Is your new Apple TV skipping frames?

no issues whatsoever - on 802.11n wireless airport network - eagerly awaiting 4.2 update and airplay! the only time i have ever had issues with streaming at all was when i had a non 802.11n compatible device on my network which "dumbs" the network down to g or less - this includes using streamtome and air video and full 720 mkv files....

Seriously people are up in arms about this. I mean if your bandwidth isn't sufficient to carry the stream then what is the device supposed to do? Would it be better to put up a buffering message and hold the scene so as not to loose a single moment in time? Netflix will re-buffer on my Tivo and I find this to be much more annoying then simply loosing a couple of frames here and there to make sure that the action keeps showing.

Given that these streams are buffered up TCP traffic if a frame is lost and it is far enough down in the buffer then the system can ask for a retransmission however if that frame doesn't make it back to the device in time it has to be skipped. The only 100% full proof way to stop this from happening is to allow enough of the stream to buffer up so as to watch the whole show in real time fed directly out of the buffer, with adequate buffering to allow for TCP retransmissions to happen.

This isn't a bug it's simple networking physics.

Did Apple test this unit ? If they did was with their eyes closed.

What has happened to Apples QA ? Everything of late has been doggy

I have a similar problem that may be related... My problem also only happens when the buffer gets full. Most (if not all) of my recordings from EyeTV exported with the Turbo h.264 720p preset play fine in the AppleTV until the buffer gets full (about half an hour or so into playback). Once that happens, the video starts stuttering and falling behind the audio (which keeps playing perfectly). If I pause playback, the audio pauses but the video keeps playing until it catches up with the audio. If I unpause playback, the problem starts occurring again immediately. If I reset the AppleTV at that point, the buffer clears and I can play the rest of the recording with no issues.

I use the 720p preset because the original AppleTV and iPad presets have too low bitrates for my taste (i.e. look too soft on my TV). From memory, the 720p preset results in about a 6-7mbps stream, which the AppleTV should handle (and which it does until the buffer gets full). Note that I am using the Turbo h.264 software without the Turbo USB stick to do the exports due to other issues with the stick. Since the issue only appears when the buffer gets full and since my Mac can play the recordings perfectly, I tend to think this is another example of a "buffer full" playback bug.

It's doing it here.

Interesting too, I get the same dropping in Airplay streaming as well. I haven't tried the airplay streaming without HDMI connected.

Of course, someone needs to harass Apple about forcing 48 kHz output on all audio, despite being natively 44.1kHz. Why SRC CD audio? That takes unnecessary CPU cycles and potentially altering the source negatively.

Yep, mine skips too. The skips are very slight (is there correct terminology for skip duration?) but once you've noticed them it drives you nuts. You end up waiting for the skips. This needs to be sorted asap.

I've not seen any skipping, but I really really really want closed captioning.....

I did not notice this with my 2nd gen Apple TV. Nevertheless I switched back to my 1st gen Apple TV (the famous media device/central heating combo) because I constantly had problems with connectivity to my iTunes PC and I hate to have the PC running when I watch a movie. Streaming is nice, but the "Private Sharing" functionality of iTunes 10 and the new Apple TV seems to be too flaky at the moment.

I've noticed this a time or two. Usually this has happened to me when the aTV inadvertently connects to the 80211.n instead of the 80211.g network. I don't believe I've noticed a frame drop on the n-class network.

Not getting skipped frames but terrible buffeting issues even when streaming from sd tv shows in my iTunes library on my iMac in the next room over a fairly new airport express.