Netflix quality HORRID after update

Another data point: my wifi network works very well. At the same location in my house where the ATV sits, I get over 30 Mbps speed via WiFi on my iPad mini -- nearly as fast as my iMac which is plugged in to the AEBS via ethernet.

If I stream the Netflix test video on the iPad, it runs at 3000. Second later I try the video on my ATV and it runs at very high quality for a few seconds, then rebuffers and runs at 256! Looks like an old Atari game cartridge.

What's odd is that if I stream other Super HD content, such as House of Cards, it looks OK on the ATV, though of course I have no idea what the actual throughput is.

-dan

FWIW, I contacted Netflix today and they said they were receiving lots of complaints on this issue. Sounds like it's now a known issue and on their radar. I wasn't expecting any additional info or a resolution but glad to hear it's on the radar.

DanH - I can see the real-time bandwidth on my router. Both the Example Short and actual titles run at similar low throughput so I am afraid I can confirm empirically that the issue is not limited to the Example Short.

STriola - glad to hear Apple confirms the issue is known about. Hopefully there are a lot of people in Cupertino and Los Gatos using Apple TV's to stream Netflix and the issue will get attention and be fixed.

Other who are reporting 3000 kbps on their iPads - are you running latest Netflix Ap and IOS7? If not you may be limited to 720P streaming and 3000 kbps is the highest you will get. I can see my iPad (slowly) ramping to 5800 kbps - although to be fair I also have a 700 MB file downloading at the same time so it is actually surprising it is getting to the full 5800 kbps.

When I tried earlier the Apple TV was still strugling to get to 1750 kbps (with no other local network activity at the same time)

Yes to latest Netflix app and iOS7 on my iPad mini at 3000. Not sure if the mini (non-Retina) supports 1080.

-dan

Just chiming in as another person experiencing this same problem. Prior to the 6.0.2 update, I could consistently stream Super HD quality Netflix, 100% of the time, no matter what time of day. Ever since the 6.0.2 update, I get Super HD for a few seconds, then an extremely low quality stream, with the Super HD stream never to return. Happens on both regular shows/movies and on the example shorts. Usually restarting the Apple TV fixes the problem at that moment, but it returns again subsequently. I have an Apple TV, with a 50MBps FiOS connection.

More data: this really does seem to be related to time of day and therefore server load or other Interweb bottlenecks. At 10:44 am EST on Monday the test video started out at 3000 and ramped up rapidly to 5800 kbps and stayed there for as long as I kept watching.

Note that I say "related to" because there may well be problems with 6.0.2 and/or Netflix's code that allow the bitrate to deteriorate horribly under load and perhaps drop down to much lower resolution than those conditions require.

-dan

Well, well... so I'm not the only one with this issue either. I'm on my second GEN 3 ATV. Doesn't matter if I connect wirelessly or by ethernet on my ATTUverse... same terrible SD stream... BUT every other HD video on other apps.... trailers, weather channel, NBA/MLB highlights, ESPN, etc.... all look great.

Went over to my brother in laws house who has whole house ATV thru a Crestron/Comcast set up and it works perfectly... likely he has an older ATV with an older OS loaded.

The weird thing is it now is f#@--ng with my Ipad... it too plays the crappy SD...

I've tried a manual DNS server entry, resetting/restarting/new password/restarting the ATTUverse router...

AND NOTHING WORKS to solve the problem!

What did work was disconnecting my ATV and plugging the same wall ethernet cord into the back of the TV and the NETFLIX app works just fine that way.... ***?

I'd like to have the ATV for all the other apps and AIRPLAY that the smart TV won't do.....

DanH wrote:

...

Note that I say "related to" because there may well be problems with 6.0.2 and/or Netflix's code that allow the bitrate to deteriorate horribly under load and perhaps drop down to much lower resolution than those conditions require.

-dan

It's probably a function of congestion which for some people is related to time of day -- for others not so much. I've gotten good results and bad results at all times of day. However my TiVo performance show no time of day sensitivity. It always reports superHD content as running at superHD bit-rates. Some of us have spent entirely too much time testing various clients at various times of day. I see everything from the gig switch that serves my media area to the Netflix IP address the same. The bit-rate is purely client related. ATV bad -- TiVo, PS3 and iPad good. Naturally the iPads are WiFi but they are consistent and consistently outperform my ATV(3,1).

I hear you and agree. But it is making diagnosis more difficult when it works some times and not others. Last night I couldn't get above about 1000 kbps no matter what on my ATV, while the iPad kept chugging along at 3000 steady as a rock. Today the iPad still tops out at 3000 (gotta believe it won't do "Super HD") and the ATV 3 is happy at 5800.

I tried to open a support ticket with Apple via their web site, but their system says my ATV's serial number is registered to a different Apple ID [sigh]. Yes I have two; yes I tried both.

-dan

Spoke with both Apple and Netflix, who fortunately were both somewhat helpful. When home from work, Netflix engineers are going to monitor my connection and try to find out if there are any Netflix server issues causing provision issues to my device... the ATV.

If not there, next step is take my ATV to the Apple store and log in under my account to one of their TVs and see if still occuring... or if their ATV on demo is allowing HD stream to work correctly.. if my ATV works fine there, then next step I guess is talking to ATT Uverse and finding out if there are any unreliable bandwidth issues in my home (even when connecting ATV to ethernet from wall)... but this doesn't seem to make sense as all the other ATV apps in HD seem to work fine....

I still think this is coming from Netflix server farms.. as there was a blog post from September this year describing how their new Super HD streaming would be available to new ISP's and new devices (ATV)....

@biker

My best "troubleshooting" guess is that Netflix won't be able to see any misbehaving on their end and the ATV will be "throttled" at the Apple store. This issue seems independent of any ISP as we have seen this problem stretching across Comcast, ATT, Fios and the fact that people have been reporting no problems with Netflix through Roku, Smart TV, etc. through the same aforemetioned ISP's. Let me know if I am missing something here...

Wellllll, some of the blame is apple, some is netflix.My gut is 80% netflix to blame for this problem.Netflix has allways had issues.With atv updates were not compatable with netflix streaming format.Apple has mine now & will probably reinstall os.Wont cost me anything, just a little time without.

As I posted before, I have been having this same problem. Netflix worked fine before about 11/14/13, then was SD on all three of my AppleTVs for weeks. HBOgo and itunes played in HD on AppleTV, not Netflix. Netflix worked perfectly on my PS3 and on ipads, computers, etc. not on AppleTV.

I called Netflix and Apple today. Apple was no help, they said that it was a problem with the Netflix App and gave me Netflix's number to call. The person at Netflix had me unplug the modem, router, and AppleTVs for more than five minutes. They explicitly said it had to be more than five minutes for some reason. When I plugged everything back in, the problem was resolved. This has been the only time it was worked in weeks. I've attempted almost daily to get it to work to no avail. It has been working for the last two hours. Hopefully it stays that way.

DanH wrote:

... it is making diagnosis more difficult when it works some times and not others.

-dan

I don't see it that way. What makes it difficult to diagnose is the dearth of information about the Netflix algorithms but when every other device outperforms the ATV client it *could* mean that once inside the Netflix CDN cloud Netflix is punishing just the ATV or it could mean that a recent iOS update broke the client (whoever wrote the client could be blamed in that circumstance unless Apple tweaked a framework on the down-low).

I remain inclined not to fault Netflix. They not only have a lot of working clients they even have another/other working iOS 7 client(s).