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ATV2 does everything but play movies

BasilFawlty

BasilFawlty

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 20, 2009
1,082
3,036
New Mexico
Ok, I have a fairly new ATV2. My iMac is running SL with the latest iTunes. My ATV2 software is also current. I have home sharing on and can access my iTunes library. I can play music from the library, I can access photos and in the movies, I can "see" all the movies, including the info and artwork. However, when I try to play any move (whether purchased via iTunes store or ripped form my own DVDs), I get that little spinner thing, but it just goes on forever and never actually plays the movie. I can, however, play movies from Netflix. It is only the movies in my iTunes library that WILL NOT play. I should mention that all the movies will play fine in iTunes on my computer, I just can't play them via ATV2 on my television.

Anyone have this problem before and if so, what is the solution? Thanks in advance.
 
I just came on here to create the same post.

Its been an hour now and my Apple TV won't play Movies or TV Shows either (even shows that I've ripped, Music and Podcast work fine). I know that a few weeks ago the Apple TV had this issue, but it only affected media that was purchased through iTunes (DRM Media), but this time around its affecting purchased and non purchased media. If I use Home Share from my iPhone or iPad, the Movies and TV Shows load just fine, so this seem to be an Apple TV issue.

Current work-around for my friday night at home, I'm using AirPlay from my iPad to my Apple TV.

Another method that works is to AirPlay from your iTunes to Apple TV.
 
jamesvdm said:
Same here. Worked fine last night. I'm doing a restore and there seems to be a new update despite me having updated just 3 days ago.
Click to expand...

I withheld from that update when it was release, but thinking that would work I updated my Apple TV just moments ago, it didn't fix the issue.

I also did a Full Restore and nothing.

I was watching a TV Show from my Apple TV around 4pm today and then I stopped so that I can cook dinner, I returned to my Apple TV by 6pm and it had stopped working then, so this issue just started.
 
Thanks for all the replies so far. At least I know it isn't just me. I was watching a Movie just fine last night, but tonight, NADA! Nothing has changed or updated since then. Why the heck would Apple's servers have anything to do with me playing my own movies?
 
I thought it was just mine - so much for a night of watching movies with the wife...
 
richpjr said:
I thought it was just mine - so much for a night of watching movies with the wife...
Click to expand...

No kidding! Had a long hard week at work and finally thought I could kick back and watch a few flicks - but no, Big Brother Apple gotta control my little box! Geez!
 
Why is it that only the fulfillment end of iTune always ****s up, never the sales end?
 
Add me to the list

I have been using the atv2 streaming from iMac since last Christmas. Now, music, podcasts (video), itunesU stuff - starts and works as before. TV shows that I have captured, and put in iTunes, and movies, even movies purchased on iTunes, I get the "spinning" thing on the TV, for several minutes. Watching activity monitor on the iMac, there appears to be no attempt to transmit. After "some time" - 5, 10, 15 min (I haven't paid close enough attention), it will start playing, and again, looking at activity monitor, at that point, it is sending from the iMac, as hard as it can. Looking on aTV, I can see the download progress bar. It's something blocking/timing out????? This just started, today. It worked fine yesterday.

I usually run both iMac and aTV2, wireless. I have eliminated "bad wireless", and have both running "cabled" into the same wireless router. I have power cycled everything. No joy.

Grrrrr Suggestions?

PS - Lion....
 
Big Dave said:
Mine is not working either. Rentals don't work and streaming from my Mac doesn't work.
Click to expand...

Ok, for what it's worth, I tried to just let it run for several minutes to see if it would eventually play a movie and it finally did! It took about five minutes of that spinning thing, but eventually it finally started to play. If it continues to take this long, something is still messed up.
 
BasilFawlty said:
Ok, for what it's worth, I tried to just let it run for several minutes to see if it would eventually play a movie and it finally did! It took about five minutes of that spinning thing, but eventually it finally started to play. If it continues to take this long, something is still messed up.
Click to expand...

Mine did that too but there was no sound. But, if you have an iPad 2 you can mirror your screen and stream a movie to the iPad and it will play just in 480p with sound and HD movies will NOT work that way.
 
Wow this really blows. I hope it doesn't take long to come out with a patch for it.
 
I got it to work by logging out of my iTunes account on the ATV2. While logged in it would not stream my movies from my iMac. The minute I logged off, it worked perfectly.
 
Work Around....sort of

I saw this on an Apple Community thread, and it works for me.

On my iMac, in iTunes, I switch my target out device (bottom right corner of iTunes window) from "Computer" to "ATV". Then, I select the movie/tvshow I want, select play, and almost immediately, it starts playing on ATV.

This must be an Apple problem.... somehow - really bonkers! Is it working right for anyone reading these threads?
 
BasilFawlty said:
Ok, for what it's worth, I tried to just let it run for several minutes to see if it would eventually play a movie and it finally did! It took about five minutes of that spinning thing, but eventually it finally started to play. If it continues to take this long, something is still messed up.
Click to expand...

Yep, for some reason it now takes about 5 minutes before a movie or tv show from your library starts. Netflix and everything else works just fine. Don't know what's going on.
 
It definitely is related to the itunes store login on the ATV2. Once logged off, you can select any of your movies with the ATV2 and they will play. No need to switch to the apple tv airplay icon in iTunes. Starts up right away. Something must be messed up with the iTunes store right now.
 
Movie Loaded . . . Finally!

It took my ATV four minutes to start a movie. Before the update it took about 30 seconds.

But once it loaded it buffered up pretty quick.

UPDATE: Yep, signed-out of iTunes store . . and now TV and Movies start instantly.
 
Last edited:
Trust the cloud <less>

This just reinforces the notion I have always had - consider the cloud a convenience, for fun entity, not a have to have for my only backup.

And until they get the kinks worked out, take regular backups and don't trust it at all :mad:
 
normgregory said:
It took my ATV four minutes to start a movie. Before the update it took about 30 seconds.

But once it loaded it buffered up pretty quick.

UPDATE: Yep, signed-out of iTunes store . . and now TV and Movies start instantly.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you have to STAY signed out of iTunes, so as to disable authenticating to Apple's servers. Does that still allow playing of purchased content?
 
I just came across this thread and just started a movie with no issues. My ATV2 hasn't been used this evening (unusual) so it was asleep when all this started.

Edit: I just read more carefully. I have never logged into the iTunes Store on the ATV2.
 
Last edited:
rolnif said:
I'm guessing you have to STAY signed out of iTunes, so as to disable authenticating to Apple's servers. Does that still allow playing of purchased content?
Click to expand...

I can watch any movie I purchased through iTunes on my iMac. I don't know about rented material. Probably because it is stored on my computer. I would imagine anything on the cloud would not work properly right now if logged out of iTunes on ATV.
 
darster said:
It definitely is related to the itunes store login on the ATV2. Once logged off, you can select any of your movies with the ATV2 and they will play. No need to switch to the apple tv airplay icon in iTunes. Starts up right away. Something must be messed up with the iTunes store right now.
Click to expand...

Thank You, this worked for me.

PNutts said:
Edit: I just read more carefully. I have never logged into the iTunes Store on the ATV2.
Click to expand...

Its funny how I have never logged into the iTunes store from my Apple TV until today, I figured I would give it a try for the first time since owning my Apple TV (over a year) and maybe rent a movie for tonight, and now this issue occurs.

But logging out did the trick.
 
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