Netflix Problems

Tadcrawfordmv-
I was having similar problems earlier in the week myself.

I use an airport extreme with DSL.

After much tinkering I found something really interesting.

Basically between my DSL modem and the Airport Extreme one of them should be in "bridge mode". I'm not sure what I had going on but both my dsl modem and my AE were dishing out ip addresses via DHCP. My wireless connections were intermittent. Sometimes fast, often super slow.

After I figured out what was going on, I put the dsl modem in bridge mode and the AE in PPPOE mode. After that my speeds increased.

I also tried keeping DHCP turned on in the modem and the AE in bridge mode. That also worked.

I wonder how many people who are having trouble are also using an Airport Extreme?

I've been having the same issues. I contacted Apple and they had me return it and sent me a new one. It worked great initially but then I had the same problems. I upgraded my cable modem yesterday and it seems to be working just fine now. At least it did last night and this afternoon. Just an FYI: I have it connected to an ethernet bridge.

I've posted previously on my problems (ultra slow wireless performance, neither Apple store nor Netflix would work worth a ****, but wired performance was fine - other devices were all fine wireless).

I had a Linksys WRT160N ver 1 router. Tried all kinds of settings, etc. but nothing made a difference.

Eventually though, for other reasons, I just bought a new router (Netgear WNDR3700 dual band) and everything works flawlessly now. The Apple TV is obviously much more finicky than most wireless devices.

If you're having problems I'd definitely suggest trying to borrow a newish router to try, or take your ATV2 to a friend's house - it's pretty portable after all.

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.

I can confirm that turning off DNSMasq in DD-WRT seems to have fixed my streaming problems. All other suggested fixes did not address the problem (setting to ISP DNS, Google DNS, static IP, wifi vs. wired), and my ISP connection is 45Mbps, provable with speedtest.net.

I will do some more experimenting, but I think you found the source of the problem.

Not sure about others, but all the problems with Netflix streaming have disappeared with the new iOS 4.3 update (4.2 for Apple TV). After going through 2 units, spending countless hours w/ technicians and engineers... I'm glad to see they were able to get the fix pushed into this update.

Message was edited by: Meynstey

The latest update to my ATV2, 4.2 (the one that added MLB and NBA options), actually fixed the neflix problems I was having. I had the spinning wheel problem where on about half the shows or movies I wanted to watch, it would never load and all I would get was the spinning wheel... lots of others had similar problems, as described in this forum. Well this update fixed it. I've had no problems at all with this update, and things are loading much more quickly.

Testing again now...

Message was edited by: jamesbondono

////////////////////////////////////.
Working now...
Tried again didn't work - but didn't crash the apple tv this time.
So, I reboot the box (I unplugged it - waited a minute, plugged it back in - shame an on/off switch was too high tech for this box). After reboot, I had to log in to Netflix again, but it works now. Whoever fixed this, thanks.

Message was edited by: jamesbondono

After much frustration of Netflix working on all my other devices but not my ATV (which had been working fine until today), I changed the TCP settings to manual, then changed the DNS server settings to 8.8.8.8 (Google's DNS server) and Netflix is now working fine.

I installed the new firmware update for my ATV last night which seems to resolve most of the issues I was having with Netflix. While watching Kyle XY my audio did go out of sync only once and the video stopped only once. Otherwise after watching two full episodes it seems like the ATV for the most part is fixed. I think Netflix itself has some content issues with it's tv shows. As for the sync issue, as long as I stop then resume whatever I'm watching the video will sync with the audio again. Hopefully my ATV will play nice as far as Netflix is concerned.. Otherwise I'm looking at getting a Roku for my Netflix experience otherwise. Outside of that, the ATV has been perfect for everything else but YouTube as of late. Why, oh why apple did you screw up YouTube subscriptions?

Greg Begay wrote:
Here's another annoyed ATV / Netflix user. I've had my ATV for about a month. I have not watched 1 movie without some number of intertuptions. Either the stream freezes or the spinning gear appears.

Is there anyone that streams Netflix via ATV that IS NOT experiencing this issue?

Very un-Apple-like.

I think the issues users are having come from multiple causes and have no single solution. I was having issues with my Comcast service. The speed tests would go from 20 mbps to 4 mbps. Users need to understand that the tests are burst rates and not sustained streaming rates. It turned out that the cable run to the modem was causing db loss enough that would cause the modem to reset. In addition, the modem was a version 2 that would have difficulty with handling the 20 mbps they upgraded my service to. The tech repaired the line and replaced the modem and now I get 30/5 with the burst speed tests. I'm watching Gosford Park in HD and DD 5.1 as I'm writing this. The cable modem is connected to an Airport Extreme (2009 version) and the ATV2 is wireless. For those that use only the ISP provided modem that has a built-in switch, it is my opinion that none of these can support the required throughput with WEP or WPA2 turned on. There just isn't enough horsepower. My Airport Extreme does all of the heavy lifting, so all the cable modem has to do is respond to the Internet requests from the AE. The AE DOES NOT do stateful packet inspection and instead only has a NAT firewall. Other routers that do IMHO do not have the horsepower to keep the data rates from declining.

Netflix is also part of the problem, as they don't have the capacity to handle all the requests during peak hours. Also your ISP (cable is worse) will have issues during peak usage hours. On a cable network such as Comcast, the burst test results are down after school and on into the evening hours.

ISPs can also perform traffic shaping by limiting throughput on the TCP/IP ports used by Netflix, or by loading slower routes to Netflix first in their DNS. There are many ways to do this, and of course they will deny that it isn't happening (remember Comcast vs. Torrent users).

Bottom line, the Netflix ATV2 issue has opened a can of worms. Users wanting their problems fixed will try solutions found here and keep adding changes to the previous ones that didn't work. My vote is that users go back to the standard settings for all of their equipment and ISP, then test one change at a time. Those who changed their DNS settings to Google or OpenDNS should be asking their ISP why they have to not use the ISP DNS to correct streaming issues (hint hint).

Good luck to all, including Netflix (adding bandwidth as fast as they can to catch up with the explosion of ATV2 and other device sales). Peace out!

My apple tv 2nd generation updated to 4.2.1 a couple of days ago, and since then Netflix doesn't work correctly. Basically it will play a movie, then just stop, you have to exit and resume the movie for it to continue.

It's not a network problem. When this occurs, I can continue to smoothly watch the same movie on the iPad.

It's really looks like a bug in 4.2.1.

Started happening immediately after the update.

My guess is the average time to failure is about 10 _ 15 minutes.... ie. There's a good chance that within 10 ~ 15 minutes of watching something it will just stop.

Exit, select the same movie, choose resume and it works.

Strongly recommend avoiding 4.2.1 until they fix it.

Michaelworks wrote:
...

I think the issues users are having come from multiple causes and have no single solution. I was having issues with my Comcast service. The speed tests would go from 20 mbps to 4 mbps. Users need to understand that the tests are burst rates and not sustained streaming rates. It turned out that the cable run to the modem was causing db loss enough that would cause the modem to reset. In addition, the modem was a version 2 that would have difficulty with handling the 20 mbps they upgraded my service to. The tech repaired the line and replaced the modem and now I get 30/5 with the burst speed tests. I'm watching Gosford Park in HD and DD 5.1 as I'm writing this. The cable modem is connected to an Airport Extreme (2009 version) and the ATV2 is wireless. For those that use only the ISP provided modem that has a built-in switch, it is my opinion that none of these can support the required throughput with WEP or WPA2 turned on. There just isn't enough horsepower. My Airport Extreme does all of the heavy lifting, so all the cable modem has to do is respond to the Internet requests from the AE. The AE DOES NOT do stateful packet inspection and instead only has a NAT firewall. Other routers that do IMHO do not have the horsepower to keep the data rates from declining.

...
Good luck to all, including Netflix (adding bandwidth as fast as they can to catch up with the explosion of ATV2 and other device sales). Peace out!

I've got a Qwest DSL modem connected to Airport Extreme via ethernet. I'm trying to figure out how to bridge the modem and let the AEBS handle PPPoE and DHCP. Let the AEBS do the "heavy lifting". Every other change I've tried has not been successful.

I don't get why others have reported no issues streaming Netflix with their playstation 3, TIVO, net connected bluray players, etc.

Greg Begay wrote:

Michaelworks wrote:
...

I think the issues users are having come from multiple causes and have no single solution. I was having issues with my Comcast service. The speed tests would go from 20 mbps to 4 mbps. Users need to understand that the tests are burst rates and not sustained streaming rates. It turned out that the cable run to the modem was causing db loss enough that would cause the modem to reset. In addition, the modem was a version 2 that would have difficulty with handling the 20 mbps they upgraded my service to. The tech repaired the line and replaced the modem and now I get 30/5 with the burst speed tests. I'm watching Gosford Park in HD and DD 5.1 as I'm writing this. The cable modem is connected to an Airport Extreme (2009 version) and the ATV2 is wireless. For those that use only the ISP provided modem that has a built-in switch, it is my opinion that none of these can support the required throughput with WEP or WPA2 turned on. There just isn't enough horsepower. My Airport Extreme does all of the heavy lifting, so all the cable modem has to do is respond to the Internet requests from the AE. The AE DOES NOT do stateful packet inspection and instead only has a NAT firewall. Other routers that do IMHO do not have the horsepower to keep the data rates from declining.

...
Good luck to all, including Netflix (adding bandwidth as fast as they can to catch up with the explosion of ATV2 and other device sales). Peace out!

I've got a Qwest DSL modem connected to Airport Extreme via ethernet. I'm trying to figure out how to bridge the modem and let the AEBS handle PPPoE and DHCP. Let the AEBS do the "heavy lifting". Every other change I've tried has not been successful.

I don't get why others have reported no issues streaming Netflix with their playstation 3, TIVO, net connected bluray players, etc.

Your DSL modem should be fine used as Ethernet input into the WAN port of the AEBS. If you have DHCP on your DSL, the AEBS will get an IP address from Qwest. If it is PPPoE, you can change that in the AEBS setup. No need to do anything to the DSL modem. Set the AEBS to perform DHCP for attached devices (reserve any for network printers, etc.) and use WPA2 for wireless. The AEBS will not degrade the throughput. Try a speed test at www.speedtest.net. I've seen the ATV2 work well on a Frontier 3 mB DSL streaming Netflix. Less than 3 I suspect you will have issues.

Netflix works great on my ATV. Never really had any problems. None of this stuttering constantly. Picture always seemed pretty good. And played smoothly.

But I called Netflix after answering the challenge of a person that was having problems. I called them to get my rate of streaming to Netflix.

What did I find out?

My bit rate on the first call was 0.8 mbps. I had the Wii streaming simultaneously to Netflix. Its streaming bit rate was 3.5/4 mbps.

On my second call with the Wii shut off my ATV fared better, but still only 1.41 mbps.

Now I'm guy that hasn't seen any problems with my ATV like some have.

But it seems like I'm still affected by the "bug." I'm getting much lower than expected bit rates with the ATV. My ISP is FIOS with 15mbps down.

It's just that my bit rates happen to be just on the other side of low so as to not cause any stuttering.

I'll have to reverse my position and say there is a problem with Netflix on the new ATV. Or at least the problem is more widespread than I thought. EVen people without show-stopping problems are being affected.