Q: Netflix quality HORRID after update

Same exact issue on my end, checked the internet speed, rebooted the router, apple tv.

Did test on ipad, mac, and roku, Netflix in HD works great. I have pinpointed the issue to the Netflix app on the apple TV. As the other application on the ATV offer great image quality.

GaryJR4 wrote:

 

jimpal wrote:

 

Now this is amazing! It's 9:00 pm here in Minneapolis (right in prime viewing time) and I am getting 5800 kbps on Example Short 23.976 on my ATV 3. I have done nothing special, but just tried it on a whim, since pretty much giving up on it for the past week and complaining on this thread.

 

Only one data point, I know, but someone seems to have changed something. Of course, it is snowing and getting cold. Could that be it?

"just tried it" for how long?  I can get 5800 for a few minutes at a time too then it goes bad.

Good question, as I know many have seen good performance for only a short time. I was only on for about 10 minutes last evening when it was performing at 5800 kbps. I'll report back if I show this performance for a longer period of time.

Meanwhile, this morning (low Netflix viewing time, of course) I was able to sustain 5800 bps on my ATV 3 and 4300 on my iPad Air. Both have been as low as 235 kbps at various times over the last week. My internet speeds 70 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up.

Looks like Apple Engineering has everything they need as far as bug reports go. They closed mine as a duplicate of another (which is a good thing, and standard practice):

Engineering has determined that your bug report is a duplicate of another issue and will be closed.

The Open bug Apple is sticking with is #15492945, fyi.

I've also been having terribly horrible quality Netflix, mainly during peak hours. Youtube is also horribly slow to load videos (like 30 minutes for a 5 minute video). 

The only way to get HD from either is to run my AppleTV through my Mac Mini's VPN connection.

I use waterroof to create an NAT interface forwarding rule that sends any traffic to the mini through the VPN interface.  Then, the AppleTV router address is manually set to the ip address of the mini. 

Through the VPN, I can get SuperHD no problem and youtube videos load lickity split.  When I switch back to  my regular connection, Netflix and Youtube are horrid once again.

It makes no sense. All of my other Netflix/Youtube connected devices are fine through my standard connection, and the AppleTV is fine taking whatever route to Netflix my VPN is using.

It's almost like there's a piece of broken equipment out there in the bowels of the internet that ditches AppleTV traffic and we're all unlucky enough to get sent through it. 

For this thread ...

http://tinyurl.com/appletvnetflix

@Vandergraff ~ Many thanks to you for your heads up about the Chromecast and speed reference video, both have been super helpful, cutting through the confusion and frustration.

Have been a loyal Apple fan since the first in 1984 and I love the ATV user interface but for now I'm using 2 Chromecasts to get back to pleasurable viewing and it's working out great! (After weeks of frustrating calls/chats/troubleshooting)

This is the power and best of what these forums can offer, A Big Thank you!

I reaaaaalllly am starting to despise apple every updating seems more messed up than the next.

Nexflix has become obsolete blurry no matter what tv setting its on its also a new TV I have.

comcast blames it on apple apple blames it on comcast netflix has no support online check the blurry box and it just is worthless.

Roku here i come

Brunello88 wrote:

 

@Vandergraff ~ Many thanks to you for your heads up about the Chromecast and speed reference video, both have been super helpful, cutting through the confusion and frustration.

 

Have been a loyal Apple fan since the first in 1984 and I love the ATV user interface but for now I'm using 2 Chromecasts to get back to pleasurable viewing and it's working out great! (After weeks of frustrating calls/chats/troubleshooting)

 

This is the power and best of what these forums can offer, A Big Thank you!

Glad it helped.

Tonight on the 'Example Short' from Netflix I get

Apple TV 750 kbps

Chromecast 4300 kbps (actually a bit less than normal - but still Super HD)

Airplay to the Apple TV from an iPad 4300 kbps (seems to be the max I can get on Airplay)

Hopefully we'll get a fixed Netflix app for the Apple TV soon.

I was on the phone last night with an Apple engineer for about an hour. The engineer said that he too had a problem that Netflix on the ATV. He said he too had a problem where the Netflix stream would pause after two seconds and then downgrade to the lowest quality. He said he had Time Warner cable at home. He said the way he resolved that was to call Netflix and they did something to his account that fix the problem. Of course I don't necessarily believe what he says. Just relaying it here as one more tactic where Apple is blaming Netflix. When I challenged it by saying that the problem started with the latest firmware update ... He kept saying that his problem was fixed by calling Netflix.

One thing he did say is that unlike all the other devices AppleTV has a special handshake with Netflix servers. If what he say's true ...  It is quite possible that Comcast and Time Warner on monitoring for that handshake and throttling the speed depending on network loads.

I also pointed to the Apple TV engineer that there is an open bug report and I gave the number that was provided above. He said that did not look like I have bug report number ... and was not able to provide any information on an existing bug.

I'm in the dark here. What is this Example Short 23.976 and how are you guys getting these speeds? If the speeds are from your computer, that shouldn't have anything to do with ATV or Netflix. That would be a provider problem, wouldn't it?

" I am getting 5800 kbps on Example Short 23.976 on my ATV 3."

"

Good question, as I know many have seen good performance for only a short time. I was only on for about 10 minutes last evening when it was performing at 5800 kbps. I'll report back if I show this performance for a longer period of time.

Meanwhile, this morning (low Netflix viewing time, of course) I was able to sustain 5800 bps on my ATV 3 and 4300 on my iPad Air. Both have been as low as 235 kbps at various times over the last week. My internet speeds 70 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up."

I had an AppleTV update waiting to be installed this morning. No indication of what it's for of course. After installing I checked Netflix and it looked like real HD (the same program was mediocre SD last nite). However it looked HD this morning even before I did the update so the real test will come during primetime.

Were you up to date before this or was this a missed update? Version number?

I´m having exact same problem. After I upgraded one of my Appletv´s from 5.3 to 6.0.2, i´m only getting 750 in bitrate wathing Netflix. The second one, which still has 5.3, is giving me SuperHD.

After reading this post yesterday, i tried the 6.1 beta, but the problem still remains there.

BUT, then i tried downgrading from 6.1 beta to 5.3, and Apple is still signing the 5.3, so now I am not back on the old IOS version with great quality. As a temporary solution, u may want to follow the same route untill the problem is solved.

Best regards

Id like to try that but how do you do it. From 6.0.2 to 5.3.