Netflix quality HORRID after update

Interesting couple-of-months old article from September 27 "Inquisitr" I found this evening, entitled "Netflix Super HD Streaming Now For All, But Does Your ISP Support it?"

See: http://tinyurl.com/k55vuh8

One interesting quote: "some users might only see the new super high quality video during off-peak hours, if at all." Another interesting quote: "However, some popular ISP's, like Time Warner Cable and Comcast rank rather low [speed] and may leave Netflix customers watching their movies in a grainy, lower-quality stream."

With the usual caution about what one reads on the net, it does make me wonder if in my case the problem results from a feud between Netflix and Comcast, and the resulting slow (throttled) stream not handled well on my ATV.

I realize many of you are well aware of all this, but thought the article might be of interest to others, like me, who are not.

I asked before - how do you get measurements of the ATC, Chromecast, etc.?

TIA

"ATV example short: starts at 4800 kbps and 1080p but after 4 seconds rebuffers and drops to 375 kbps and 384x288. It will generally stay at this low res level with occasional short term bumps.

Chromecast example short: starts at 235 kbps and steadily ramps up to 1750 in about 10 seconds and then 4300 kbps and finally 5800 kbps in another 10 secs where it remains."

Spent another hour on the phone last night between two different Netflix people and a SUPER helpful Apple Tech rep, possibly one of the best phone experiences with anybody, thanks ANA!

Call One to Netlfix, guy didn't know of a problem read through my notes, said last thing to do was to bypass router and plug ATV directly to Modem. More discussion about the problem, essentially said i would not be renewing my streaming account if I can't get something that resembles HD as there are MANY other companies eger to take my money, guy offered a free month, I took it and said hopefully this will be resolved by then, otherwise I'm gone. That gives until Jan 25 to fix it. If they can't figure it out by then I'm definitely gone.

Went off to plug ATV directly to Modem, Had some trouble getting this to work, called Apple Support, figured out I was doing something silly, not letting the modem power up all the way before plugging ATV back in which prevented IP address assignment. Got it working, big surprise, no difference. Apple Rep suggested asking Netflix to 'Reset Access to Netflix Server' thanked her, went back to Netflix.

Call Two to Netflix, same spiel to different person, read all notes, added that non-HD material looks mostly ok, Super HD material looks like poo, started playing a Super HD movie for the person so engineers could watch stream, same story as before, the data rate is fluctuating all over the place, about 15min total waiting on hold and they say it's the Apple TV's problem, I begin the same conversation again about how EVERYTHING ELSE HD LOOKS GREAT, AND EVERY OTHER DEVICE WORKS GREAT WITH NETFLIX.

Yes, I was talking loudly, letting the person know I was simply frustrated. She understood, I calmed down, asked if it were possible to reset access to the netflix server like the Apple rep suggested, she said I could log out and back in, but every show might come from a different server and so that really doens't do anything, I asked if we could find someone that knows how to do that, she said "I'm the end of the line, there is nobody else" I know...there's always somebody else. Asked again how to reset access, she said she can't, nor would she ask the engineers if it was doable, I'm ****** again, but now at her.

Kindly inform her I will keep calling with the problem, and if not fixed soon will no longer be a netflix customer.

Everybody keep calling. They'll realize they have to fix this sooner or later. 🙂

And it's been answered before. On Netflix, find and view "Example Short 23.976".

Like I said I will return with update, for me changing the streaming settings worked...for awhile. The. The quality slipped below SD and back. I logged back into netflix_com and changed it to AUTO. It WORKED! Nice HD picture watching a movie...for an hour. Seems to be a temporary fix only.

Wow, this is a long thread going here. Wanted to post my findings so far. Began noticing the extremely poor quality on my ATV3 a few weeks ago. I think someone a few pages back noted a date around the first half of November. That sounds about right.

Anyway, I am completely convinced it is a Netflix problem. I found the Example Short movie and first tried it on the ATV3 and got the dreaded 235 kbps stream. Just aweful. I've since called Netflix three times and chatted with them online once. Per Netflix's many suggestions, here's what I've done to date:

The same issue is presenting itself on both my ATVs (ATV2 and ATV3), my iPhone, via web browser on my Macbook Pro, and via web browser on a Dell Windows 7 laptop. I've reset all devices (resetting ATVs, uninstalling NF app on iPhone, reinstalled Silverlight on laptops). Unplugged modem, router, and ATV all at once, waited, then sequentially plugged them all back in w/ time for each device to get properly online before pluggin in the next. I've signed out and back in again on all devices. I've changed my video quality settings in Netflix back and forth from High to Auto to High to Auto and finally back to High. Nothing has worked. My ISP is Comcast where I get 25 mbps downstream. That last NF rep also suggested I check if Comcast is throttling my connection. OK, good idea, I thought. I ran the 8-minute long "Glasnost" test twice. First, by itself, and then a second time, with a Netflix movie running in the background. Both results were the same: no throttling.

So for me, the issue is present on multiple devices, so it's not Apple's problem or limited to just my ATVs, and my ISP is fast and not throttling my connection. This is a Netflix issue. Somehow they are having issues with their network and only they can fix it. Now, depending on the time of day (early morning) I can sometimes get up to the 760 kbps or 1500 kbps stream. But it does not last long. I used to have no issues whatsoever getting excellent picture quality at all hours of the day to my ATV. Now, I haven't watched Netflix in about a month cause it's useless.

Anyway, that's where I stand. Still waiting...

skywlkrsnd wrote:

it's not Apple's problem or limited to just my ATVs, and my ISP is fast and not throttling my connection. This is a Netflix issue.

You assume this since you do not have Chromecast or Roku where so many people have no problem?

Thank you for a thorough report. Unfortunately, your problem is slightly but signifcantly different than the one which started this discussion. You experience bad throughput on all your devices, which would normally indicate a network problem in your house (or ISP issues).

What makes this hard to pin down is that any of the known causes of lousy Netflix streaming can come and go while testing. Those variables include time of day, ISP bandwidth or throttling issues, Internet congestion, DNS problems, WiFi interference and software/firmware bugs.

Taking all of that into account and trying to make an intelligent guess based on it and my own testing, it looks to me like a problem with the Netflix app on the Apple TV. Whether this requires a fix from Apple, Netflix, or both I don't know.

In summary: NF streaming on all of my other devices is good to excellent even when it is terrible on my ATV. Network testing done during times of lousy ATV streaming reveals no bottlenecks (average 30 mbps even over WiFi). ATV quality problems cropped up around the time Netflix changed its Super HD interface (Nov. 11). These problems tend to show up more during prime time, but also sometimes during non-prime.

Hope this helps.

-dan

skywlkrsnd wrote:

...So for me, the issue is present on multiple devices, so it's not Apple's problem or limited to just my ATVs, and my ISP is fast and not throttling my connection. This is a Netflix issue. Somehow they are having issues with their network and only they can fix it. Now, depending on the time of day (early morning) I can sometimes get up to the 760 kbps or 1500 kbps stream. But it does not last long. I used to have no issues whatsoever getting excellent picture quality at all hours of the day to my ATV. Now, I haven't watched Netflix in about a month cause it's useless.

Anyway, that's where I stand. Still waiting...

Rick Carlton wrote:

I asked before - how do you get measurements of the ATC, Chromecast, etc.?

Netflix has a variety of test videos nominally intended for "partners". On some clients the clip "Example Short 23.967" will display bit-rate, resolution and pixel aspect ratio.

There are multiple clips with similar titles. You want: movieid=70136810. It should be the first one returned when searching for

Example Short 23.967

Dan - You're right, I'm only reporting my issues that I've experienced in my house. What I did not say (because I actually forgot about it) is that yesterday I was at my Dad's house in the afternoon and did a test again using my iPhone. Different ISP; he has U-Verse at12 mbps down. I wasn't sure what to expect. When I ran the Example Short, I got the same 245 kbps stream. Ugh.

And to Gary - You're right, I'm not taking into consideration any Rokus or Chromecasts. I can't comment on those as I don't have them. But you're right, many people who have those don't have the same NF issue. However, many of them do. (AVS has a thread about this.) Just like there are people with ATVs where Netflix is behaving just fine, but many, many that are having issues (hence this thread).

I think the issue somehow seems to be more prevalent on ATVs, but I don't know if that's real statistics or just perception, but I still think the underlying issue is at Netflix.

I have an Ipod touch fifth-generation, an iPhone 5S, a Sony Blu-ray player with built-in Wi-Fi, and then seven-year-old desktop computer. They all stream HD. I just purchased an Apple TV so I could stream Netflix predominantly because my Sony interface was a bit clunky.

The Apple TV is the only one that doesn't stream HD. Does that sound like a Netflix problem to any of you?

Yes, it does, because a likely culprit is the Netflix software that was pushed to the Apple TV around the middle of November. Some say Apple coded that software, but others say Netflix did, so perhaps they need to put their heads together to sort it out.

JJ_man wrote:

I have an Ipod touch fifth-generation, an iPhone 5S, a Sony Blu-ray player with built-in Wi-Fi, and then seven-year-old desktop computer. They all stream HD. I just purchased an Apple TV so I could stream Netflix predominantly because my Sony interface was a bit clunky.

The Apple TV is the only one that doesn't stream HD. Does that sound like a Netflix problem to any of you?

Last night my iPad Air was worse (stuck at 320 res) than my ATV2 (512), but neither gave me HD on Netflix while the Roku did.

The problems are worse during primetime but I thought I'd test daytime results as well. Just now the iPad Air was better, making it to SD but not HD, the ATV2 worked its way up to HD but took at least a minute to get there, while the Roku got there within 10-15 seconds, as did the Netflix website via Firefox.

Oh I forgot to mention I couldn't stream anything high-definition with AppleTV. That goes for Vimeo, Yahoo screen, and my iTunes music videos .

skywlkrsnd wrote:

I think the issue somehow seems to be more prevalent on ATVs, but I don't know if that's real statistics or just perception, but I still think the underlying issue is at Netflix.

It neither statistics or a perception. It's a fact. This thread is about the fact that it's a recent change. It's a new problem. I don't know what "the underlying issue is at Netflix" means but for more than person (and that's all it takes) the problem is clearly a software issue uniqe to the ATV3. Either Apple or Netflix could be at fault.

Presumably almost anyone posting here can run Netflix on a computer if they want to make a comparison.