Video is streaming too slow??

[Alex]

When watching movies instantly on my pc, sometimes the video seems to stream slower than the sound. It gets progressively worse as the movie goes on, and it doesn't help if I skip around in the movie and have it buffer again. By the end of a 40 minutes tv show, the sound can get to be about 5 seconds behind the video.

I don't see this being a problem with my computer since I can stream videos from other sites without any problems, and some other videos on netflix work fine.

Edit: This is using Silverlight, and most recently it has happened on Numbers Season 5 Episodes 4 and 5

[Adrian]

Sorry to hear about your issue, please specify whether you are using the PC viewer or the new Silverlight viewer, and which shows and episodes this is happening with. Alternatively, call Netflix customer service for help.

[PG]

Adrian, are you out there?

Could you please peruse the post I left earlier? (Starts, "I'm having the same problem..") It details the Silverlight streaming problems I'm having on both a Windows platform PC and a Mac. I've been searching the threads for solutions, but find very little relating to the Mac. I thought you might have some ideas.

Thanks. PG

[PG]

I'm having the same problem, but only since installing the Silverlight viewer. Ordinarily I use a Windows platform computer to Watch Instantly. Tonight when I tried to use the Instant Watching function, it wouldn't play the movie till I downloaded Silverlight. I immediately began having problems with sound being way out of sync (from the very beginning of movies). It was especially bad with the movie "A Good Woman," but the sound was also out of sync with "Scorpio," an Alain Delon/Burt Lancaster movie.

I am experiencing the same problem with my Mac (OS 10.5.5) using Safari 3.2.1. I'd watched the first half of a mini series, "Police at the Funeral," on the Windows computer, but when I tried to watch the second half after installing Silverlight on my Mac, the sound was so off from the picture that I couldn't finish it. I tried a few more movies with the Mac but had the same problem: "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" and "CSI: Ssn 7."

Another problem with Silverlight on both Windows and Mac platforms is that the computer either goes into sleep mode or the screensaver activates every 15 minutes or so. On the Mac I turned off the energy saver function, but that just made the screensaver appear instead, every 15 minutes. On the Windows computer, this problem went away after we made adjustments to the sleep mode (didn't work with the Mac). When this problem happens, the movie stops, the window gets small, and you have to click on the "Full Window" button and re-hit play to re-start the movie (the whole thing has to re-buffer as well).

I'll wait till a better viewer comes out to Watch Instantly on the Mac, since Silverlight has so many problems. But since the old viewer worked OK with Windows, can Netflix at least make it available to replace Silverlight?

[AW]

I have the exact same problem! It's really frustrating because I started a movie last night and it was perfectly fine and now I can't finish it because of the audio delay and crappy resolution. And it's not just one, it's ALL of them--I've tried. And it's definitely not related to my internet speed/ethernet cable/wifi (as netflix customer service insisted).
I don't understand what happened! why is it forcing me to download silverlight before even being able to play the video (when before it was perfectly fine without the plug in) and if this was a new system coming in, why wasn't there ANY warning or notification? (I couldn't have been that oblivious to not have seen it, could I?)
I know this isn't any resolution, but I'm hoping that by adding my complaint something will change.This is ridiculous and quite honestly, not what I want to be paying for. And even if netflix didn't offer instant watch, Mail order movie rentals are convenient, but I much rather drive out and get what I want to watch the day I want it than to wait days--again, not a service i want to be paying for.

[PG]

I found a long technical explanation of the Silverlight player on the Official Netflix Blog: http://blog.netflix.com/search/label/Silverlight

If you check the 72 comments in response, you'll see that lots of people are having problems w/ video & audio not syncing up. I suspect this is the place to give feedback about Silverlight: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2765056849626104020&po...

Sounds like Silverlight is still in Beta, or was last month (November).

I also found a Google map somewhere where users having a problem w/ Silverlight put a little pushpin for their location. The map was covered with pins. I found it under a thread called:
"Streaming bandwidth issues on Netflix's side?"

Rich Holladay posted it:

> reply by Rich Holladay on December 4, 2008 at 6:06pm
> 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 ...).

OK, I can't get Rich's link to work here so try this: 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.

[Pihk]

With the Silverlight player on a MacBook Pro on Verizon FIOS, the picture movement can be a little choppy...like it hangs for a millisecond. And there is never a minute of playback where that doesn't happen at least once.

Its NOT my connection because the PC I have with the old player never does this

[jazzimus]

Just hooked up my account. I have a 6Mbs ATT DSL (Elite) account. I'm using Leopard 10.5.6 on a 1.83GHz 2GB Intel MacMini with an extreme G airport card under my 65" Mit 1080P DLP. I am running an N gigabit Extreme base station using WEP to a G Express base station (in the living room). My first movie was Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends. The audio is out of sync with the video with about a 3-5 second delay. The lag is not apparent on my (wireless) MacBook Pro. My next test is to route an ethernet cable to the Mini and test again to see if its the wireless or the Mini itself. Will follow up with my test results.

[Spindaddydad]

Jazz, let us know what you find out.

[[e-mail]]

I just bought a samsung 3d tv and samsung 3d blueray with netflix streaming access. it tends to loose a few seconds of audio where near the end of the movie its about 3 seconds off. It goes through an optonline router wireless to the blueray. Its a great idea but if it continues ill be really disappointed. any suggestions on how to fix this?

[vernice13]

I keep getting "Loading...". It seems like in the late night (after about 10:30 pm AZ time) until after 5:00 PM (AZ time) it runs pretty smoothly. After 5:00 pm it starts slowing down and "Loading..."

I'm thinking it's being over loaded. Everyone is off works and watching NetFlix. NetFlix might be having some growing pains if they don't get bigger and better servers... QUICKLY!

[sevenstars]

I'm having the same problem. Can't get anything to stream in anything other than low quality (really big pixels all over the TV screen) for the last few days.

Streaming is the future!

[Pihk]

Watched about 2.5 hours of IW last night. Got about 3 interruptions of about 15 seconds each time.

I can live wit dat. Wish the stuff I watched hadn't been unadulterated crap, though ;-)