Netflix pausing/buffering issues

I just bought a second ATV for the family room. When I set it up, I turned off the option to communicate with Apple. Has not updated and streamed without a problem. I still think it has to do with the first upgrade. Got a new upgrade last night on the first ATV and it didn't help. If the second one still operates without a problem, we need to find out how to get rid of upgrade. Thankfully, I stream movies from computer without a problem.

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I just got my husband the Apple TV for his birthday. We had/have the bufering issue with Netflix too.

As was suggested to me for the buffering issues on my computer - when accessing Netflix via the Apple TV - wait for the movie to start and then pause it for awhile. It will continue to buffer the movie and you can restart it and it may be buffered to the point you can continue watching the movie without catching up with the buffering. If you do it's time to pause it again, take a potty break, pop some popcorn and come back to the movie again in a bit. It isn't the best answer but it did help.

Good luck.

Watched my first apple tv netflix movie tonight, and after about 45 minutes it paused once, then after another 15 minutes it paused again, then it started pausing every couple of minutes. I switched to using our existing (samsung blueray) netflix player to watch last half of movie and there was no more pausing. I've watched netflix on the samsung and my laptop for at least 6 months and NEVER had a pause/buffer slowdown. I'm amazed that Apple ships a product that is not as good as existing solutions. Any stops for buffering kills the movie experience and no one wants a product that stops for buffering when other products are available that don't have this problem. Hopefully it can be fixed with a software upgrade.

(following from my previous post ...) It occurs to me that both the laptop and the Samsung do a lot more buffering before the movie starts. Assuming a 1.5Mbs netflix stream, it only takes 10MB to cache 1 minute of Netflix streaming. Obviously Apple TV has enough memory to cache this (Apple TV has 8GB of cache memory, and 256MB of normal memory). Perhaps the solution is to simply buffer 30 seconds of movie before the movie starts, then always be 30 seconds ahead. I'm perfectly happy with this, and, like i said, the other devices appear to be doing this. Apple, please make this change (perhaps make it configurable). No one is going to want your Netflix streaming if it stops the video during playback.

me again 😉
Just wanted to add that this was a wired connection (not wireless).
Also, was checking up on my 1.5Mbps netflix bandwidth estimate and found some dude that said a 1hr 40 minute HD movie took 3GB bandwidth - i.e. 30MB / minute. So even for HD movies you don't need that much memory to buffer 30 seconds.
Also, when you implement the initial buffering when movie starts (or any other buffering), have a nice progress bar. Don't you people have QA for this!!!

Same here...We just got the latest ATV model a few days ago (12/17/2010), installed it and tried watching a few Netflix movies. Every single one of them had buffering issues (meaning stopped playing for many seconds at a time). The most frustrating part about it? - I plugged my Blu-Ray player back in and it played every single Netflix movie like a charm (so it's definitely not my Internet connection). Also, has anybody tried playing a Netflix movie from his/her iPad? - On the Apple website they make it look like it's possible...not possible! I will return this piece of c today. Apple: Thanks for releasing a flawed product. I have nothing better to do than spending three hours to go see one of your "geniuses". Also, thanks for not leaving one response on this forum.

Same problem here. I have tried pretty much everything in the books:

-contacted my ISP and verify speed (result 10 MB download / 2 MB upload)
-purchased new wireless router (CISCO E3000)
-ran a cable to use Ethernet instead if WiFi

None of this worked.

The interesting thing is, that only some titles are affected. Others work perfectly. I am also disasspointed by the picture quality. I frequently see pixilation and also the reported issues where video kees playing without audio.

As result I have given up on netflix at this point.

Apple stream works great though, 1080p, surround sound, flawless on my system.

I just returned the Apple TV for this reason - I've tried multiple routers, wireless and wired, Netflix is just unusable for me. Netflix works fine on the Roku box I just got (and has always worked on the Wii and XBox 360).

Sigh.. wish Apple would recognize these pesky issues.

How do I do a speed test? Apple said to use "Internet Connect" application, but I downloaded the most recent version of OS 10.6.5 and "Internet Connect" gets this error message: Internet Connect quit unexpectedly. (It never loaded.) I do have a long page titled "Problem Details and System Configuration" but that is in Binary Images and Translated Code Information which means nothing to me. “Ethernet is currently active" according to my check. Also, I have searched on the Apple TV setup to see how to disable HDTV, but was unable to find any place to do that. Do you know where I can find such a capability?

Dear All, I spoke with Apple this am about my Netflix and iPhoto and network sharing and streaming problems (internal SWOD buffering pauses)and they gave me links to two Internet speed test sites (since Apple's Internet Connect program does not function) and I discovered that my ISP has not been providing me what I have been paying for for two years; i.e. I am getting .65MBPS (megabits per second) download speed instead of the 1.5 to 3 MBPS that I have been paying for. An article sent to me by the tech support - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1577 - has a chart of download times. Apparently you have to first get the adequate service from your provider, the let your computer download for the listed times before you watch from a streaming device. The tech support guy said that he pays for a 14 GBPS service while I have been paying ATT for a "Pro" service which is supposed to get 1.5 to 3 GBPS. My next step is to talk to the ATT service rep. To check your download speed go to http://www.speedtest.net/ and/or http://reviews.cnet.com/internet-speed-test/?tag=contentMain;contentBody;pm Good luck.

I am intrigued that Apple keeps saying it is all about connection speed. I know in some cases it is, but that does not account for the fact that so many of us have said our Roku, Wii,, Samsung etc are all working fine at our current download speed, which in my case is 8.78 on the last test. I have all the upgrades and do feel the last one helped a bit, but it bothers me that Apple has tried to blame it on Netflix, provider speed, and everything else when reading all the entries and using a bit of logic says it is not. I keep hoping for more upgrades.

So zengard, what is your download speed? My next step, personally, is to evaluate both costs - the cost to upgrade my Internet service and/or to get the DVD's by mail from Netflix. It costs $2 extra per month to get the DVD's in the mail from Netflix. But my base computer, my satellite computers and my Apple TV have all had problems downloading, so I'll probably increase my Internet speed in stages to try it out. By the way, I ordered a Roku, based on all the comments I saw here. I'll let you know whether it improves things. But nowhere does Apple say on the Apple TV literature on the device or the website, what download speed is required in order to make the device useful. And I have a brand new iMac Glass!

Oh, they also said that my Gateway 2WIRE593 modem should probably be upgraded as it is about 2 years old. Maybe ATT will do that. Stay tuned.

I suggest that you test the bandwidth using your brand new iMac. On the iMac, go to the Netflix site and watch a movie. See if you have the buffering problems. If you do, you'll need more bandwidth. At my house, I can watch Netflix movies on my iMac and on my iPad using the NetFlix iPad app. In both cases, no complaints. My issue is solely with the new ATV, which has buffering issues, as well as what I originally reported here, the fact that sometimes ATV simply refuses to start playing a Netflix movie at all. By that I mean, I click to play, wait, and watch with dismay as ATV gives up and simply returns to the menu.

Lyrinda, my download speed is 8.78, which is good, but I have a cable modem. Connection speed definitely is not the problem with my ATV. I would suggest making sure you have downloaded the most current ATV update. My Roku download within the first minute will pause and download a bit more, but then works perfectly. My ATV problems, have included not downloading at all and downloading every minute or two, but that has stopped pretty much since the last ATV software update. The really interesting thing is that the ATV remote changes my laptop screen if it happens to be on too. I cannot tell you what to do about your Netflix membership. The ATV offers so much more than just Netflix. I use the podcasts and the internet radio on it a lot. But if you cannot get Netflix discs, there are many movies they have only available on disc. I also use my Roku to listen to Pandora a lot and to watch Hulu Plus. It is a different world than when I had 3 TV stations and it was all free.