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MrKambo

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 28, 2012
59
0
Hardware Involved:

Samsung Ultrabook Here
Sky Fibre Optic Router Here 40Mbps Down 10Mbps Up
Apple TV Gen 3

The Sky Hub sits downstairs in the living room
Laptop is on a small desk in my bedroom
AppleTV is hooked up to a HDTV via HDMI also in the living room

my entire Itunes library is stored on my ultrabook's internal hdd, so there are no external drives involved, its running Windows 7 and iTunes 11, its connected via wireless to the Sky Hub.

Now i spent the weekend ripping a few of my BluRay's and DVD, all TV Shows and i also purchased one episode of South Park Season 15 (Humancentipad) just for comparison in terms of video quality size etc etc

Now im assuming, if im watching this purchased South Park episode on my Apple TV, it streams it directly from the Cloud, as its purchased right? because ive noticed it buffers very very quickly.

Now when im watching something ive ripped, it takes an age to buffer, im waiting atleast one minute before it plays on my screen, i used another South Park episode i ripped similar file size but smaller resolution only 720p

I know wireless isnt the best way to achieve HD playback but surely it can handle a ~650MB file, i dont even wanna try a 1080p movie i ripped!

if i was to replace my Sky Hub with a Airport Extreme, would this benefit my situation or not? im not in any position to run cat5 or move bits and pieces so thats out of the question. im assuming its my router thats at fault as i cant see my laptop not being able to send the data quickly

hoping there is enough information there...
 
Now when im watching something ive ripped, it takes an age to buffer, im waiting atleast one minute before it plays on my screen, i used another South Park episode i ripped similar file size but smaller resolution only 720p

Your files are prolly not optimized. Optimize them with, say, Subler. Load the file and select File > Optimize.

(More info: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1496052/ )
 
I used to have to the same issue as you, and I noticed a HUGE difference once I upgraded to an Airport Extreme router. That said, the linksys router it replaced was very old.
 
Your files are prolly not optimized. Optimize them with, say, Subler. Load the file and select File > Optimize.

(More info: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1496052/ )

Subler is only a MAC solution, that's unfortunately the only thing i don't own, would putting the mp4 back through Handbrake and checking the Apple TV 3 preset and web optimize, be essentially the same step?

I used to have to the same issue as you, and I noticed a HUGE difference once I upgraded to an Airport Extreme router. That said, the linksys router it replaced was very old.

i see, thank you for that, ill try couple more things and if it doesn't improve my experience ill be investing in the Airport
 
so i was bored this evening (got the week off work) decided to play around a bit with some numbers

i downloaded Big Buck Bunny in the H.264 format, added it to iTunes

using my iPad 3rd Gen, i played this file via home sharing, baring in mind the following experiment was conducted at the furthest point of my router (bedroom)

and as you can imagine the buffering was ridiculous, it would play about 3 seconds then buffer for another 10 etc etc

here is the laptops network card throughput while this was being played

Capture.png


now while this was playing i decided to conduct a internet speedtest also done from my bedroom, and this is what it came up with

IMG_0235.png


i then stopped the movie on the ipad, waited till the network had settled and ran speedtest again

IMG_0236.png


so i have a feeling its the router not being powerful enough to throughput masses of data
 
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