Q: Netflix quality HORRID after update

I agree. Like you, I have had excellent experience with my Apple TV's over the years, including Netflix. Looks like we will just have to see what Apple and/or Netflix does about this mysterious problem. Meanwhile my ATV's continue to do an excellent job on all but Netflix.

kmgiants wrote:

 

So I encourage everyone to contact both apple and netflix and implore them to read (or even acknowledge the existence of) this thread and maybe eventually one or both will look into the issue. 

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.

This does seem to make sense. As I said yesterday the fact that Netflix Airplay works does indeed point to the Netflix Apple TV app.

They also confirmed they do monitor active threads in the forums - but obviously don't participate.

I would encourage others to continue to call Apple and Netflix and post here. The more feedback they get the more chance we'll see a quicker fix.

I have to say my first interaction with Apple Tech support was very positive.

I found the Chromecast to the best for Neflix HD right now. I would recommend anybody who is struggling with the Apple TV to spend $35 and get one of the little doggles. I'm not a huge fan of having multiple environments in my house but for being so cheap I thought it was worth it. Until Apple and Netflix can get it sorted out it was a decent stop gap measured.

Right now im airplaying from my imac to atv until things get sorted out.Does anybody know why i cant airplay in 1080p only 720p. I have osx 10.9. By the way netflix doesnt work that great on mac either in prime time.

ericfromin wrote:

 

Right now im airplaying from my imac to atv until things get sorted out.Does anybody know why i cant airplay in 1080p only 720p. I have osx 10.9. By the way netflix doesnt work that great on mac either in prime time.

Not sure about mac - but only Windows 8 gets the Netflix 1080P streams. Windows 7 and earlier only get 720P from Netlix.

AMaench wrote:

 

I found the Chromecast to the best for Neflix HD right now. I would recommend anybody who is struggling with the Apple TV to spend $35 and get one of the little doggles. I'm not a huge fan of having multiple environments in my house but for being so cheap I thought it was worth it. Until Apple and Netflix can get it sorted out it was a decent stop gap measured.

Well I AM a big fan of multiple devices because of situations like this.  Chromecast 29.99 on Amazon right now.

jimpal wrote:

 

 

I define Netflix overload whenever the picture gets crummy, such as 235 kbps last evening.

So as one might expect your definition is unrelated to anything but your immediate experience. I think most of what I've said about this is on the AVS thread but yes I believe a recent ATV change has made the ATV handle network latency and or congestion poorly.  However you can't reasonably say Netflix is overloaded when the problem we're talking about here and in the AVS thread only affects one device.

I regularly (i.e. at all times of day and with various content) get superHD on  other devices.

I rarely (i.e. at all times of day and with various content) get even HD on my ATV3.

bodosom wrote:

 

jimpal wrote:

 

 

I define Netflix overload whenever the picture gets crummy, such as 235 kbps last evening.

So as one might expect your definition is unrelated to anything but your immediate experience. . . 

Of course, what else matters? This thread and others show this affects more than just my device. Common sense tells us that Netflix has a greater load in the evening than in the morning. Now Netflix and Apple need to work out the flaw in the app Netflix prepared to fix the problem this causes.

In this whole thread, the one who has it right is Vandergraff. His call to Apple (described above) provides the key to this problem. Netflix prepared the app used on Apple TV and iPads, as is always the case, and it is deficient. Netflix, in my call to them today, didn't own up to it, but as Vandergraff says, Apple did.

It's always fun to bash Apple, but once again I am confident they will see that Netflix puts this right.

How do you measure the ATV speed?

Please fix this problem.

I have 57.74 Mb down....

http://www.speedtest.net/result/3136103396.png

...and the Netflix stream on my AppleTV looks like crap 24x7 now.  It was great before.  How many pages does this thread need to reach before it gets fixed?

Rick Carlton wrote:

 

How do you measure the ATV speed?

Read Vandergraff's post on page 1 of this thread. It's the third one down from the top.

There is a few things going on since the update. 1. No longer displaying 1080P, 2. the handshake with HDMI is no longer stable as it used to be. I have had to restore back to factory settings, just to get it working again. If you try to set to video to 1080P in the audio/video, you get a blank screen and can't retrieive the picture to set it back to 720P which it seems to like. I feel like my 3rd gen is now 2nd gen. APPLE WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!

Not just Breaking Bad... it's everything. I tried watching Red Dawn last night which just came out and is not in My List on Netflix.com so I wasn't able to compare to my TiVo account's Netflix service which doesn't allow you to add anything to your My List.

However, I *did* have The Dictator (the newer one from Sacha Baron Cohen) in My List. I played that on my AppleTV and it played, just like Red Dawn, horribly after about 5 to 10 seconds. Then I switched to my TiVo. When I played The Dictator on my TiVo's Netflix account, the quality was PERFECT. I went back to my AppleTV and tried playing The Dictator there... and once again, it went to horrible picture quality.

I have my AppleTV connected via *ethernet* to my Apple Extreme router which is connected via ethernet to an Arris cable modem provided by Comcast. I have their Blast service which is 50mpbs and up.

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 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.

jimpal wrote:

Of course, what else matters?

The truth.  Your point appears to remain that Netflix is overloaded.  That's obviously not true.  What is true is that at my house only the ATV is having consitent issues.  Not the TiVo, not the PS3 and not the iPads.  And the conclusions you agree with were noted elsewhere some time ago.

Netflix provides the clients but Apple provides the "Frameworks".  Netflix might have broken something or Apple might have broken something.  But the point is:

The ATV3 and only the ATV3 recently went from performing as expected to performing poorly in the same environment as other devices that continue to perform perfectly.

It's more likely that ISPs are colluding to make Apple+Netflix look bad than Netflix has load problems that exactly track ATV3 usage.