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Apple TV Slow download

avionicsman

avionicsman

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 6, 2009
46
0
Canuck Land!!
I have watched several movies on :apple:TV, but for some reason now the downloading of a movie takes hours. It used to be maybe a few minutes before I could watch my selected movie. Now it is saying 8 hours before I can view the movie. What is going on???
 
Did you change anything on your network settings? Maybe there was an outage and they are back to default ?
Happened once to me - was awfully slow until I re-configured it.
 
I'm having the same problem. Nothing has changed on my setup. My measured download speed is around 6.7 mbs yet it is taking 10 to 16 hours to download a rental movie compared to the few minutes I am used to. My signal to the Apple TV shows full strength. I've tried resetting the ATV, connecting directly to ethernet, etc but nothing helps. Frustrating
 
Same problem here. From super fast to slow. Nothing has changed. I have troubleshooted. Used to start watching HD movie in seconds now hours. Convinced it is on Apple side or Time Warner is throttling down AppleTV (unlikely).
 
I tried getting help from Apple. I'm sure all knows how that goes! Wish there was a way to get Apple to respond. The thing I liked best of ATV, being able to watch a rented movie in the evening, is gone. Unless I want to start downloading the movie a day or two before I want to watch it.
 
nah, i've notice this too...

its on the apple side. when my latest HD TV shows were released, they downloaded normally and were ready to view within a minute. The HD rental movies lately have been horrible slow (i have to download them now a day in advance at least). So its not the ATV, your network or even your broad band. Process of elimination points the figure to Apple.
 
Me too

Ya, this is happening to me too. I am on a totally different network.
I used to have almost immediate access to all new content (1-2min for SD and HD) now it is like 16 hours or more.

I hope they get this sorted - If Steve was there this wouldn't be happening. ;)
 
My downloads have been faster than ever (Comcast). I just downloaded a purchased movie (SD) that took less than 20 minutes to complete, and then rented another movie (HD) and started watching it about 2 minutes after the Ready to Watch screen appeared.

It must be network issues with whatever path your ISP is going through to get to Apple's servers.

I'm in Illinois, BTW.

I heard there was a big problem previously with people in the South, near Atlanta, having problems with slow streaming from Netflix. It could be a similar problem affecting iTunes.
 
While I'm usually not usually a subscriber to conspiracy theories, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if the cable companies are doing something to packets from Apple, Netflix, Blockbuster and others who, essentially, compete for video programming with the cable companies own video-on-demand services.

Does anyone with a non-cable company supplied internet connection have slow service recently?
 
xraydoc said:
While I'm usually not usually a subscriber to conspiracy theories, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if the cable companies are doing something to packets from Apple, Netflix, Blockbuster and others who, essentially, compete for video programming with the cable companies own video-on-demand services.

Does anyone with a non-cable company supplied internet connection have slow service recently?
Click to expand...

I am terribly late to this thread, but on the off chance any of you have solved your problem, please let me know. I have had the exact same experience. I called my ISP and they stated that they do not "throttle." I've also tried the network analysis and reboots referred to earlier. I know its not my network because movie downloads on my laptop work just fine. So, the finger points to the ATV. Just not sure what or why the change?!
 
Seems to be since last firmware

Yep same problem as you all. Apple support refusing to acknowledge the problem.
 
I live in North Carolina and use Time-Warner Road Runner and haven't had any problems with the Apple TV downloading content from the iTunes Store (movies, TV shows, HD trailers, etc.). Well, that's not entirely true as once in a blue moon I have seen slow downloads, but whenever that has happened it has almost always been a problem with my wireless network (oh, and a few times every year for the past three years that I've owned an Apple TV I've had slow performance that was fixed with a hard reset of the Apple TV).

The biggest and most consistent problem I ever had was caused by a defective cable modem that would intermittently lose connection whenever there was a heavy data load on the system (caused temporary pauses in downloads once every few minutes which really affected the overall bandwidth). That took me a few months to isolate and after the cable company changed my modem the problem went away immediately.

My Apple TV hasn't been flawless, but for the vast, vast majority of the time it just works.
 
Apple Tv Slow Slow Slow

What's worse is that I have 6 hours left to watch monsters
So I push play and it starts a download count down, same story the last
15 hours. Apple says my network is too slow yet I can watch hulu, netflix and amazon all day long.(on my macs/iPad )
WTF apple ?
 
What in the world????

I'm having the same problem!!! This is horrible. I watch Netflix etc...and I don't have a problem downloading and watching movies. The problem with Netflix is they don't have many downloadable newly releases so I wanted to try apple and wow does this think suck! They have current movies but 8 hrs to download to rent for 24 hrs is just plain unacceptable. Don't do ATV or at least wait until they work the bugs out.
 
Try to move your Apple tv to another location. Mine was beside my cable box and got horrible reception, though showing full wifi bars.
It's now on the stand of my tv and hd movies start within seconds.

Nevertheless, the iTunes store has been playing up over the last 24 hours.
 
ethomas660816 said:
I'm having the same problem!!! This is horrible. I watch Netflix etc...and I don't have a problem downloading and watching movies. The problem with Netflix is they don't have many downloadable newly releases so I wanted to try apple and wow does this think suck! They have current movies but 8 hrs to download to rent for 24 hrs is just plain unacceptable. Don't do ATV or at least wait until they work the bugs out.
Click to expand...

Netflix uses a variable bit rate system to stream videos. The faster the internet connection the better the quality. On the other hand, Apple uses a constant bit rate setting. Everyone gets the same quality video; takes longer to download if your internet connection is slow.

One adapts, the other won't compromise quality.
 
Slow downloads here too

I live in Oregon and have 5mbps DSL service. Netflix works like a champion, almost instant watching and never a pause in the movie. I've rented two movies from iTunes (one SD, one HD). Both took a very long time to load and finally run. The HD was so slow to load I had to wait till the next evening; then it paused to fill the buffer three times. Even worse, all the sound come out of the center speaker only on my 5:1 surround system. I asked for credit from Apple and got it with no hassle. I just don't get it; why should it take so long? If the buffer is 8 gigabytes, then eventually the entire movie should be in the buffer. Then why the pause for 1/2 hour during the movie to fill the buffer again? I feel the problem is on the iTunes end, not your Internet (unless it is really, really slow), nor with the new :apple:TV.

One last thought for clarification. Can anyone tell me if the buffer on the new :apple:TV is 8 gigabytes or only 8 megabytes? That would make a difference.
 
Hd down load slow - server farm

I have a 160gb apple tv. Until recently had no problems renting movies on hd however last night it took 2 hours before i could watch. I am wondering if Apple is using the new server farm in usa as it is due to come on line and maybe they have some issues with it. This is definatley A apple iTunes issue and i am sure they will correct it shortly.

Col.Bris, Australia
 
I have just started having the same problem downloading from the Itunes store. Hulu and netflix smoke. Netflix on my ps3 using wireless is super fast yet anything I download from the Itunes store using wired internet is very very slow.
If it continues I will have to take my business to Vudu.
 
My Downloads Apple have slowed down, too. A few months ago, it seemed that I could start HD download and start watching it 15 or 20 minutes. Now it seems to take at least 2 hours before I can begin. Everything else on your computer is normal.
 
jlasoon said:
Netflix uses a variable bit rate system to stream videos. The faster the internet connection the better the quality. On the other hand, Apple uses a constant bit rate setting. Everyone gets the same quality video; takes longer to download if your internet connection is slow.

One adapts, the other won't compromise quality.
Click to expand...

Well said,

I have been streaming netflix for over a year on my sony bdp. The download speeds are fast although not without cost. I have only watched 2 movies (out of 100s) that have been good quality picture. Most look like a bad vhs. These 2 movies also paused several times to buffer. Netflix does not even do 5.1.

I purchased ATV so I could at least enjoy my ht system and have the convenience to stream movies. Itunes has proved to be slow but apple has a solid track record of solving issues. No perfect solution available Att, at least we can choose between speed and quality with one device.
 
renting movies in iTunes has slowed to a crawl for me. I have a 65mb internet connection that used to be able to download a 1GB+ iTunes movie in less than ten minutes (+/-). Now it takes an hour+. Not sure how long movie purchases take -- I haven't ppurchased one in a while. Song downloads take a few seconds.

EDIT:

Thought I'd purchase "Despicable Me". It's downloading at 3-4MB per second, so it appears that only the download speed for rentals is throttled significantly.
 
Last edited:
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