Watching movies with subtitles Apple TV

Question

I've been searching for a post like this for ages so I decided to make one myself to help other users with the same issue I've had:
Watching movies with subtitles in Apple TV WITHOUT the awfull darkening, shadow or whatever blurry effect showed by itunes player when streaming via airplay.
As many apple fanboys, i just cannot get whyy apple has done such a poor job with apple tv regarding to subtitled videos: the darkening of the lower part of the screen where the subtitles are displayed is simply unbereable and, because of it, I've found myself being forced to hardcode (because muxing is not gonna work, you need to hardcode) subtitles into movies with mp4tools or other similar software, which takes AGES of processing. Bt after buying and ipad i've found a brand new -and incredibily efficient- way to do it: VLC STREAMER
With an Ipad and VCL Streamer, you'll be able to airplay any of your video files of any kind (forget about endless hours converting to mp4) and, what is most important about this thread: TO AIRPLAY MOVIES WITH SUBTITLES not the awfull way apple tv does it, but in a clean, beautiful and regular way.
You need to purchase it cause the free version doesn't support airplay streaming. It is under 2$ or so and it's the best 2$ I've spent in the apple store. Ever.
After having purchased it, you only need to run it in your computer, save any subtitle file (usually .srt) in the same folder with the video file it belongs to and (important) with the same name, just with the extension changed. Then you can either stream it via Wi-Fi or load it and save it in your ipad and, anytime you hit "apple tv airplay", you'll watch it on your tv amazingly as it should be, and not with the ******** darkening of the lower part of the screen that apple tv usually displays.
I know it's not an useful solution for everybody cause it needs an ipad to work but, if you are lucky enough to have one, VLC streamer is an app that will allow you to watch your subtitled movies in your tv easy and clear.
PS: Sorry for bad english!

Answer 1

Not always, but generally this is a network issue.
It also depends if you are playing across the LAN from iTunes (Computers icon using Home Sharing of iTunes) or playing purchases from the cloud under the main Movies/TV Shows/Music (iTunes Match) categories.
Audio will require less speed on either the LAN or internet to work well, whereas video, especially HD is more demanding.  If it starts up quickly then stops to rebuffer I would consider interference on the LAN if uisng wifi (eg microwaves, neighbouring networks).
Also, to clarify, you are not talking about Airplay from a device to AppleTV (which will be worse with poor connections).
Test your internet speed at speedtest.net if playing from the internet.
SD needs 2.5 Mbps to play quickly, HD 6-8 Mbps for 720 or 1080p.
If playing across the LAN, if feasible (even for testing) connect as many device to the router by ethernet as possible to see if it's the wifi.
Occasionally when AppleTV behaves oddly it can help to unpower it completely and restart - may or may not help but quick and free.  Same goes for restarting the router/Itunes when things go bad.
AC