Netflix Losing Sound

This is an ATV sound issue (not found using other interfaces with Netflix like Wii etc.) from what I have been reading on other posts and googling the issue. Apparently shutting off the movie then resuming it fixes it or waiting out the silence for about 15 seconds or in my case just pausing the movie then
un-pausing makes everything work fine. But the bottom line is Apple has to fix the issue since it seems their is no problem with other media machines

Just out of curiosity, did any of you change your DNS settings to something other than the ones provided by your ISP? I was using OpenDNS until I read an article on AppleInsider discussing the issues caused by doing so (also referenced Google DNS). It was mainly referring to issues with iTunes rentals, but I figured it couldn't hurt to see if it could be the cause of this Netflix issue.

I reset back to my ISP provided DNS settings (just delete the OpenDNS numbers and let your router pull the default back from your ISP), and so far, I haven't noticed this issue happening since.

Hopefully this was the source of the issue, and it won't show its ugly face again.

I've had this happen too. I think it's an HDMI handshake issue as all I had to do was switch to a different input to my receiver and switch it back to the ATV. Not sure if this works for those using the optical audio connection or not.

Nope, it's been working fine for me other than I don't seem to have DD5.1 with anything on Netflix via the ATV2. DD5.1 works fine on Netflix with my PS/3. I've only had it a day though so I'll do some more testing tonight. You may also want to make sure you have Dolby Digital turned to "on" instead of "auto" on your ATV2. That's fixed problems for some. Cheers!

James

I'll add my experience to the list as well. Every Netflix movie I've watched on ATV 2 loses sound about 2/3 into the movie. Pause, rewind a few seconds, play and all is fine. I have a Roku box and a blu-ray player that both do Netflix - this problem does not happen with those devices.

I've also occasionally (maybe one show in 10 or 20) had the sound drop out, and be restored by rewinding a few seconds. I've seen this on my other Netflix clients as well, including TiVo HD, PS3, and XBox 360. It doesn't seem to be any more common on Apple TV2, maybe even a bit less so, but it does happen.

I'm not sure where I read this, but on one of the many message boards I read regarding this issue, someone suggested just pausing the Netflix movie right at the beginning to prevent these issues, which this poster thought were related to buffering. I arbitrarily decided to use a 2 min. pause, and it has worked every single time -- no loss of sound, no freezing or anything. I guess it's a little annoying, but not nearly so annoying as losing sound 4 or 5 times in the middle of a movie. I was ready to return the ATV, but I'm sort of okay with it now.

Yep, like everyone else here I have the same issue. If I pause and rewind a few seconds it always fixes it. It's still pretty annoying, though. Sounds like a widespread issue though so hopefully it'll be fixed soon.

This happens with almost every title I watch. It's happened three times with this one title which prompted this search. Definitely frustrating. I've found that if I rewind a few seconds and resume, the sound comes back.

Same problem with sound cutting out, but hitting pause then play quickly corrects that and is not nearly as irritating as the image freezing. ATV2 has a serious issue with Netflix. I've had Roku for over 2 years, and have probably had a movie interrupted with a pause while buffering happened about twice in that entire time. Roku will occasionally have a problem trying to play a movie at very low resolution and it will a couple if times restarting it to sort itself out. But ATV2 has become unusable for Netflix, Roku is much more reliable. Bought ATV for Airplay music playing and watching YouTube on TV, but glad I didn't get rid of my Roku until I was sure ATV2 was an able replacement. It's not. I'd like my money back.

I've had this happen a couple of times. Backing up the movie a few seconds restored the sound

I am also having the same issue. It does not seem to be related to the quality of the connection, and it usually comes back after about 10-15 seconds of playback. If I want to restore audio sooner, I have to exit out of playback and then resume it, but pausing or rewinding a few seconds does not work by itself.

It is starting to get annoying because it happens at least once or twice per feature-length film watched on Netflix. It does not seem to happen with YouTube video playback or playback of iTunes movie rentals. I am hoping an update is in the works.

Yeah, it has to do with the buffer kicking in I believe. Only happened a few times for me, the rewind seems like the best solution.

I can confirm this happening to me as well. video keeps going but no sound. did it a couple times this weekend. rewind and play again or pause and unpause seemed to bring it back. or just wait and it came back eventually.

I find that this happens while it is buffering. For some reason, the ATV doesn’t buffer all in one shot. It buffers in bursts. When it goes in to (what I call) "buffering burst mode", the sound cuts out for a couple of seconds and then comes back fine. I find that this only happens on my HD movie content, though. My HD content is LARGE... so maybe that is the issue. Thing is, I'm connected via the Cat 6 on the back of my ATV, 1TB Time Capsule and my Computer from which it streams. Can't imagine what this would be like if I were trying to actually use the wireless...