I'll tell you what.
This thread sure has me thankful I went with a roku instead of ATV. Even though at the time I thought I was making a mistake. It streams everything flawlessly.
Sorry for everyone's troubles though :/
I tried a "workaround" over the last few nights. I started an episode, then paused it as soon as it started. I left it for maybe 20 minutes while doing other things, then played it and it played through with perfect quality, no hiccups, no audio sync problems. Then I played the next episode and... 20 seconds in it stuttered and dropped in quality (as I expected, it didn't have sufficient buffering time).
Tried the same thing the following evening, and both episodes played flawlessly. Tried again yesterday, and the second episode again stuttered and worsened dramatically in quality.
That leads me to think it's not likely to be an ATV fault, since sometimes it plays HD videos perfectly. I'd be more inclined to believe it's down to Netflix's servers becoming busier - it has been heavily promoted here lately. If the ATV stream is served separately to the PS3/360 streams (is it?) that would explain why playback differs on those platforms.
Netflix on my PS3 has way better PQ than my ATV3. I've tried all the HDMI settings and even have them plugged in the same source on my TV. My PS3, Sammy bluray, and Sammy TV blow ATV3 out of the water in terms of PQ. I get the same artifacts when renting from the iTunes store too. Very disappointing!
The Apple TV and PS3 both use the same servers, as they both use the same form of encoding etc.
I dont think its down to servers being busy, as my PS3 gets 1080p at any time of day, where as my ATV cant even reach the highest Standard Definition quality.
You may be right, but I find it strange that I used to be able to watch HD Netflix videos with great quality and no stalls or audio de-sycning (and occasionally, I still can). But more and more, they now stall after 15-20 seconds and the picture quality degrades. Resetting the ATV has no effect.
If it were some ATV hardware/software fault, I'd expect it to be more consistent and not degrading over time.
Well according to Netflix, my issue is caused by my Apple TV connection to a VPN instead of directly to my ISP, which is causing the issues. However this is limited only to Netflix, as 1080p itunes content is fine. The VPN is called 'VPS Senior Gift Solutions', and I have no idea what it is.
Apple havent ruled out calling my ATV in for further testing though, which I can see as being the only plausible way of finding a solution at the moment.
Well according to Netflix, my issue is caused by my Apple TV connection to a VPN instead of directly to my ISP, which is causing the issues. However this is limited only to Netflix, as 1080p itunes content is fine. The VPN is called 'VPS Senior Gift Solutions', and I have no idea what it is.
Apple havent ruled out calling my ATV in for further testing though, which I can see as being the only plausible way of finding a solution at the moment.
Perhaps your router has a dns changer malware.
Well according to Netflix, my issue is caused by my Apple TV connection to a VPN instead of directly to my ISP, which is causing the issues. However this is limited only to Netflix, as 1080p itunes content is fine. The VPN is called 'VPS Senior Gift Solutions', and I have no idea what it is.
Apple havent ruled out calling my ATV in for further testing though, which I can see as being the only plausible way of finding a solution at the moment.
The Apple TV and PS3 both use the same servers, as they both use the same form of encoding etc.
I dont think its down to servers being busy, as my PS3 gets 1080p at any time of day, where as my ATV cant even reach the highest Standard Definition quality.
Try it without the VPN as at least it will eliminate it as the cause.
Lol. Brilliant!
I think the point is that it's not his VPN and he doesn't know why it is being routed there or how to stop it.
If you are on a month to month plan with your ISP, i suggest doing a little experimeny, by upgrading to 12mb/s and see what happens.