Apple TV 3 WiFi Speed Cap

kagharaht · May 18, 2015

I've read here on the forums about someone having ATV 3 WiFi N speeds at 150mbps. I've checked again recently and ATV3 is capped at 65mbps WiFi n. Has anyone been able to get ATV3 to go beyond that cap? Here's hoping a new version os ATV will increase that speed or at least give us GB Ethernet.

Intell · May 18, 2015

65mbps is the maximum for the Apple TV 2 and 3 because they only have one antenna. Higher connections speeds or gigabit Ethernet isn't needed if the output resolutions are maintained at their current values.

kagharaht · May 18, 2015

Intell said:
65mbps is the maximum for the Apple TV 2 and 3 because they only have one antenna. Higher connections speeds or gigabit Ethernet isn't needed if the output resolutions are maintained at their current values.

Yes correct but with the advent of 4K or new BR Specs, I can see the future for higher than 65mbps speeds. I think the person that posted 150mbps on ATV 3 posted erroneous information or perhaps using a modified ATV3.

I suppose if Apple doesn't update ATV3 for higher WiFi speeds, the 10/100 Ethernet connection will have to do if Apple doesn't update ATV 3.

paulrbeers · May 19, 2015

kagharaht said:
Yes correct but with the advent of 4K or new BR Specs, I can see the future for higher than 65mbps speeds.

okay, but that's pointless for the current ATV since they can't do 4K and Intell already included that caveat in his comment back.

Until recently with the AC iPads and iPhones, all iOS devices (which includes the ATV's) only had 65mbps N speeds.

26139 · May 19, 2015

Yup, what he said

paulrbeers said:
okay, but that's pointless for the current ATV since they can't do 4K and Intell already included that caveat in his comment back.

Until recently with the AC iPads and iPhones, all iOS devices (which includes the ATV's) only had 65mbps N speeds.

Yep. AppleTV 4 will likely have 4K resolution and increased WiFi speed(s).

No reason for 3 to get an update.

Boyd01 · May 20, 2015

Intell said:
Higher connections speeds or gigabit Ethernet isn't needed if the output resolutions are maintained at their current values.

It's not just about the data rate for streaming video. Higher speed would give you less latency, so videos would start playing faster and you could scrub through them more quickly. I have mine hardwired on gigabit ethernet and wish it could take advantage of the full network speed.

Intell · May 20, 2015

Higher speeds do not directly translate to lower latency. There may be less buffering time, but Apple does not see the need for that at this time.

Boyd01 · May 20, 2015

Intell said:
Apple does not see the need for that at this time.

Sure, but my point was that *I* would like to see less latency.

I use a Mac Mini on gigabit ethernet as an iTunes server with the library on a USB 3.0 disk that clocks around 170MB/sec. Using 802.11ac wifi on my MacBook Air, I can access the Mini at about 60MB/sec.

In iTunes on the MacBook Air connected to the Mini with home sharing, movies start almost instantly and you can immediately scrub through them, like they were local files. You can instantly start playing from any point in a 2 hour movie.

Now my AppleTVs are connected via gigabit ethernet and the experience is nowhere near the same. There is always a pinwheel before the movie starts playing, fast forwarding does not work smoothly, and if you start the movie from a point in the middle, there is a pretty long delay.

I suppose it isn't completely fair to compare a $70 AppleTV to a $1000 MacBook Air though.

kagharaht · May 21, 2015

Boyd01 said:
Sure, but my point was that *I* would like to see less latency.

I use a Mac Mini on gigabit ethernet as an iTunes server with the library on a USB 3.0 disk that clocks around 170MB/sec. Using 802.11ac wifi on my MacBook Air, I can access the Mini at about 60MB/sec.

In iTunes on the MacBook Air connected to the Mini with home sharing, movies start almost instantly and you can immediately scrub through them, like they were local files. You can instantly start playing from any point in a 2 hour movie.

Now my AppleTVs are connected via gigabit ethernet and the experience is nowhere near the same. There is always a pinwheel before the movie starts playing, fast forwarding does not work smoothly, and if you start the movie from a point in the middle, there is a pretty long delay.

I suppose it isn't completely fair to compare a $70 AppleTV to a $1000 MacBook Air though.

You described exactly why ATV needs GB ethernet or ac WiFi. Releasing a new one with a hobbled WiFi speed and 10/100 base T ethernet interfaces seems ridiculous these days.

priitv8 · May 21, 2015

kagharaht said:
Releasing a new one with a hobbled WiFi speed and 10/100 base T ethernet interfaces seems ridiculous these days.

But what does it matter, if everything down the processing pipe can not utilise it anyway? As long as there is no 4K graphics on-board, faster network connection doesn't really matter. iTunes movies are capped at 5Mbps bitrate anyway. And if :apple:

TV is good at something, then it is at buffering ahead the content. So basically the net speed is irrelevant. At least on your local LAN segment. Take a look at how it fills the buffer ahead when you play something back from iTunes.

Boyd01 · May 21, 2015

priitv8 said:
So basically the net speed is irrelevant. At least on your local LAN segment. Take a look at how it fills the buffer ahead when you play something back from iTunes.

I disagree - please read my post above. My MacBook Air shows almost no latency accessing iTunes movies on my Mac Mini with home sharing. My Apple TV accessing the Mini is a completely different experience, if you want to skip around in a movie you will watch the spinning pinwheel a lot. On the MacBook Air, you can scrub through the movie smoothly just as though it were a local file.

This isn't a deal-breaker or anything, and the Apple TV is cheap. But I would enjoy the experience more if it wasn't so sluggish. I have a really slow internet connection out in the woods here and don't use internet streaming. All of my content is stored on the Mini which is dedicated as an iTunes server. I would like to be able to use the full gigabit ethernet bandwitdh, like I can on my MacBook Air.

Nevertheless, I will probably stick with the current Apple TV for the foreseeable future. As I said, internet streaming really doesn't work for me so I could care less about "cord cutting" packages. No interest in playing games on my Apple TV. 4k doesn't interest me. So it sounds like the new Apple TV won't offer much for me other than a higher pricetag.

tdale · May 22, 2015

Intell said:
Higher speeds do not directly translate to lower latency. There may be less buffering time, but Apple does not see the need for that at this time.

Rolls eyes. Factor is the usual wifi interference issues, and its less than 65mbit.

----------

kagharaht said:
You described exactly why ATV needs GB ethernet or ac WiFi. Releasing a new one with a hobbled WiFi speed and 10/100 base T ethernet interfaces seems ridiculous these days.

Yes. My ATV3 is AC. Connected it to AEBS, so rMBP to AEBS is AC 5Ghz, connect rate 700Mbit, AEBS to ATV3 is ethernet, sorted. Same with the "real" media player WDTV Live.

Boyd01 · May 24, 2015

tdale said:
Yes. My ATV3 is AC.

Maybe I don't understand what you mean here? The current Apple TV does not have AC wifi. https://www.apple.com/appletv/specs/

Wireless

Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)

tdale · May 24, 2015

Boyd01 said:
Maybe I don't understand what you mean here? The current Apple TV does not have AC wifi. https://www.apple.com/appletv/specs/

Why are you saying this. I said my ATV3 is AC, followed by how, in that it connectes to ethernet, and AC, hence the slowest speed is AC. Tongue in cheek, yes, but I recieve AC speeds on my ATV3

Boyd01 · May 24, 2015

Sorry, I still don't understand. kagharaht and I were talking about 802.11ac wifi protocol. The AppleTV does not support that.

tdale · May 24, 2015

Boyd01 said:
Sorry, I still don't understand. kagharaht and I were talking about 802.11ac wifi protocol. The AppleTV does not support that.

Sigh, ok. I will clarify what was clear on my post, again.

Lets say we all have N only wifi. Bugger. We cannot upgrade our N only devices to AC, bugger. But, if you buy an AC wifi router, such as the AEBS, ethernet that to the N only devices, you will have AC from computer (in my case rMBP) to AC router, ethernet to devices, so effectively these devices are running wifi at AC speeds. So, my comment was not a joke, just a sensible workaround to some/most devices at AC speeds, and at 5Ghz lesser interference in many cases

Boyd01 · May 24, 2015

I have a similar setup with an Airport Time Capsule that supports 802.11ac wifi. I also have a MacBook Air with 802.11ac wifi and get speeds of about 60MB/sec writing to a network drive with it. My Apple TV is connected to the Time Capsule with ethernet, but it only has 100baseT ethernet. So it's only going to acheive speeds around 12MB/sec which is a far cry from "AC speeds".

tdale · May 24, 2015

Boyd01 said:
I have a similar setup with an Airport Time Capsule that supports 802.11ac wifi. I also have a MacBook Air with 802.11ac wifi and get speeds of about 60MB/sec writing to a network drive with it. My Apple TV is connected to the Time Capsule with ethernet, but it only has 100baseT ethernet. So it's only going to acheive speeds around 12MB/sec which is a far cry from "AC speeds".

?? If you use AC with 100/10, then off course you are only going to get 100mbit, thats expected. My Huawei 659B Fibre router has gigbit ethernet as does my AEBS

Boyd01 · May 24, 2015

Well I thought this thread was about the network speed of the AppleTV, and the fastest connection you can make to it is 100baseT ethernet.

tdale · May 24, 2015

Boyd01 said:
Well I thought this thread was about the network speed of the AppleTV, and the fastest connection you can make to it is 100baseT ethernet.

You are right. Thats very true.

The benefit of AC, is that its a lot faster and wider than N, N is 150 if you use the 20Mhz bandwidth, and real time use will never get close the any wifi "up to:' speed. But your right. AC will allow you to maximise the 100mbit ethernet, which N would never do.

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