Q: Netflix quality HORRID after update

I called Netflix about this and they gave me a fix that appears to be working for me so far.  They told me to go to my account page and change my playback settings from automatic to high.  I had to log out of netflix, unplug my apple tv, and unplug my tv for a minute and then replug everything.  The picture looks a lot better so far.  Fingers crossed that this is a permanent fix.

Glad that's working for you. I had already done that with no increase in quality. It will be interesting if it helps others though.

lfr23 wrote:

 

I called Netflix about this and they gave me a fix that appears to be working for me so far.  They told me to go to my account page and change my playback settings from automatic to high.  The picture looks a lot better so far.  Fingers crossed that this is a permanent fix.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but Netflix told me to set playback from High to Automatic. There is no fix on our end right now. They're just trying to calm down users at this point. What's so difficult to troublehshoot is that fact that it works for some of us for a period of time and then it stops working.

I am convinced that the problem is a combination between the way Netflix streams HD content to the Apple TV and the Apple TV software in general. The fact that Netflix is now sending SuperHD content to everybody may have made the whole mess even worse.

Those Netflix customer service reps don't know what's going on behind the scenes. Those are people like you and me who simply work from home anywhere in the country. They are neither Netflix technicians, nor are they in any way trained to interact with customers in a polite and professional way (the moment they have to leave their pre-written cut-and-paste sentences and come up with an answer themselves, they're lost and more often than not strike a tone that I find insulting.)

It's an uphill battle.

I just got off the phone with Netflix, and they were very helpful and knowledgable about tips situation.  No, my issue is not fixed, but they added my ticket to their increasing list and forwarded it to their engineering team.  Enough noise leads to a patch.  I do know that Apple writes the app for the APTV, which is why I'm calling them now, too.

zachfishman wrote:

 

I do know that Apple writes the app for the APTV, which is why I'm calling them now, too.

How do you know that?

Thank you to all you guys sacrificing your own time to call Netflix/Apple regarding this matter. Even though they won't have a fix, the more complaints they get the more pressure they will put on their engineers to get a patch/fix out sooner.

Playing older non-super HD material seems to work better.  Watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia new stuff looks horrible, pixelated, ect, older non-hd stuff streams pretty well. 

Same for Mythbusters.

I'm actually having issues on my PS3 now as well. It's not quite as bad as the ATV but getting ridiculous. Gotta be netflix. The other streaming videos are fine.

I'm rather curious why people rely on Apple TV for linking to Netflix since all modern TVs I've come across seem to have the ability to do it themselves.

I've got Apple TV primarily to enable mirroring on an iPad without having a cable trailing all over the floor. Expensive for a remote, but worth it in this case. After a hiccup after installing it which I brought to this thread, and got useful advice, it's working fine for that, as well as for various other things I hastily tested for. (It turns out that a big green note showing on screen when it wasn't making was Apple's way of telling me I needed to plug int into a computer and ask iTunes to restore the factory settings and update them. Too subtle for me...)

Kevin Mole wrote:

 

I'm rather curious why people rely on Apple TV for linking to Netflix since all modern TVs I've come across seem to have the ability to do it themselves.

If you have a Home Theater setup with an AV Receiver to provide surround sound to your system you use a connected Apple TV (or Roku, etc) to link to Netflix. This usually provides greatly improved sound over what you can get from a direct Netflix connection to your TV and its usually inferior sound system. In my case, this has worked beautifully for over three years. Not ready to move backward because of Netflix's current mess.

Some people have older TVs you know. And some use a home theater setup rather than crummy TV speakers.

However, given the issues with the ATV and Netflix I am now using my Chromcast which is actually pretty cool.

Kevin Mole wrote:

 

I'm rather curious why people rely on Apple TV for linking to Netflix since all modern TVs I've come across seem to have the ability to do it themselves.

I prefer navigation and menu design of the Apple TV and its apps over any other streaming device I have come across so far.

Kevin Mole wrote:

 

I'm rather curious why people rely on Apple TV for linking to Netflix since all modern TVs I've come across seem to have the ability to do it themselves.

The question would be why would anyone use an embedded TV application.  As previously noted the PS3 became the most popular client at the beginning of this year.  That's probably still true and most Netflix streaming subscribers probably have something more capable than their "TV" to be a client.

Many people like the ATV UI and may very well prefer the Apple version over the pre-cinema or cinema UI.  Personally I prefer the cineman UI on my TiVo and since it has no quality issues it's my primary client (the iPad is my portable client).

At least in my case, the netfliix app in my Samsung tv stinks. It freezes if you play something with multiple episodes, super HD is not supported, and auto motion plus doesn't work.

To bodosom:

I was informed by the Netflix tech that a Apple writes the APTV app.