Poor DVD streaming performance?
Hey guys...
So I've been having this problem lately, and I can't quite figure it out - though I'll admit I haven't really done too terribly much to solve it yet. My AppleTV has a 250GB drive in it (used to be 40) which is completely full. I converted my entire DVD library using HandBrake so I could pack my movies away for good. I had it connected to my Time Capsule via wireless N and life was great. Many of my movies were stored locally on the ATV and the ones that weren't could stream from my computer in the office and I never had any problems. The only downside was waiting for movies to transfer to the ATV, the wireless is good but still wireless.
Then I moved to a new house. I thought I was being clever so I ran CAT6 throughout the house and to the living room, so now my AppleTV is connected to a switch in my entertainment center which then goes directly to my Time Capsule. Everything is GigE all the way. When I sync from iTunes and load files directly to the ATV the transfer goes much faster than on wireless and Menu Meters shows around 8-15MB/s for a file transfer to the ATV. The odd thing is if I try to stream a DVD movie, the same ones I used to watch all the time streamed, it plays for about 5 - 10 minutes and totally dies. It hiccups every few seconds, pressing pause or rewind or anything takes forever, it's very strange. I'm surprised that this would happen on a wired connection and not wireless.
So, any ideas on how to fix this up?
So I've been having this problem lately, and I can't quite figure it out - though I'll admit I haven't really done too terribly much to solve it yet. My AppleTV has a 250GB drive in it (used to be 40) which is completely full. I converted my entire DVD library using HandBrake so I could pack my movies away for good. I had it connected to my Time Capsule via wireless N and life was great. Many of my movies were stored locally on the ATV and the ones that weren't could stream from my computer in the office and I never had any problems. The only downside was waiting for movies to transfer to the ATV, the wireless is good but still wireless.
Then I moved to a new house. I thought I was being clever so I ran CAT6 throughout the house and to the living room, so now my AppleTV is connected to a switch in my entertainment center which then goes directly to my Time Capsule. Everything is GigE all the way. When I sync from iTunes and load files directly to the ATV the transfer goes much faster than on wireless and Menu Meters shows around 8-15MB/s for a file transfer to the ATV. The odd thing is if I try to stream a DVD movie, the same ones I used to watch all the time streamed, it plays for about 5 - 10 minutes and totally dies. It hiccups every few seconds, pressing pause or rewind or anything takes forever, it's very strange. I'm surprised that this would happen on a wired connection and not wireless.
So, any ideas on how to fix this up?
Comments
1. Using Handbrake you ripped some DVDs and installed them in your computers iTunes Library. iTunes is storing the ripped files on your TimeCapsule.
Questions: a) Is this a Mac or a PC? b) Are the ripped files stored in your iTunes Library (stored on your TimeCapsule) or are they laying loose?
2. The Apple TV is synced to your iTunes Library. Some of the files are synced with the Apple TV, some are not. You can see all the files in you Apple TV Movie Menu.
Questions: c) Is the Apple TV hacked? (From your initial description I could not tell if you were streaming from a iTunes Library or are using the TimeCapsule as an Apple TV hard drive extender.) d) What is the version of the Apple TV firmware?
3. Synced files play with no problem. Streamed files stop after a few minutes.
4. No other network traffic is going on when you have the problem.
5. It worked at one time.
Questions: e) Was the Apple TV firmware updated between the time it was working and the time you first noticed the problem?
Before I give up, let me see if I understand your configuration and see if I can duplicate your problem.
1. Using Handbrake you ripped some DVDs and installed them in your computers iTunes Library. iTunes is storing the ripped files on your TimeCapsule.
Questions: a) Is this a Mac or a PC? b) Are the ripped files stored in your iTunes Library (stored on your TimeCapsule) or are they laying loose?
My entire iTunes library (music, movies, etc) are all located on an external Firewire drive (FW800) connected directly to my iMac. My TimeCapsule does not back this data up, though it does back up the rest of my Mac. The TimeCapsule is my main router in my network. The entire network uses Cat 6 cable. This should clear up how everything is stored. I think FW800 has enough bandwidth that it shouldn't cause a problem.
2. The Apple TV is synced to your iTunes Library. Some of the files are synced with the Apple TV, some are not. You can see all the files in you Apple TV Movie Menu.
Questions: c) Is the Apple TV hacked? (From your initial description I could not tell if you were streaming from a iTunes Library or are using the TimeCapsule as an Apple TV hard drive extender.) d) What is the version of the Apple TV firmware?
All of your assumptions here are correct.My AppleTV is not hacked and is running the regular Apple Firmware. Though my AppleTV begain its life as a 40GB model, it now has a 250GB hard drive inside. It has always worked well with the larger drive. The AppleTV has the latest firmware, which I want to say is 2.0.2 - I just checked to make sure it was totally up to date.
3. Synced files play with no problem. Streamed files stop after a few minutes.
This is also correct. I did notice something strange, when I stream a DVD movie the computer sends the video at 3 - 5MB/sec for exactly 10 minutes, then switches to only about 133kb/sec stream. It does this every time the exact same way. Only after this 10 minute switch does the movie begin to hiccup.
4. No other network traffic is going on when you have the problem.
Also correct. I double checked nothing else was going on at the time.
5. It worked at one time.
Questions: e) Was the Apple TV firmware updated between the time it was working and the time you first noticed the problem?
Yes, it worked for quite a while at my old house. It happened when I moved, and I connected the AppleTV via Ethernet instead of Wireless N. I don't remember when exactly the firmware updates came through. It worked before and after the major 2.0 update and I used it quite often.
I did run some tests today, here's what I found:
I removed about 40GB worth of media from the AppleTV and started steaming a DVD again. I let it run for about a half hour and it didn't hiccup once. The stream did still slow down to 133kb/sec after 10 minutes like before but it didn't seem to cause a problem with the stream. The hard drive has been full since the day I got the AppleTV and put in the larger drive, and I've always used it the same way, so I think it's strange that a full drive would cause this problem because it's always been full. I did a full restore and am putting my media back on the device (back to a full drive) to test it again and see what happens.
I did notice something strange, when I stream a DVD movie the computer sends the video at 3 - 5MB/sec for exactly 10 minutes, then switches to only about 133kb/sec stream. It does this every time the exact same way. Only after this 10 minute switch does the movie begin to hiccup.
That's interesting. Have you checked your cooling around the Apple TV? If there was a thermal issue I would expect it to work for awhile before getting too hot and something shutting down. In this case it looks like it is your network interface that is shutting down. Plus you did say you just moved and the problem started after the move. This means that the Apple TV is in a new location, with different equipment surrounding it and within a different air flow. Thus its thermal characteristic are different. Move it around and give it plenty of open air space and see if that changes anything.
All DVD players are having poor streaming performance.
We come very close to matching. The only differences is that I am using FW400 and still have the original 40GB drive. And I was unable to duplicate your problem. Nor have I ever seen it.
That's interesting. Have you checked your cooling around the Apple TV? If there was a thermal issue I would expect it to work for awhile before getting too hot and something shutting down. In this case it looks like it is your network interface that is shutting down. Plus you did say you just moved and the problem started after the move. This means that the Apple TV is in a new location, with different equipment surrounding it and within a different air flow. Thus its thermal characteristic are different. Move it around and give it plenty of open air space and see if that changes anything.
That's true, it does get very warm. It's very strange though, the problem happens at exactly the same time in the movie. I used Star Wars Return of the Jedi as my test movie, and at exactly 6 minutes and 40-some seconds the movie gets caught up and even if you press the menu button it takes a very long time for anything to happen. As soon as I delete some media from the drive the problem goes away and the movie streams perfectly. Fill the drive back up and sure enough after the same exact amount of time the movie skips.
Here's my theory: The ATV has only a certain amount of RAM, though I don't know the exact number I want to say it's something like 128MB but it doesn't really matter. It just so happens that however much RAM the device has, it's the exact amount to fit nearly 7 minutes of Star Wars snugly inside. Then the ATV needs to start paging in order to fit more. But there's a problem, the drive is completely full and there is no room for a pagefile. While the ATV tries to move files around and manage itself so that it can store more video the buffer runs out and the movie stops playing. I press menu and nothing happens because the underlying OS is so busy with swapping that it can't respond to the command from the remote. When the drive has freespace on it, the swapfile can be created and used without any problems and the movie plays without interference.
I've decided on a pretty straight forward solution to a full drive, just as if the drive in my iMac were full: buy a bigger drive. I've ordered the parts required to retrofit an eSATA connector to the back of my ATV and use a 1TB external drive instead of the internal drive currently used. I can store all my media on this drive, and even if I did want to stream media the swapfile has enough free space so it wouldn't be a problem anyway. I wish Apple was smart enough to force the AppleTV to keep around at least 10% of its drive for freespace instead of letting iTunes fill it to the very top, but I digress.
Why don't you save yourself some money and just limit what you sync to the Apple TV? Under 2.0.2 streaming is completely invisible and with the exception of the initial startup buffering is nearly painless.
We come very close to matching. The only differences is that I am using FW400 and still have the original 40GB drive. And I was unable to duplicate your problem. Nor have I ever seen it.
That's interesting. Have you checked your cooling around the Apple TV? If there was a thermal issue I would expect it to work for awhile before getting too hot and something shutting down. In this case it looks like it is your network interface that is shutting down. Plus you did say you just moved and the problem started after the move. This means that the Apple TV is in a new location, with different equipment surrounding it and within a different air flow. Thus its thermal characteristic are different. Move it around and give it plenty of open air space and see if that changes anything.
Interesting theory. For your information I had about 4GB of free space on my 40GB drive (32.84GB capacity) when I did the test and did not have the problem. I typically have only 2GB free and have never had your problem. (Though my Apple TV does freeze its UI for several minutes while it syncs with iTunes.) If the size of the swap file mattered I would think that I would see the problem before you would.
Why don't you save yourself some money and just limit what you sync to the Apple TV? Under 2.0.2 streaming is completely invisible and with the exception of the initial startup buffering is nearly painless.
Try filling your ATV up until there's less than 50MB on it, or even less than 10MB, I've been as far down as the little gauge saying "zero" before. I was limiting what was syncing to it, by telling it to only sync unwatched movies and things like that. It worked pretty well but I also have a lot of HD content which won't stream at all under any drive size without dropping frames. This just seems to be the best solution that will guarantee any and all of my media will be available whenever I want it. Not only that but I have some large SATA drives laying around and a couple eSATA enclosures so the only cost was really the $30 in parts to make it work, and from what I've read running the eSATA drive with the big cache and faster RPM makes the entire system much more responsive anyway. Last but not least getting the drive out of the device and in an external cooled enclosure will help reduce the heat that's inside the ATV, as like you were saying it does get very hot.
Zero MB? iTunes is actually letting you max out your hard drive? On my copy iTunes refuses to even start the sync if I get close to filling my drive. I would have to sneak up to the hard drive limit to do what you did. I wonder if it is a side affect of the hard drive replacement hack?
Could be, how full does it let you get before it stops?
Could be, how full does it let you get before it stops?
Can't say. I never tracked it that close.