Streaming bandwidth issues on Netflix's side?
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.
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.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tig on -
Does this only work on some devices? As I am not sure what the "Home" button is. Sorry I am very new to Netflix.
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Permalink Reply by Alan-Not So Nice Not So Helpful on -
Only the Roku player.
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Permalink Reply by Alan-Not So Nice Not So Helpful on
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LMAO. I actually thought about doing it but I was in one of my rare helpful modes. :-)
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Permalink Reply by Bill on -
ha! i was just going to post with the same. Getting full 4 bars on everything. Mayhaps Netflix fixed the bandwidth issues.
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Permalink Reply by Charles on -
On Everything? Nice!
I will have to check the shows/movies that were giving me 40% quality this evening.
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Permalink Reply by Charles on
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Yes! I finally got a full bar of HD streaming this morning! Not every show is coming in that way, but I am happy for what I did get.
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Permalink Reply by Rich Holladay on
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Let's show Netflix where these problems are.
If you're having this kind of problem with Netflix Instant Watching add a pin to this map showing your general location and the box you're using (xbox, roku, blueray, PC ...).
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=U...
Post the link to the map on any forums you visit where people are having such problems.
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Permalink Reply by Deric Kettel on -
I was home for lunch (12:00 pm Pacific) I had 4 bars, I just checked it at 9:00 pm and got 2, so I did a ping plotter and speed test. The speed test does three, and it went like this.
Test 1 10.5mb
Test 2 2.3 mb
Test 3 6.4 mb
the ping plotter test showed at one point a 100% packet loss, so I'm still confused. Let the testing continue I guess. :(
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Permalink Reply by Adrian on -
Official word on the fix: http://blog.netflix.com/2008/12/streaming-performance.html
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Permalink Reply by Millertime on
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I was out of town for the weekend, did anyone get a chance to test it and if so how were the results?
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