I lack the technical knowledge that some on here profess to have, but I have had better luck overall using Ethernet with my ATV4. Movies start instantly, which is what matters most to me, and I am enjoying near-perfect consistency. With WiFi, things usually worked swimmingly, but not always. YMMV.
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Better Stream Quality and Overall Picture quality - WIFI vs Hardwired Ethernet?
- Thread starter Benz63amg
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Ugh..who said, or even implied that they could get 100 Mbps streams from Netflix? No one thinks that.
For most people, yes, wired is definitely the best option in the vast majority of cases. My router actually resides in my entertainment center with the main reason being I can connect my media devices over ethernet.
But we are talking specifically about the new Apple TV with a neutered 10/100 ethernet connection. And now with wireless AC becoming commonplace, and available on the ATV 4, wired is certainly not always the best option anymore.
With my router, being three feet away, I get the best service, minute-after-minute, hour-after-hour, and day-after-day - connected wirelessly.
Apparently you did since a few posts ago you said the following (and I quote):
"Streaming rented movies from Apple fill the buffer in a minute or two, rather than the 5-10 minutes it would take at the wired limit of 90 Mbps"
In case you don't know, when "streaming rented movies from Apple" you are using a video service.
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Not sure about rent but when you buy a movie from Apple and play it, it will download the entire movie based in part on your connection speed. This was true with ATV 3 as well. Even if you pause it will continue to download. Once fully downloaded playback is from the Apple TV Local storage. Even if you exit and come back in the movie is still there. Only if you start a new movie does it get replaced and start the download again. I believe NETFLIX will not do this. It will pause the download if you pause the movie. So, playing from local storage should be a nicer experience then a straight playback from the stream if any problems with the connections. My downloads happen very fast at 75mbps. Not sure what the maximum speed Apple Servers would allow. My son has 300mbps so assuming Apple TV had GB Ethernet his download might be 3x mine.
What?!?!
I have to be careful what I say here, since I got reprimanded for apparently insulting or offending someone earlier in my post to the guy who doesn't know the difference between bits and bytes.
So, in the nicest way possible, I will say that I can't be bothered to argue any more with people who don't understand the basic technologies at the core of the debate.
Yes. That's exactly right Mike. And streaming rented movies does work the same way as purchased movies on the new Apple TV.
I wish Netflix streamed the same way, but I can also understand why they use their 10 second buffer.
As far as Apple's servers go, I'm not sure what their maximum transfer speed is, but i'm sure it far exceeds 300 Mbps. So, given the choice, it is definitely nice to be able to utilize as much of that bandwidth as possible.
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Even if that were true, what's the point of streaming a movie faster than you can watch it? The only benefit would be that the initial buffering could be slightly shorter, but even at 100Mpbs it takes just a few seconds.
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My point was simply that you attempted to craft a rebuttal that was an obvious, direct contradiction to your immediately previous statement. Now, however, you are trying to explain that lapse by claiming that you "can't be bothered to argue any more with people who don't understand the basic technologies at the core of the debate."
Just reread the complete dialog and you should understand what I mean. In such a case, I think you've pretty much just shown the true tenor of your arguments.
We do seem to agree, however, that in the majority of cases for streaming video services the practical differences between a 100Mbps ethernet connection and a potentially (but perhaps not always) faster WiFi link between your internet service provider and the Apple TV are pretty much nonexistent (that is, it makes practically no difference).
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As Bluray maxes out at 30Mbps, you will NEVER exceed the capabilities of the 10/100 port. People on this forum keep banging on about needing gigabit ethernet, but none of the content out there exceeds the ports on the current Apple TV. In fact, most competitors are also offering only 10/100 ports.
Wrong.
The max audio+video bitrate of a Bluray is 48 Mbps.
But that still doesn't come near the max 90 Mbps you're going to get with your wired Apple TV. So who cares right?
Except that streaming a single movie is NOT the only thing that can be done on an Apple TV.
My Apple TV downloads new screensavers every day at 600 megabytes a pop(not megabits, megaBYTES).
If my kid is downloading a gigaBYTE of add-ons for his racing game while a new screensaver video is downloading, you're looking at a few minutes of waiting.
Personally, I would rather wait LESS.
But don't let me talk you into anything you're not comfortable with.
There was NO contradiction.
You may think there was, based on your lack of understanding in the streaming differences between apps.
And that is exactly why I said I didn't want to bother with doing what I'm doing right now. I'm not a fast typer, and I hate wasting my limited time.
If you're using the Remote app or a third party like Simple Control, wifi is the most robust.
For whatever reason Ethernet connection stops accepting remote IP commands and visibility after a week or two. A restart fixes the issue (for another week or two). Wifi is always solid. My experience is based on installing numerous Apple TVs (over 10) and all were with Time Capsules or Airport Extremes.
Good news is that a recent ATV4 I setup with Ethernet is still working strong with remote commands after several weeks. Perhaps Apple sorted out the issues in the ATV4.
I installed another ATV4 today and setup with wifi as it was behind a TV over a fireplace. It was able to download at 160Mbps using the speedtest tvOS app. I love that we can check the actual speeds now with the ATV4.
For whatever reason Ethernet connection stops accepting remote IP commands and visibility after a week or two. A restart fixes the issue (for another week or two). Wifi is always solid. My experience is based on installing numerous Apple TVs (over 10) and all were with Time Capsules or Airport Extremes.
Good news is that a recent ATV4 I setup with Ethernet is still working strong with remote commands after several weeks. Perhaps Apple sorted out the issues in the ATV4.
I installed another ATV4 today and setup with wifi as it was behind a TV over a fireplace. It was able to download at 160Mbps using the speedtest tvOS app. I love that we can check the actual speeds now with the ATV4.
I found this discussion while trying to figure out why my 2 AppleTVs (4th generation) are running perfectly on WiFi but like unreliable dog$hit when connected to wired Ethernet. Wired SHOULD be better, but in my experience, it just isn't.
The one place where wired is better is if I'm Airplay'ing a Dropbox video to the ATV from my iPhone. It's choppy on WiFi but smooth when wired.
WiFi has been faster and more reliable in every other situation. It's weird, it should be, but I can't argue with my own experience.
The one place where wired is better is if I'm Airplay'ing a Dropbox video to the ATV from my iPhone. It's choppy on WiFi but smooth when wired.
WiFi has been faster and more reliable in every other situation. It's weird, it should be, but I can't argue with my own experience.
Its stability not ultimate speed thats the issue here. Another vote for ethernet.