Netflix pausing/buffering issues

markbober wrote:

Please contact Apple with your issues. The more people that contact them, the better. It would help if you called Netflix first to ask them at what speed you're connecting with the Apple TV. Call within 24 hours of the last use.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html

1-800-275-2273

Tell them you are reporting a bug and are not looking for support (in case you don't have AppleCare).

I just spoke with my apple rep and Apple is claiming that hardly anyone is complaining about this issue. If you guys would just call to report the bug, I think we might get a solution. PLEASE CALL APPLE!

I finally hit a brick wall with Apple. They claim that the "Netflix app" for Apple TV was written by Netflix, so anything short of the app not loading is all on Netflix and there's nothing they can do. I tried to argue that even if Netflix had a fix, Apple had to provide it since the Apple TV is a closed system. No dice.

So, I will now try to go up through the ranks at Netflix and see how things go there. I wish I could get the Netflix rep and Apple rep to talk to each other...

My problem isn't buffering... when I hit play on a movie, I get the black screen with the loading icon, then it bounces me back to the page where I selected the movie to begin with. I haven't been able to even get a movie to start in about a week! I've tried dozens of movies and tv shows, thinking at first it was a glitch only affecting some shows, but it's everything. I can't watch a single thing on netflix on my tv...

The only reason I bought the apple tv was to watch netflix, and the only reason I pay for netflix is so I can watch it on my apple tv, so this is incredibly annoying.. I'm not sure who to contact, though, since netflix is working fine on my computer & my iphone -- and on my apple tv I can watch movies from my home computer, and youtube. And judging from the feedback everyone is getting here when they call Apple & Netflix I feel like contacting them might be useless 😟

So I changed my DNS from the default DHCP DNS and TCP/IP settings under Network Settings, to my ISP's DNS IP as suggested by one poster and so far it's a little bit better. Don't know if it's a coincidence or not but we've had very little buffering since. I can handle buffering a few times each movie but not every few minutes like it was doing previously with a lot of movies we were watching.

kategabrielle103, have you tried resetting the apple tv by pressing the down scroll button and menu button together and holding them for 6 seconds? that always works for me when I have that particular issue.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3180

I'm having this same issue and learned quite a bit this evening via troubleshooting:

Own both ATV 2nd Gen and a Roku. Also have an iTouch with Netflix app loaded. I hard wired both my ATV and Roku to my router this evening. I had been running via wireless, but, hearing that some were suspecting wireless as a contributing factor, took time to connect both directly to the router. With both hard wired still many pausing, silence, audio/video sync issues with Netflix via ATV, however NO PROBLEMS via Roku. Tried two different movies. Both were not working properly on ATV, but were fine on the Roku.

Didn't stop there...got on my iTouch and loaded the Netflix app. Ran same two movies. NO PROBLEMS there either. Streaming was smooth and uninterrupted.

I'd say Apple has some explaining/investigating to do about why ATV 2nd Gen is having problems with Netflix, because what I've seen this evening seems to exonerate Netflix.

Well, I spoke with Netflix for quite a while today. It sounds like they haven't heard enough people complaining about this issue because it seems to be news to everyone I speak with. The Netflix rep said that he would send the information to the engineers but that there was no way for him or an engineer to contact me.

So as it stands, there is nothing more I can do. I would suggest calling Netflix and patiently walking through the issue with them. Maybe it will help if more people complain about it.

Maybe Apple will release a streaming subscription service and it will be a moot point. That's right people.. moot, not mute. ;-)

Let me know if you find a solution that doesn't involve trying different DNS servers or wireless settings, because those won't fix it permanently and don't explain why my MacBook Pro connects at 18 Mbps and my Apple TV connects at 0.9 Mbps.

One piece of parting news: The iPad connects at the same fractional speeds that the Apple TV does. So, it is clearly a Netflix app issue. Either it's a connection problem or a memory management problem. Let's hope someone takes ownership and makes it right.

IRskier76, please open up support calls with Netflix (they can give you bandwidth info for each device) and with Apple. Ask to escalate on both calls. The more people contact them, the more likely a fix will be found.

Markbober: interesting that Apple told you the App was written by Netflix. Netflix told me Apple was responsible. My support issue is still with Apple engineering, I suspect they will tell me the same thing they told you.

I purchased an AppleTV about 5 months ago and it worked fine with Netflix but a couple days ago it stopped streaming Netflix for some reason. I tried everything to fix it on my own and ended up calling Netflix customer service and was told by them that all I needed to do was to unplug my AppleTV and router for about 10 seconds and plug them back in. It worked! They said it was a memory issue and this fix works about 85% of the time. If you are a new purchaser of AppleTV than your unit's memory isn't likely full and this won't work, but I thought I'd share this since no other blog suggestions worked for me.

caa100 wrote:

IRskier76, please open up support calls with Netflix (they can give you bandwidth info for each device) and with Apple. Ask to escalate on both calls. The more people contact them, the more likely a fix will be found.

Markbober: interesting that Apple told you the App was written by Netflix. Netflix told me Apple was responsible. My support issue is still with Apple engineering, I suspect they will tell me the same thing they told you.

The iPad has the same slow connection speed. That tells me that both apps were written by the same group, which must be Netflix since Apple definitely didn't write the iPad app. I said this to Netflix and they accepted it, I think. You can just ask them to forget the Apple TV and address the connection speed issue on the iPad and they may end up chasing down the problem.

nancyfromminneapolis wrote:

I purchased an AppleTV about 5 months ago and it worked fine with Netflix but a couple days ago it stopped streaming Netflix for some reason. I tried everything to fix it on my own and ended up calling Netflix customer service and was told by them that all I needed to do was to unplug my AppleTV and router for about 10 seconds and plug them back in. It worked! They said it was a memory issue and this fix works about 85% of the time. If you are a new purchaser of AppleTV than your unit's memory isn't likely full and this won't work, but I thought I'd share this since no other blog suggestions worked for me.

It may in fact be a memory issue, but I power cycle my Apple TV every day and have tried power cycling my router/modem and that DID NOT fix the problem. It is NOT a networking issue. It is either a connection management issue or a memory management issue. Either way, it is in the app itself.

My ATV2 was frozen, It wouldn't stream any video (YouTube or NetFlix). I did the same router and ATV reboot and now it works. I'll see how long it keeps streaming. But for now it's usable.

After experiencing the same issue discussed in this thread (Netflix worked fine until several weeks ago, rebuffering ever few minutes, all other devices on the network work fine, Netflix reported the throughput on the Apple TV 2 at about 1/10 that of the other devices, did factory reset, powered off for a while, etc.), I called Apple Care. After they verified that settings are fine, they suggested a trip to the Genius Bar. We tried Netflix in the store and it worked just fine. The store swapped mine with a new one from stock, and it works perfectly at home now. BUT, the software level of the new one is 4.1.1 and I am not going to experiment with a software update.

So, my conclusion is either bad hardware, or a bad post 4.1.1 update (or a post 4.1.1 update that breaks some marginally bad hardware), that causes excessive Netflix buffering in some, but not all, network environments.

I have Apple TV 2 software version 4.2.1. Would the software upgrade help? How is your signal strength (if wireless)?

If you can downgrade to 4.1.1 by doing a factory reset and not allowing any updates (I don't know if it will let you bypass the update), it would be an interesting experiment to see if it would now work.

My wireless signal is 4/5, and it is connecting to an Apple Time Capsule WiFi access point.