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How Long !!!

standingquiet

standingquiet

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 13, 2010
348
0
Birmingham, AL
I get my new Apple TV yesterday and i though it was great until i chose to rent a movie with my wife and some friends tonight. Instead of going down to Blockbuster i thought i'd show off my new gadget and impress my friends and now i'm left looking stupid as i have to wait 29hours for it to load, WTF?

IMG_1000000396.jpg


ok i dont have the fastest internet going where we live but it only takes a couple of hours on iTunes to download a movie.

kind of defeats the object having to start a rental download a day before you wanna watch it.


Matt
 
Depending on your ISP you could be throttled after 6PM to a slower speed than you'd get duing the day.

The slow download is entirely down to your ISP not Apple and their device/iTunes store.
 
standingquiet said:
I get my new Apple TV yesterday and i though it was great until i chose to rent a movie with my wife and some friends tonight. Instead of going down to Blockbuster i thought i'd show off my new gadget and impress my friends and now i'm left looking stupid as i have to wait 29hours for it to load, WTF?

IMG_1000000396.jpg


ok i dont have the fastest internet going where we live but it only takes a couple of hours on iTunes to download a movie.

kind of defeats the object having to start a rental download a day before you wanna watch it.


Matt
Click to expand...

Hi Matt,

You don't happen to be using a different DNS then the one your ISP gave you? It seems to be that using Google DNS or other DNS can cause huge waiting times on itunes and other online streaming services. Use the local ISP DNS and see if it improves waiting times, also reduce your buffering margin.

That's the two things I can think of, and maybe tell us more about your internet connection speed.

Thanks
AE
 
aelalfy said:
Hi Matt,

You don't happen to be using a different DNS then the one your ISP gave you? It seems to be that using Google DNS or other DNS can cause huge waiting times on itunes and other online streaming services. Use the local ISP DNS and see if it improves waiting times, also reduce your buffering margin.

That's the two things I can think of, and maybe tell us more about your internet connection speed.

Thanks
AE
Click to expand...

How do i check what DNS i'm using? I've never changed anything so i presume i'm on the correct one.

The maximum connection speed our line can take is 2mb due to the distance we are from the exchange.

like i said if i get directly from itunes on Macbook Pro its never taken that long to get a movie.

Thanks Matt
 
standingquiet said:
The maximum connection speed our line can take is 2mb due to the distance we are from the exchange.
Click to expand...
There-in lies your problem, especially if it was HD and not SD which would indeed take a couple of hours.

If you haven't changed settings then it isn't the DNS, but you should consider switching ISP.
 
northy124 said:
There-in lies your problem, especially if it was HD and not SD which would indeed take a couple of hours.

If you haven't changed settings then it isn't the DNS, but you should consider switching ISP.
Click to expand...

yeah a couple of hours im use to on iTunes but not 29hours i'm getting on Apple TV even if i had 16mb that still works out at 7.25hours.
 
standingquiet said:
yeah a couple of hours im use to on iTunes but not 29hours i'm getting on Apple TV even if i had 16mb that still works out at 7.25hours.
Click to expand...
Was it in HD on the Apple TV? if yes then it will take that long on your 2Mb/s (265KB/s) connection. 7 Hours and 25 Minutes on 16Mb/s? that is wrong as it takes me 3 Hours for HD on 8Mb/s.

If it was SD then IDK what the issue is but for HD your speed is the issue not the Apple TV.

Have you tried downloading the rental on your MacBook Pro?
 
Here is a post that lists the estimated wait times for viewing HD content. Note, even though your ISP may be quoting 2Mbps speeds you may be getting less than that hour-to-hour and minute-to-minute. For example, if you are really getting only 1Mbps (which could happen under some conditions) it will take over 8 hours before you'll be able to view a two-hour HD movie. At 2Mbps you will need to wait at least 3 hours (and it will take about 5 hours for the entire movie to download). In any case, below is the link which shows wait times for speeds from about 6Mbps to 1Mbps.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1029347/
 
Last edited:
northy124 said:
Was it in HD on the Apple TV? if yes then it will take that long on your 2Mb/s (265KB/s) connection. 7 Hours and 25 Minutes on 16Mb/s? that is wrong as it takes me 3 Hours for HD on 8Mb/s.

If it was SD then IDK what the issue is but for HD your speed is the issue not the Apple TV.

Have you tried downloading the rental on your MacBook Pro?
Click to expand...

I've never downloaded a HD movie only SD which usually take a couple of hours. I have downloaded HD TV shows and a 40min HD TV show usually takes just over an hour usually which is 1.4gb. A HD movie is 4gb approx so i do not know where this 29 hours is coming from.
 
fpnc said:
Here is a post that lists the estimated wait times for viewing HD content. Note, even though your ISP may be quoting 2Mbps speeds you may be getting less than that hour-to-hour and minute-to-minute. For example, if you are really getting only 1Mbps (which could happen under some conditions) it will take over 8 hours before you'll be able to view a two-hour HD movie. In any case, below is the link which shows wait times for speeds from about 6Mbps to 1Mbps.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1029347/
Click to expand...

So again going by that my quoted 29 hours is well off
 
standingquiet said:
So again going by that my quoted 29 hours is well off
Click to expand...

Ok so assuming you or anyone else in the household haven't changed the DNS, and you said downloading on itunes directly is much faster compared to downloading on the AppleTV, heres a couple of scenarios:

1) AppleTV could be too far from router if connect wirelessly or the connection is interrupted by some other device.

2) maybe you were doing something on another computer that limited the bandwidth going to your appletv, specifically during the time you mentioned (friends over tv rental , 29 hours wait, that time)

3) Your AppleTV might need a reset/restore or maybe your wireless card in there is not functioning correctly

Everything above are just scenarios or rather possibilities of what could be going on, if I think of anything else ill let you know. Meanwhile you might want to take your AppleTV to apple and see if they can explain this.

Thanks
AE
 
standingquiet said:
So again going by that my quoted 29 hours is well off
Click to expand...
Just because it says 29 hours doesn't mean that it will take 29 hours (it could be much less, or even longer if things are really slow -- for whatever reason). I know that my ISP's modem/router has to be restarted every week or so or it will slow to only a few hundred kilobits per second. Yes, I should get that fixed (replaced) but it works fairly well most of the time and dealing with AT&T for DSL service is not easy (it took several weeks for them to activate my DSL account even though the previous resident already had DSL service). Unfortunately, AT&T DSL is the only broadband service I can get (and at 3Mbps down, 400Kbps up it really isn't true broadband).

In any case, 29 hours for an SD movie isn't right (duh!). Restart your modems/routers and the Apple TV and then test your broadband download speed on a site like SpeedTest.net. You may also want to test the speed several times at different points during the day because things do change hour-to-hour.
 
I have found the exact opposite results.
I went in and changed my DNS server to google and the download speeds have increased where I get no lag on Netflix. I have yet to download a movie from iTunes so I really can't say there. But if the speeds have increased on Netflix I would have to assume they would be faster on iTunes.

I even talked with AppleCare and they suggested the same thing about changing servers.
Google DNS servers and you will get a couple different options and the google server is 8.8.8.8
 
Thanks for the info. I will keep an eye on speeds and go back and forth to see which work better for me. According to the article I should go back to my original DNS. at least there are options.
 
There is no slow download problem with the Apple TV 2

standingquiet said:
I get my new Apple TV yesterday and i though it was great until i chose to rent a movie with my wife and some friends tonight. Instead of going down to Blockbuster i thought i'd show off my new gadget and impress my friends and now i'm left looking stupid as i have to wait 29hours for it to load, WTF?

ok i dont have the fastest internet going where we live but it only takes a couple of hours on iTunes to download a movie.

kind of defeats the object having to start a rental download a day before you wanna watch it.


Matt
Click to expand...

I can assure you, there are no problem with the download speed on Apple TV 2...you have to look in your backyard first.

The usual suspects are :

1. Using Google DNS or Open DNS (Was on the headlines recently)
2. Slow Internet speed (looks to be your case)
3. Slow WIfi performance or interference.

Is the Atv connected over Wifi ? What is the router network type ? g or n. Have you tried to hard wire the Apple TV to the router ? This will tell you if you have a wifi issue.

My Atv is connected over a rock solid fast wifi network and I have a fast internet connection. Streaming high quality low compression HD with 5.1 sound (iTunes store) means a lot of data and I believe someone before provided a link on delay calculations.

I use to rent HD TV shows on Apple TV 2 every day and here is what I get day in day out on EVERY single rentals. You can also see how fast the buffer fills up (white bar) compared to the blue diamond. Please forgive the background sound.
http://gallery.me.com/bgroslouis#100077/IMG_0127&bgcolor=black
 
Last edited:
benoitgphoto said:
I can assure you, there are no problem with the download speed on Apple TV 2...you have to look in your backyard first.

The usual suspects are :

1. Using Google DNS or Open DNS (Was on the headlines recently)
2. Slow Internet speed (looks to be your case)
3. Slow WIfi performance or interference.

Is the Atv connected over Wifi ? What is the router network type ? g or n. Have you tried to hard wire the Apple TV to the router ? This will tell you if you have a wifi issue.

My Atv is connected over a rock solid fast wifi network and I have a fast internet connection. Streaming high quality low compression HD with 5.1 sound (iTunes store) means a lot of data and I believe someone before provided a link on delay calculations.

I use to rent HD TV shows on Apple TV 2 every day and here is what I get day in day out on EVERY single rentals. You can also see how fast the buffer fills up (white bar) compared to the blue diamond. Please forgive the background sound.
http://gallery.me.com/bgroslouis#100077/IMG_0127&bgcolor=black
Click to expand...


My Apple TV is connected by Ethernet cable not over WiFi.

How do i check/change my DNS? I have BT Broadband with home hub.

I've just done a speed check and i dont think its very good :confused:



Thanks

Matt
 
standingquiet said:
My Apple TV is connected by Ethernet cable not over WiFi.

How do i check/change my DNS? I have BT Broadband with home hub.

I've just done a speed check and i dont think its very good :confused:



Thanks

Matt
Click to expand...

It's in your router. Since I don't know yours, look somewhere under TCP/IP and/or DHCP section.

Your speed checks shows very poor download speed considering also that it fluctuates, you can even go below 1 Mbps.

Here are the maths for a 3.5 GB (average size HD movie):
Your actual speed is 1Mbps = 0.13 MB/s. (approx)

3500 MB / 0,13 MB/s = 26923s = 449 min so approx 8 hours. Considering that for a zillion of reasons (ISP throttling, Internet load, connection share, iTunes servers load, etc), it can go well below the 1 Mbps on the real download speed, it's not surprising that you have very high download time.
 
I would suggest trying "namebench". It's a google tool that will run several tests to determine the best DNS servers for your needs.

Like anything, make sure you read the directions and don't just blindly follow their suggestions once the tests are complete.

It's a good tool that will help you make an educated decision.
 
26 hours after renting it says i still have another 10 hours to wait, Also love the fact its counting down the days i have left to watch when i cant actually watch yet!
 
sushi said:
Wow. That is some slow DL speeds.

For me, it's basically start the DL, then after a minute or two begin watching the movie. Convenient.
Click to expand...

I know man, funny thing is i don't have this problem when downloading or renting through iTunes on my Macbook Pro. Seems its just on the ATV2.

Even short Youtube videos take 10-15mins to load.
 
Mine does this sometimes, especially in the evenings and it may well be worse because I'm using the US store. I haven't tried the following but it might work better - renting the film in itunes and then sending it to the apple tv via airplay when you watch.

Seems a little convoluted but now we're a 2 apple TV household this should allow us to move rentals from one room to another. Shall be trying it myself pretty soon.
 
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