Anyone else having this netflix streaming video problem?

[tim turks]

I recently renewed my netflix account to use the video on demand feature. What I have been experiencing however is watching movies on line the stop playing followed by a message telling me my internet connection has slowed or stopped and netflix is compensating for the problem. I have been on the phone with netflix tech support only to be told they are aware there is a problem and their engineering department in California is looking into it. The problem is some people like myself who have high speed dsl (avg 1.5 mbs) find out their download speed from netflix is about 60% slower for some reason. Using the shift button and right clicking on the video that's playing I am able to view a status screen which shows me the movie is downloading at about 300kbs? I have watched streaming movies on my computer before from plenty of different sites without any interuptions so what is going on here at netflix?

[tim turks]

you can't go by the "estimated time until start" message this will always be a high number when there is a delay or interruption in the download. You just need to be patient and that 22 hour number will drop to less than 1 minute quickly. It sounds as if your experiencing the dreaded pauses in streaming that many of us running DSL have learned to live with and work around (see previous postings in this message board) Hold down the shift key and right click in the viewing area to bring up the status window and see what is taking place (also discussed previously in this message board)

Do not take to heart those "22 hour until resume" messages as they are normal but drop to "less than 1 minute to resume" after a very short period of time

[Jerechos]

I'm am very frustrated.

When the watch it instantly came out I was able to watch it with absolutely no problem.

Now it takes forever to get through a movie at my home. I have a Duo Core laptop and the fastest cable internet package that Cox Communication provides and for some reason I continuously get that my connect has slowed or stopped. When in fact, while I am waiting for my movie to stream to a watchable moment I am able to browse anywhere and do just about any thing else. Which to me doesn't sound like my connect has really stopped.

Netflix blames my connection. The Cable company blames Netflix.

At first I thought it might be NetFlix being that everything else I would browse to would come up and work.

That was until I tried a movie at work to see if I would get the same result outside of Cox. It worked and worked beautifully. Mind you, I have a T1 at work.

So, now I'm to wonder if certain providers are slowing down the connection to NetFlix on purpose or is there something else I might be missing?

I really want to get my service humming again so any useful tips would be greatly appreciated!!!!

[BuBBa]

Yes the Internet providers are scaling back bandwidth to regular users and giving it to biasness users check The Story at PC World .com it was a month back I think sorry best I can remember

[DR]

Until recently, I would always get the highest quality on my home AT&T Pro DSL connection. At some point, I began getting low or low with delayed start. On other Internet connections (i.e. at work) the same machine would get the highest quality.

After much troubleshooting, I ran the Tweak Test found on dslreports.com, and it indicated my TCP Receive Window was not in the appropriate range. I set it to 28800 (with the "Dr. TCP" program), rebooted, and now I'm getting the "high quality" speed as I used to.

I suspect packet loss somewhere between my AT&T DSL connection and Netflix's nearest content distribution servers. However, I find this workaround acceptable.

I'd give it a try.

[Adrian]

Most operating systems have a default TCP receive window that is bigger than 28800, so unless something else had set it to a very small value this doesn't make sense....

The default is usually 32000 or 48000, and for high speed long latency networks (like satellite links or gigabit per second speeds) it needs to be increased. For a few Mbits over DSL or Cable its not likely to be a problem.

[DR]

I didn't say it makes sense. I said it's a workaround that I find acceptable.

[BuBBa]

I also have had that problem quite often and I have an 6Mbps internet connection. Could be too many people are streaming at once like when the big fights and pay per view satellite transmission would get overloaded and the picture start to break up. I have never checked the download speed of the video streaming . But this is something i have been reading in the computer Mags that the IPS's are going to start limiting bandwith to regular users because it seems that the IPS's infrastructer is getting close to it's limits ( article in PC World)

[ewd76]

http://www.savetheinternet.com/=faq

[Carrie]

I don't mind when it does this... What bothers me is the video quality. It is very pixelated on my computer. But the movie is free so I can't complain and really mean it.

[Spindaddydad]

There are three (?) different levels of quality based upon the speed of your internet service. You probably have a slow connection, so it automatically gives you the lowest quality. And from I understand there is no way to pick which level of quality you receive.

[DR]

There are actually 4 (and in some cases 5) levels of quality:

500Kbps
1000Kbps
1600Kbps
2200Kbps

And for some movies:

3400Kbps

On a 3Mbps DSL connection (AT&T), it seems that 1600Kbps is the most reliable.

Keep in mind that the video codec is VC-1, so a standard definition program should look decent at 1600Kbps.

[jucomputers]

As you see in this screen shot, if you click on the square bellow the movie next to the movie title within the white line, and then press Shift + B, a speed dialog with show and then you could adjust the speed to a lower setting manualy. this will fix buffer problems with speed booster for cable and dsl. as well as if you have a voip phone and the phone rings. and anything that will slow it down. also it dont really affect to me atleast, the video from 2200 changed to 1000 video loads quik and plays well. default is 2200, so it will startthere and detect the maximum speed availible, which may work @ first but as we know speed changes, mostley when we have speedbooster.
hope this helps .

J