Netflix quality HORRID after update

The annoying thing for me is that I don't patronise Netflix, and have no intention of doing so, so if the update that messed things up was anything to do with that it was pointless for me. (And if I did want Netflix, it's a Smart TV, and I don't need Apple TV to get into the act anyway.)

Shakespeare got it right - "Striving to better oft we mar what's well."

I've been looking through the guide to restoring an Apple TV that Urban Shocker gave a link to, and I'm a bit puzzled. I hope maybe someone might be able to advise.

The piece starts off "on Apple TV, choose Settings>General>Reset and then click Restore". That sounds like talking about a computer, I can't see how I can do that kind of thing with a little black box with an HDMI cable plugged into a TV set with a remote control with two buttons.

I'm not in the house where the errant Apple TV and its TV set are, so I can't play around with seeing if I can do stuff, but if anybody could suggest what I could try I'd be grateful.

There is an alternative suggestion given involving a mini USB cable, which I'd need to get hold of, but if possible I'd sooner use the simple reset approach given.

Yeah, it's a little confusing, they're referring to an Apple TV that is not completely hosed, in which "Settings > General > Reset and then click Restore" is a valid approach. Below that are the instructions for an Apple TV that is displaying the picture with the USB cable.

Sorry all, I know we're way off topic here, I won't respond to this again in this thread.

I just had a productive chat with a Netflix customer care representative, who was in constant contact with his tech department during our chat.

It was pretty much mentioned on this thread already, but I'll say it again - stop messing with your Apple TV's, stop rolling back software, stop messing with DNS servers - it won't change anything.

I wouldn't say my conversation with this rep was an official statement from Netflix, but this is what he pretty much said at the end:

Netflix's recent changes behind the scenes (the nationwide SuperHD rollout - among other things) are most likely causing these recent problems with the Netflix app on Apple TV (and it won't matter which software version you are on.)

We tested setting the playback settings online in my netflix.com account to "medium" (which doesn't allow an HD stream) and with those settings my Apple TV would at least stream at 640x480 (1050 kbps). Before, when playback speed in my account was set to "HD", I was constantly downgraded to 320x240 (235 kbps). Needless to say - all my other devices stream Netflix at the highest possible quality for each device (720p for Macs and 720p for iPhones and iPads). - After that test the tech department concluded that it should not be too hard for them to fix this issue behind the scenes. I can hardly believe I was the first one to have them do that test - so take their comment with a grain of salt.

What the Netflix rep did say repeatedly was this - this problem will be fixed soon.

I reminded him that Apple sold 13 million Apple TVs, while Roku only sold 5 million units and he assured me that they were well aware of that.

So there you have it. All we can do at this point is wait. It also won't hurt to keep calling Netflix customer support. The more they hear from users, the faster it might move up their priority list.

I hate to be "Debbie Downer" but I wouldn't trust that a Netflix frontline CSR is telling the truth when he/she says it's going to be fixed soon. I've been involved in live support and there are too many lazy reps who will say anything to get a customer off the phone or chat. It's very easy to say "The fix is already in the works and you should have it soon..." because that gets rid of people and makes them happy until they realize the CSR is full of it.

Oh, I hope that a fix is forthcoming, but I'll trust nothing but my own eyes to prove that the problem has been fixed.

Middle Aged Hack wrote:

I hate to be "Debbie Downer" but I wouldn't trust that a Netflix frontline CSR is telling the truth when he/she says it's going to be fixed soon. I've been involved in live support and there are too many lazy reps who will say anything to get a customer off the phone or chat. It's very easy to say "The fix is already in the works and you should have it soon..." because that gets rid of people and makes them happy until they realize the CSR is full of it.

Oh, I hope that a fix is forthcoming, but I'll trust nothing but my own eyes to prove that the problem has been fixed.

You are absolutely right - I should have added "grain of salt" to everything he said. That's why I mentioned - keep calling Netflix. This fix is up to them.

Update. 7:00 pm eastern. Tried to watch Delocated which is HD.

Quality is still lousy. What has it been? Four weeks now?

DustyStorm wrote:

. . . About to disconnect this Apple TV and pitch it in the trash.

I wish it were that simple. Prime time here in Minneapolis, and I decided to see how Netflix works on my Oppo BluRay player. Just as bad as on my Apple TV. A bit subjective because for some reason the Oppo only displays the Netflix picture and not the bitrate. Also reminds me how much I prefer the clear Netflix interface on the ATV to that on the Oppo. 70 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up, so it's not my internet speed. In my mind it reinforces the fact that this problem is Netflix's to fix.

Instead of throwing away my Apple TV I am considering cancelling Netflix streaming if this doesn't clear up soon. Easy for me since I have always used the Netflix app on the ATV only a small amount of the time, and use the rest of the apps more.

jimpal wrote:

DustyStorm wrote:

. . . About to disconnect this Apple TV and pitch it in the trash.

I wish it were that simple. Prime time here in Minneapolis, and I decided to see how Netflix works on my Oppo BluRay player. Just as bad as on my Apple TV. A bit subjective because for some reason the Oppo only displays the Netflix picture and not the bitrate. Also reminds me how much I prefer the clear Netflix interface on the ATV to that on the Oppo. 70 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up, so it's not my internet speed. In my mind it reinforces the fact that this problem is Netflix's to fix.

Instead of throwing away my Apple TV I am considering cancelling Netflix streaming if this doesn't clear up soon. Easy for me since I have always used the Netflix app on the ATV only a small amount of the time, and use the rest of the apps more.

It sounds like the Oppo doesn't get the 'adaptive streams' that most recent Netflix players get. It is probably getting an older non-adaptive 720P stream (similar to my Blu-Ray player). Only players that get the adaptive stream will display the bit rate on Example Short.

As I have said before there are some seeing playback problems on multiple platforms and in this case they probably have different Netflix issues than people who only have problems on the Apple TV starting 4 weeks ago (November 11th for me).

My old (non-adaptive streaming) Blu-Ray player still happily starts downloading Netflix at 16 Mbps until it fills its buffer and plays at its highest video quality (it has the old 4 bars + HD). My Chromecast and Rojus get the highest quality from Netflix. Only the Apple TV has issues and only since November 11th......

Reporting in Captain:

Another sad, prime time weekend night of nothing but 240p video on anything I watch on Netflix - Apple TV.

This is r3tarded and can't believe it's going to almost be an entire month of this soon. You reading this Netflix software engineers?

That is all, over and out.

I'm glad I found this thread - I've been pulling my hair out trying to solve this problem. I even tried rolling back to 5.3 and this didn't help, either. I've got 75MB internet speeds, but anything I want to watch on Netflix might as well be through a composite cable it's so fuzzy. This *****. Fix it, please!

I just finished a chat session with a Netflix rep who asked me to power down my Apple TV, and then sign out and sign back in to Netflix. Neither fixed the issue with the picutre quality (which is the same as most of you are experiencing).

He then said that they've seen this problem a lot recently, and that it only seems to affect users who have Comcast as their ISP and use Apple TV to watch Netflix. He said that it is a known issue, and that they are working on it.

I can confirm I am a Comcast user & I use ATV to watch Netflix. Rats.

bstratton wrote:

I just finished a chat session with a Netflix rep who asked me to power down my Apple TV, and then sign out and sign back in to Netflix. Neither fixed the issue with the picutre quality (which is the same as most of you are experiencing).

He then said that they've seen this problem a lot recently, and that it only seems to affect users who have Comcast as their ISP and use Apple TV to watch Netflix. He said that it is a known issue, and that they are working on it.

There are many people in this thread who see the '4 week old Netflix Apple TV' issue with many different ISPs.

Likewise there are people seeing Netflix issues that are player independant on many ISPs.

However for us with the '4 week old Netflix Apple TV' issue our other devices (Chromecast, Rokus, PS3s, Blu-Ray player etc) continue to work great and yes in my case I am on Comcast.

I hope both issues get resolved but let's be careful not to mix them.