Suddenly all my DVR recordings video is very slow on AppleTV (Model A1625 tvOS 18.6). Changing playback speed does nothing to video, but does change audio speed. Live TV streams normally on this AppleTV. Also, these recordings play normally on other IOS devices and during streaming to a PC. I’ve restarted the AppleTV and the App multiple times. I’ve also deleted and reinstalled the App. Are there others suggested troubleshooting steeps for this kind of playback issue on AppleTV?
Check Settings > Playback under Streaming Quality and Advanced > Video Driver ?
Tmm,
Thanks for the suggestion, but I’m not sure where to look.
On the Channels App on the AppleTV, under Playback> Streaming Quality: I have three menu items, but no Advanced. Under Steaming Quality I have:
- Home Steaming
- Internet Streaming
- Original Quality Delivery
with a few options under each, but I don’t see anything about a video driver.
On my server (version 2025.08.01.1845) menu items Settings> Advanced, there is a playback quality settings, but that is under “web player”.
What am I missing?
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Settings > Playback > Advanced > Video Driver (in the Channels App)
Thanks, DVRuser. I found it.
The options are "default" and "legacy’ or cancel. It was on default. I’ve tried both with no change to the playback issue. However, I did notice something else. It is not only a delay between the video and audio, but the video constantly falls further behind.
I assume this video driver setting is supposed to be on “default”, but what difference is it supposed to make? I cannot find documentation on this setting.
Default is recommended yes
It sounds like your device is struggling to keep up. Are you playing an ATSC3 channel?
Did this start when you upgraded to tvOS 26?
In the player you can swipe down and view stats
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This device was on tvOS 18.6. Automatic update is and was set to on, so I don’t know how it got so far behind (18 to 22 seems like a lot, right?).
I’ve updated to 22.6, but there is no change in the playback issue. I deleted the channels app and re-installed it again. Changed video driver to legacy and back, but still the video plays too slow.
I don’t understand what changed. Last week this device played the previous recordings fine, but today all DVRed content plays way too slow as the audio continues at normal speed. And it is only this device. An iPhone, and iPad, and a different AppleTV play this same content off the server just fine.
What else do I do to troubleshoot this?
Pretty strange, I'm not sure. You could try a factory reset as a last resort.
tmm,
I performed a factory reset on the Apple TV, but this did not resolve the issue. The video on the DVR playback is still very slow.
I played a DVR recording for a minute and then completed a submit diagnostic from the support menu. How do you associate that submission with this forum topic?
One other note: live tv from the had HomeRun works or plays fine. It looks great. It’s only the DVR recordings which work fine on other devices.
You're trying to watch an ATSC3 recording. It seems that requires more capable hardware.
How does the recording of an ATSC3 live broadcast TV channel make the resulting Channels server produced mpg file more or less difficult to stream to the client device?
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Thats good info, thanks Hal.
I just want to know what changed. The problem may very well be on my network, but is there no way to troubleshoot this further? I'm especially frustrated because the older recordings worked fine on the AppleTV (A1625) a few weeks ago. Now they don't. Did the Channels Server make changes to old recordings? Also, I hate that the last suggestion on a lot of these forum threads is, "maybe you need new more capable hardware". I can afford a new device, but I don’t want to when it can stream ATSC3 live TV just fine. Why does streaming the mpg make any difference?
Have you checked your speed to DVR using Setting>Support>Test speed to DVR.
I recently saw an issue with choppy playback on a recording (no issue on live)? My WiFi speed was less than 2 Mbits/sec. Fixed my speed issue and all was well.
ATSC3 uses HEVC video which requires more horsepower to decode and play.
You could disable the 105.1 channel on your tuner and then recordings would happen from 5.1 instead.
Have you checked your speed to DVR using Setting>Support>Test speed to DVR.
I recently saw an issue with choppy playback on a recording (no issue on live)? My WiFi speed was less than 2 Mbits/sec. Fixed my speed issue and all was well.
Ooh. This is a good idea. When you play a DVR recording, the data streams from the DVR server to the client. When you watch live TV, the data streams from the tuner directly to the client without the server in the middle. That might explain why you're seeing a difference between recorded content vs. live.
To be more specific. Apple TV HD does not have a hardware HEVC decoder. It has to do it in CPU, which it is very bad at.
Only Apple TV 4K and up decodes HEVC in hardware.
So true, I have a ATV HD in a bedroom also that has issues with decoding, its wired too, I have the server recode all the streams (a setting in the ATV client) to a lower bitrate to watch them.. Get the 4k, its so much better at everything.
That is a good idea, jagrim.
I've got a hard wired ethernet connection for both my AppleTV and the server. Speed check shows 2ms latency, 98 Mbps down, and 96 Mbps up. That should be enough for just about anything streaming.
That's the other issue with it. Its ethernet port is 100mbit. You'd get faster networking over wifi at this point, lol.
The Apple TV HD is 10 years old at this point. You can't expect a ton out of it.