Q: Netflix quality HORRID after update

As mentioned before, for me, both ATV and TiVo cannot stream Netflix at any but SD in the evenings; both work fine first thing on weekday mornings, so there is no software issue for me.  Workaround is to stream to ATV from my iPhone or iPad - that always works in the evening when native Netflix on those 2 devices does not.

I've been having this issue since the holidays on my ATV3 and ATV2. My ATV3 shows itunes, podcasts, hulu in high def. resolution constantly. Netflix app won't get out of standard definition. Airplay from Netflix ipad2 or iphone 4s, 1080 most of the time.

Finally had enough of the airplay "work around", went and bought a Roku 3 about a week ago. I love it. Roku 3 does ramp when a show starts, but gets to high def in about 20 seconds. Once it's there, it stays there. Much better performance within the Netflix app. Netflix interface looks better too. My ATV3 is sitting in a drawer, Roku has replaced it in the living room. This problem should have been acknowledged/fixed a long time ago. It's funny, I never would've tried a Roku otherwise. Now I'm glad I did.

My ISP is Time Warner Cable. 30 down/5 up.

Therius wrote:

 

...went and bought a Roku 3 about a week ago. I love it. Roku 3 does ramp when a show starts, but gets to high def in about 20 seconds. Once it's there, it stays there. Much better performance within the Netflix app. Netflix interface looks better too. My ATV3 is sitting in a drawer, Roku has replaced it in the living room. This problem should have been acknowledged/fixed a long time ago. It's funny, I never would've tried a Roku otherwise. Now I'm glad I did.

 

My ISP is Time Warner Cable. 30 down/5 up.

I am glad it worked for you.

Funny thing is there a thread on the Roku forums that mirrors this one.

http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=65730

Some quotes from that thread

'Ok so I found the bandwidth testing video Example 23.976. I have 5800 kbps throughput on my apple tv streaming netflix, and 375 or less on my Roku. from 1080p to 240p in an instant.'

'Roku and Netflix still act like nothing is wrong. It worked before the November update and now it don't. And all other channels do work. All other devices work

I have been experiencing a decrease in Netflix streaming quality, that started in early November of 2013 and has been consistent ever since. My setup:

It's weird that Netflix works on my Apple TV in my livingroom, but not on my Roku2 in my bedroom...

Sound familiar?

As I have posted before I am certain there was (is) a Netflix issue with the Apple TV that started early November - but there are definitely other netflix issues going here as well. I think much of it depends which CDN you connect to on a particular device.

Vandergraff wrote:

As I have posted before I am certain there was (is) a Netflix issue with the Apple TV that started early November - but there are definitely other netflix issues going here as well. I think much of it depends which CDN you connect to on a particular device.

 

Yes, it seems there is (also) something else going on I think. I had trouble for a few months and got sick of not being able to fix it. I have a 120mbps connection, so first I thought it was my ISP throttling, but the PS3 client stayed super HD. Then a week later, my PS3 client had the same symptoms, although was quicker to react to changing network conditions.

For a lot of people, airplaying from iOS to Apple TV fixed the bad quality, but that has never worked in my case. bitrate and hiccups are just the same as when I play directly from netflix on Apple TV.

Last week I changed my DNS server in my router from the ISP supplied to Google's DNS servers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) and the two evenings I had to test it, it was noticable better. Will test some more and report back. In the Netherlands we don't have the example videos, so it's hard to detect which bitrate stream is currently playing...

I agree!  Exactly the same scenario for me.

I bookmarked this thread.

As I said Google DNS is just snake oil placebo effect. You think it is fine but problems will start again. As I also said my once flawless PS3 and Roku 3 is not as great for Netflix since the new year. Lately more often it drops down to a lower quality around the 20-30 minute mark before that streaming fine.  Last month it rarely did now it is almost a daily thing. 

Still not as bad as the ATV but very annoying.

Since the new year non Open Connect ISPs performance is getting worse with 85% while stupid Google and Cablevision which only serves the tiny population improves.

A week ago, I sent several Apple-centric news sites and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings the link to this discussion and urged them to investigate the streaming issue. Apparently, Hastings is not one of those modern CEOs who occassionally assures dissatisfied customers. It's possible he's aware of the cause and doesn't want to publicly announce it, especially since Netflix announced that they plan to offer Ultra HD video for the next genration of 4K TVs.

Bottom line, I give Netflix until the end of this month's subscription period to remedy the problem or I'm bailing. $9 a month for unlimited content is no longer a bargain if the viewing experience is a miserable one. We didn't buy hi-def televisions to watch pixelated video.

All,

I have some good news to report.  I was able to stream 4300 to 5800 kbps for the past 2 nights via my ATV3. 

To recap, I am in San Diego with TWC, 15mbs down/ 1.5mbs up. Poor streaming via ATV since last November 2013.  Always a steady 4300 via my iPad3.

Not sure how long it will last, but something has changed.  No ATV FW update, so my guess is a change on the Netflix side.  All of our calls and chats must be having some effect.

I am also from San Diego / Time Warner and tonight I am getting 5800 as well.  First time in months.

User from Sweden,

Can comfirm that the quaity of the picture is good again.

Takes longer to load the episode than it does on my Xbox, but when it starts its HD right away. on the Xbox its crappy pic that gets better instead.

Lets hope that it stays this way.

Was in contact with Netflix support yesterday and asked if they ackknowledge the issue, but the suport tech was slippery and just wanted me to try a soft reset. He dint answer my direct question,

After about 2 week watching mostly HULU or using AirDisplay to have descent picture qualit watching Netflix I used my Apple TV to watch an episode of Continnuum and what do you know it had great quality from the start and it has been EXCELLENT all through (so far) without any drops in picture quality.  Not sure if an Apple TV update came out but I'll check that once I finish enjoying HD quality on Netflix again!!!!  Fingers crossed.

hadjiandbuck wrote:

 

I used my Apple TV to watch an episode of Continnuum and what do you know it had great quality from the start and it has been EXCELLENT all through (so far) without any drops in picture quality.  Not sure if an Apple TV update came out but I'll check that once I finish enjoying HD quality on Netflix again!!!!  Fingers crossed.

Glad its better

ISP and location?

Time Warner -  Los Angeles, CA

Still just as sharp as earlier this evening!

I will not pretend to have read every post in this long chain. But I did have the problem: Netflix was horrible on ATV, and worked fine thru a Blue-ray player with NF enabled, both connecting wirelessly from the same location.

I contacted NF, viva voce. They did something so that I had to re-authenticate my ATV device. Now, it seems to work as well as ever.

By the way, NF told me that yes, they had heard about this issue, and were working on it.

Steve Gabel wrote:

 

They did something so that I had to re-authenticate my ATV device. Now, it seems to work as well as ever.

That is very interesting.

Is NF caching the client (perhaps MAC addresses and/or login credentials) to map them to specific CDNs based on the first login?

Quite a few posters here have done resets (including factory resets) which would cause re-authentication/re-mapping within Netflix, unless it requires NF to actually delete the cached device entries and rebuild the applicable caches @NF.

In your case, it seems that your cached entries @NF were deleted and/or marked stale.

Thanks for sharing this information, Steve.