Q: Netflix quality HORRID after update

It's great that people are looking for workarounds, but honestly, none of that should even be necessary... it should just work.  8 days ago this thread had 50,000 views: now it's almost 65,000 views.  Clearly there's a bigger problem here!

If you haven't yet reported this to Netflix, please hit the Netflix HELP page (under your account name on the website) and email or live-chat them your problem + the link to this thread!

Kirby

iPhone 4s - iOS 6.1.3 - Netflix version 5.1.1 - 1750 kbps, 720x480, 32:27 (TC 4th Gen, 802.11n 2.4G-N)

iPad - iOS 7.0.4 (MC 916LL/A) - Netflix version 5.1.1 - 3000 kbps, 1280 x 720, 1:1 (TC 4th gen, 802.11n 5G-N)

ATV3 - 6.0.2 - Netflix version (?) - 4300-5800kbps - 1920x1080, 1:1 (Ethernet - VZ FIOS, 15/5)

Changing dns servers is utterly pointless unless the request resolves differently and it very very rarely does.  You can test it by hand whenever someone suggests you do this and see that it doesn't result in any difference and even when it does it still usually doesn't matter.

Different devices are served by different CDN's depending on your ISP and your location - just because you have (as an example) Comcast doesn't mean you'll get served by the same CDN's or even servers that I do from Minnesota using Comcast.  It's the cloud dude!

This thread may be 72 pages but it's quicker to read them than it is to cover the same ground everyone else already has.  Bottom line, there is nothing you can do to improve the situation except to complain repeatedly, publicly and loudly to Netflix along with everyone else.

But, feel free to prove me wrong - I'd rather be wrong and see it fixed.

I contacted Netflix and went through a number of steps. Here is what their customer support member reported they saw as the problem.

Note: Charter is my ISP here in the southeast US.

Netflix (name redacted)

Hey Joshua, did some checks on this for you and what I'm seeing here that we are currently receive only 2.32 mbps from Charter to our servers and we require 5.0 mbps in order to stream in HD. Currently with what you are receiving you are able to stream in good quality especially on sites like Amazon, youtube as Netflix requires a higher bandwidth than most sites. What you can check on as well on google is Charter throttling Netflix as we have received reports that customers not getting required speed as the speed test they ran suggest. I know that this is a bummer but once you reach out to Charter they can give you a boast so that we will be able to send good quality streams to you, as we depend highly on your ISP.

JoshMac wrote:

I see a lot of people trying to reroute their web traffic and see where it's going. Honestly, that's seems like a lot of work with little benefit.

I first read of this issue in November on AVS.  I started looking at the network traffic based on some comments about bandwidth measurements.  Then I got curious and spent a  bit of time poking around.  I wasn't really trying to find a fix the ATV problem I was just fiddling out of idle curiosity.

Maybe it is just Netflix can't support their userbase currently. I think the CDN is a red herring though.

I finally determined that at my node on Time Warner it's easy to predict Netflix quality.  If it's not a ATV and there are no congestion issues I get device-maximum performance no matter which CDN I'm using.  That's 5.8Mbps on a PS3 or TiVo, 3Mbps on my laptop, 4.3Mbps on my iPad, 3Mbps on my iPad mini and 1750Kbps on my my Nexus 5 Android phone.

If it's the ATV and I'm not connect to Limelight's network I get between 235Kbps to 1050Kbps.  If the ATV connects to Limelight I get 5.8Mbps (superHD).

Given the facts at hand it's hard to explain Netflix being overloaded or that the CDN is irrelevant to the ATV.  The CDN certainly does appear to be irrelevant to other clients.

I think using different DNS servers or VPNs would result in connecting to a different CDN.

The only reason a particular DNS resolver would matter is if it was broken.  I can't imagine that Netflix is so careless or foolish that they'd source the stream based on where the DNS query originated.  They know your IP address so presumably they're doing IP based geolocation.  It's weak but probably gets them in the right region of the US 75% of the time.

You got a standard Customer Care answer - look here - http://ispspeedindex.netflix.com/usa

Charter is at 2.32 Mbps.

It makes no difference on what you are individually getting from Charter.

BTW, I am on FIOS which is lower (at 2.2) and see my post about speeds and quality.

JoshMac wrote:

 

I contacted Netflix and went through a number of steps. Here is what their customer support member reported they saw as the problem.

As might be expected that's nonsense unless all of your Netflix clients are reporting low data rates.  Even if they are that number just happens to be the Charter monthly average on the last ISP rankings report and Charter is number five on the national list (four if you discard Google which skews the numbers).

USA  ISP Speed Index

Message was edited by: bodosom because unintentional redundancy

I found this thread after suffering extremely poor netflix quality over the past many weeks.  In my case it wasn't just my apple tv, but all playback devices in my home.  It was only with certain tv shows, others were fine.  The same bad quality shows looked great on my laptop at work.  My ISP is Charter Communciations.  Changing my DNS on my airport extreme to Google's DNS services fixed my problem right away. 

mcewen98 wrote:

Changing my DNS on my airport extreme to Google's DNS services fixed my problem right away. 

That was a coincidence.

I did the same and it cleared up for a few hours but now is back to the same crummy quality

Ah okay. Well I contacted Charter like Netflix instructed. About as helpful as one might imagine. They wanted to send a tech to my home. I don't see a point in this and them being able to do anything other than what everyone else has tried. Anyone disagree with this and think it's worth it for their tech to come?

Very frustrating this issue goes unresolved for so long.

Do your other devices (not the ATV3) work properly with Netflix? Do your speedtest/latency measurements seem satisfactory to you?

Using my 2010 MBP and ifTop (1.0) with Example Short 23.976

=> ipv4_1.lagg0.c036.atl001.ix.nflxvideo.net                                  78.4kb  29.5kb  62.1kb

                 <=                                                                            3.32Mb  1.49Mb  3.33Mb

=> ipv4_1.lagg0.c056.atl001.ix.nflxvideo.net  

Message was edited by: Loner T

Just found this thread.  Having the same problems as all. Only streaming on netflix affected. Airplay is fine, had several calls into apple and even got them to give me a new Apple TV under warrantee. Did not change a thing, switched to Ethernet and get 17 Mbps wifi or Ethernet, had time warner come out and check everything which of course was fine and netflix call of course blamed my internet service provider.   So new Apple TV did nots change, no issues streaming through my bluray or computer.  Clearly this is an apple problem and it needs to be fixed! 

I just had TWC out to my house yesterday.  All tested just fine.  He was in agreement with me that this has to be something Netflix has changed.

My Ipad gets 4.3Mbps at 1920x1080.  ATV-3 between 235kbps and 3000.  The majority of the time under 2000.

I had my third useless chat with NetFlex yesterday.  It would be nice to get them to admit that there may be an issue with their App on the ATV.

Part of my very fusterating conversation:

Netflix Kaelani

OK so I do see that you chatted in a few times about this. I also see in the notes that they contacted our engineering team about this and they noticed fluctuations in your internet speed. Did you ever get in contact with your ISP?

You

Yes, they have tested the line, all is good. So why does my iPad stream at 4300, steady, if there are ISP fluctuatioins?

Netflix Kaelani

  Because it is a less internet intensive device. Your Apple TV is way, way more internet intensive than this iPad.

Where do these people get their info?

How about this one when I asked about who created the NetFlex application for the ATV.

Netflix Kaelani

We did not create that application, it's totally down to Apple to not only install the application in their device, but also design the interface and how it works.

You

Really, the Netflix application is designed by Apple?

Netflix Kaelani

Yes, that is correct.

##############

I am just making an assumption, but I am pretty sure Apple did not write the Netflix App.  Am I mistaken?  I would think that Apple only verifies that the application is compatible with the ATV. But how the CDN's are chosen and when it decides to downgrade the stream, this all must be in control of Netflix.

Anyway, I also put in feedback to the Apple.com/feedback.   Hope everyone does also.  Perhaps Apple will work with Netflix and get this fixed at some point.

Tried watching Damages tonight...as bad a resolution as I've seen and 10 buffering pauses in first 15 minutes. Stopped the show and cancelled Netflix. I will continue to monitor this thread, but I'm done with the frustration while this problem persists.