Netflix pausing/buffering issues

The issue really is that my Macbook pro, my macpro and my PS3 all play netflix PERFECTLY.

The Apple TV stutters and stops and pauses every minute or two, whilst being flawless on other devices. It's unwatchable. Allegedly it happened after the last software upgrade. My apple TV is
more useful as a hockey puck until Apple issue a bugfix for the device.

They are all accessing different servers and this device will try to always give the highest quality (whereas the others drop quality right away).

Like i've said before, people with other devices have had similar issues, and also there are those with ATV who have had no problems.

Try to deep deeper and see what could be causing the issue before simply dismissing this device.

Message was edited by: vazandrew

I believe the solution to the Netflix streaming problem is a simple one most of us overlooked thanks to Apple's instructions that 30 seconds of being disconnected from it's power supply is enough to reset an Apple TV.

After loving my first ATV2 I quickly purchased a second one just weeks apart. Everything worked flawlessly until the release of ios 4.2. After the update the streaming issue did not present itself on both until the following day. This persisted for weeks while I tried resolving the issue with resets to all devices on my network. Downgrading firmware also did not help. Even updating to the ios 4.3 beta 1 could not resolve the issue.

After some study I've concluded the Apple TV update processes introduces an error that manifests itself first as static and flickers in the video output and then progresses to frozen video with audio playing and the opposite, silence with video and then full on hangs where it appears to be buffering data again.

Much experimentation has led me to a reliable way to fix my problem. I have verified with firmware upgrades and downgrade that both ios 4.2 and 4.3 beta 1 are affected by the update bug and can be fixed with the following procedure. Please note I have no experience with the digital rights management issues people have had, I never had a problem with that.

You must unplug all cables from your Apple TV. Leaving HDMI attached even without power will cause this method to fail. Leave the device unhooked for at least a couple hours. I leave mine overnight since I don't have time during the day to spend on this. After the extended power down phase plug in only the power cord to the Apple TV and allow it to start up to the point where the light show ends. Then connect HDMI and use normally.

I believe because of the delayed onset of issues after an update and Apple's manual recommending unplugging for only 30 seconds there has been a lot of trouble pinning down and solving the problem. Add to that when people return their Apple TVs and they get tested the device has been powered down long enough for it to reset. To them it appears to work perfectly.

Hopefully this help others that are affected.

So in summary- you are saying
Update your ATV2 with the latest firmware.
Unplug it completely
Come back in a day
Plug it back in
We are now back in a magical state for good?
Interesting if this is a 100% fix- will try it when they do the next update.

Let's just say that it works for me and I've tested it on software 4.2 through 4.3b1. Based on the number of people on this message board describing problems after the software that sound like mine I think this will fix their issues. Since I did the aforementioned steps both of my Apple TVs have been fine for around 2 weeks.

I apologize for not being clear before but I know this works on software 4.2 and up. Prior versions I have not been able to test.

You do not need to wait for a software update to do this.

I would love feedback to know if this has helped anyone else solve their issues.

Here's some interesting and potentially relevant info from Netflix, showing performance of different internet providers:

http://techblog.netflix.com/2011/01/netflix-performance-on-top-isp-networks.html

This is interesting...

Last night I went to show a friend of mine how crappy Netflix streaming was on my Apple TV. First I attempted to play "Time Bandits" (the Terry Gilliam movie) and nothing happened... it just got stuck on the loading screen for like 10 minutes. Then I was kind of frustrated but I clicked the next Terry Gilliam movie, a documentary called "Lost in La Mancha" and to my surprise it PLAYED and it didn't stop to buffer, NOT EVEN ONCE! I have no idea why this one played great while the other one gave me problems, but my fiend hypothesized that it might have something to do with local data caching. He thought that the movie that played fine might have been located on a server that was close to me, but "Time Bandits" might be located somewhere else. That doesn't really explain why Apple content plays fine though. I wish apple would just give us the option otf watching NetFlix at lower resolution. That would probably solve all of these issues. Anyways, I was happy that it worked at least once.

Apple content will be coming from different servers, likely in different locations, and managed by different companies. I doubt if Apple is dealing with streaming to as many customers as Netflix, so comparing the two is apples and oranges. You'll find other people on this forum complaining that streaming from Apple is poor, while Netflix consistently works perfectly.

Yeah I agree. I started thinking that his idea was probably not correct as I was writing this but I decided to post it anyways.

I still think that if Apple would just give us the option of viewing lower quality NetFlix content (just like they give us the option of viewing iTunes content in SD) then everybody would be much happier.

If you go into your Netflix account you can disable HD streaming

i have had my ATV unplugged for a few hours...will try.

If it fails, will try disabling HD streaming from Netflix account, see if that helps. I normally get SD stream on 'High' , but shows start at Low or medium then switch up.

Well if you have HD enabled and are watching HD material ATV will try to get the best quality (vs others that immediately drop down) Hope it works for you

Somebody said there was a setting in your NetFlix account where you can disable HD streaming. Can anybody tell me where to find that?

Go to the Netflix website, into 'your account & help' then click 'HD streaming'

Choose this option
Disable HD streaming, stream in Standard Definition only

There's nothing in my "account & help" page that says "HD streaming", or anything about streaming period.

There is a section for "Netflix ready devices and computers" which lists my ATV but there is no HD streaming option or setting.