Open Radar

 
Summary:
The Apple TV has no user accessable storage. In order to stream from iTunes in the Cloud the Apple TV essentially has to download a given media item (movie or TV show) before it can start playing it. Thankfully the entire item doesn't have to be downloaded to start viewing, but on lower bandwidth connections the time from starting to viewing an iTunes media item can be quite a while (15-30 minutes depending on the length of the program for TV shows).

The Apple TV also includes (as of today) an iTunes Music Festival channel for the SWSW iTunes Music Festival. Concerts are presented in HD and stream to the Apple TV. The quality is high and the time from starting playback to actual viewing (stream buffering) is very short, even on a lower bandwidth link.

Steps to Reproduce:
A: Slow to start stream
1. Purchase a TV show episode on iTunes. We shall use Chozen season 1 episode 2 as our example.
2. Place an Apple TV on a local network that is connected to a lower bandwidth connection (3.9Mbps down in this case)
3. Navigate on the Apple TV to TV Shows > Purchased > All > Chozen > Season 1 > Episode 2 and select "Play"
4. See the episode start loading, after a few moments the screen warns the viewer that loading will take an additional 15 minutes
5. After waiting 15 minutes the episode is ready to play.

B: Fast to start stream
1. Goto the iTunes SXSW Music Festival channel
2. Navigate to March 13's Soundgarden concert
3. Select "Play"
4. The HD stream on the same internet link mentioned above starts nearly instantly


Expected Results:
Movies and TV Shows purchased via iTunes should start streaming as fast as the iTunes Music Festival app, especially for content that's less than one third the length of the Soundgarden concert. If a slow link can handle HD streams for the iTunes Music Festival, Netflix, and PBS channels without issue I'd expect the same level of performance from the marquee Movies and TV Shows channels.

I know how to switch the resolution in the iTunes Store settings on the Apple TV, but even 720 resolutions incur a large buffering penalty. I shouldn't have to decrease my resolution when HD streams play fine in other channels.


Actual Results:
Movies and TV Shows take far too long to buffer and start playing.


Version:
- Apple TV 3rd generation
- OS version 6.1
- wired ethernet connection
- Sonic.net DSL Internet service (at 3.9Mbps down/ 0.85Mbps up)