Netflix Problems

tgibbs:
Your experience probably is typical. But the problems are real and widespread. They are not just cited on this forum but on others as well.

From my experience, they seem to be due to the interaction between the Apple TV's wifi antenna and certain routers. But even working for 95% of users does not mean the product "just works." Apple needs to do some further work on this one.

Yes, I imagine that a lot of the problems are the consequence of buggy routers that simply were not designed or tested to meet the demands upon router reliability and throughput that are now routinely imposed upon them by streaming of HD video.

I have intermittent hiccoughs with the ATV2, and my router is a Time Capsule.

FWIW, power-cycling the ATV2 usually does the trick.

We have been able to access Netflix, but only for certain titles. I can get Caillou to play for my 2 year old (eeeekkk!!) with no problem, but when we try to watch LOST, it stops after a couple of seconds or minutes. Then it freezes and we can't get it to play again. We can watch anything through our Wii with no problem all the time. What would cause some titles to work, and others to freeze?

If some titles play and some do not, the problem might be at the Netflix end. If it is only HD titles that fail to play, then it is possible that the network is not fast enough to deliver that much data, although Netflix tries to detect that and fall back to standard definition. A slow network problem could be at your end (if you are using WiFi) or it could be between you and the server that is sending you the data.

It is not necessarily the case that the Wii and the Apple TV are talking to the same servers to manage and acquire content, because Netflix uses a very large number of servers (most of which are not actually owned by Netflix), and some are probably device-specific or using device-specific code. Also, since the Wii is not capable of HD, Netflix will not attempt to send HD data to the Wii, so the Wii's demand for network speed will be lower.

I was having same issues. I disconnected the power cord from ATV and gave it a minute or so. Connected again and it was rebooting. So far that worked, I was able to commence Netflix streaming again. If it stops I'll post as well.

Part of the problem is that as far as I can tell, Atv seems to prefer high quality streams. Now take that combined with this tidbit from Netflix...

Netflix says that its best quality HD streams are encoded at 4,800Kbps, and it's clear from the chart that no ISPs can sustain this level of service across an entire movie. But "the higher the sustained average, the greater the throughput the client can achieve, and the greater the image quality over the duration of the play," says the company.

Rest is here...
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/01/canada-comes-out-on-top-as-netfl ix-rates-north-american-isps.ars

Most if not all American ISPs arent capable of supplying a high quality stream for an entire movie.

Combine that with wifi interference and degradation of signal, then you have what we have with Apple tv

Presumably, the very highest quality streams are the 1080p streams that Netflix is currently only sending to PS3.

According to my previous post Netflix says ISPs can't deliver that stream (1080p) for an entire movie. What happens on a PS3 then? Does the picture degrade to a 720, 480, or worse or does it just stop and buffer?

Still apple tv at 720p requires a lot of bandwidth.

My Netflix iPad and iPhone apps degrade the signal and keeps playing. This doesn't happen on my apple tv. The picture quality stays good, it just stops.

I had a roku hd box and I seem to recall the picture degrading on that and it kept playing.

Does this make sense?

Presumably, the published measures are averages, so probably a PS3 once in a while manages to get a good enough connection to receive the top quality stream.

I've occasionally had my other Netflix devices stop, rebuffer, and resume at lower resolution. I've never seen that happen with my Apple TV, but it never seems to stop to rebuffer at all--it just plays continuously. Once, I tried watching the same show on PS3 and then on Apple TV, and the PS3 played it at lower resolution than the Apple TV, but neither had any problem playing the show without interruption. So it may be that Apple TV is more reluctant than other Netflix clients to fall back to lower resolution, although for me that seems to work out well.

Has anybody ever seen Apple TV switch to lower resolution while playing a show? Certainly, if it fails to fall back when it should, that could be a source of problems.

oh @tigelane, you rock!

I spent a few weeks with ATV2 directly connected to my outside router with the exact same problem, but today I got fed up and ended finding this thread. Just adjusted the "No DNS rebind" on DD-WRT did and now everything working again, flawlessly!

Many many thanks.

Having the same problem only on the apple TV unit. My PS3 has no problem connecting and playing movies from Netflix. Definitely an apple issue not Netflix. The message reads " Sorry we could not reach the Netflix service. Please try again later. If the problem persists please visit the Netflix website. (112)
At the Netflix website I try the code 112 and it is the improper code ????? I think I will be calling Apple to see what they have to say?

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 have multiple netflix clients and have never had problems, until ATV:
Wireless: WII, iPad, iPhone
Wired: desktop browser, Tivo, ATV2

Out of the box, the ATV would navigate the Netflix menus without a problem; but would not stream anything. I even plugged the ATV directly into the DSL modem, with the same results. I tried changing the DNS to 8.8.8.8, and that had no affect. I finally changed the DNS to match the DNS in my DSL modem

*-- that fixed the problem completely *

The next day I reset the DNS and went back to DHCP; and it still worked. In fact, it worked everywhere were it would not before.

I'm a huge Apple fan, and I was very pleased when I got my Apple TV2 to see that they had created an interface to Netflix that was so much better than what I had on my Blu-ray. But, like others here, I recently started having problems with freezing.

I told my wife I doubted it was the ATV2, there were so many things on the network and Internet. I work in IT, I know how many variables there are. But, in frustration, I switched back to the Blu-Ray for Netflix - np more problems.

Unfortunately, Apple will never come on these forums and admit there is a problem. Some day we'll get a new version of iOS, and I bet it will be quietly fixed. As much as I love Apple, I wish they'd be more honest about this.