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About to give up on ATV Netflix streaming

N

nconnella

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 1, 2008
204
43
Been an issue for several months. Tried everything under the sun with Netflix support. Used to stream beautifully but looks like garbage since (I think) the last update. PS3, Macbook Pro and iPad all look great streaming Netflix.

ALL other HD sources on ATV such as Trailers, iTunes and Youtube look great.

Has anyone found a solution? I'm ready to sell this POS and just use my PS3 but I like the ATV's lower power consumption.

Warranty expired so Apple won't talk to me.
 
N

nconnella

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 1, 2008
204
43
Never mind. I take my kiss back. Just started blurring again. I hate you Apple. PS3 it is.... works perfectly.
 
N

nconnella

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 1, 2008
204
43
blueroom said:
WiFi or wired Ethernet?
Click to expand...

Wifi. It worked perfectly for about a year. I think it's when they updated to Super HD that it started to happen. Wifi speed and ping tests are A rated. ALL other devices, such as PS3 which are in the same place, work perfectly. It's ONLY with the ATV3. Nothing has changed in the environment to affect signal between when it worked great and stopped working. I'm convinced it was the software update.
 
A

alent1234

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2009
5,688
170
go to cat5 and if you have an oldish cable modem then buy your own. even if you have slow internet a dociss 3 modem will give you a cleaner signal
 
C

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,154
Yeah test it out using an Ethernet cable. My Netflix looks and has always looked great on my ATV. Well as good as Netflix can look anyway.
 
boomhower

boomhower

macrumors 68000
Oct 21, 2011
1,570
56
Apple TV Netflix just sucks in general. Interface is bad and quality is harder to get. Both my PS3 and Xbox One provide a superior experience. I love my Apple TV but it's not my go to for Netflix.
 
J

jeff92k7

macrumors member
Dec 14, 2012
71
0
boomhower said:
Apple TV Netflix just sucks in general. Interface is bad and quality is harder to get. Both my PS3 and Xbox One provide a superior experience. I love my Apple TV but it's not my go to for Netflix.
Click to expand...

I find just the opposite. I prefer the netflix interface on the :apple:TV to my other devices. My BD player's app is horribly outdated, and the Netflix app on my TiVos is just slow (though the new update on that is pretty). I still prefer the simplicity and speed of navigation of the :apple:TV. The :apple:TV Netflix app also does superHD, so when Netflix isn't overloaded, the picture quality looks pretty nice.

However, lately the quality has been horrible. I'm lucky if I can get it to stay at 480p for the duration of a 30 minute show. It frequently drops to 240p. Originally, I understand that was because of some :apple:TV specific issue that there was another thread about but supposedly that has been fixed. I still haven't seen any improvement though. Lately, it seems the popular excuse is that because of the holidays, Netflix has been overloaded.

I'm getting to the point of just cancelling Netflix altogether. It always seems like there's some excuse for less than HD quality. I can understand an tolerate occasional streaming issues, but averaging it all out over the last couple of years, I think that I've had issues with about half of the things we've streamed.

I've got 50/5 internet here and all my equipment is wired. Other internet content comes through fine consistently, but Netflix seems to have far too many issues with streaming quality.

Oddly, one thing I have noticed before is that my UPLOAD speed has a lot to do with streaming quality even if my download bandwidth isn't being used. I can pretty much guarantee that if I have online backups running that are saturating my upload bandwidth, any Netflix streaming will be struggling to stay at 480p. This is especially annoying at night when I want to stream a show in bed before going to sleep. I have some online backup sets set to run only at night so my Netflix experience is very poor during those same hours. I've noticed the same issue during the day too when most people would be at work and Netflix shouldn't be overloaded.
 
boomhower

boomhower

macrumors 68000
Oct 21, 2011
1,570
56
jeff92k7 said:
I find just the opposite. I prefer the netflix interface on the :apple:TV to my other devices. My BD player's app is horribly outdated, and the Netflix app on my TiVos is just slow (though the new update on that is pretty). I still prefer the simplicity and speed of navigation of the :apple:TV. The :apple:TV Netflix app also does superHD, so when Netflix isn't overloaded, the picture quality looks pretty nice.

However, lately the quality has been horrible. I'm lucky if I can get it to stay at 480p for the duration of a 30 minute show. It frequently drops to 240p. Originally, I understand that was because of some :apple:TV specific issue that there was another thread about but supposedly that has been fixed. I still haven't seen any improvement though. Lately, it seems the popular excuse is that because of the holidays, Netflix has been overloaded.

I'm getting to the point of just cancelling Netflix altogether. It always seems like there's some excuse for less than HD quality. I can understand an tolerate occasional streaming issues, but averaging it all out over the last couple of years, I think that I've had issues with about half of the things we've streamed.

I've got 50/5 internet here and all my equipment is wired. Other internet content comes through fine consistently, but Netflix seems to have far too many issues with streaming quality.

Oddly, one thing I have noticed before is that my UPLOAD speed has a lot to do with streaming quality even if my download bandwidth isn't being used. I can pretty much guarantee that if I have online backups running that are saturating my upload bandwidth, any Netflix streaming will be struggling to stay at 480p. This is especially annoying at night when I want to stream a show in bed before going to sleep. I have some online backup sets set to run only at night so my Netflix experience is very poor during those same hours. I've noticed the same issue during the day too when most people would be at work and Netflix shouldn't be overloaded.
Click to expand...

The Apple TV is by far your best option. By in large the Netflix apps on "smart" TV's/BR player are horrible. It has a lot to do with the player. My Apple TV gives me all sorts of bad quality Netflix streams. PS3 and Xbox One are solid without any problems. I'm not saying buy a gaming system to watch Netflix but it's not a Netflix issue, it's an Apple TV issue. If you are a power user of Netflix a Roku may be work your while, I hear it's very good with Netflix and not very expensive.
 
W

westrock2000

macrumors 6502a
Oct 18, 2013
524
22
boomhower said:
The Apple TV is by far your best option. By in large the Netflix apps on "smart" TV's/BR player are horrible. It has a lot to do with the player. My Apple TV gives me all sorts of bad quality Netflix streams. PS3 and Xbox One are solid without any problems. I'm not saying buy a gaming system to watch Netflix but it's not a Netflix issue, it's an Apple TV issue. If you are a power user of Netflix a Roku may be work your while, I hear it's very good with Netflix and not very expensive.
Click to expand...

One thing I would like to see on the ATV version of Netflix is for it to auto play the next the episode in a series. Several of the other Netflix apps do this already, so it not sure if it's a restriction of Netflix end or Apple.
 
boomhower

boomhower

macrumors 68000
Oct 21, 2011
1,570
56
westrock2000 said:
One thing I would like to see on the ATV version of Netflix is for it to auto play the next the episode in a series. Several of the other Netflix apps do this already, so it not sure if it's a restriction of Netflix end or Apple.
Click to expand...

It's whoever wrote the app, not sure if Netflix did or Apple did. They need to get ahold of whoever wrote the PS3 app and have them do the Apple TV one.
 
tonyr6

tonyr6

macrumors 68000
Oct 13, 2011
1,736
732
Brooklyn NY
I got a ATV to stop that annoying post play but the ATV streams so bad I ended up buying another Roku 3 when the problems started in November.

I tried everything. Replaced my router. Replaced the Ethernet cable twice. Tried three different switches. Still bad quality in the evenings yet my Roku 3 and PS3 are fine. I only kept the ATV connected for YouTube but then they released that channel for the Roku 3 the ATV was just sitting there doing nothing.

I had enough a few days ago when I went to try to watch something and 3 1/2 minutes into the PQ went to garbage. I reseted and disconnected the ATV for good.
 
C

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,154
I wonder what the inconsistency is here. Myself and everyone I know with an AppleTV (only 4 people but two of them have 2) all have great quality. I'm wired they all use wifi.

There was a couple weeks where the quality was pretty bad and my PS3 was good. That has since cleared up, that was probably 3 months ago and been fine since.
 
J

jtara

macrumors 68020
Mar 23, 2009
2,008
536
Never had a problem with Netflix streaming. But mine is wired. Wouldn't think of connecting it any other way.
 
A

alent1234

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2009
5,688
170
jeff92k7 said:
I find just the opposite. I prefer the netflix interface on the :apple:TV to my other devices. My BD player's app is horribly outdated, and the Netflix app on my TiVos is just slow (though the new update on that is pretty). I still prefer the simplicity and speed of navigation of the :apple:TV. The :apple:TV Netflix app also does superHD, so when Netflix isn't overloaded, the picture quality looks pretty nice.

However, lately the quality has been horrible. I'm lucky if I can get it to stay at 480p for the duration of a 30 minute show. It frequently drops to 240p. Originally, I understand that was because of some :apple:TV specific issue that there was another thread about but supposedly that has been fixed. I still haven't seen any improvement though. Lately, it seems the popular excuse is that because of the holidays, Netflix has been overloaded.

I'm getting to the point of just cancelling Netflix altogether. It always seems like there's some excuse for less than HD quality. I can understand an tolerate occasional streaming issues, but averaging it all out over the last couple of years, I think that I've had issues with about half of the things we've streamed.

I've got 50/5 internet here and all my equipment is wired. Other internet content comes through fine consistently, but Netflix seems to have far too many issues with streaming quality.

Oddly, one thing I have noticed before is that my UPLOAD speed has a lot to do with streaming quality even if my download bandwidth isn't being used. I can pretty much guarantee that if I have online backups running that are saturating my upload bandwidth, any Netflix streaming will be struggling to stay at 480p. This is especially annoying at night when I want to stream a show in bed before going to sleep. I have some online backup sets set to run only at night so my Netflix experience is very poor during those same hours. I've noticed the same issue during the day too when most people would be at work and Netflix shouldn't be overloaded.
Click to expand...


the upload part is for TCP packet verification
 
S

Sylvan

macrumors regular
Apr 27, 2008
129
391
California
My Netflix streaming quality has been nearly flawless since I purchased my ATV last month. I do find the interface to be a bit cumbersome though. I much preferred the interface on my Xbox 360, especially with the auto-loading of the next episode in a TV series. I just hated the jet-engine noise of the Xbox 360 so I have to say that I much enjoy the silent streaming from the ATV.
 
d21mike

d21mike

macrumors 68040
Jul 11, 2007
3,320
356
Torrance, CA
Can't solve your problem but I am not having any problems with ATV and Netflix. All of my connections are wired. However, my mother-in-law is having problems on Wifi. I believe it is the distance to the router.
 
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