Poor Picture Quality on Netflix via Apple TV (especially "HD") . . .

Netflix adjust the quality of the video depending on the speed of your Internet connection. Apple recommends a minimums of 8Mbps for HD.

You obviously aren't for netflix. Netflix quality is not as good as iTunes, but it's better than what you are describing. As Damien states Netflix use a process called adaptive streaming which matches the quality with your available bandwidth. netflix can lower its datarate to as low as 0.5 Mbps and it sounds like that is what is happening in your case.

It's possible that you get 12-14 Mbps generally but not for Netflix, there may be various reasons for that. How quickly do iTunes store rentals start on your Apple TV.

Have you done anything to try to resolve this, restarted the Apple TV or router, checked your network settings, contacted your ISP etc etc.

do you recall which settings they had you change.

Yes that makes sense, WPA2 would generally be best, enterprise simply won't work and WEP is generally not a good idea, but if used is best with passwords of specific length. Usually they affect all traffic though not just say Netflix, so this is useful information, thank you.

This is ridiculous, the lousy responses i'm finding on these forums. I have a 18meg download speed (at least at peak) from my isp.

MY PS3 looks GREAT when streaming Netflix content, sd or hd, my apple tv 3 looks like crap. Why can no one get to the bottom of this? My ipad3, 4 year old htc phone all look fantastic . Apple TV 3 looks like garbage, consistent, but still , garbage.

It seems there is a clear issue with the appleTV device and whatever its doing with Netflix. Do you suppose it's their way of getting me to just buy HD content from their iTunes store? lol

Do you suppose it's their way of getting me to just buy HD content from their iTunes store?

There is good news coming!

Technology experts are working on a movie storage system where YOU have physical possession of the movie.

This system stores the movie digitally on an optical disk system that will not be dependent upon a congested, complicated, and fragile network.

Because all of the data is stored only a few feet from your television, all the bottlenecks are removed. Performance and reliability are virtually flawless.

Further, the system will not utilize any form of security codes, authentications, or passwords. Once the optical disc is purchased it can be moved around freely at will, and can even be lent or given to friends and neighbors with zero hassles.

Yes, the problem does exist! If you have the opportunity to try and compare the quality of the video when streaming Netflix using your Apple TV and the quality of that same video when streaming from PS3 you notice a big difference. For starters, the PS3 system allows you to actually see the quality of the video being streamed from Netflix in a scale of...

Low SD

Medium SD

High SD

Low HD

Medium HD

High HD

X-High HD

...this possibility is native to the Netflix client on the PS3, you just have to press the select button during playback. Apple TV doesn't let you identify the quality of the video in any way. This lack of transparency is really frustrating, because users have to count on their bare eyes, without having a technical reference, to find out if they are getting the correct video quality they are paying for. We can't forget that usually users will make sure they build up all the necessary infrastructure to strem videos in the best quality possible, spending a lot of money in hardware and a decent internet connection. Another thing is that, as it was mentioned in this post, movies and TV Shows purchased/rented through the iTunes Store doesn't suffer the same kind of degradation in quality. They are streamed in full 1080p without hicaps in my network. This indicates that the hardware itself isn't the problem, the problem has to be something to do with the Netflix client in the Apple TV, maybe there is indeed some kind of restriction to the quality of the videos being streamed. For those who always come with the same explanation that is has to do with the quality of the user's connection, there is a major antithesis, that is, the same doesn't happen if you stream Netflix using other hardware, on my iMac it strems in real HD. So does my PS3. My Apple TV 3rd gen, however, degrades so much the video that it is forcing me to stop using it.