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Honestly, I've never used an Apple TV that didn't lag (and I own three). It's just the nature of the device.

I suppose a better description would be the Apple TV is slow to respond to remote commands. If you get too far deep into its menus and press the menu button on the remote quickly, chances are you're going to have issues as it tries to get back to the home menu.

Generally, after a few seconds I get two or three beeps in a row and then it finally goes back to where I want it to go.

Apple needs to update it with more RAM and a faster processor.

Thats the general feeling I've been getting from it.
Would be better with an Atom processor in it and 512mb as apposed to the 256(?)
 
Question:

If (in itunes) you right click on the ATV and select 'turn off syncing'

Does that stop files from trying to copy across to the ATV
OR

Does it stop the ATV from refreshing iTunes's music list? i.e. streaming
 
Hmm I've not seen anything like that and I'm streaming over a wireless n connection to a library of well over 1Tb
 
Sorry to hear about your lag. I have 4tb worth of data both music and music and I don't have any lag. I can fast forward reverse pause etc. No lag.

What is the base computer that you are running from, speed, hard drive speed etc? What type if nic card does it have? What type of switch are you using? 10/100/1000?

Have you noticed if there are any kinks, nicks etc in your datalines? Just checking...

Large image files for the cover art I have noticed will cause a slight delay. I noticed this when I first starting ripping the movies. I now try to keep all my music files to 300x300 under 30-25K in size. I also keep my image files for the movies as low as I can also. Yes the pictures don't look as good but then again I don't have a lag. Something to think about.
 
Sorry to hear about your lag. I have 4tb worth of data both music and music and I don't have any lag. I can fast forward reverse pause etc. No lag.

What is the base computer that you are running from, speed, hard drive speed etc? What type if nic card does it have? What type of switch are you using? 10/100/1000?

Have you noticed if there are any kinks, nicks etc in your datalines? Just checking...

Large image files for the cover art I have noticed will cause a slight delay. I noticed this when I first starting ripping the movies. I know try to keep all my music files to 300x300 under 30-25K in size. I also keep my image files for the movies as low as I can also. Yes the pictures don't look as good but then again I don't have a lag. Something to think about.

I'm not sure why the focus is put on volume capacity when it comes to video playback? I don't see how these two things are related esp. when streaming. Maybe fragmentation or something?

Not sure on your point on the image files since the AppleTV downloads those for me automatically. They aren't that high res to begin with. Attempting to take the time to acquire my own and reformat them to an even lower resolution because Apple chose to gimp their ATV isn't very practical. Obviously, you don't want 25MB HD images displaying. I get that.

None of this fixes the hesitation problems when manipulating the main Frontrow menu. There are no images (or hard drive sizes) being displayed at that time.
 
I'm not sure why the focus is put on volume capacity when it comes to video playback? I don't see how these two things are related esp. when streaming. Maybe fragmentation or something?

Not sure on your point on the image files since the AppleTV downloads those for me automatically. They aren't that high res to begin with. Attempting to take the time to acquire my own and reformat them to an even lower resolution because Apple chose to gimp their ATV isn't very practical. Obviously, you don't want 25MB HD images displaying. I get that.

None of this fixes the hesitation problems when manipulating the main Frontrow menu. There are no images (or hard drive sizes) being displayed at that time.


Well larger image files.. say 2-3 megs will cause a lag. Try the same file with a large image say 3 megs and then try that same file with a smaller image file say 30Kb or so. There is a difference in start up time on the file. At lease from what I can tell. Yes I have seen people put 25-40 meg picture files of cover art. I have seen it. Well if you don't want to downsize your image files that is up to you. I have chosen to do so, for the very fact I don't want lag.

None of this fixes the hesitation problems when manipulating the main Frontrow menu. There are no images (or hard drive sizes) being displayed at that time.

Well if you files are handled off of an external source, ie server or another computer running your media or external hard drive connected to another computer via usb, this will have an impact. Just because it is not displaying it doesn't mean it isn't being impacted. Maybe you should do some network speed tests to see what your network is doing when you are streaming your media? What are the constants and what are the drops? Especially when you are FF/RW/Pause/Play etc.

I would then check out avscience.com and look at the media and server section. See what people have done and tested. I think it will open your eyes on just how much this will impact the end unit. Heck there are plenty of folks with high end HTPC that still have lag on OTA high def content let alone blu-rays and dvd's they have ripped.

I would also look at how many clients are accessing the remote data at the same time?

Sorry all of this will have an impact when accessing your data. Especially since the AppleTV isn't a very robust end unit.
 
Just to tidy this up as I have been away for a bit:

Lag = Still really bad


ATV hardware: latest available
ATV software: latest available
Network: GbE / 100/1000
Have tried swapping cable / switch
Streaming from Imac 2.8, 4GB Ram, 1TB hard disk / latest 10.5 and Itunes.
iTunes library size: 370MB (Audio only, no movies)
Not Syncing anything
Have swapped cables over to test.
 
Just started using aTV.

I experience menu lag in the following:

  • Youtube - as soon as I type I can see a search being performed controls then becomes unresponsive
  • Software update - while software is downloading menus can lag
  • Random menu lag - for no apparent reason.

All lag is in menus - control presses appear to be buffered, no problems with playing content. Media also streams/syncs with no issues.

Restart/Power Off/On & factory reset no effect menus still experience the above.

The lag is frustrating but I like the device otherwise.
 
Just started using aTV.

I experience menu lag in the following:

  • Youtube - as soon as I type I can see a search being performed controls then becomes unresponsive
  • Software update - while software is downloading menus can lag
  • Random menu lag - for no apparent reason.

All lag is in menus - control presses appear to be buffered, no problems with playing content. Media also streams/syncs with no issues.

Restart/Power Off/On & factory reset no effect menus still experience the above.

The lag is frustrating but I like the device otherwise.

Welcome to my world.
Worst Apple product I have used let alone bought.
 
Fixed!?

OK I have no idea what is different this time round, but it seems almost fixed?
For the 4th time I've done a factory restore and it doesn't seem to be lagging nearly as much through my music.

After playing a YouTube clip last night it did lag up for about 30 - 40secs while it loaded the preview of the next two clips below which I thought was weird, but it also didn't let me login to youtube all yesterday so they may have been doing maintainance.
 
Since hacking & installing rowmote to use the iphone as an alternative remote I have had no lag whatsoever in the apple tv menus - something isn't right with the infrared remote controls or receiver I suspect...
 
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