Streaming bandwidth issues on Netflix's side?

[Millertime]

I recently joined Netflix, mainly interested in the new ability to stream content through the Xbox 360. Over the last few days I've been using it quite a bit, and from what I've seen it appears that the quality degradation issue is on Netflix's side.

Let me explain a bit. I'm on a 6.5 mbit connection, I confirm this through www.speedtest.net and similar internet sites to see my actual bandwidth. I use the internet a lot including lots of VPN activity during business hours when I'm working from home. I check the speeds often and my returns are very consistant except on the rare occasions that my ISP is having issues.

Over the last several days I've streamed movies and TV shows at all hours of the day from 9am to 10-11pm EST. Ok... so my "working" at home isn't always really working ;) Anyway, during the day I get great connection quality of 4 bars and get HD offerings in HD through the 360. As the night moves on however, the quality degrades through several steps until it's eventually a blurry mess not worth my time.

It start around 7pm EST when I often get my first interruption and a quality adjustment, but the difference is not noticable. Over the next hour or two I will often get a few more downgrades, each time I check my internet speeds and they are consistantly at 6.5mbit. Almost every night around 9pm EST I get a downgrade so severe that the quality is horrible, and often the buffering even at that low quality takes 2 minutes. During the day my buffering for HD quality takes around 15 seconds.

I don't believe this is an ISP issue as my pings, bandwidth, and packet loss quality all remain very steady. I am personally using more bandwidth on my connection during the day with an always open VPN connection that constantly streams data from my work. And yet by 9:15 each night the quality of "my internet connection" is trash from Netflix. I believe this is an issue of bandwidth on their side, not mine.

I was just wondering if anyone else has noticed the same tendencies? The time would probably be Netflix's busiest, lining up with 6pm on the west coast and the most members accessing content. I was initially very happy with the service, but if this is what I will continue to get I don't see any use for it.

[Adrian]

I'm sorry to hear you are having problems. Have you called CS to report the issue? The service is working fine for most people, and Netflix is collecting info on specific problems where we need to know when there was an issue, what device you are using, your location and ISP. It sounds as if the route from our content delivery networks through to your specific location/ISP is getting overloaded at peak times.

Adrian from Netflix

[Jeremy Johnson]

Still experiencing lag and freeze-ups today. Very disappointing. I trolled the Xbox forums and found similar stories cropping up since 1/2/2009. From all indications it's a problem with servers at Netflix or Xbox Live, or an ISP throttling problem. I hope they iron it out soon or there's going to be a fallout.

[Spindaddydad]

From all indications it's a problem with servers at Netflix or Xbox Live, or an ISP throttling problem

Or could be a combination of any or all of those.

I watched 2 IW movies today (Roku-wired) and 2 yesterday (iMac-silverlight) with no hiccups and no freezes, and watched a 3.5 hour movie (Giant) Saturday night (Roku wireless) with none. I have Verizon Fios 15 up / 15down.

[strik9]

I just noticed this the other day for the first time on my computer. For those whining they're not getting what they're "paying for," this is a fairly new addition to Netflix and it's basically a "free" service. Membership fees haven't gone up from before when all I was getting were movies in the mail.

Avoid peak times or just get the dvd. I'm not trying to be an a-hole here, I'm just saying I'm sure these issues will be resolved down the road.

[Spindaddydad]

Strik, there's no need for all your rational thinking.

[BrandonSSSS]

There is no such thing as a free service. So whether the customers are paying for it now or later, we are paying for it.

So it should work as advertised.

Thus far I am extremely disappointed.

[Spindaddydad]

So it should work as advertised.
It works as advertised. I have no problems streaming to my mac or Roku box at all times of the day. Many others don't experience problems. A lot do. It's just that with millions of members with millions of different configurations, many will experience snafus that need to be worked through. Call Customer Service so they can help you through it. It also allows them to log the problems so that they can recognize trends, etc.

Thus far I am extremely disappointed.
But on the other hand I'm sure you know and realize that Netflix is rather new to the streaming/download game and are doing what they can to make the service the best it can be to everyone. If it's not working perfectly as you expect, it will most assuredly get better.

[Ron]

Brandon, we're Early Adopters and strik9 is right, IMHO. Remember that different nodes on the Internet are going to experience different connection speeds to Netflix depending where they are and which hops they have to take to get there.

It's important to remember that one can have a 20Mbps download speed test result from (the closest test node) at SpeedTest.net and still get a measly Netflix video transfer rate. A better test is to locate the data center(s) Netflix is using to stream video and do a SpeedTest measurement from a test node in that vicinity. That'll tell more accurately whether it's a Netflix server issue or a problem created by the hops required to get to their data center.

I for one am ecstatic to see Netflix working through the technical issues involved in making this mode of entertainment possible. I've absolutely had it with network television advertising and pop-ads during the shows I'm watching! When it becomes feasible, I plan to cut my cable service way back to bare bones and view the few series I watch whenever they're available via DVD or a service like this. Having said that, Netflix please take note: the moment you start using in-line advertising to increase your bottom line, you will lose me as a customer. Let's not let it come to that! :-)

[Adrian]

Inability to stream a movie is just as much a service failure as getting an unplayable DVD in the mail. Its harder to diagnose and can't be fixed as simply as shipping another DVD, but all the failures are logged, analyzed and changes are made to the service to fix it - but that takes time. So call CS just as if you had a broken DVD, although they may not be able to fix the problem immediately if its a network or encoding issue.

[digiblur]

I joined Netflix back in early December. I started watching on the Xbox360. I used to get 4 bars on everything including HD. Now I'm lucky to get two bars with most of the time 1 bar.

I can consistently start a download on my desktop of a large file and get 1.2 megabytes per second so it isn't a specific problem with the internet connection which is provided by Cox by the way.

I guess I'm going to give it another couple of weeks and if this doesn't get any better I'll have no choice but to cancel as I can't watch these movies at 1 bar.

[jeldobar]

[FrakAttack]

I joined mainly for the streaming through Xbox Live. I can run speed tests from here to Timbuktu (literally) and my connection speed is fine, so they can at least stop lying about the reason for the slowdowns. If service doesn't improve, I'll be canceling my membership.