AppleTV HD download 1% 24 min, 1% 40min, 2% 2hr wtf?

And--if you've got decent broadband bandwidth--the videos start streaming from the Web within seconds (with a slightly longer delay for HD flicks).

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Football Dad said:

I have Comcast Ultra broadband service and my Apple TV still does that on occasion for unknown reasons. If you do a hard reboot, (Unplug Apple TV and wait 30 seconds before plugging back in.) it will restart the download at a much higher speed. It is usually is ready to watch in 2 or 3 minutes.

I have never been able to figure out why it arbitrarily gets "stopped up".

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wombat888 said:

I think it can relate to how busy Apple's servers are as well as your bandwidth.

I've had better luck as far as speed when using it:

- through ethernet, not wifi
- on regular nights, not holiday and weekend nights

May be coincidence, but I've done about 15 movie rentals and that's my impression so far.

My worst experience with it was a complete inability to get a rental transaction processed for about 90 minutes on Thanksgiving weekend. This happened while I was basically trying to show the ATV off to my brother and his wife. Not technically an ATV issue, I also couldn't complete transactions using my MacBook - I tried while attemping to figure out what the problem was. We used my brother's Time Warner Cable VOD service instead, which worked like a clock.

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From: R, Mike
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 1:18 PM
To: 'iTunes Store'
Subject: RE: This movie never finished downloading

Brian;

Maybe I did not make my issue clear.

So, I will re-state the events of that evening and next day:

·Summary of issue: The HD movie "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” did eventually download fully, but not in time for us to watch it Friday 1/8 evening.
·
FYI: I did everything from the AppleTV interface, not on my iMac computer/ iTunes
My hardware: I live in Howell Michigan, Comcast cable. I own the 2 month old SB6120 SURFboard®. DOCSIS® 3.0 Cable Modem, 2 month old AirPort Extreme, 1 month old AppleTV. AppleTV connection via 802.11n wireless network (all my other stuff hardwired via cat5e.) All latest Apple software updates.

Details/timeline of what happened:
[FONT=&quot]o[/FONT]Friday 1/8 around 6:20pm Using AppleTV, we previewed a few HD trailers, and decided on watching "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” . This is my 1st time renting HD movie via the AppleTV.
[FONT=&quot]o[/FONT]I selected “rent”, and got HD download 1% 24 min remaining, 1% 40min remaining, then shortly after 2% 2hr remaining, all within 3-4 minutes
[FONT=&quot]o[/FONT]Suspecting possible bandwidth issue because I had (2) computers “on” and webpage open, I actually shutdown both computers to make sure no bandwidth being sucked by them. Still no improvement. Those are connected cat5e hardwire to my network not wireless.
[FONT=&quot]o[/FONT]Time was approx 6:45pm. 25-30 minutes wasted, from reading reviews I expected maybe 10-15 seconds for the HD movie to build up a safety buffer and say “ready for viewing”, that never happened.
[FONT=&quot]o[/FONT]Getting frustrated, I simply shut off all my family room HT components via My Harmony 890 remote. The AppleTV fully shuts off, then a few seconds after the green LED always goes on for whatever background sync/etc it does.
[FONT=&quot]o[/FONT]We ended up going into the basement HT and watching via Comcast on demand "Land of the Lost" in HD (as so-so movie, but watchable, language not child appropriate at all). Comcast on demand always cues up and plays instantly btw
[FONT=&quot]o[/FONT]Come Saturday 1/9 morning maybe 8am-ish, I turn on the AppleTV and immediately it starts playing the Movie, I had no choice! (on via Harmony remote, which turns on my HDTV, Onkyo AV, and the Apple TV) I pressed pause/stop immediately, but had just 23 hrs left
[FONT=&quot]o[/FONT]Was hoping to use that HD movie sometime in near future, not immediately. We were forced to watch it Saturday evening 1/9.

What am I looking for?

a)Explanation why the download did not work Friday 1/8 evening?
a.Was the Apple servers overloaded?
b.Does Comcast in Howell Michigan throttle digital downloads, so I can expect this kind of performance if I try and rent from AppleTV in the future?
c.Other?

b)I got advice from some online apple forums to do a “hard reset” of the AppleTV if this happens. Ie, unplug the AppleTV for 30 seconds and plug back in. That is not customer friendly. Comments from your side?

We did watch the HD movie from your AppleTV service as stated above, but were “forced” to rent another movie that nite from different source because it was not working.

Therefore, I’d be a satisfied customer if in addition to answering why the download did not work, Apple would offer us (1) free HD movie rental as good faith gesture.



____________________________________
Mike R P.E.



From: iTunes Store [mailto:iTunesStoreSupport@apple.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 6:53 AM
To: R, Mike
Subject: Re: This movie never finished downloading

Dear Mike,

I'm sorry to hear that "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" did not download successfully. I have posted it to your account. Please follow these steps to download "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs":

1) Make sure you're using the latest version of iTunes. It can be downloaded free of charge from the Apple website:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download

Note: Installing the latest version of iTunes will not affect your library or any items in your account that you haven't downloaded.

2) From the pull-down Store menu at the top, select Check for Available Downloads (if you're using iTunes 7, this option is called Check for Purchases). If you can't find this option, you can also click this link to check for purchases:

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/checkForPurchases

3) Enter your account name and password, then click the Check button. "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" should begin downloading and appear in your Purchased playlist. If you receive an error message while downloading, try again after turning off any firewall or web-accelerator software that you may have installed. If the download process is interrupted for any reason, it should resume once you reopen iTunes.

This article provides information about resuming interrupted downloads:

http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n93015

If "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" does not download successfully after you've followed these instructions, reply to this email and I'll have the issue investigated for you. In your reply, please include:

- The name of your Internet service provider (ISP).

- The type of Internet connection (such as dial-up, cable modem, or DSL).

- Any troubleshooting steps you may have taken.

- Any error messages you may have received.

Sincerely,

Brian
iTunes Store Customer Support
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww/


Customer First Name : Mike
Customer Last Name : R
email :
Web Order # :
Support Subject : This movie never finished downloading
Sub Issue : Incomplete download
Comments : iTunes Account Name:
Platform : AppleTV/3.0.1 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.4.7) AppleWebKit/528.18
Video Name : Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Comments:
I got HD download 1% 24 min remaining, 1% 40min remaining, then shortly after 2% 2hr remaining.... I actually shutdown both computers to make sure no bandwidth being sucked by them. Still no improvement. We ended up going into the basement HT and watching via Comcast on demand "Land of the Lost" in HD (as so-so movie, but watchable, language not child appropriate at all). Comcast on demand always cues up and plays instantly btw. My hardware: SE Michigan, Comcast cable, I own the 2 month old SB6120 SURFboard®. DOCSIS® 3.0 Cable Modem, 2 month old AirPort Extreme, 1 month old AppleTV. AppleTV connection via 802.11n wireless network (all my other stuff hardwired via cat5e). My computer downloads/uploads for other "stuff" have been very fast, so I am at loss here. Come Saturday morning I turn on the AppleTV and immediately it starts playing the Movie, I had no choice! (on via Harmony remote, which turns on my HDTV, Onkyo AV, and the Apple TV) I pressed pause/stop immediately, but had just 23 hrs left..... Was hoping to use this sometime in near future, not immediately. So to sumamrize: -I tried to download it, but had issues with it, so shut off the AppleTV -next time upon turn AppleTV it instantly played the movie, so I had to watch it within 23 hours....

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-----Original Message-----
From: iTunes Store [mailto:iTunesStoreSupport@apple.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 2:18 PM
To: R, Mike
Subject: RE: This movie never finished downloading; Follow-up:

Dear Mike,

Its Rudy here from iTunes taking over from Brian. Hope this mail greets you with high spirits.

Please accept my sincere apologies for the frustration this download of the movie rental "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" has caused. This issue you've experienced is very unusual. Ideally it should not take so much time for the download on your Apple TV.

I've refunded your purchase of $4.99 plus any applicable sales tax. The credit will be posted to your account within five business days towards the credit used for the purchase on your account "xxxxxxx.com".

Please wait at least few weeks before repurchasing this title. This will give us time to investigate the issue and make any corrections that may be necessary.

Mike, I have issued three video credits to your account "xxxxxxxxx.com", which you can use to buy the individual videos of your choice from the iTunes Store.

You may use these credits to test whether this issue is recurring which will determine whether it was a connection issue or issue with the download content.

Please note, however, that a video credit can only be used to purchase a TV Show episode or a music video. It cannot be used to purchase or rent a full-length movie or an episode of a TV Show that is listed as Season Only.

When you sign in to the iTunes Store with this account, the video credits will appear by your account name in the upper-right corner of the iTunes Store window. The next time you buy individual videos from the iTunes Store, your video credits will be used as payment until they all have been used or have expired.

If you don't see the credits, refresh your account information by signing out and back in to the iTunes Store:

1) Open iTunes.

2) Go to the iTunes Store.

3) From the Store menu, select Sign Out.

4) From the Store menu, select Sign In. Enter your account name and password and click Sign In.

Your video credits should now appear next to your account name.

I hope the offered refund and video credits pleases you, Mike. Please feel free to reach me for any further assistance.

Thank you for being a devoted iTunes customer.

Have a great wednesday!!

Sincerely,

 Rudy
iTunes Store Customer Support
Sun - Thu 7.00AM-4PM

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