Apple TV & Slow inetrnet

it may be your router dropping out and not your internet.

or it could be wireless interference.

if you have a cheapo router, that's probably it

Run wired Ethernet to the AppleTV's.

I have noticed that too.

On my old internet connection, it was 5 down and 5 up. Everything worked fine on it for our needs, except Apple TV. It would take an hour to download the movie for playback, whereas on Amazon Prime on my Blu-Ray player, I could rent the same movie and it would play just fine. Both devices are hardwired too.

I have since changed internet providers and no longer have that problem, but it was a problem for us when we had the slower connection, even though everything else worked just fine.

probably goes to apple to authenticate first

can you buy your own cable modem?

dansbrooklyn said:

Actually I don't have a cheap router. I was using an Airport Extreme until just a few days ago and it had begun happening on that. When we upgraded our internet it came with a modem/router so we just started using that and its exactly the same issue.

Running ethernet cable to the apple tv's is not really possible since one of them is 2 floors below the other.

It was all working well until we started having internet service issues. Initially I thought it was the router (airport extreme) had stopped working, but now its happening with the new router also.

I was just wondering if Airplay uses the internet to establish connectivity between devices?

Thanks!!

Click to expand...

Did you try changing channels your wifi is running on? Maybe a neighbor recently setup a new router and it is interfering with yours.

The only time the AppleTV would go out to the Apple servers (assuming the video is housed somewhere on your home network) is if you downloaded some iTunes movies and then all it is doing is validating that you did purchase said video. Otherwise no, the internet connection is unused for within the home streaming. We've still watched videos at our house that I have ripped from my own DVD's even when the internet was out completely.

dansbrooklyn said:

Actually I don't have a cheap router. I was using an Airport Extreme until just a few days ago and it had begun happening on that. When we upgraded our internet it came with a modem/router so we just started using that and its exactly the same issue.



Running ethernet cable to the apple tv's is not really possible since one of them is 2 floors below the other.



It was all working well until we started having internet service issues. Initially I thought it was the router (airport extreme) had stopped working, but now its happening with the new router also.



I was just wondering if Airplay uses the internet to establish connectivity between devices?



Thanks!!

Click to expand...

"2 floors" could be the problem. I would test it in closer proximity to help diagnose.

As mentioned above the next thing I'd be looking into is channel interference. Test the wifi on another channel if possible.

If you are in brooklyn, you probably have a bunch of neighboring networks.
get istumbler it will let you see all your neighbors wireless networks and their channels. you want to pick the biggest hole to put your network in. keep in mind that channels overlap, to be clear, you need to be 5 numbers away. so 1&6 or 3&9.
if your neighborhood is anything like mine (midtown manhattan), you will never be completely clear. you just want to aim for the biggest space with the weakest signals.

you internet speed shouldn't affect your network speed.
is it possible someone else is on your network?
do you have the guest network enabled? or roommates who might be torrenting or doing other big downloads.

check your network to see who is attached.

To monitor wireless clients:

Open AirPort Utility, located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder on a computer using Mac OS X, and in Start > All Programs > AirPort on a Windows computer.

Select the wireless device you’re setting up, and then click Manual Setup. Enter the password if necessary.

Click Advanced in the toolbar, and then click Logging & Statistics.

Click "Logs and Statistics," and then click Wireless Clients. You can monitor the signal, noise, and data rate of wireless clients on your network.

Click to expand...

if you are torrenting, make sure you have your upload throttled. You want to take about 10% off your available speed, as maxing out your upload will kill your download.

also make sure all your coax connections are tight, all the way from the modem to the wall, including any splitters.
a few months ago, my internet was going in and out, i remembered seeing a time warner guy climbing on the handrails in our stairway a few days before, took me several chats with Time warner before i remembered that, and the next time i walked by and checked, he had left one of the connections loose.
but i've had the same problem with the cable connection going into the back of my modem.

you may not be able to get to connections in communal areas, but if someone new just moved in, that could be a problem. They may have also jumped on your guest network.

waw74 said:

get istumbler it will let you see all your neighbors wireless networks and their channels.

Click to expand...

OS X has all the necessary tools already built in!
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5606

i'm in queens and last i checked i counted 39 wifi networks that i could see within range. probably some more out there.

i used to have all of my devices on wifi but they would cut out all the time, now i'm cat 5 for everything. i have time warner and never have any internet issues once i went to cat 5

if you buy your own modem you will get a cleaner signal since all new modems are DOCCIS 3. might be your modem depending on how good your TWC wiring is

One thing that tripped me up was under the Settings > iTunes Store section. After an update a few months ago, I discovered Movie Trailers was continually dropping out in the last ⅓ or stuttering in first ¼ and then dropping out...part of it was bandwidth (I have the lowest-cheapest connection possible) but also that the Movie Trailers (hence, MT) was set to show in 1080 HD - knocking it down to 720 improved it so it hardly ever dropped out in that last ⅓rd, and then putting it on SD made it fast and smooth.

The performance for the trailers made me question if it was ever worth renting a movie from Apple, but after discovering this I gave it a try. My HD movies - after a little bit of preloading - worked fine throughout, and don't seem to correlate to the experiences I have in the MT section.

Perhaps Apple is prioritising services towards movie deployment (?) instead of marketing (which is what the MT section really is). With a little adjustment, both experiences are now perfect, but I needed to twiddle it.

Anyway, if you're gauging the connection by the Movie Trailers section, it might not be an accurate estimation of performance.

jtrascap said:

One thing that tripped me up was under the Settings > iTunes Store section. After an update a few months ago, I discovered Movie Trailers was continually dropping out in the last ⅓ or stuttering in first ¼ and then dropping out...part of it was bandwidth (I have the lowest-cheapest connection possible) but also that the Movie Trailers (hence, MT) was set to show in 1080 HD - knocking it down to 720 improved it so it hardly ever dropped out in that last ⅓rd, and then putting it on SD made it fast and smooth.

The performance for the trailers made me question if it was ever worth renting a movie from Apple, but after discovering this I gave it a try. My HD movies - after a little bit of preloading - worked fine throughout, and don't seem to correlate to the experiences I have in the MT section.

Perhaps Apple is prioritising services towards movie deployment (?) instead of marketing (which is what the MT section really is). With a little adjustment, both experiences are now perfect, but I needed to twiddle it.

Anyway, if you're gauging the connection by the Movie Trailers section, it might not be an accurate estimation of performance.

Click to expand...

There are two totally independent speeds: Broadband speed and WiFi speed. Broadband speed is the speed from the Internet to your router. Downloading movies from iTunes depends on that speed. In your home, there is WiFi speed. Normally it is just "plenty", but if like Alert1234 you can see 39 WiFi networks, they will interfere with each other. In that case, sadly you'll need an Ethernet cable. Probably Ethernet from Apple TV to your router will help already, because normally your movie will go Mac -> Router -> Apple TV so you have twice the trouble. Or worse Media Server -> Router -> Mac -> Router -> Apple TV, so if you have a NAS device, connect it directly with Ethernet to your router.

For the non-technical: Your Apple TV has a port to plug in an Ethernet cable. Your WiFi router should have _at least_ one port to plug in Ethernet, many have four. You just measure the distance, and go to eBay and order an Ethernet cable of the right length, obviously not too short but avoid one that is much too long, then connect the boxes. Don't buy the cheapest cable, but avoid anything overpriced. Make sure it's cable with connectors. (Professionals who put up Ethernet in companies would buy a huge cable roll, cut it to the right length and add the connectors themselves; you and I can't do that). I haven't checked if you need to turn off WiFi on the Apple TV, but it probably figures out automatically that it is connected through Ethernet.