

Oh, maybe I have the naming wrong - reset all settings is probably what im calling "restore" and I haven't tried that yet. I will tonight when I'm back home. And yes, it is a Logitech Harmony Ultimate. I tried every button combo I could think ot fix the issue and somehow went from 1.5x down to .5x. Now all podcasts play in half speed..

Both "Reset All Settings" and "Restore" are offered on the Reset menu. I'm not clear on the difference. But the first one worked for me.

And yes, near as I can remember it was maybe the "rewind" button on my Harmony remote that started me at 1.5x then dropped to .5x. But no amount of additional button presses restored normal speed.

I also have this issue with ATV 4 and Harmony 700 universal remote. The latter was previously programmed to work with previous gen ATV.

Upon attempting to fast forward and rewind in a podcast using the Harmony, the playback speed got stuck at a slower speed. This was the normal operation on the prev gen ATV and seems to have caused this issue with the ATV4.

Like others here, no amount of ff or rew button presses would fix the issue. A simple restart didn't work. Force closing the app didn't work.

After seeing this thread I tried the Reset All Settings option and it worked.

Now I have to download and set up all the non-Apple apps all over again. Great...:(

This was a pretty awful user experience! And whe can we see speed control properly implemente, Apple? This is a very useful feature.

Have the same problem with slow Podcast playback from the App. After having to wait for its release and getting less than a week's use out of the App because of this glitch, I will add my note of frustration to the list. I hope Apple fixes this bug quickly.

Similar details as everyone else: using a Harmony remote. No way to reset it back to normal speed. Rebooting the system does not help. I'm sure as others have suggested, a restore will probably do the trick but I'm not really interested right now in setting everything back up.

Hope we see a fix from Apple soon.

Same problem. I was using a Harmony remote also.

I have same problem. Slow playback of podcasts in Apple TV 4th Gen. But I have a different TV pilot - bundled with Panasonic VIERA TV.

Same problem with podcast playback speed. Also with Harmony remote.

Had to reset, and start over! Why is this not resolved in OS?

I just experienced the same problem. Also with a Harmony 650 remote. I don't feel like resetting the whole system and then downloading and resetting up all the apps again. I'm going to wait until the next firmware is released which will probably fix the problem. For now I'll just airplay podcasts from my phone. My guess is that being able to adjust the playback speed is a feature that is there but not implemented yet on the remote. It will probably be fixed with the next firmware. I'm going to try using the apple remote on my iPhone to see if I can adjust the playback speed with that.

Same issue with the Podcast playback speed and I am also using a Harmony Remote. I don't want to Reset my Apple TV for resolution. Hopefully Apple will address this issue/bug soon.

I have the problem of play back at high speed and also can not restore normal playback. I am using a Harmony 650 remote.

I also have problem with increased playback speed on ATV 4th gen. Using Harmony 700 remote.

This was resolved with ATV reset.