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Apple TV streaming mode is horendous!

skinnylegs

skinnylegs

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 8, 2006
1,427
11
San Diego
*EDIT* I created this post before I realized that my router was a bit archaic. I have since purchased an Apple Extreme router and Apple TV is working wonderfully! It is everything I thought it would be!

Let me preface myself by saying that I am an Apple advocate and this post is *not* intended to ruffle feathers. It is an honest accounting.

Setup of Apple TV is braindead easy. Great. However......streaming of content is *horndous*. It is soooo slow that it is hardly worth the effort.....even for something as simple as a song.

I'm syncing as we speak and I'm *hoping* that this will work well.

Maybe it's something I'm doing or not doing but I am really disappointed with the streaming portion of Apple TV.
 
I'd say this has more to do with the speed of your wireless connection than anything else. Is the base station too far away? How is the signal strength? What is the connection speed?
 
skinnylegs said:
Let me preface myself by saying that I am an Apple advocate and this post is *not* intended to ruffle feathers. It is an honest accounting.

Setup of Apple TV is braindead easy. Great. However......streaming of content is *horndous*. It is soooo slow that it is hardly worth the effort.....even for something as simple as a song.

I'm syncing as we speak and I'm *hoping* that this will work well.

Maybe it's something I'm doing or not doing but I am really disappointed with the streaming portion of Apple TV.
Click to expand...

I think you must have something wrong with your network. Are you using wired or wireless? I'm wired at 100Mbps/FD on the :apple:TV side and at 1000Mbps/FD on my iMac side... and streaming works flawlessly. I can't even get 720p HD material to skip a beat.

To be honest, given my performance I don't even see the need for the internal hard drive!

Best of luck... I assure you that streaming works great if the network conditions are right.
 
OK.....I'll admit that I am a nOOb and it is more than likely operator error and I'm certainly open to suggestions.

I have a Linksys Wireless-B, 2.4 GHz, 802.11b Broadband Router. Is it time to get a different router? Is this my problem?

The router is a couple of rooms away. I really don't know how to tell what my connection speed is?

Help!
 
skinnylegs said:
I have a Linksys Wireless-B, 2.4 GHz, 802.11b Broadband Router. Is it time to get a different router? Is this my problem?
Click to expand...

802.11b has a max transmission rate of 11Mbits/s, realistic throughput is usually around 5-7Mbits/s so this is going to slow the transmission somewhat.
802.11g has a max transmission of 54Mbit/s - and that will stream quite easily.
 
wireless b...that might be your problem...i have g router and thing are working well for me.

G is about 3x B, and N is about 30x then b...for typical usage
 
skinnylegs said:
OK.....I'll admit that I am a nOOb and it is more than likely operator error and I'm certainly open to suggestions.

I have a Linksys Wireless-B, 2.4 GHz, 802.11b Broadband Router. Is it time to get a different router? Is this my problem?

The router is a couple of rooms away. I really don't know how to tell what my connection speed is?

Help!
Click to expand...

Video streaming? Video streaming is not supported with 802.11b.

I have a mediocre 802.11g connection (brick, steel and concrete in this high rise and about 10 other nearby base signals).

Also, I have a G4 933MHz, just under the 1GHz machine that's in the manual's minimum recommendations... and still it streams video flawlessly. I had only one hiccup with a 720p trailer but the trailers are streamed from the net so that could have been a hiccup on my DSL router.

I'm still testing this thing but I have to say I believe once the Apple Stores get the floor demo units going this ridiculously idiot-proof system will be the single device that boosts demand for internet based distribution of a-la carte movies and TV... and Apple will sell a buttload of these.
 
802.11b has a max transmission rate of 11Mbits/s, realistic throughput is usually around 5-7Mbits/s so this is going to slow the transmission somewhat.
Click to expand...
That is the understatement of the year. :mad: When I say slow.....I mean *slow*. There is at least a 10 second lag between the tme I click a track to play it and it actually plays.

Looks like I'm off to Best Buy for a new router!
 
Does the computer you are streaming from support (apples pre release) 802.11n (ie a new mac eg core 2 duo macbook)

The apple tv supports n, perhaps you should look at apples new airport extreme (it is a n router) (remember this is a pre release of n so it will only work well with apples n hardware)
 
for the record I have an all G network and I have no problem streaming anything so far. its awesome. I've been syncing all day, and streaming no problems.
 
i have no problems either

i have a older belking 802.11 g router

and i have been streaming movies. music. and even movie trailers from the internet with not problems at all.
 
skinnylegs said:
That is the understatement of the year. :mad: When I say slow.....I mean *slow*. There is at least a 10 second lag between the tme I click a track to play it and it actually plays.

Looks like I'm off to Best Buy for a new router!
Click to expand...

You need a g card inside your PC as well unless of course its wired to the router with Ethernet.
 
Airport Extreme works like a charm. *Huge* difference. Content streams without a stutter. BTW....I guess there is no way to "stream" your photos eh? I'm assuming photos need to be "sync'ed."
 
skinnylegs said:
Airport Extreme works like a charm. *Huge* difference. Content streams without a stutter. BTW....I guess there is no way to "stream" your photos eh? I'm assuming photos need to be "sync'ed."
Click to expand...

Photos cannot be streamed. How are you finding the :apple: tv?
 
Loving it. It does everything I want it to and does so effortlessly. The UI is awesome as well. I really only wanted it for pictures and music but I suppose it's nice being able to stream movies as well.
 
All this time, I thought that apple TV would connect to your mac wirelessly. I didn't know that I needed a wireless router. I thought that was just for internet.

Please straighten out my confusion.
 
A wireless router is just a wireless access point with a built-in router.

The Apple TV should work just as well with just a wireless access point.

If you don't have either a wireless router or a wireless access point, then you can connect computers together in something called an ad-hoc network, but I haven't seen any info about the Apple TV working (or not working) with that.
 
skinnylegs said:
Setup of Apple TV is braindead easy. Great. However......streaming of content is *horndous*. It is soooo slow that it is hardly worth the effort.....even for something as simple as a song.
Click to expand...

What the hell are you talking about? Streaming either works or it doesn't. If you stream a five minute song, the computer/Apple TV has five minutes time to do it. 4 minutes 55 seconds is fast enough, 5 minutes 5 seconds is too slow. So what is the problem? Does it work, or doesn't it work?
 
imacdaddy said:
Photos cannot be streamed.
Click to expand...

Which I find is actually quite bad, because I cannot come to your home with a Macbook full of photos and show them on your Apple TV. I think it would also be good if you could stream things from an iPod (either connected to the Apple TV, possiby through the USB port, or connected to any Macintosh in the home).
 
It might be worth to edit your first post.

Adding in that your problem was that your router was 802.11b and that you upgraded to a better router which fixed your problem.

That would save people with the same problem having to read the whole thread to find the answer.
 
skinnylegs said:
Let me preface myself by saying that I am an Apple advocate and this post is *not* intended to ruffle feathers. It is an honest accounting.

Setup of Apple TV is braindead easy. Great. However......streaming of content is *horndous*. It is soooo slow that it is hardly worth the effort.....even for something as simple as a song.

I'm syncing as we speak and I'm *hoping* that this will work well.

Maybe it's something I'm doing or not doing but I am really disappointed with the streaming portion of Apple TV.
Click to expand...


Does it have to sync? I mean if I have say 200gb of Content, audio and video, and only a 40gb Hard drive in the Unit why would I want to sync more than maybe a few files to have when the PC is off. Is there no way to turn off syncing?
 
Scarpad said:
Does it have to sync? I mean if I have say 200gb of Content, audio and video, and only a 40gb Hard drive in the Unit why would I want to sync more than maybe a few files to have when the PC is off. Is there no way to turn off syncing?
Click to expand...
Syncing works exactly like it does with an iPod.

You can turn it off completely, turn it on totally, or control how much of each type of media gets synced.
 
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