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Poor picture quality when Streaming ITunes purchases

A

AeroBar

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 21, 2009
740
13
Hello,

I have an account for the US iTunes along with an account in my country.

Lately the TV episodes that I have purchased on my US account have very poor image quality despite a strong internet signal. This only happen with my US AppleID. Most times the picture improves after a couple of minutes to proper HD quality but this evening it is not.

Does anyone know why this only happens on my US AppleID ?
 
I’m in the US and just today anything I try and stream has poor picture quality - happened out of nowhere. I also have a strong signal so no Wi-Fi issues. I’m not sure what happened but hopefully it’s temporary.
 
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Macguy31 said:
I’m in the US and just today anything I try and stream has poor picture quality - happened out of nowhere. I also have a strong signal so no Wi-Fi issues. I’m not sure what happened but hopefully it’s temporary.
Click to expand...
By lately though, I mean this has been happening for few weeks at least.

Last night I paused the stream while I started this thread and when I resumed the picture quality was normal HD. I tested a few minutes of other TV shows and pausing also helped.
 
AeroBar said:
By lately though, I mean this has been happening for few weeks at least.

Last night I paused the stream while I started this thread and when I resumed the picture quality was normal HD. I tested a few minutes of other TV shows and pausing also helped.
Click to expand...
That would seem to indicate the streamed shows are not creating a big enough buffer before they start streaming. Typically, a buffer is built up ahead of the point at which you are currently watching. This is to keep the stream going in case the internet connection drops briefly. In the beginning of a stream, resolution can stay low until the buffer is created. Perhaps the US streams are not reaching you as fast as the local streams, so they have to lower the resolution to increase the buffer.
 
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w5jck said:
That would seem to indicate the streamed shows are not creating a big enough buffer before they start streaming. Typically, a buffer is built up ahead of the point at which you are currently watching. This is to keep the stream going in case the internet connection drops briefly. In the beginning of a stream, resolution can stay low until the buffer is created. Perhaps the US streams are not reaching you as fast as the local streams, so they have to lower the resolution to increase the buffer.
Click to expand...
Are you saying the cause is my distance from the server holding the US shows?

Why would it suddenly become an issue?
 
I'm saying it sounds like a buffering issue which might be due to the servers used to stream the US content, or it might be due to some other issue. The key words are "buffering issue."
 
You are using a US Apple id but you say it isn't your country? So if you are using a VPN or if you are somehow accessing from abroad then your internet service might be being bounced all over the place.
The wifi signal may be strong but you've got routing problems or something like that. Latency issues..
If you are using a VPN then see if they have other servers in another city.
 
Ruggy said:
You are using a US Apple id but you say it isn't your country? So if you are using a VPN or if you are somehow accessing from abroad then your internet service might be being bounced all over the place.
The wifi signal may be strong but you've got routing problems or something like that. Latency issues..
If you are using a VPN then see if they have other servers in another city.
Click to expand...
There is no VPN involved. iTunes and AppleID’s are not geo-restricted.

Many people have a “foreign” AppleID.

I’ve been using a US AppleID for watching some TV shows for years and not experienced this problem before - if ever there was such a dip in video quality it was every streaming service and every ID.

I’ve asked others who have US IDs - they are not having the problem.
 
w5jck said:
I'm saying it sounds like a buffering issue which might be due to the servers used to stream the US content, or it might be due to some other issue. The key words are "buffering issue."
Click to expand...
I understand that you mean a buffering issue. I’m just asking about possible causes.
 
This sounds like a bandwidth issue. Test your actual connection speed & latency to a US server, not one that is local for you.
 
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it could be the VPN your using doesn't have the bandwidth to haves huge steams for Hit streaming, so better through that VPN to download those US videos for better picture! So invest in NAS and store it on the movies on NAS!
 
satcomer said:
it could be the VPN your using doesn't have the bandwidth to haves huge steams for Hit streaming, so better through that VPN to download those US videos for better picture! So invest in NAS and store it on the movies on NAS!
Click to expand...
As I said above there is no VPN involved.

Switching between AppleIDs (which means switching stores if it is a “foreign” AppleID) does not require a VPN.
AppleTV no longer allows movies or shows to be downloaded to the device. It is all streaming now. And your iTunes purchases are not geo- restricted.

And I don’t think an external hard drive can be attached to an AppleTV but there is no point as downloading movies is no longer an option.
 
AeroBar said:
As I said above there is no VPN involved.

Switching between AppleIDs (which means switching stores if it is a “foreign” AppleID) does not require a VPN.
AppleTV no longer allows movies or shows to be downloaded to the device. It is all streaming now. And your iTunes purchases are not geo- restricted.

And I don’t think an external hard drive can be attached to an AppleTV but there is no point as downloading movies is no longer an option.
Click to expand...
I said NAS (Network Attached Storage)! many apps allow the vApple TV to use networked drives!
 
satcomer said:
I said NAS (Network Attached Storage)! many apps allow the vApple TV to use networked drives!
Click to expand...
I appreciate your input but spending money on new devices is not something I want to do. And use streaming becasue I don’t want shelves of discs or hard drives.

Until a few weeks ago the streaming wasn’t a problem. I’m just looking for advice about that.
 
GrumpyCoder said:
This sounds like a bandwidth issue. Test your actual connection speed & latency to a US server, not one that is local for you.
Click to expand...
I haven’t been able to find a stepped test app that allows me to test a US server
 
AeroBar said:
Why would it suddenly become an issue?
Click to expand...
My answer won’t help you much, but you need to understand that most streaming services use dynamic bitrate (Apple uses their HLS) that adapts movie bitrate to available network bandwidth every couple of seconds.
 
AeroBar said:
I haven’t been able to find a stepped test app that allows me to test a US server
Click to expand...
You can use any laptop/computer to test it via a speed-testing website as long as they're connected to the same network as your AppleTV.
 
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