Huge Degrading ATV performance

I have observed that my ATV’s performance has slowed down tremendously in just navigating and executing basic functions, without any background activity (ie. upload, downlaoding, FTP…etc) A click on my remote takes about 5-10 seconds delay before my ATV actually responds. I lot of times I would just need to do a hard reboot to get it back again. This include navigating through the original menu and not using any of the ATV Flash features.

On top of that, I keep losing TV Programs I have purchased from iTunes. I have about 35 TV series/programs on my regular ATV and I always end up with 2 all the time. I have been frustrated resynchronizing my iTunes to my ATV almost daily just to keep my TV shows available.

Does ATV Flash support ever respond to this forum? They are not answering a couple issues i have emailed them and posted here. My 15 days is almost done and I am about to request for a refund due to the quality or none existent tech support from aTV Flash.

aTV Flash staff: Please respond

aTV Flash 3.5.1 has many improvements with regard to performance. This update also includes support the the 2.3.1 Apple TV update that was released last week.

We recommend downloading and installing this update.

Can you let me know in detail what these improvements on aTVFlash are ? I though that the 2.3.1 firmware would improve the performance? did i misunderstand something ?
I have a working ATVFlash now running and would prefer not to go through the hassle of upgrade unless it is really worth it.

thanks, Madcran.[/quote]

2.3.1 has been said by many people to make the interface a bit snappier.

aTV Flash performance improvements relate to the streamlining of some processes, as well as an updated version of nitoTV that has greatly improved memory management.

Overall you should see a nice improvement from Apple TV 2.3 + aTV Flash 3.5.

Can someone please explain the correct process in upgrading to aTV Flash 3.5.1 from 3.5, combined wit ATV 2.3.1. Do I upgrade the ATV first? Will this over-ride all the files I have already FTP’d to my ATV? Would I need to reinstall everything again including flash?

Thanks

Update the Apple TV software first. This will remove the aTV Flash, but will not affect any of the media files you have on the Apple TV.

Once 2.3.1 is installed, install the aTV Flash 3.5.1.

I have been updating from 3.5 to 3.5.4 and I am not seeing any progress improvement on performance with my ATV. It continues to be sluggish and remote action lags horribly to some times 5-10 seconds. The best solution I have is usually rebooting the ATV until maybe after using it for about 30 minutes its performance goes back to be very slow.

Is this being addressed?

In my case, the updating made it substantially worse.
A reboot brings it back to normal for about 1 hour, but then the slowskis are in town man.

I wish I hadn’t upgraded.

aTV needs to address this or they will lose customers.

ATV people?
Are you working on this?
The only way I get my ATV to work right now is to reboot every 2-3 hours.

I am mainly using NitoTV in mplayer mode - maybe this helps.

It is sooooo sloooow…

I can’t comment on the development of the software, but I believe it is being looked at and worked on.

I’m getting exactly the same thing. Massive UI delays and frequent crashing.

I’ve done a factory restore + aTV reinstall twice now. No luck. I did notice, though, that using “vanilla” AppleTV menu items is fine. That is, YouTube, Music, etc don’t trigger the UI problems or instability. But as soon as I play a video file or do nearly anything else in the aTV Flash menu items, it starts again. Only solution seems to be a reboot.

Is anybody using 3.5.4 without these crippling performance issues? The way it stands, my AppleTV is nearly useless…the only way I can watch a vid on it is to start it, hit NO buttons during the entire playthrough. Even then, as soon as it’s over, the performance and stability issues rear their stupid heads. :confused:

This problem has been reported for more than 3 months now and apparently no real solution has been done aside fro the usual response of “being worked on…” :shock:

I too have experienced these issues. I am not on this site too much and it really doesn’t bother me too often but it is a problem that i have noticed. I normally restart my AppleTV whenever I want to watch anything, otherwise it is extremely sluggish and then it normally crashes. I experience this in Boxee, XBMC, Nito TV, and with the file browser. After I reboot the AppleTV I can watch a movie or two then it will freeze up again and/or crash and reboot. I used a Mac to create the patchstick if this helps.

I too would like this fixed but I am not as disgruntled as many seem to be about it.

Same here, UI gets REALLY SLOW to the point where i can not use my ATV anymore. I have to reboot it every 30 to 45 minutes after playing any vid file. I think this has been happening for a long time now that I am reading the forums. Is this going to be addressed? When?

Same here. Symptoms:

  1. degrading performance. 10-15 seconds delay per key press after a few hours of use.
  2. skipping. again after a while (few hours) on video playback (nitotv, sapphire, files) video stuck every 5 seconds but audio normal
  3. rewind causes reboot
  4. no response whatsoever if left unused for a long while (overnight)

all problems require full atv reboot (off/on)

all new problems since 2.4 , 3.6.1. upgrade
needs a fix, firecore gents!

Some users have reported that setting the Screen Saver option to ‘never’ dramatically improves performance when the AppleTV unit is left on for long periods of time. This is with and without aTV Flash installed.

This setting can be accessed in the Settings > Screen Saver menu.

Thanks
Screen Saver already on “Never”

This is soooo bad. Installation went well, but you practically can´t use atv Flash!
It crashes every couple minutes. The screensaver is off!
nitoTV, Jaman, Boxee, Sapphire - all the same. Either the box is resetting all the time, movies freeze, the remote is not reacting.
Surfing with Firefox is a pain.
I am deeply disappointed.

Apple TV 2.4, aTV Flash 3.6.1

WindowServ Process Run Amok? Degrading Perf
by urbanscribe » Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:18 pm

Potential clue to degrading performance
After a few hours a “WindowServ” process starts using more and more CPU cycles up to 90-100%
which makes video playback skip

ATVFlashers/FireCore - take a look…

ATV 2.4 - ATVFlash 3.6.1
urbanscribe
Contributing Member

logs

Processes: 42 total, 3 running, 39 sleeping… 151 threads 23:19:55
Load Avg: 2.62, 2.67, 2.71 CPU usage: 85.0% user, 15.0% sys, 0.0% idle
SharedLibs: num = 139, resident = 17.7M code, 3.09M data, 6.22M LinkEdit
MemRegions: num = 2729, resident = 109M + 3.27M private, 39.9M shared
PhysMem: 84.9M wired, 102M active, 60.8M inactive, 247M used, 8.11M free
VM: 2.86G + 101M 50679(0) pageins, 22668(0) pageouts
PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE
PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE
270 top 9.1% 0:25.27 1 19 20 1008K 388K 2.71M 27.0M
269 bash 0.0% 0:00.04 1 14 16 156K 760K 744K 27.1M
268 dropbear 0.0% 0:00.22 1 11 17 116K 476K 336K 26.8M
253 RowmoteHel 0.0% 0:00.14 2 40 42 392K 840K 1.50M 101M
250 DiskManage 0.0% 0:00.10 1 41 44 336K 836K 800K 37.2M
247 Finder 0.0% 80:49.53 29 >>> 1008 66.4M 33.5M 82.7M 313M
233 RowmoteHel 0.0% 0:00.14 2 38 42 148K 840K 960K 101M
222 RowmoteHel 0.0% 0:00.15 2 38 42 268K 840K 668K 101M
211 check_afp 0.0% 0:00.05 2 25 21 132K 708K 188K 27.1M
192 RowmoteHel 0.0% 0:00.22 2 38 42 152K 840K 356K 101M
186 AppleVNCSe 0.0% 0:00.06 1 26 30 0B 704K 136K 91.3M
185 ARDAgent 0.0% 0:00.14 6 92 71 96.0K 788K 240K 117M
178 slpd 0.0% 0:00.36 6 31 31 172K 796K 304K 30.2M
174 AppleFileS 0.0% 0:01.74 2 56 45 384K 1.19M 840K 33.9M
173 ARDHelper 0.0% 0:02.70 1 9 15 16.0K 312K 88.0K 26.6M
158 ntpd 0.0% 0:02.87 1 11 18 108K 392K 240K 27.1M
150 crashrepor 0.0% 0:00.00 1 16 17 0B 308K 44.0K 26.6M
120 lookupd 0.0% 0:00.35 2 35 38 364K 844K 632K 28.5M
115 airtunesd 0.0% 1:11.92 4 93 64 788K 3.83M 4.02M 100M
113 launchd 0.0% 0:00.00 1 14 15 0B 376K 48.0K 26.7M
109 pbs 0.0% 0:00.07 2 39 38 0B 916K 96.0K 53.4M
101 ATSServer 0.0% 0:00.28 2 52 42 544K 1.82M 860K 39.9M
96 WindowServ 86.3% 15:31:30 2 >>> 59 6.79M 1.34M 7.25M 132M
93 loginwindo 0.0% 0:00.37 2 79 78 304K 1.00M 828K 113M
77 coreservic 0.0% 0:00.65 1 48 80 612K 1000K 564K 28.7M
74 distnoted 0.0% 0:00.12 1 35 18 136K 684K 228K 27.0M
70 dropbear 0.0% 0:00.01 1 10 16 44.0K 476K 160K 26.7M
64 update 0.0% 0:28.86 1 12 16 52.0K 312K 164K 26.6M
63 DirectoryS 0.0% 0:00.55 4 68 43 396K 1.24M 1.00M 30.3M
59 notifyd 0.0% 0:08.43 2 46 20 112K 340K 216K 27.2M
56 securityd 0.0% 0:00.20 1 87 25 344K 852K 544K 28.5M
54 memberd 0.0% 0:00.00 3 22 22 164K 336K 244K 27.7M
53 diskarbitr 0.0% 0:00.18 1 79 20 212K 740K 364K 27.1M
52 coreaudiod 0.7% 12:28.28 2 84 51 440K 1.16M 728K 31.0M
51 configd 0.0% 0:01.66 3 160 61 560K 864K 852K 29.0M
49 syslogd 0.0% 3:26.57 3 35 23 2.31M 368K 2.43M 29.9M
48 netinfod 0.0% 0:00.21 1 14 21 124K 396K 288K 26.9M
47 mDNSRespon 0.0% 0:04.83 2 33 24 336K 836K 576K 27.4M
40 kextd 0.0% 0:00.63 2 29 22 0B 684K 72.0K 27.6M
36 dynamic_pa 0.0% 0:00.00 1 12 18 16.0K 308K 68.0K 26.6M
1 launchd 0.0% 0:00.10 3 107 21 124K 376K 176K 27.7M
0 kernel_tas 4.5% 55:24.36 43 2 373 27.8M 0B 69.5M 738M

Just want to add that I too am having these problems. A consistent degradation of performance. If I watch an hour-long vid, by the end, I’ll get a distinct studder in the playback performance. After letting the ATV sit overnight, when I return, I get lag times of about 15 seconds to any button push. A reboot of the finder will clear this up temporarily, but then, slowly, consistently, the performance will degrade again. Hope you can find a cure to the problem.