Apple TV HD Freezing

[LD Curb]

I need your help! I'm an "old lady" whose dog just died suddenly and I need my TV to help me keep my sanity, while being stuck alone in the house trying to avoid COVID.

Here is the situation:
I have had 2 Apple TV 4th gen. for several years and never had one minute of trouble at all. Perfection. One in kitchen; one in great room. My modem and router are in the kitchen.

I had an Apple TV 3 in the master bedroom and a couple days ago upgraded that one to the one they call Apple TV HD (same as 4th gen. I think).

From the get-go the new Apple TV HD has not worked well. It freezes so that I see a still video image of what is on the screen but the audio is OK. Also, when using Spectrum TV streaming the image quality goes from very clear to blurry. Spectrum streaming works perfectly with my 2 Apple TV 4 units.

Here's what I did to try to isolate the problem. I moved the new Apple TV HD from the bedroom to the kitchen and the Apple TV 4 that was in the kitchen to the bedroom. The one moved from the kitchen to the bedroom worked perfectly in the bedroom. So I know that the issue was not the location of the new Apple TV HD.

But the Apple TV HD moved from the bedroom to the kitchen had the same horrible performance in the kitchen as it did in the bedroom. So I know it is not anything else but the Apple TV HD. Apple TV 4 worked perfectly in the kitchen ... why doesn't the Apple TV HD, as well?

I spoke with several CSRs at Apple who were USELESS. They would not admit that I had a problem!! I did unplug the unit, restarted it, updated the software ... yet right now I am hearing audio with a frozen image on the screen. It does this every 3-5 minutes or so.

When I Googled looking for a solution, everyone says it is the Wifi speed but that is impossible, since the Apple TV 4 worked just fine with my speed. I did several speed tests using different server locations and the results were is 13.4 to 39 Mbps, with most in the teens. I have Spectrum's "Ultra" Internet option.

Do you have any other solutions or could I possibly have a bad unit? As you can imagine, this situation is extremely annoying!!!

 

[AL2TEACH]

When and where did you get the Apple TV HD? Do you have the latest update for it/them?

 

[Boyd01]

Let me be sure I understand... you have an old AppleTV HD that works fine in the kitchen. You moved it to the bedroom and it also worked fine there. But your new AppleTV HD doesn't work properly in either the kitchen or bedroom. Is that right?

If so, I would just return the new Apple TV HD and exchange it for another one. Sounds like something must be wrong with it, so why waste any more time if you're still within the return window?

 

[LD Curb]

When and where did you get the Apple TV HD? Do you have the latest update for it/them?

I bought it at the Apple Store in Sept. 3. Yes, I updated it.

 

[LD Curb]

Let me be sure I understand... you have an old AppleTV HD that works fine in the kitchen. You moved it to the bedroom and it also worked fine there. But your new AppleTV HD doesn't work properly in either the kitchen or bedroom. Is that right?

If so, I would just return the new Apple TV HD and exchange it for another one. Sounds like something must be wrong with it, so why waste any more time if you're still within the return window?

Yes, that is the situation. I was getting ready to return it a couple days ago and unplugged everything and then decided to go the next day instead so I plugged everything back (kitchen) and it works much better!! Not perfect but MUCH better and it hardly ever freezes now and basically it is watchable. I had already plugged and unplugged but this time it worked! For some reason I didn't get a notice that there were replies so I am just now seeing this. Thanks so much. EDIT: I didn't get the notice because I didn't have that feature turned on in my preferences.... it's on now.