AppleTV frustrations

I am fairly close to becoming a strong negative voice about AppleTV. In theory, it is a great idea, but the implementation is starting to make it no more useful than a doorstop.
Right now, ordering HD TV shows or movies is so slow that I actually do not find it very useful. I now have a 52 minute HD TV show that's been downloading for about 24 hours. I'd rather get my $2.99 back than worry about it. I've tried everything, including hard resetting, unplugging my AirPort Extreme (newest version), and doing a dance around the unit.
Sometimes this product works well. But for the past six months give or take, the amount of time that it works is far surpassed by the amount of time that it doesn't. Just to see if it's my system, my TiVo downloads movies and TV shows from netflix in a little more than an instant. My Playstation 3 downloads movies and TV shows from the Sony store in approximately the same amount of time. Yes, neither can sync with my MBP, but right now, I could care less.
There is a network problem, and as best as I can tell, it's the Apple TV, not downstream servers. In fact, when I disconnect my AppleTV from the AirPort network, the speed of my whole network skyrockets. It's messing with my network. It doesn't provide me with any useful content, given it takes forever to download shows.
I am beyond frustrated. Can someone suggest something, because right now tin cans and string are a more useful technology than AppleTV.

I have had my Apple TV since they came out over 2 years ago.
Over the last month it has been a nightmare. I have the Airport Extreme router the same set up I have had on 5GHZ for ages. It drops off the network, it freezes, I have to constantly reboot. I have reset it back to factory settings and started again at least 3 times, still no better.
The frustrating thing is that I then even used ethernet and it still played up!(though not as bad as wireless)
All our media is streamed through the Apple TV and its difficult because every time my daughter wants to watch anything there's every chance that I will have to allocate 15 minutes to reboot the Apple TV, My iMac/and or router.
I am really dedicated to Apple but this thing needs a big update and a newer model with faster processer etc, its a fantatsic thing when it works properly, this is very disapointing:(

Similar Messages

Remote app no longer sees AppleTV and shares

I've noticed that the Remote App on my iPhone 4 looks different than it used to, so I guess it's been updated recently. Anyways, now I don't have AirPlay anymore in any video or audio apps. I haven't changed anything in terms of network set up, AppleTV configuration, nor my PC and Mac itunes sharing. Everything is the same.
The ONLY thing I can think of, other than the Remote app being updated is that I had my wireless router turned off for two weeks while on vacation. However, on returning, EVERYTHING JUST WORKS. iphone wifi access is fine, Apple TV access is fine (been watching podcasts and netflix no problem), and PCs and laptops connect same as always.
THe ONLY difference is my iphone cannot "see" AppleTV in Remote App and Airplay feature is GONE. My homesharing is still displayed as selectable libraries in the app, but selecting one NEVER CONNECTS. This also used to work perfectly fine.
I'm quite frustrated at losing such a feature.
For what it's worth, the AppleTV doesn't seem to "see" my shared library either (under "Computers")

Welcome to the Apple Community.
Try the following steps, check whether things are working after each step where appropriate, before trying the next.
Check AirPlay is turned on on the Apple TV (turn it off and on if it already is)
Check that both devices are on the same network (Settings > Wifi, on the mobile device and Settings > General > Network, on the Apple TV).
Restart the Apple TV (Settings > General > Restart).
Restart the Apple TV by removing ALL the cables for 30 seconds.
Restart your router. (Also try removing it’s power cord for at least 30 seconds)
Restart your mobile device.

Homeshare worked on my PC until recent iTunes update. Cannot get homeshare to work on PC as previous. When I use my MacBook Pro on the same network, iTunes/AppleTV works just fine, so it has to be iTunes?

An interesting observation...when I have a MacBook Pro connected and select Computers on my AppleTV2, the name of the MacBook computer comes up on the screen and allows me to select it and view photos from my iTunes library. Orks perfectly. When my Windows 8 PC is connected, and I select Computers on my AppleTV, the name of the PC does NOT come up on the computer list, but instead the AppleTV immediately tries to download pictures from the PC itunes library. It runs for ~2 minutes then generates an error message saying it could not connect to the iTunes library and to make sure it is tunrned on, connect to the same network, and use the same blah, blah, blah. I know all the settigns on the network are correct because my MacBook works perfecty. So frustrating that my PC worked previously before the recent iTunes software update. What to do to fix it?

Hi Rickgal,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
Based on the information, it does sound like this behavior is isolated to your PC. I recommend trying the troubleshooting steps in this article on your PC:
Troubleshooting Home Sharing
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2972
Start with turning Home Sharing off and on again, as explained in step 3:
Go to File > Home Sharing and choose Turn Off Home Sharing.
Choose File > Home Sharing > Turn On Home Sharing.
When prompted, enter the Apple ID you'd like to use.
Click Turn On Home Sharing, then Done.
Best Regards,
Jeremy

Can I stream and sync from the same itunes library to one AppleTV?

Can I stream and sync from the same itunes library to one AppleTV?

From what I can tell this is a bug.
A very Frustrating bug. When the take 2 update launched I was streaming movies via "shared movies" from my synched computer without any issues. However after a couple of recent iTunes updates all the "shared" menus stopped appearing and I can no longer stream anything from my main computer.
When I open up my macbook though everything streams fine, all the "shared" menus immediately appear.
Numerous restarts, factory resets and reinstalling the 2.0 software have done nothing to help this issue.
If anyone has any more light on the subject it'd be great to hear. Also I'm not sure which update broke it because I went about a month not using the apple tv.

Possible to stream movies from external HD- Airport Extreme- AppleTV?

Hi Folks,
I'm new to these boards so 'hi'. I have looked all over Google and various other forums for this answer but haven't received anything definitive.
I'm basically trying to find out if it's possible for me to connect an external hard drive to my Airport Extreme Base Station, and have that stream movies to my Apple TV?
The main reason for wanting to do this is my only computer is a MacBook Pro which only has a 120gig hard drive on it, and I only typically have 20-30gig free at any given time after applications etc. I want to store all my movies in one location, was thinking of buying a 1TB hard drive and connect as above.
I don't want to shell out for the hard drive if this won't work though. I'm frustrated at myself because this is what I thought the internal hard drive of the Apple TV did and thats why I bought the 160GB version, but everywhere I read people say DO NOT store movies on the Apple TV because it's really buggy. So what is the 160GB??
Any help, guidance, and tips would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Frank Drebin

AppleTV can only access media that iTunes is aware of by virue of them being added to it's library.
The files that iTunes knows about can be on any drives that your Macbook can access, internal, external or newtork based.
AppleTV relies on iTunes to fetch data either to sync or stream and cannot connect to external or network drives itself.
A drive attached to your base station may well work but it will depend on your network being up to the task - iTunes must be running, fetch the data from the drive across your network, then send it to AppleTV.
AppleTV is not designed as a storage device. It has 2 modes of media playback - synced and streamed. Syncing media stores a copy or mirror of a media file on it so it can be used when iTunes is not running - the 160GB lets you store many more media file copies thn the 40GB. For streaming, which iTunes is required for, and which transfers data on the fly for AppleTV from the computer or connected drive via itunes, the size of the AppleTv drive is irrelevant.
While what you want to do would probably work, for streaming to run smootly without dropouts the network would need to be up to it - in most cases it will, in some it won't.
Your other option of course is to store most of your movies on an external USB drive and plug that into the MBP when you want to stream or sync to AppleTv. You just need to change iTunes Preferences to not copy files into it's library thus not filling up the MBP drive. Same method you'd use for adding files from a drive attached to your base station. An alternative is to create a new itunes library completely on an external drive.

Error message when trying to access my iTunes from AppleTV

I have a frustrating recurring problem. Whenever I try to switch to my iTunes as the source on AppleTv I get a continously spinning cursor. When I look on my computer screen I have a message that says: "The movie file "Extract775D6949-A583#5251D.id" cannot be found. Without this file, the movie cannot play properly".
If I cancel this message then I can connect from AppleTv to my iTunes library.
Why do I keep getting this message. More importantly, what can I do to fix this?
Thanks.
John

When I look on my computer screen I have a message that says: "The movie file "Extract775D6949-A583#5251D.id" cannot be found. Without this file, the movie cannot play properly". If I cancel this message then I can connect from AppleTv to my iTunes library.
Why do I keep getting this message. More importantly, what can I do to fix this?This message usually indicates one or more of your iTunes library files is a "reference" file for which one or more track "resources" has been moved or deleted (i.e. the path is broken). If you have QT Pro, examine your file "resources" in the "Show Movie Properties" window. Resources should point to filename you have opened. If they do not, then the file is not a "self-contained" file and is subject to such "resource" file path problems/restrictions.

HT3819 Since the last AppleTV update I can no longer use home sharing. chI have checked all IDs, rebooted iTunes, AppleTV, and my router, eck port settings in my firewall. Nothing works. Is it me or did this update screw things up?

Since the last AppleTV update I can no longer use home sharing. I have checked all IDs, re-booted iTunes, my router, and AppleTV, and checked the port settings in my firewall. nothing works. Is it me or did this last update really scew things up?

Hi,
I tried everythink, but same as before!
- droppings ot the main screen
- loosing Home Share
now even on iPads !
Frustrating!
I'm now more than convinced that this is caused by the latest iTunes version.
As some others stated in other threads .... it seems that Apple doesn't really take care of this problem. So what if, if we could make them feeling the same pain as we do. ... Just by dropping them a mail as soon as we have the problem again. Not more often, we don't want to be unfair, but everytime it happens.
I found this feedback site http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html
I will start now with this.... maybe this will help to rise a little bit of attention
Tweety
This is the mailbody I always use
Hello all,
Since the last update to iTunes Version 10.6.1 (7) streaming content (Movies and TV shows) to Apple TVs and iPads has two major problems:
- Home Sharing is lost during streaming (streaming stops even if a large portion of the content is already preloaded)
- streaming stops and the main screen pops up (Home Sharing still available)
This happens sometime after some minutes, sometimes after several hours, but it surely happens.
I followed every advice I could found on this support website. There are now a lot of threads following this issue.
Sometimes it seems getting better, but hours later the same isues occured again. Watching content on this enviroment is a real pain and very frustrating.
As many others I'm now convinced that the latest update of iTunes caused this problem.
Our family enviroment contains the following Apple products:
- iTunes on a Win7 32 bit Noname PC (all content)
- second iTunes on a iMac with OS 10.6.8 (all content)
- third iTunes on a MacBook Pro with OS 10.6.8 (daughter, only selected content)
- fourth iTunes on a Win7 32 Samsung Notebook (son, only selected content)
- all iTunes sharing the same Home Sharing ID
- 2 Apple TV second generation
- 1 Apple TV first generation
- 2 iPod touch (bought last year)
- 2 iPads (second generation)
all firmware or software are on latest available patchlevel.
At this moment, I can not recomend to others to buy this products.
I will drop this feedback everytime my famiily and I facing this problem... just to help you to get a better feeling of the urgency of this issue.
Thanks for every effort in advanced.

HT1577 how do a get a refund on a ridiculously slow downloading rented movie for my apple tv dispite a 5mb/sec down load speed? my first experience with appletv movie rental. no good. rented at 4:30pm. still waiting for standard def movie to finish at 8:1

how do a get a refund on a ridiculously slow downloading rented movie for my apple tv dispite a >5mb/sec down load speed? my first experience with appletv movie rental. no good. rented at 4:30pm. still waiting for standard def movie to finish at 8:10pm. Not good enough.

Thanks for the pointers folks. Yeah, 1.5GB is pretty poor isn't it? There are other suppliers, but you have to get a their phone line installed to access the internet so it's an £85 setup fee plus a day off work for a guy to come round and drill a hole in your wall before you even get to the monthly costs.
Don't get me wrong though - I'm certainly not an Apple basher, but am equally frustrated with both them and the ISP.
Virgin Media spend all kinds of money advertising their broadband as the fastest in the UK, but don't tell you (up front anyway) that you'll be cut off if you actually try and use it.
Apple on the other hand carry on with their 'it just works' mantra, but with Apple TV this only applies if you meet certain criteria (again, not mentioned up front).
I guess it aint a biggie, as i was gifted my Apple TV, and love all the other stuff it does, but from the number of posts on this forum can see that there's a lot of angry customers out there who want explanations as to why they're having similar problems to me.
Will be very interesting to see if Apple release any kind of software update that turns the flash drive from a buffer to permanent storage, to at least ease some of the pain...
Message was edited by: McGinty

"Mode not supported" freezes AppleTV Gen3 on Samsung 61in DLP. AppleTV is ok when moved to another TV... Help me get it back online with the Samsung?

I just hooked up the AppleTV Gen3, and it worked great on my 61in Samsung DLP TV that should do 1080i. When I looked at the resolution settings in the AppleTV menu, it said 720i. I tried to change the resolution in the settings menu, and it came back with a message "mode not supported..." I was able to initially get back to the menu and choose what I thought was a supported resolution (1080i), and it again displayed the same message, this time freezing the AppleTV. I could no longer communicate with the AppleTV device although the remote was working fine.
I tried most solutions that I read on the support forums. So far nothing has worked ie changing HDMI inputs, removing power, etc. I moved the AppleTV to another Samsung TV, and it worked fine - and I was able to adjust the resolution. When I returned to the orignal Samsung it again displayed the "mode not supported" menu and it remains frozen. Any solution? Will a reset back to factory settings help - or am I stuck? Frustrated. Help?

Same thing happened to me with my peruvian credit card in the peruvian app store, I want to buy an app, but it says that my credit card is "not supported in the Peruvian app store"

White Screen When Trying to Play Movies / TV Shows Downloaded via AppleTV

Very frustrating, consistent issue with downloading movies or TV shows via AppleTV. Almost always results in a blank white screen with no sound and no video playing. No matter how many times I stop the video from playing, exit back out to the main menu, and restart the show, the white screen persists. The only thing that seems to fix it is to manually unplug the AppleTV, wait for 10+ sec, and then replug it in. Once AppleTV restarts, then I am able to watch the specific show I had been trying to watch. HOWEVER, the problem resurfaces as soon as I move onto the next movie or TV show.
Any suggestions on how to end this uber-annoying cycle?? I have all of the latest software downloaded. I have disconnected my iTunes library from AppleTV and then re-paired / re-synced the two (iTunes and AppleTV), and I have even tried resetting my AppleTV to factory settings (although given the volume of content I like to keep on my AppleTV, this leads to incredibly long timeframes to re-sync my AppleTV with my iTunes library). Any thoughts / suggestions / miracles would be hugely appreciated. THANKS!!!

Hi
Can't help you I am afraid, but I can tell you that you are not alone. Keep having exactly the same problem. Rented a Movie this evening and had to pull the plug half way through the download to be able to start and watch it.
I do have the Apple TV connected through a HDMI switch and wondered if it may be copy protection HDCP or something so was going to try it on component when I find my set of cables.
Will let you know the outcome
John

How to set the AppleTV to output PCM DIGITAL via toslink

how do you set the AppleTV to output PCM DIGITAL via toslink - my amp can only recieve PCM audio via toslink cable

I am having the same problem. I bought an optical-analog convertor from Amazon (SANOXY) and had Onkyo try to help me set it up. No luck. I am going to try a Monoprice version. I was able to output audio through my DirectTV box to the Zone 2 speakers, so that isn't the problem. I was able to hear the music from my iMac through the AppleTV/Onkyo receiver on the 5.1 side but was unable to output it through Zone 2 to the speakers.
Very frustrating!!!!

TV can't "see" AppleTV

Troubleshooting tips in TV and Apple manual have not helped.
All 4 HDMI ports on my new Vizio can not "see" the AppleTV. Power supply to Apple is working.
Does anyone have any suggestions before I take Apple TV/HDMI cable back and try another? My other fear is that all 4 ports on the TV are bad, but that just seems unlikely...
Any suggestions would be great! Thanks.

Light is on and it is responding to the remote.
I believe I plugged everything in and then turned on the TV. This is unfortunately the only TV in the house with HDMI. Someone mentioned the TV blocking the signal b/c it was not 1080? I have also been told just to wait a few minutes, but that seems odd to me.
Is there a specific order in which it has to be attached/turned on?
I am just so frustrated - it one cable and one power supply! How can I be screwing this up?!

Share Photos in iTunes for AppleTV 3

I had an AppleTV 2 and just bought an AppleTV 3. It used to be that in iTunes (before version 11), you would enable Photo sharing,select the folder you wished to share, and it would show on the AppleTV under Computers.
Ever since iTunes 11, I noticed that that feature is now under Home Sharing. I turn it on but will not show under Computers.
I read about turning on PhotoStream on AppleTV, but I believe this is for iCloud.
I do not want to send my photos to iCloud.
Can I just see my photos on AppleTV without using iCloud, the old fashion way?

Same issue with me, too.
There are a long and growing list of folks on the forum, all with this same problem, but nothing form Apple. My photos are stuck on my computer. I can't sync my iPad Air or my iPhone. I am not sure exactly when it started, but it was following a recent update. Before that everything worked fine.
Like most of you, I have cleared the iPod cache, repaired permissions, rebuilt my iPhoto library, tried creating a smaller new library, I even checked my iPhoto AlbumDataXML. When I checked the XML, I saw some odd things. I was looking for songpath, since on another forum, someone found that there was a glitch when certain songs were associated with files. The odd thing was that in my library there were many photos that showed songpath associations, but when i checked iPhoto, there were no songs associated with them. And I found several songpaths associated with iLife. So something was wrong there. I rebuilt the database and the odd songpaths went away. Unfortunately, it did nothing for the iTunes sync problem.
I see nothing in the photo tab when I sync, just a spinning wheel. VERY VERY FRUSTRATING, especially given how many forum discussions there are about this and it has been going on for months.
Hey APPLE are you out there??

HDCP Error AppleTV Can't watch Netflix

I need to know where is Apple showing a solution about the HDCP error in AppleTV's arround the world.
People are paying to get services like Netflix and this error besides being ridiculous, frankly is a huge frustration for users of Apple that certainly want THE BEST in these products (which are NOT cheap either).
I've changed my cable, followed all step of these discussions suggest and nothing. This error is still there and NO ONE IN APPLE OFFERS some kind of solution.
Please respond or something like that. People needs a solution soon.
"This content requires HDCP for playback. HDCP isn't supported by your HDMI connection."

Best to give them feedback directly
http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Problems with synching iTunes with AppleTV

Hi,
I am frustrated and cannot find help elsewhere, so I hope someone can help me here....
I have 1st gen AppleTV with the latest SW. My iTunes is version 10 on my iMac.
For some reason all my music, photos, etc have disappeared from the Appletv, and it now has only the purchases I have made via Apple TV.
When iTunes starts to synch, it appears to try to first transfer the purchases from Apple TV to iMac. For some reason this transferring does not work well, and purchases do not get transferred to iMac. iTunes just has a message "Transferring Purchases from "Apple TV. Copying 3 of 25: <name of the show>". Even if it indicates that the 2 (of 25) would have been transferred, they have not. This can go on for ever - all day, over night, just does not transfer the purchases.
QUESTION 1: why does it not transfer the purchases??
I would have patience to wait for the transfers as I don't need them in my iMac (yet), but in the meanwhile I want my music and photos back from iTunes to AppleTV. This synching does not work because it is trying to transfer purchases from AppleTV to iMac.
QUESTION 2: how do I stop transferring the purchases and get the music and photos synched with AppleTV? Disk space on AppleTV should not be the issue, there is plenty of space on my AppleTV.
Any one, please, make my day!

> Winston Churchill wrote:
Welcome to the  Discussion Forums
Have you tried restarting everything including your router, you may want to try relinking the library and apple tv.

AppleTV frustrations

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for