Netflix quality HORRID after update

jimpal wrote:

Nah. The same ISP's now give me flawless service on all other ATV apps, except the Netflix one.

Guess who TWC and Comcast see as their biggest threats? Hint: it's not "all other ATV apps".

The best workaround I have is Stream Netflix via airplay from my iPhone or iPad, works great, probably pushing almost 1080p. Unfortunately it defeats the purpose of having an Apple TV. The notion of having issues during prime time viewing is completely false as well. Never have any issues night or day on my mobile devices, just my Apple TV.

Detroitmusicman wrote:

...The notion of having issues during prime time viewing is completely false as well. Never have any issues night or day on my mobile devices, just my Apple TV.

In case Apple techs are reading this, let's try to be logical. The issue is indeed related to prime time. Like you, I have no problems with other devices during prime time, just my Apple TV 3. But I do not have problems with my ATV during non-prime hours. At 10 am on a weekday I can get 5800 kbps no sweat. At 8 pm, good luck getting any HD -- often more like 256 -- and even SD rebuffers, all on a solid, tested 30 mbps cable connection.

As Vandergraff has said very well, the pieces of this puzzle are a Netflix app running on one Apple device which often fails to deliver full bandwidth, especially during peak demand. The solution therefore has to come from one, or more likely both, parties.

I contacted both Apple and Netflix and asked them to look at this discussion. It would help the cause if we can be logical and factual.

-dan

engelgrafik wrote:

When I run the troubleshooting connection "Test" on AppleTV, it usually takes about a minute or two and simply says it's done. How is that useful? Not very. The first time I did it, it said it had trouble connecting and to try again.

I assume that if something is wrong it's reported directly to Apple/Akamai. When I've run those tests it opens an 8Mbps connection to Akamai for about 90 seconds and then says DONE.

I wonder if there is a problem with the AppleTV hardware itself. I honestly can't see how it's a Netflix issue.. unless Netflix is responsible for their software-hardware interface on each device and they introduced a bug or something.

Netflix does appear to be responsible for the clients. That doesn't mean you don't have faulty hardware. A simple test is to play a large (at least 500MB) video from your iTunes instance. You can time the download. If it's reasonably fast you can assume your network interface is good. I get about 300MB/min (40Mbps).

jimpal wrote:

Netflix will fix their flawed ATV app ... You'll see.

So now your position is Netflix can fix their overloaded servers by changing the client?

Well at least you're showing some progress and now you implicitly agree with many of the rest of us.

Being snarky and condescending is just being snarky and condescending. It's not clever or insightful.

DanH wrote:

The issue is indeed related to prime time. Like you, I have no problems with other devices during prime time, just my Apple TV 3. But I do not have problems with my ATV during non-prime hours. At 10 am on a weekday I can get 5800 kbps no sweat.

-dan

You may have to do more extensive testing. I would agree that the issue is probably related to latency/congestion but I see the problem all times of day. Better in the morning but still unacceptably erratic.

@bodosm:

Good point. Just as it is inaccurate to say the problem has no relation to prime time, it would be wrong for me to take a relatively small sample over a few days and claim that it definitely is.

I'll rephrase my report to say that when my ATV is streaming at full "Super HD" it appears to work well during times of low demand, and when it drops to a horribly-low rate, that appears to happen during times of high demand.

The theory I find most credible so far is that the Netflix app and the ATV's software are not properly negotiating maximum achievable bandwidth -- a process that may indeed take place at all demand levels, but may also "break" more easily when demand is high.

-dan

I'm am be logical and factual, I am unable to use Netflix on my Apple TV regardless of the time of day. No need to template the issue if you are having streaming issues during prime-time, not everyone is having the exact same issue you are.

Vandergraff wrote:

I called Apple and described the issue and pointed to this thread. They put me through to a 'senior tech support person' who said they believe this was caused by an update to Netflix App on the Apple TV a couple of weeks ago. In particular how the Netflix Apple TV app is handling the handshake to determine the playback quality. They are getting calls on this and other issues (the latest version of the Netflix App on the Apple TV won't display more than 256 titles in the queue).

As the App comes from Netflix Apple doesn't control if and when it will be updated again - but it sounds like there is some discussion between Apple and Netflix to get the issues fixed.

Vandergraff! Thanks so much for doing this. It's really the only promising news we've seen. It's unfortunate that it sounds like Netflix has yet to acknowledge/admit to the problem on their customer support calls. I'm also really glad to hear that Apple does in fact at least monitor these forums. hopefully word is getting to Netflix that a fix is needed. A similar thing happened to me 2 years ago with MLB.tv on the ATV. It turned out the fix needed to be done on the Apple side and it did get cleared up in around 2 weeks or so. Let's hope Netflix is on the case. thanks again.

Very interesting thread! My wife and I both noticed how poor the Netflix picture seemed on our Apple TV for the past month or so. Definitely something new. Here is our setup:

• Apple TV 2 running software version 6.0. Connected via Ethernet to Apple Airport Extreme router- no wifi involved anywhere

• Airport Extreme connected to web over Comcast 25 Mbps cable. Consistent Speedtest results of 25 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up.

When viewing the Netflix test image multiple times on the ATV, the more common resolution I am seeing is 1050 kbps, but there are frequent and lengthy periods of 750 kbps, 375 kbps (mud), and yikes even 235 kbps (unwatchable).

I shutdown and rebooted all the devices including modem, router, ATV, etc. No help.

When running the Netflix app on my iPad 2, I consistently see 1,750 kbps. I also tried viewing on a Sony BD player and an older Tivo HD, but they don't seem to be able to display the realtime kbps.

Anyhow, I'm hopeful that this has gotten the attention of Apple and Netflix and that this will be fixed soon.

Dave

tried to delete - can't figure out how

Message was edited by: met_fan

GaryJR4 wrote:

jimpal wrote:

Nah. The same ISP's now give me flawless service on all other ATV apps, except the Netflix one.

Guess who TWC and Comcast see as their biggest threats? Hint: it's not "all other ATV apps".

I don't have one of the big cable internet providers - I'm on a private campus network getting 80-90 Mb down. I'm seeing the same Netflix problems as others here, while my ATV works great for all other sources (HBO, Hulu, etc.).

met_fan wrote:

GaryJR4 wrote:

jimpal wrote:

Nah. The same ISP's now give me flawless service on all other ATV apps, except the Netflix one.

Guess who TWC and Comcast see as their biggest threats? Hint: it's not "all other ATV apps".

I don't have one of the big cable internet providers - I'm on a private campus network getting 80-90 Mb down. I'm seeing the same Netflix problems as others here, while my ATV works great for all other sources (HBO, Hulu, etc.).

That contradicts nothing.

Whatever - I'm just saying that there is similar behavior occuring whether one has a major cable company competing with Netflix or a totally different situation.

EVERYBODY READ THIS & MAKE SURE YOU OPEN EVERYTHINGhttp://www.macworld.com/article/2063358/bugs-and-fixes-dealing-with-iphone-flash -low-quality-netflix-and-outlook-junk-issues.html