Q: Netflix quality HORRID after update

mikedvzo wrote:

 

Fortunately the temporary workaround is to stream 720P on my iPhone 5 then airplay the signal with Dolby Digital to my ATV.

Netflix AirPlay doesn't work like that.

mikedvzo wrote:

 

Anyone that has ever worked with TCP/IP knows about TCP slow start and the effect it causes when you have repeated pack loss or delays.

I doubt it's as simple as that.  Netflix sends superHD in 8MB chunks with about 60% duty cycle.  I'd speculate that part of the reason for that is the reason anyone buffers -- to smooth instanteous delays in the network.

Loner T wrote:

 

Assuming that two or more devices from a customer (same ISP public address) have affinity to the same CDN cluster, which then internally handles device types (for example an iPad vs ATV3) differently, it should lead to different behaviour for each device. For example, I get 720p/3000kbps on my iPad vs 1080p/5800kbps on ATV3.  Do you agree?

I wouldn't begin to speculate about Netflix internals however I've read that they drop multiple caches at their CDN partners each of which contains the entire corpus of their streaming offerings.  That sounds like a device "asks" for a particular file, not like they're transcoding on demand (although it has been suggested that the ATV is special since it's exempt from DD+).  Netflix also makes the point that ISPs in Open Connect with on-site caches have traffic management knobs to turn.

mikedvzo wrote:

Anyone that has ever worked with TCP/IP knows about TCP slow start and the effect it causes when you have repeated pack loss or delays. 

Now my Apple TV is working well again with Netflix (connecting with Limelight) I can see the real-time download on my router run at the full 16 Mbps of my Comcast connection for the first 20 - 30 seconds as it fills up the local buffer. After that I see spikes of 16 Mbps for few seconds then a gap with no download and another spike of 16 Mbps as the video plays from buffer and buffer refills periodicly.

When my Apple was having problems (while connecting to Netflix Streaming Services) I never saw the inital burst but saw a much flatter real-time bandwidth profile in the range of 0.5 - 2 Mbps.

As bodosom has suggested it may be the the ATV client (for whatever reason) only works well with some CDNs.

4:30pm on a friday and Sherlock can't get higher than 240p on Apple TV.

And why does it NEVER dynamically switch to a higher bit rate, even for a minute? I've never had a worse netflix streaming experience than I'm having with Apple TV, the device I bought specifically to solve my streaming woes.

KFCgabriel wrote:

 

And why does it NEVER dynamically switch to a higher bit rate, even for a minute? I've never had a worse netflix streaming experience than I'm having with Apple TV, the device I bought specifically to solve my streaming woes.

Do you have access to another device which works better than ATV3 where a side-by-side comparison is possible right now?

Please please please:  it's great that we're all contributing here, but that doesn't accomplish anything where Netflix is concerned. Go to your Netflix account and pick "Live Chat" from here:

https://help.netflix.com/help

and point them to this thread and explain your problem. PLEASE.  They don't consider it an issue until a certain number of people have reported it.  I'm on chat right now with Netflix and they're telling me they've never heard of this issue (and I've reported it 3 times to them already).  PLEASE report it to Netflix.

Kirby

If Netflix would allow a Video chat, people could show them what quality they are getting, and not dispute a customer's view.

KFCgabriel wrote:

 

And why does it NEVER dynamically switch to a higher bit rate,

You're not waiting long enough or you have a local issue.  It certainly can move in both directions.  Mine just went from 235 to 350 to 560 to 750 to 235 to 375 over the course of seven minutes.

On my 3rd livechat report with Netflix right now: they're saying they have no knowledge of this problem, everything on their end is fine, and it must be an apple problem. They recommend contacting Apple.

I want to cry.

Kirby

Just finished one myself, with "Lincoln"... gave him the link to this thread and asked him to send it to his back-line engineers/networking team. If I get a transcript via email, I will post it here.

I tried Netflix on a ps4 and it works no problem so obviously the issue is with our ATV.

For Geeks out there.  Netflix app on iPad one model number M292LL iOS 5.1.1 (9B206) works great. 1750kbps through out example short.  Unfortunately on iOS 7 (2 iPhone 5s and iPad air) the video example short drops and holds at 235kbps for all 11minutes. It's sad I have to chose between my old original iPad or my Apple TV currently unavailable since the orange bowl is on.

Just to mention... I did do a live chat this morning and insisted they look at this thread. It's hard to know if they really escalated it or were just shining me on.

I started a chat with Netflix and linked this thread on Dec 30th.  I requested Netflix to escalate the issue with their engineers & Apple directly on their customer's behalf. I told them that Applecare was unwilling to even acknowledge the issue and was downright unwilling to help me at all.  I started a follow up chat a few minutes ago, and asked them to look up the status of my request.   Here's a grab of the chat window...