Q: Netflix quality HORRID after update

3000kbps was reported from my iPhone and ATV stream as well. At least there's a minor workaround!

I'm on brighthouse networks from FL so it doesn't seem to be ISP related.

Suffering like the rest of you now for weeks.  Thought I would post and hopefully add fuel to make someone fix it.

Comcast, speed around 32/5 typically.  Used to get hd all the time, all of a sudden one day started sucking...

On ATV2 wired to cable modem

235kbps for the test video from start to finish.  Restarted atv, signed out and back into netflix, reran got

500kbps at start, then went down to 375kbps in about 5 seconds and stayed there.

Iphone 5s on same Comcast connection, wireless

235kbps

shut down app, restarted, got 3000kbps and then dropped to 235

and now stuck on 235

Another thing... after it got bad on ATV, i watched a few things on a sony bluray player that had netflix.  Never ran the test video, because it worked great.  Now all of a sudden, it can't watch anything without stopping and buffering.

Sick of this!!!!

jimpal, 235 on ATV2, ATV3, iPhone 5S, and PS3 (made sure netflix was updated). 1080p on a Samsung TV (brand new) and an iPad 3, and the iPad 3 to the ATV3.

Netflix performance seems very device specifc.

Oh, also in the Twin Cities area, Comcast, and I think we have 70/10 now.

jimpal wrote:

 

creechcollin 12, I just had exactly the same results as you. It's 8:30 pm here in Minneapolis, with my usual 70/10, and watching Example Short video:

 

I get 235 kbps lousy picture from my ATV 3

 

I get 235 kbps lousy picture on my iPad Air. Airplay from this iPad gave me the same 235 kbps on the ATV 3

 

I get 3000 kbps on my iPhone 5

 

And a stable 3000 kbps on the same ATV 3 above using airplay from the iPhone 5

 

While 3000 kbps on the ATV 3 is a long way from 5800, it's watchable at least. Go figure!

My experience with Airplay is

From iPhone 4S IOS6 ramps to 3000 kbps and stays there (as others have noted it may be that iPhone/iPod Touch Netflix Airplay is limited to 720P 3000 kbps - although given the Apple TV is actually doing the streaming not sure why they would do that)

From 3rd Generation iPad IOS7 ramps to 4300 kbps and stays there (it seems Airplay from iPad is limited to 4300 kbps - again not sure why they would do that).

Tony Ramirez wrote:

 

The ATV has a cruddy 1 minute buffer for all content even SD which means that it can't keep up for congestion. 

As Chris Brestle said buffers have nothing to do with this - but I need to correct you on the size of the Apple TV buffer.

If you play the 11 minute Example Short it stops downloading between 8 and 9 minutes playing the rest from buffer (very easy to see on any router that show real-time bandwidth)  - so its buffer is somewhere between 2 - 3 minutes.

The issue is not the size of the buffer - but unfortunately how the Netflix Apple TV app fills it up.

I get a beautiful picture from the ATV using the iPhone and AirPlay. I plan to use this method until Netflix repairs and updates the app.

I'm tempted to go buy a new one and see what happens. Ones currently on store shelves probably don't have the Nov update. Would be very telling if my current one shows the problem (which it does) and a new one lacking the update doesn't.

Has anyone tried this yet?

Don't waste your time or money. My ATV is brand new, as of Wednesday. It was perfect until I decided to update it later that night, after which I immediately started having the same issues as everyone else. No other devices are having issues.

Chicago, U-Verse, ethernet connected. No other devices using bandwidth at the same time.

What is a little concerning is that this thread with good information on the issue has these stats - 30843 views and 667 replies

Yet the 'Apple TV - Netflix Streaming issue' thread (with much less information on the Apple TV issue) has these stats - 124,247 views and 158 replies.

Maybe the title of this thread is throwing people off - but we should be consolidating our feedback in one thread.

I have the same issue, Netflix on Apple TV quality is terrible after the update. The youtube video posted by Chris Brestle shows my issue perfectly, since I'm also getting about 235 kbps through Apple TV. I'm glad I found this thread though, since now I have learned the workaround of using my iPad via AirPlay to my Apple TV, and I'm getting 4300 kbps or better doing that.

This is clearly an issue with the Netflix app on Apple TV. Apple, please fix this.

That thread is over 3 years old vs a month for this one. Do the math, this particular issue ("after the update") has plenty of interest.

Vandergraff wrote:

 

What is a little concerning is that this thread with good information on the issue has these stats - 30843 views and 667 replies

 

Yet the 'Apple TV - Netflix Streaming issue' thread (with much less information on the Apple TV issue) has these stats - 124,247 views and 158 replies.

 

That thread was started 2011 and has less than two pages of recent posts.

Somebody clue me in. You guys that are getting 3000kpbs and 5800 kpbs - how does that compare to my 11.5 and 16.5 mbps?

What are my converted numbers?

TIA

Vandergraff wrote:

 

From iPhone 4S IOS6 ramps to 3000 kbps and stays there (as others have noted it may be that iPhone/iPod Touch Netflix Airplay is limited to 720P 3000 kbps - although given the Apple TV is actually doing the streaming not sure why they would do that)

Since using AirPlay is no silver bullet for me but is sometimes better I poked around a bit.

When using the ATV3 client my streams are reliably sourced from a single address in nflxvideo.net

When using the iPad client my streams are reliably sourced from a single address in llnw.net (Limelight).

When I use AirPlay the stream is reliably sourced from a single address in llnw.net but it's not the same address the native iPad client is using.  Toggling from iPad to ATV toggles the stream source address between the two.

I'm a Time Warner (TWC) customer and TWC peers with LimeLight.  This results in 20 vs. 40 ms latency (this morning).  I have two Level3 hops between TWC and nflxvideo (because TWC is not in Open Connect).  This may explain what I see at my house.

Now this morning I'm getting 5800 on my ATV from nflxvideo and only 4300 (which is the best I've ever gotten via AirPlay) from llnw but I'm willing to chalk that up to lack of congestion.

As a point of comparison at work I see 5-10ms latency to these CDNs and although we're effectively Open Connect (our commodity backbone peers with nflxvideo) I'm unlikely to take my ATV to work.

DLiquid wrote:

 

This is clearly an issue with the Netflix app on Apple TV. Apple, please fix this.

Please read this thread before posting. Apple does not make the app, Netflix does. Apple simply provides an SDK to their partners

If you want things to change, call Netflix customer service and demand they send a report to their tech department.