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Northwestern

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 13, 2011
235
0
I am buying movies and tv shows via iTunes and the downloadspeed is very slow. My normal downloadspeed via browser is about 1,6 MB/s, but with iTunes only 20-200 KB/s. It was not always so slow. I checked my antivirus program, but it doesn't make any problems with iTunes. I am downloading a 5 GB HD movie right now, time remaining 9 hours. What can be the slowdown issue?

Another problem I have are error messages, like err = -50. This always happens with iTunes movie extras. This error causes the download to fail. I downloaded a movie extra of 6 GB size and with all the errors it took me 14 days to download it via iTunes. I don't think my iMac or my internet provider or my antivirus program is the problem. I think its the problem of the Apple downloadservers. I am very disappointed with Apple, because most of the movies on iTunes cost the double price compared to dvd or blu ray in store. I think with the expensive prices on iTunes for movies and tv shows, Apple should offer fast servers and iCloud support (redownloading option) for movies and tv shows. I hope Apple is working on something in the near future. I like iTunes, but it could be better.
 

Julien

macrumors G4
Jun 30, 2007
11,835
5,432
Atlanta
... iTunes only 20-200 KB/s. It was not always so slow. I checked my antivirus program, but it doesn't make any problems with iTunes. I am downloading a 5 GB HD movie right now, time remaining 9 hours. What can be the slowdown issue?...I think with the expensive prices on iTunes for movies and tv shows, Apple should offer fast servers and iCloud support (redownloading option) for movies and tv shows. I hope Apple is working on something in the near future. I like iTunes, but it could be better.

This doesn't sound like Apple servers. I can easily download a HD movie in just a few minutes (10 minutes or so). Your internet speed is very slow to start with and I believe Apple suggest a minimum of 5Mbps for HD streaming.

Could be your ISP is throttling you for downloading large amounts (relative to your slow speed) from the same IP. Is this in the US?
 

Rigby

macrumors 603
Aug 5, 2008
6,222
10,168
San Jose, CA
I don't have any issues with the speed either. Movie downloads typically take just a few minutes.

Regarding the download error, I got that often when simultaneous download of multiple items was enabled. I disabled this (checkbox at the bottom of the download window) and didn't get the error since.
 

JackieInCo

Suspended
Jul 18, 2013
5,178
1,601
Colorado
I agree that it is on the OPs end. I just downloaded the latest Breaking Bad and Ghost Adventures episodes in HD and both took less then three minutes. They were about 3GB in total.
 

Northwestern

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 13, 2011
235
0
I tried something different today. Instead of downloading with iTunes Windows 8 Bootcamp on my iMac, I downloaded movies with my MacBook Air Mountain Lion. It worked and is very fast. I need about 30 minutes for the 7 GB movie. It seems to be a problem with Windows 8 and iTunes on my iMac.

But afterall, Apple should allow to redownload movies or saving them via iCloud. Money for this step shouldn't be a problem for Apple. ;-)

@Julien: I meant Megabyte per second, not Megabit! 1,6 Megabyte (MB) per second are 12,8 Megabit (Mb) per second.
 
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