Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Reliable HD Streaming?

N

NightStorm

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 26, 2006
1,860
66
Whitehouse, OH
Has anyone else had problems reliably streaming HD content (720p, ~4600kbps) to their AppleTV? I am able to start a movie, but it will usually stop playing about 10-15 minutes in (no status bar indicating it is paused). If I hit pause and play, it will start but will typically only play for a couple minutes before acting up again. Looking at the network traffic, it appears as if the video is being sent fine but the transmission stops abruptly. I have seen this problem before when my iTunes Library was on my iMac local hard drive, and now when stored on a AFP share located on my ReadyNAS NV+. Anyone have any thoughts or experience this issue?

Both my NAS and iMac and connected via a gigabit switch. This switch is also connected to my Airport Extreme (configured for 802.11n native mode), which uses 802.11n to transmit to the AppleTV. Signal strength is excellent at the AppleTV, and connecting it via 10/100 Ethernet does not seem to have any impact.
 
It's possible that streaming isn't your problem, and something about the video file is. That periodic freezing and choppiness reminds me of some problems I had with earlier versions of Handbrake, when the AppleTV preset used some h.264 settings that the AppleTV choked on.

Have you been able to sync the movie and play it from the AppleTV's hard drive without any problems?
 
NightStorm said:
Has anyone else had problems reliably streaming HD content (720p, ~4600kbps) to their AppleTV? I am able to start a movie, but it will usually stop playing about 10-15 minutes in (no status bar indicating it is paused). If I hit pause and play, it will start but will typically only play for a couple minutes before acting up again. Looking at the network traffic, it appears as if the video is being sent fine but the transmission stops abruptly. I have seen this problem before when my iTunes Library was on my iMac local hard drive, and now when stored on a AFP share located on my ReadyNAS NV+. Anyone have any thoughts or experience this issue?

Both my NAS and iMac and connected via a gigabit switch. This switch is also connected to my Airport Extreme (configured for 802.11n native mode), which uses 802.11n to transmit to the AppleTV. Signal strength is excellent at the AppleTV, and connecting it via 10/100 Ethernet does not seem to have any impact.
Click to expand...

I often have the same problem streaming my HD content, but not my DVD-rips. I also am on wireless N. I don't know much about network traffic and such things, but I've come to the assumption the HD content is slightly too high a bitrate to stream perfectly. Synced to the :apple:tv they play fine though, so I'm guessing that's what the problem is.

How do you like your ReadyNAS NV+? I've been looking into a NAS solution, and this is one of the few Mac-compatible ones I can find.
 
While I did watch the entire movie last night, I was able to watch ~45 minutes with no problems after syncing the file to the AppleTV; the same file gave me issues when streaming. From my initial investigation, I really think the issue lies with the AppleTV and its ability to keep a stream alive for an extended period of time. I plan on testing this tonight with smaller (but still ~4600kbps) files where it should be able to stream the entire file over in under 5 minutes. If this works, I really hope Apple can do something in the next software release to make streaming large files more reliable. I wish it had a gigabit ethernet port... maybe a Mini would be a better option with the new Frontrow?

As for the ReadyNAS, for the most part it has been a very good addition to my network. I did have some initial problems moving my iTunes library over using an AFP share, but was able to get around that and its been working pretty well since. One of the more interesting things I've found is how much better Coverflow works in iTunes with the files stored remotely. Not quite sure why that is, but it is much smoother than it was when they were stored locally.
 
I'm streaming eyetv recordings and handbrake-ripped dvds to my iphone which is hooked up to a tv over component cables. Both types of files pause themselves at some point in the stream, and I have to press play to continue the video--which sounds like the same problem everyone's having with the :apple:tv. They work fine if I sync them onto the phone. Has anyone tried running a hard line from the mac or router to the :apple:tv to figure out if the issue is the type of connection?

Oops. Forgot the :apple:tv didn't do gigabit..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back