Question: Apple TV Movie playback freezes very briefly but frequently

Last night I rented a couple of HD movies from iTunes on my 160GB Apple TV and watched them. During playback there were quite a few very brief instants of the picture freezing during movie playback. It's the kind of thing some people may not notice (I don't think my wife noticed), but it got to be kind of annoying to me, to the point where I was anticipating it to happen again instead of enjoying the movie!
One of the movies was about 80% downloaded when I started to watch it, although it said it was "Ready to Play." Also, the hard drive on my Apple TV is about 3/4 full with music.
Anyone have any idea why this would be happening and is there anything I can do to fix the problem?

ffchop wrote:
Thank you for your response. Again, it was relatively minuscule, but just noticeable enough. I will reboot it.
Has this been a noted problem with other users of the old unit?
I've seen very bried video stutters and audio dropouts from time to time.
Another possibility is the encoding but generally it's not that - if you rewind and replay usually it plays ok 2nd time around - if encoding of video was to blame it would always be the same.
I am considering grabbing a new unit in the future. Has Apple noted that the new Apple TV will have "smoother playback" relative to the old unit, or something like that?
Not specifically, it's just a more powerful chip in it than previously - the old AppleTV was probably pushing the limits with the available hardware.
However, from:
http://www.apple.com/uk/appletv/
this might be a hint:
"All streaming. No hassle.
Everything you want to watch — films, TV programmes, photos and more — streams wirelessly to Apple TV. That way you don’t have to worry about managing storage or syncing to your iTunes library. HD film rentals play over the Internet to your widescreen TV, while music, photos and TV programmes stream from your computer. Either way, all you have to do is click and play. Since Apple TV features a powerful A4 processor, it streams everything effortlessly, without frozen screens or stutters. Video looks crisp and clear. And just like watching a DVD, you can fast-forward through opening credits, pause for a popcorn break or replay a hilarious scene until you memorise every line."

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