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iTunes movie rental & ATV buffering issue

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Maxwell777

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 3, 2012
3
0
Hi all, sorry if this has been discussed...could not find anything on this on my search.

Anyhow, I have an issue...and need some help.
I download a movie off iTunes on my PC. Then I try using ATV to watch the movie on my big screen TV. Simple enuff right? Well, when I tried watching, it plays like 5 minutes then the screen freezes and clocks....then it plays again for like 5 minutes then screen freezes and clocks again. It looks like it is trying to buffer over wifi but the movie while playing is outpacing the buffer and that is when it freezes.

I tried pausing the movie and I can see on the play bar below, and it looks like it is buffering and the buffer is growing then I hit play and it plays for a bit longer until it catches up to the buffer and freezes again.

My wifi signal is very strong and reaches the ATV well. I tried resetting the modem, resetting/rebooting the ATV, rebooting the computer...and it still freezes. Does anyone have a solution to this?
 
M

Maxwell777

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 3, 2012
3
0
blueroom said:
Try wired Ethernet instead. Not all WiFi routers are created equal.
Click to expand...

The whole point was to avoid a hard wire.
I have time Warner cable and it is blazing fast when I do my broadband speed test. I reset the router, modem, PC, ATV, you name it, I reset/rebooted it.
That is why it is so annoying....and now I am thinking I downloaded the movie in HD 1080 mode for best picture...maybe that is causing the buffer stalling.

Maybe ATV was never suppose to support HD mode. All the 720 movies run fine.
Maybe there is a streaming setting that I need to do for HD?
 
FreakinEurekan

FreakinEurekan

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
5,520
2,583
Maxwell777 said:
The whole point was to avoid a hard wire.
I have time Warner cable and it is blazing fast when I do my broadband speed test. I reset the router, modem, PC, ATV, you name it, I reset/rebooted it.
That is why it is so annoying....and now I am thinking I downloaded the movie in HD 1080 mode for best picture...maybe that is causing the buffer stalling.

Maybe ATV was never suppose to support HD mode. All the 720 movies run fine.
Maybe there is a streaming setting that I need to do for HD?
Click to expand...

Internet speed is irrelevant for watching a movie from your computer to your Apple TV. You need LAN (Wi-Fi) speed. If your computer and your ATV are both wireless you're doubling your requirement (streaming from the PC to the wifi router, then wifi router to the ATV). Connect at least one of those via Ethernet to the router and that will help.

I have many 1080p movies on my Mac that I play on my ATV3s with no delays or buffering. My Mac is connected via Ethernet to the AirPort Extreme - and the ATV3s are wireless. It can work smoothly if all the equipment is suitable.
 
M

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
Plutonius said:
I would still try it to see if your WiFi is the cause of the problem.
Click to expand...
This.

I have everything wifi. aTV and AEBS in the basement, MBP on first floor (so floors and walls in-between) and everything streams fine with no buffering using 2.4GHz 802.11n. No LAN involved. And I know it's best to use LAN when you can and I can agree with that in concept. But...wifi can also work acceptably in many situations. I really think the AEBS does a better job of wifi streaming than some other routers. You can find posts around here of people that were having wifi steaming problems with the aTV, switched to an AEBS and the problem was solved.
 
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