Apple TV 3 Bad Streaming Quality

I'm on ATV2 and still having the same issues.

To be clear, some things do appear to have changed, but it is not fixed for ATV2 yet.

Still having slow, low res streaming 235 kbps to 750kbps.

It has occasionally jumped up to 1750 kbps and stayed there for a while, but during the past 3-4 hours of watching tv, the bitrate has fluctuated dramatically, going down low enough to cause the resolution to be poor for most of the time.

Also, still having the following...

- Start watching something

- When the streaming initially starts, it will be high res

- Seconds later, the streaming pauses and you get the spinning/loading indicator

- When the streaming starts again, the resolution is very poor

I'll continue to watch this and give it a little more time, but prime time Netflix for the most part tonight was low res.

Going to call them and have the past two months refunded since this is how long this has been going on, maybe longer. Unreal.

Same noticeable improvement here for me (at&t uverse, atv3) during afternoon and evening.

Since there was no software update on atv side, I guess Netflix is the only possible culprit; either that or the conspiracy among the ISP's :). Kidding aside, I hope someone have the courage to come out and admit their fault eventually.

I'm glad this thread is here, I've been having the same troubles for a month.

Last night I tried the Example Short 23.976, and the quality varied from 370 kbps (yes 370) to 5800 kbps, with the short film locking on the higher rate for most of it. Is this short film the only way to measure streaming rate on an ATV 3?

Later last night, I watched an episode of Dexter and it was razor sharp all the way for the first time in weeks. Hope it lasts.

Netflix is fixed on my ATV, iPhone, and iPad, with consistent HD streaming that looks much better than anything I've seen during the past month. It seems as if it takes longer for the stream to begin, but once it does, it's solid and stable.

At this point, I don't really care about the source of the problem, but it's doubtful it was the ISP, and since no apparent changes were made with ATV, it's unilkely that it was the culprit. New iOS Netflix apps lead me to think it was Netflix all along, but we'll probably never know.

Is there any update required to Apple TV to get the improved resolution or does it just work better now?

It just work better now, nothing extra you need to do!

I'm thinking this was on the Netflix side of things... Coincidentally, it started working perfectly the day they (Netflix) released an update for the iOS devices. Since Apple does not control the Netflix app on the Apple TV, there was no need for an Apple TV update, it was updated on the Netflix side.

CoryArdilio wrote:

Since Apple does not control the Netflix app on the Apple TV

Do you have any evidence to support that statement? Apple may not write the client but I sure they control deployment of all products (native or web app) pushed to the ATV.

I'm not the only person that still sees erratic performance if nothing is done. In my case controlling the CDN source completely resolved the issue. One obvious explanation is the problem isn't "fixed" it just been minimized by Netflix.

Tested mine last night and it's working great. Also worked this morning.

Lol, excuse my wording. Change "control" to "write"* the app... Chill, it works now.

CoryArdilio wrote:

Lol, excuse my wording. Change "control" to "write"* the app... Chill, it works now.

Then it becomes:

CoryArdilio wrote:

Since Apple does not write the Netflix app on the Apple TV, there was no need for an Apple TV update, it was updated on the Netflix side.

Still wrong and suggesting that I should "Chill" (that is ignore your errors) is at best rude.

It is working for more perhaps even almost all ATV owners but Apple/Netflix almost certainly should release an update so it behaves like other Netflix clients. I'm sure they will.

Gotcha, thanks for the tip, Buddy.

Columbo played great in Super HD and no buffering last night. Then I tried watching Eureka (around 8 PM EST) and Warehouse 13 (later around 10 PM EST) after and it was terrible. It played sharp for 10 seconds buffered and then it was a low def mess. No matter how many times I restarted it would not go into HD.

I was so ticked off I disconnected my ATV and watched those programs on my Roku 3 no problems. I did reconnect my ATV this morning as I hope the problem is fixed soon as when I can get HD the ATV gives the best PQ and it also does not have that annoying post play which the Roku does.

Ok... things were working a bit better for a day or two, but now, the same issues are happening again. I'm on ATV2.

Watched Christmas Vacation earlier (prime time). Started out hi res, then 20 min in dropped to low res (probably 300 kbps or so) and stayed there for the rest of the movie!

It's 2am now (not even close to prime time), watching various things and the same crap is happening. Shows and movies will pause streaming, the loading indicator will spin for 10 or more seconds and when the streaming resumes, it's still low res. I'd say hi res is only achieved 15% to 20% of the time.

Again, everything else on ATV is working fine except Netflix.

I am getting a refund for the past two months and will continue to call Netflix and post here because this is ridiculous. Whoever their devs are there, they don't seem to have a clue.

Totally inexcusable.

Watching "Example Short 23.976" right now and the bitrate is 235 kbps and it's still pausing and showing the loading indicator.

My internet is 50 Mpbs down and 10 Mbps up as I'm writing this.

Also, since Netflix rolled out their "bug fix" several days ago, the initial load time on everything is twice as long now and the low res issues are still there, so I'd say things have actually gotten worse.

Again, I'm on ATV2, so maybe only the ATV3 users are seeing an improvement, but Netflix on ATV2 is still unwatchable.

It has something to do with the Super HD (1080p) streaming. A workaround until Apple and Netflix fix this is to adjust your AppleTV resolution. To do so, do the following: Go to Settings -> Audio & Video -> TV Resolution and set this to 720p to prevent Netflix from detecting that you have a TV capable of 1080p "Super HD". This will only work on TVs that can support 720p. This should be a capability of most TVs that can do 1080p.

You'll likely have a brief drop in quality about one minute or so after you begin your video but it will adjust to your Internet connection and improve the quality. Only ISP issues will affect the quality thereafter. While lowering the resolution isn't ideal, at least 720p is still HD and it is far better than the blocky artifacts Super HD is causing us.