Netflix Problems

The DNS set to 8.8.8.8 did work for me. Since there is a rather simple work around this doesn't really qualify for a whole new OS update ASAP. The only unfortunate thing here is that when you call tech support they don't know this fix off the top of there head and I had to read this forum to get an answer. That is what many companies are relying on these days for tech support, "self service".

My problem was similar to many others here. When I try to play a movie, all i got was the spinning wheel and it went back to movie detail page. I changed my atv from dhcp to static ip with dns server pointing to my isp(comcast) dns server. Everything works after that.

Thanks tigelane, I followed your instructions re: dd-wrt router (disable "No DNS Rebind") and now Netflix works again with the AppleTV. Very annoying that only the AppleTV seems to be affected by this issue.

But ultimately, the problem turned out to be due to a buggy router that was misidentifying legitimate network traffic as an attack. According to Wikipedia, this is a known problem with some methods of blocking DNS Rebinding, so it is not unique to Apple TV:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_rebinding

I believe the problems with Netflix on apple tv is an iOS problem.

The reasons I believe this is because I have experienced many of the same problems mentioned in this thread on my iPad and also my iPhone 3GS. I have 4 iPads in my house. All have Netflix streaming issues. Dropped audio for one plus multiple streaming problems.

The difference between the iPad or iphone and apple tv is the iPad/phone will degrade the video quality and continue playing the video. On apple tv the video quality stays high, so it must pause momentarily to buffer.

When I experience this video quality degradation on the iPad, I stop the movie and launch the speedtest.net app. The app confirms a slowdown to less than 1 Mbps. There is no speed test app on apple tv obviously, so there is no real way for me to know what's going on there.

I have taken multiple itouch devices and tested the connection speed of each side by side on 3 different wireless networks. I get wildly different readings. At work I tested an iPhone 3G and a 3GS. Both on the same wifi network. Each sitting side by side on a table. Each running the speed test app at the exact same time. The 3GS download speed was always much faster than the 3G. How much faster? 10 times faster!

At home a simultaneous side by side test shows my 3GS wifi network download speeds to be consistantly 2-3 times faster than my wifi iPad. That same 3GS will be consistently 2 times slower than my 4 year old HP laptop. The HP laptop measures only slightly slower than my cat5 wire network connected Mac mini.

I test my iPad and iphone wifi download speed periodically throughout the day it will vary between .02 mbps to 9.5 Mbps. Most of the time it is around 2-3 Mbps. This is on a 12 Mbps connection

My HP laptop is very consistent. Usually around 9 Mbps.

My wired Mac mini is consistently 12 mbps.

So, I don't know what's going on. Except, to me, these Netflix problems seem due to wildly inconsistent network speeds that occur only on idevices.

While there are a number of peripheral issues in resolving the "Netflix Problems" (like network speed, DNS settings, wired vs. wireless network connections, interference, etc.), I believe we are looking at a set of interrelated problems:
1) The time of day we are viewing the films/programs via the ATV,
2) The demand for the film/program being viewed and
3) How the ATV handles the Netflix feed.

I say this after spending at least 10 days of pretty intensive testing of potential solutions.

Last night, having eliminated a number of minor possibilities (rebooting the ATV and replacing the HDMI cable, neither of which resulted in any noticeable improvement), I ran 3 different programs from 7:30 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. EST: a Second Season episode of "Lie to Me" (a popular TV series), a National Geographic documentary, an HD iTunes firm.

The performance of the ATV "Lie to Me" Episode was awful when viewed at 7:30-8:30, with more than 30 interruptions. I watched sections of the same episode several times later during the evening. Each session experienced interruptions, although not as many as during "prime time".

The National Geographic documentary streamed virtually without interruption. All were at the outset of viewing it. Note: I stopped and then resumed this documentary several times, mostly after 9:00 p.m.

The iTunes film likewise streamed virtually without interruption, although it too experienced interruptions at the outset of viewing it, 3-4 in the first 2 minutes. Here too, I stopped and resumed the film several times, mostly after 9:00 p.m.

To recap, all of the videos experienced interruptions, the latter 2 mostly during the initial minutes of viewing them. Neither of them could be described as in great demand. Not so the "Lie to Me" episode, and during every viewing it had interruptions, particularly during prime time, when the number was absolutely unacceptable.

I intend to report this to Apple Care, which has worked diligently with me, and to Netflix, which has not yet done so. If I don't get any resolution, I will be looking to return the ATV and suspend the Netflix subscription until I have a functional device attached to our HDTV.

An interesting update. I hard reset my wireless router (ATT U-Verse) about a 3 days ago and haven't had any freezing/buffering issues since. What is strange is that before I would get 4 bar on my Apple TV and now I get 3 (on the Network screen). However load times are faster and my issues with freezing/buffering has been resolved (as far as I can tell so far). I've also noticed faster streaming and downloading on my iMac.

Well things are finally working since I replaced my old Comcast router with v. 3.0 and got a brand new Airport Extreme with dual band and updated the firmware. So maybe the issue is the quality and strength of the wireless

I had this problem where netflix would freeze on me about 10-15 times durring a 40 minute TV show and this solution actually worked for me. I changed the DNS to 8.8.8.8 and 4.2.2.2 on my router and they both worked! Thanks a lot!

my 4.3 experience..much much better. i have had no stalls for two nights running which is a record.i even have had none of the normal pause 17 seconds in . i did try an HD 5.1 program, which did stall, but that is beyond my D/L speed. I watched another HD prog and that worked fine (no 5.1) so perhaps it can adapt to real world conditions. I also had just enetered my DNS numbers in my router, before that, it obtained the DNS automatically. Don't know if that made a difference.

also video podcasts are now almost instant and trailers seem a bit faster too.

Okay...

So between this topic and several others we are talking 1,100+ postings, 200,000+ people tracking these topics. Hmmm... seems like there must be something important going on here.

Given the full range of issues people are having, regardless of many miscellaneous random fixes that have worked for a few folks, I think it is high time for a blitz on the high chairman of Apple himself: Steve Jobs and his counterpart at Netflix.

Now I am not suggesting we simply slam Apple/Netflix on this (since this did work well in the past), but let's state the the facts: The ATV2 as advertised, does NOT support Netflix streaming out-of-the-box - which is why many of us purchased the ATV2 in the first place.

As previously mentioned by some very smart folks, "your grandma should be able to plug the ATV2 into her TV and enjoy a Netflix streamed show any time she wants." She should not have to tweak DNS settings, hardwire her ATV2, or do any other silly fiddling to make it work. That is NOT the Apple Computer way of creating products or that vaunted beautifully elegant user experience.

So, given the overwhelming attention the user community has given to this topic, lets invite Apple to get involved first hand. Together with their colleagues at Netflix, I am sure they can come to a solution.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

1) Send a polite and detailed email to mister Steve Jobs: sjobs@apple.com explaining the issue and that you wish Apple to pursue a solution. I have done this in the past and actually received my first response, during the Xserve cancellation. He actually cares what the company does and produces. I sent my email this afternoon.

2) Contact Netflix support, and specify the same thing: I love your service and I love the Apple TV2, I just wish that it all worked like it works on my PS3, Wii, XBOX, iPad, etc.... I conteacted Netflix a week ago about this - TBD on a response...

We can talk about this all day and forever on these forums which is valuable, but until we exert some community pressure on the folks who can actually make a difference in these problems (read: Apple software and Netflix software engineers) nothing substantive will happen.

Email Steve, Netflix, talk to your Apple store manager. Pester folks until they cry "uncle" and decide, "hey, there must be something whacked out with the ATV2 we need to look into and fix."

Let's get a little grass roots activism going! Go Apple community!

-- Jon

Tried 2 cable modems, 2 routers, no router, many DNS entries, and even 2 Apple TVs, Netflix still pauses a lot making it not usable.

The new Apple TV software update release this week DID NOT FIX THE ISSUE.

Apple please fix the issue. I put a network sniffer on my network, the issue seems to happen when the network connection to Netflix is delayed or slowed, your Netflix software CANT NOT handle it and the buffering is not enough to handle it so it pauses to catch up.
When I say connection slowed I am not talking about my area network, it is the connection to the Netflix servers that is slowed, the network out side of my ISP.

I then did the network sniff using my Xbox 360 and Samsung Netflix Blue ray, BOTH could handle any network performance issues.

I have the top tier 25 mbps Cable modem speed. Your Apple PPV movie software does NOT have this buffering issue, thus this is something you can fix via a software update. To fix it please update the buffering setting on the Netflix app.

Apple please fix this with your next update. You now have thousands of postings saying people have this issue. You now know how to fix it.

I too was having problems streaming netflix on my appletv 2nd generation. Everyother device I had it worked fine, no pausing or freezing. I deleted my instant que to about 3 movies and it works fine now. AppleTv wanted me to buy apple care or pay for their assistance, netflix told me to reboot everything, still didn't work. For me deleting my instance que worked. No more freezing during movie playback. Try it!!!!

Hiya guys, I was having the same problems. I bought apple tv to use on my bedroom tv. I ended up liking it so much that I decided to integrate it into my main theater system. Nothing but frustration followed the last update. On a whim I put the apple tv back into my bedroom. I also disabled Dolby digital on the device in settings. It performs 100 percent better with Netflix now. Weird as this sounds it's true. I have been following this thread for days and 1 poster mentioned this. I decided to try it and it worked for me. Your milage may vary.

These are my benchmark results tonight watching The League.

Yikes!
Xbox(wireless)-9.16mbps
*Apple TV*(wired)-0.29mbps

Netflix gave me an Apple number because they said it's a hardware problem.

I watched 12 Hours of Sebring on the XBox/ESPN3 a couple weeks ago without a glitch.