Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple TV stuttering
- Thread starter and 4096 others like this
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Most of this issue appears to be thermal throttling due to too much CPU use by the Plex app. Because its home-grown player is not making use of the hardware acceleration available on the AppleTV, which other players (like Infuse) do, and play the same file perfectly.
This is a new development and the Plex staff have confirmed it. They're looking into it and we're all hopeful that this means possibly a fix will finally arrive now that the underlying issue is known for all these various issues with stuttering.
Detailed thread here:
While we wait for a fix, there's a workaround to the thermal throttling. I have a movie that consistently stuttered after the first 20min of playback (when the heat got too high).
By laying the AppleTV on its side and pointing a small USB fan at it, I'm now able to play it all the way through (and then some even repeating the most complicated scenes).
I could play it without stuttering for 70min with no fan but a pair of amazon $15 heat-sinks thermal-taped to the outside of the AppleTV.
This is a new development and the Plex staff have confirmed it. They're looking into it and we're all hopeful that this means possibly a fix will finally arrive now that the underlying issue is known for all these various issues with stuttering.
Detailed thread here:
While we wait for a fix, there's a workaround to the thermal throttling. I have a movie that consistently stuttered after the first 20min of playback (when the heat got too high).
By laying the AppleTV on its side and pointing a small USB fan at it, I'm now able to play it all the way through (and then some even repeating the most complicated scenes).
I could play it without stuttering for 70min with no fan but a pair of amazon $15 heat-sinks thermal-taped to the outside of the AppleTV.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
OP, have you tried unplug, wait a few minutes, plug it back in again?
I've long believed tvOS has some kind of memory leak/hog bug that eventually eats up almost all available RAM, leading to issues like stuttering. I do this cold reboot once each month which often results in smooth operations and no stuttering.
I suggest also doing some simple things to try to pin down the issue. First on my list is get a run of ethernet long enough to connect by ethernet (router to AppleTV), then watch for a while and see if you can see the stutter. If not, you may have wifi issues. Since it seems random, are others tapping the same wifi bandwidth during stutter periods? Have you shared your password with perhaps neighbors who may be inadvertently tapping your wifi instead of their own? If you are not sure, change your wifi password to kick anyone around you OFF your wifi.
If the ethernet connection yields no stutter, disconnect again and watch for stutter in something. If it returns, immediately pause what you are watching, reconnect ethernet, back up what you are watching a bit and resume across parts that just stuttered. Smooth this time? If so, that increasingly says you have wifi issues- a very common cause of stuttering video. IMO: unless it is the ONLY possible choice, I don't think AppleTV should be connected via wifi. Streaming video hogs too much bandwidth and can lead to what you are seeing.
Is the content you are trying to watch formatted for AppleTV or is it trying to be converted on the fly? That could cause stutter.
Are you air playing this content to AppleTV or seeing stuttering while using AppleTV apps?
Can you make some content stutter EVERY time you play it on AppleTV? If so, put a MB in the same spot as AppleTV and play the exact same video by the exact same method (wifi or ethernet). Does it also stutter on MB? If it does on MB, that again suggests wifi or perhaps even the content itself, source of content, not robust Internet connection, VPN in play and clogging up the flow of signal, etc?
I've long believed tvOS has some kind of memory leak/hog bug that eventually eats up almost all available RAM, leading to issues like stuttering. I do this cold reboot once each month which often results in smooth operations and no stuttering.
I suggest also doing some simple things to try to pin down the issue. First on my list is get a run of ethernet long enough to connect by ethernet (router to AppleTV), then watch for a while and see if you can see the stutter. If not, you may have wifi issues. Since it seems random, are others tapping the same wifi bandwidth during stutter periods? Have you shared your password with perhaps neighbors who may be inadvertently tapping your wifi instead of their own? If you are not sure, change your wifi password to kick anyone around you OFF your wifi.
If the ethernet connection yields no stutter, disconnect again and watch for stutter in something. If it returns, immediately pause what you are watching, reconnect ethernet, back up what you are watching a bit and resume across parts that just stuttered. Smooth this time? If so, that increasingly says you have wifi issues- a very common cause of stuttering video. IMO: unless it is the ONLY possible choice, I don't think AppleTV should be connected via wifi. Streaming video hogs too much bandwidth and can lead to what you are seeing.
Is the content you are trying to watch formatted for AppleTV or is it trying to be converted on the fly? That could cause stutter.
Are you air playing this content to AppleTV or seeing stuttering while using AppleTV apps?
Can you make some content stutter EVERY time you play it on AppleTV? If so, put a MB in the same spot as AppleTV and play the exact same video by the exact same method (wifi or ethernet). Does it also stutter on MB? If it does on MB, that again suggests wifi or perhaps even the content itself, source of content, not robust Internet connection, VPN in play and clogging up the flow of signal, etc?
Last edited:
I think you're right. Several generations of tvOS past, I never once had a program stutter. Never. At some point, it became a routine event. tvOS upgrades didn't matter. The hardware didn't matter - I tried a couple different 4K boxes. It isn't the network connection either - I tried the tests you suggested, in fact. We even switched ISP's a few months back for other reasons and that had no effect. Different TVs and cables. Nothing has mattered.
It seems that some program apps are worse than others in this regard. I haven't been able to figure out what combination of events does it. I have made it a habit to close all unused apps and only have the one that is actually playing in memory. Or, so it would seem. The only thing I have observed some correlation with is that for me the stuttering almost always takes place when starting a new program, either on the same app or switching to another app. I can't recall it happening very often once a program is playing. It's like the internal clock suddenly decides to run at half or quarter speed. It isn't a heat thing for me - the Apple TV could have been unplugged and the stuttering starts up even when the device is cold. I can go a couple weeks with no problem, then get two or three stuttering events in an evening. That makes me think that some background operation is behind the problem, like automatic upgrading of an app.
Being able to restart the Apple TV from the remote makes the whole thing workable. If it wasn't for the picture and sound quality, I would've dumped Apple TV years ago.
What I'm mystified about is that so few other people are reporting this issue.