Clean install of Mavericks, Netflix HD slow in chrome and safari

Question

I did a clean install this morning, but netflix still lags and becomes unsynced when I play hd streams. I have a macbook pro 15 early 2011 with the 2.3 ghz i7, 8gb of ram, and the 1gb 6750m, so i think that I should be able to play netflix totally fine. The only thing that worries me is that I have the higher res screen option (1680 x 1050) which I guess might be impacting performance, but I am not sure. Is this just a software thing or is my computer not able to play netflix hd streams? I have noticed general choppyness around the system. Is this just a symptom of the hd display? Help is appreciated!Also I ran etre check while playing a stream and you can see that the cpu usage for chrome isn&#x27;t that high, so it doesn&#x27;t seem to me that there is a hardware issue. Hardware Information:          MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,2          1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores          8 GB RAMVideo Information:          Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 512 MB          AMD Radeon HD 6750M - VRAM: 1024 MBSystem Software:          OS X 10.9.1 (13B42) - Uptime: 0 days 0:33:58Disk Information:          ST95005620AS disk0 : (500.11 GB)                    EFI (disk0s1) &lt;not mounted&gt;: 209.7 MB                     Gautam&#x27;s HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 499.25 GB (484.38 GB free)                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) &lt;not mounted&gt;: 650 MB           OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5970H  USB Information:          Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)           Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad           Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub                     Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller           Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver FireWire Information:Thunderbolt Information:          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_busUser Launch Agents:          [not loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist 3rd-Party support linkUser Login Items:          gfxCardStatusInternet Plug-ins:          Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3          Silverlight: Version: 5.1.20913.0 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support linkAudio Plug-ins:          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9          AirPlay: Version: 1.9 - SDK 10.9          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0 - SDK 10.9          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9iTunes Plug-ins:          Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.93rd Party Preference Panes:          NoneOld Applications:          SLLauncher:          Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.5 3rd-Party support link                    /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Silverlight/OutOfBrowser/SLLauncher.appTime Machine:          Time Machine not configured!Top Processes by CPU:              22%          Google Chrome Helper EH               9%          coreaudiod               4%          WindowServer               4%          EtreCheck               1%          Google ChromeTop Processes by Memory:          246 MB          Google Chrome Helper EH          188 MB          mds_stores          131 MB          com.apple.IconServicesAgent          123 MB          Google Chrome          82 MB          softwareupdatedVirtual Memory Information:          3.17 GB          Free RAM          2.32 GB          Active RAM          1.25 GB          Inactive RAM          1.26 GB          Wired RAM          2.05 GB          Page-ins          0 B          Page-outs

FishingAddict · Accepted Answer

Any MacBook Pro from the past decade is certainly able to support Netflix HD.  So, it could be an OS problem, or it could be a network problem.  It&#x27;s not likely a hardware issue if normal web browsing works normally.Have you considered that the problem may not be your Mac at all?  It&#x27;s all over the news for months that there are ongoing Net Neutrality / throttling issues occuring between ISPs and Netflix.  Just Google "Netflix" and you&#x27;ll see what I mean.  Your Mac may be fine, the bandwidth you have paid your ISP for is likely more than suitable, yet money-grabbing ISPs are purposely either throttling streaming media, or are purposely not upgrading their networks to support the required traffic, or are not playing fairly in making peering agreements.I can offer a few suggestions to try to determine if it&#x27;s your Mac or your ISP.The first thing to try is to connect your MacBook Pro directly to your home router using an Ethernet cable and then try Netflix.  If it works, then you have a problem with your Wireless network.If that doesn&#x27;t work, then try another device on your home network that is capable of using the new Netflix HD resolution.  So, try a game console or another computer to see it you can stream HD content from Netflix from any of them.  If the same symptoms occur, then it&#x27;s not your Mac and you can try a few other things.  Or, take your MacBook Pro to a friends house that has a different ISP and see if it works from there.If it still seems to be your MacBook Pro then first try reinstalling the latest Silverlight player from Microsoft.If you think it&#x27;s your ISP, then you can try several things that are commonly discussed in the ongoing Netflix vs. ISP news:* Call your ISP&#x27;s support and make them work with you to solve the issue.* Change DNS server settings to OpenDNS or Google&#x27;s DNS servers* Use a VPN service to attempt to mask your Netflix traffic from your ISP.* If you have another ISP available in your area, do some research to see if their customers are having the same problem, and if not, seriously consider changing ISPs.  If that&#x27;s an option, call your current ISPs customer support and tell them that you will be switching ISPs because they are interferring with streaming media.  Then do it!* Call your congressman and tell them to support Net Neutrality legislation, and to help influence getting the FCC to declare ISPs as "common carriers".* If your ISP offers a "Business-class" service. Consider that instead of consumer service.  It&#x27;s more costly, but many ISPs don&#x27;t (yet) interfere with Business-class services.Good luck.  Hopefully it&#x27;s something within your control such as your wireless network, and not your ISP.

gtm1260 · Answer

Thanks, but I really don&#x27;t think that this is a problem with my isp. I have tried using another macbook pro, a 15" MBPr and it was able to smoothly play the netflix streams. I have cleared nvram and done a smc cache reset. I am not sure what to do at this point. I am thinking about downgrading to 10.8, as ths performance on mavericks is generally choppy. Could it just be a combo of this hi res screen and the intel hd3000?I don&#x27;t think thats it because when I am playing and hd stream, I never see the cpu usage skyrocket. It is always around 20% so idk what is going on. Should I let my mac sit for a couple of days?

gtm1260 · Answer

So I&#x27;ve downgraded to 10.8.5, and while much of the system&#x27;s general slowness has been solved, there is still a problem with netflix. How can a computer with a quad core i7 and a beefy gpu have trouble running netflix? It doesn&#x27;t even make sense. The only thing that I can think of is that the high resolution screen is creating problems, but silverlight is hardware accelelerated and the computer is falling back to the dGPU so I don&#x27;t understand how there could be a problem. Its not like the fans are spinning up and the cpu is getting overworked, it doesn&#x27;t seem to be trying. Idk whats going on.

gtm1260 · Answer

Well, I figured out what the problem was. I had been running without a battery for a while because the one that was installed was swollen severley. I just recently discovered that this cuts clock speeds by about half. Honestly pretty embarrasing but whatever.