Netflix unwatchable, Internet otherwise fine

[flood99]

I cannot stream Netflix reliably. I have 12Mb service and Netflix goes from lowest quality 1 bar SD to full HD back and forth throughout the movie making it almost unwatchable. This happens on the xbox 360, ps3, and Sony blu-ray player. It happens every day. After wasting an hour on the phone where the tech refused to continue the call until I cleared my firefox cache, make sure firefox wasn't in offline mode, and many other unrelated steps, they sent a tech out who said: Uverse has gotten a lot of calls about netflix not working well and there wasn't much they could do about it because uverse is over subscribed. - The on-site tech said my line is fine after doing multiple checks. - No, I am not using bit torrent. - I can download at the full 12Mb from other sites. This speed can be sustained for at least a half hour. - Speedtest.net reports 12Mb from most locations. - I use the RG as the router, no other routers. - None of the Netflix devices are using wireless. - I do not have TV or phone service from uverse. - This has been going on for weeks. - I have rebooted the RG, I have reset the RG to factory settings. All of this leads me to think the connection from uverse to Netflix is not big enough to handle the data and based on what the tech said uverse knows this. Is there anything else worth trying?

[oufanindallas]

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flood99 wrote:
I cannot stream Netflix reliably. I have 12Mb service and Netflix goes from lowest quality 1 bar SD to full HD back and forth throughout the movie making it almost unwatchable. This happens on the xbox 360, ps3, and Sony blu-ray player. It happens every day. After wasting an hour on the phone where the tech refused to continue the call until I cleared my firefox cache, make sure firefox wasn't in offline mode, and many other unrelated steps, they sent a tech out who said: Uverse has gotten a lot of calls about netflix not working well and there wasn't much they could do about it because uverse is over subscribed. - The on-site tech said my line is fine after doing multiple checks. - No, I am not using bit torrent. - I can download at the full 12Mb from other sites. This speed can be sustained for at least a half hour. - Speedtest.net reports 12Mb from most locations. - I use the RG as the router, no other routers. - None of the Netflix devices are using wireless. - I do not have TV or phone service from uverse. - This has been going on for weeks. - I have rebooted the RG, I have reset the RG to factory settings. All of this leads me to think the connection from uverse to Netflix is not big enough to handle the data and based on what the tech said uverse knows this. Is there anything else worth trying?

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I have no issues with Netflix or any other site where I can watch movies/tv shows such as Hulu or HBOGo/MaxGo. 

That comment about UVerse being over subscribed is just plain B S.    If tech support is unable to help, contact David in the link I'm providing. He or one of his team will be getting back with you in the next 24/48 hrs.

David's Contact info

[flood99]

Sorry about the message being one giant paragraph. I wrote it on the iPad which seems to have not put in line breaks.

The tech seemed pretty smart and not like he was trying to get out of doing his job so I don't know why he would make something like that up.

[flood99]

Here are screenshots from the Uverse RealTime Application if they help:

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

I don't see anything wrong with the line.  The uncorrected blocks, retrains, and other items on the error table tab all occurred during the last restart of the RG, there have been none since then, so they're not an issue.

Click the tab in my signature below that says AT&T Links, and on that signature panel there is a link that says AT&T Social Media Support Team. This will take you to a page with contact information for David and Matt, who are tier 2 specialists. Follow the directions there to e-mail them, they will get to the bottom of the problem.

[oufanindallas]

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flood99 wrote:

Sorry about the message being one giant paragraph. I wrote it on the iPad which seems to have not put in line breaks.

The tech seemed pretty smart and not like he was trying to get out of doing his job so I don't know why he would make something like that up.

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Don't know why he said it, but I use Netflix on both my PC which is wired to the RG and my Wii which is wireless and both work just fine.  UVerse is trying to grow it's customer base,  why would they do that if they were "over subscribed" 

[flood99]

I believe what the tech was implying is the connections used to connect to Netflix (maybe in my region only) do not allow enough bandwidth for all the Uverse users who want to access Netflix to do so at full speed.  I do not think he was saying Uverse was, as a whole, over subscribed, nor was Uverse internet slow.

[jvoirin]

I am having the same issue....HELP!!

I have recently switched service from Time Warner to AT&T DSL (no phone line required). Since making the switch, I have had issues streaming movies from Netflix on my XBOX 360 wirelessly. When I had Time Warner and using my Netgear Wireless Router everything was fine, but now with AT&T using the 2Wire wireless router, the signal is low and it says the speed is too low. I did a speed test on my laptop (wireless) and I am right at 4.7 megs down.

We have 2 xbox's that we use Netfilx on, one is wired and one is wireless. No issues with the one that is wired, and I have no issues with my laptop wifi signal (nice and strong). The slow speeds happen only when using Netflix on my XBOX 360 wirelessly and it happens allot on my iPhone when connected to my wifi and I am watching youtube on my iPhone.

Is there a setting in the router that I need to change?

[Justin1984]

Growing trend with ATT. Could it be the big companies greedy hand trying to control media choices? I have ATT DSL at the highest speed availble. On my Xbox 360, the quality has been mostly one or two bars. On my sony blu-ray player the stream constantly buffers making it completely unwatchable. This problem has been occuring for the past 2 months. Everything was working fine at full HD for almost a year until a couple months ago.

[alexpellom]

I am also aving this issue.  Any help would be appreciated.  i called and got nothing but told nothing was wrong and it was obviously somehting with my XBOX 360.  Even though when my computer is hardwired in i get 10-11 mbps and ESPN3 streams perfect.  Any help with this would be appreciated.  Its very frustrating considering I can watch it on y laptop fine.  It is just the apparatus plugged into the 2wire router.  I am running wireless off a seperate box in the bedroom.

[gritts]

I wanted to throw in my 2 cents worth on this topic as well. I've noted a drop in quality with Netflix streaming within the last couple of months as well. At first I thought it to be my CAT5 cable ends being poorly crimped (I do my own wiring in the house) but a test with the handy cable tester said otherwise. At one point I got nice HD streams from Neflix. Now the quality has dropped. It does not appear to be only Netflix in my case but a number of other streaming video and occasionally audio sources.

Sources I've run into this issue include:

Netflix (quality drops and program is rebuffered)

YouTube (video stutters as it plays and loads. Better with videos at 320p)

Ulead/Corel - Demo video for their video editing software. Stutters like You Tube

Apple/Trailers - Trailers used to load fast, now take several minutes to load into the player

iTunes Radio - Audio drops on streams 128kbs and higher. Used to be able to play up to 320kbs and better.

Shoutcast Streams - Same as iTunes radio.

I've not called support yet but wanted to post my UVRT results and Speed Test results in the hopes this keeps any investigation going on the matter. The RG was rebooted this morning in an effort to diagnose the issue. The reboot produced no noticeable improvement.

Thanks in advance for any input/suggestions you may have.

[gritts]

Re-linked my UVRt images. Not sure what happened to them in my post

[duenor]

I just started Uverse service today 02.05.2011. Speedtest.net shows 5.96m down, .95up. that's fine, and correct (I'm on Uverse 6m). 

However, Netflix streaming is unwatchable. This is true on PC and on Xbox. I'm like the other poster - 1 bar, and so bad that Netflix tells me that my connection is too slow for netflix. I used VieraCast (bluray player) and the connection is also too slow to stream anything through their services (Amazon VOD, for instance - fails connection test). Then I tried my laptop, connected through Wireless G. Same problem - I feel like I'm trying to stream on 56k.

And yet, here's the wierd part. I can play youtube 720p videos just fine. looks great. I can play hulu videos, too. 

I'm hoping you guys can help (both the community and at&t). There's clearly something wrong with Uverse and the subscription streaming services. Here's my Realtime screenshots while trying to access netflix. 

If I can't get this fixed, I'm cancelling and switching to Charter. I already have the cable modem, too. Bought it last month but decided to give AT&T another shot via Uverse. But this is terrible... the thing I use the net most for is netflix before bedtime and this isn't letting me do it. 

[Keplegrob]

This problem started happening to me too, seemingly overnight, about a week ago.

I had been using Netflix fine with U-Verse on a myriad of set-ups since October, without any issue. Some of my common devices/configurations in this house: Xbox 360 via wifi, Macbook via wifi, an Apple TV via wifi, and an iMac and a PC (wired). ALL these devices streamed just fine with Netflix until last week. Now, none of these devices will reliably stream anything from Netflix. Typically, it'll time out saying my "connection is too slow" to stream the show.

Streaming from everywhere else (hulu, youtube, etc) and general internet connectivity seems fine, except for Netflix.

Update: I contacted the online chat support on the U-Verse website, but of course they immediately told me they "aren't trained to provide technical assistance with Netflix" and that was that.

[duenor]

i'm glad to knwo it's not just me.

and here's something else... i was able to stream netflix right up to wednesday... when I was still on regular at&t dsl. once i switched to uverse, these problems appeared.

here's what I think. uverse is horribly oversold in my area - and I am too far away from the fiber node. 

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

gritts,

Your line looks fine, I don't see any problems.  If you are having problems with Netflix streaming, it doesn't look like your physical connection is the source of the problem.

duenor,

It looks like you have some severe line problems.  Please post a screenshot of the Bitloading tab to confirm.

[duenor]

somejoe, thanks for looking at my shots. here's a shot of my bitloading graph, taken a few minutes ago. the only load was my bluray player attempting (10 minutes later, still failing connection test) an hd episode of caprica from amazon vod that I own (and was able to play four days ago when I was on AT&T regular 3m DSL).

The uverse tv box is entirely disconnected, although I do have uverse tv service. 

I chatted with tech support last night and the guy told me that I should reconnect the uverse tv box. when I asked him how that is supposed to help, he replied that he's not trained to deal with issues regarding amazon or netflix and i should pay for the connect team tech support. I replied that the issue isn't with these sites - they are symptoms of a problem that I can replicate across all my devices. 

I'm also including a shot of my profile tab and error tab. as you can see the massive errors are not present (at the moment at least, I've only had my devices on for about 15 minutes). but looking at my shots and other posters' shots my bits in use and reserve bits are substantially lower. 

[index]

I too, am having the same troubles.  I am on a 32 Meg Profile and "Max Plus" 18 Mbps.  Speed tests from speedtest.net and speakeasy.net/speedtest all return just under 18Mbps.  Yet whether, a PC or a Roku box streaming from Amazon is all but impossible; from a PC I get Kbps, Roku box gives me 1 dot and wants to buffer again.  Netflix has the same troubles.  Thing is up until a few weeks ago I had no troubles with either streaming service.  A Uverse Premise Tech was here today...said he thought he saw something.  So he put in a request for a line guy to check.  So we shall see.

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

duenor,

You have a lot of interference on your line in the lower part of the spectrum.  The interference may be causing issues with streaming, downloads, and/or TV service.

You should contact tier 2 and have them send a senior tech that can look for and eliminate these sources of interference. Possible sources include:

* Power line interference, such as:
* Fluorescent light ballasts
* High-intensity gas discharge lights like mercury vapor
* Grounding problems, such as improper ground at the NID, the pedestal, etc.
* Electrical system grounding problems, such as improper ground on the RG's outlet, the breaker panel, etc.
* HAM radio broadcasts in the HF band
* AM radio transmissions, such as a nearby radio station

Try to isolate any potential source of these problems and see if you can find one that eliminates the interference.

You may also want to look at this post where I tracked down some interference on my own line.

[duenor]

joe, thank you - and I've read your previous post. 

I'm no radio expert - however, I'm a semi-intelligent guy. I'm going to try to isolate the problem. that said, I am limited by the fact that I live in an apt. I don't have access to the breakers - but what I can do is shut down everything in my apt and go step by step. 

I wonder if it would help for me to use a shielded telephone cable? 

what really puzzles me, however, is why it only happens with amazon, tageschau, and netflix. youtube videos run at 720p and even 1080p just fine.... and hulu as well. but once I get to VOD amazon or netflix I'm told that my bandwidth is too low. is it possible that netflix/amazon run on different frequencies than youtube/hulu and that the interference is hitting only that netflix/amazon frequency?

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

No, the interference would not affect only certain sites.  However, it may be that the video from Hulu and/or Youtube is simply lower bandwidth than what Netflix is using, and the interference is affecting only high-bandwidth streams.

[duenor]

check this out, joe!

I went over to where my RG is set up and I completely removed it from where it was (right next to the tv, aside the blueray player). I took it all the way back to the phone jack and set it down right there, unplugged everything from the jack, uplugged all other devices within 5' of the jack from wall sockets and plugged only the RG in. I also unplugged everything in my house. laptop is on battery power. 

Here are my graphs.

Preliminary conclusion: you weren't kidding about the high sensitivity of VDSL. by replacing the 25' coiled up telephone line with 6' of cable, and leaving it exposed that much less to interference, I was able to bring my reserve bits and bits in use way up and down. my bitloading graph seems to have improved, too. 

netflix streaming onto my laptop is significantly improved. I'm getting perfect hd streaming. 

But problem is that my xbox 360 isn't wireless. in order to get the signal to it, I'm going to have to run cable. I tried it with a coiled up 50' long cat5, and the problem was the same. not enough bandwidth, can't load video. mostly likely, there's interference attacking the exposed cat5 cable. I was hoping that cat5 was less susceptible than RJ45, but I guess not. 

I have a 15' cat5 cable in the cupboard. i'm going to go see if replacing the 50' with the 25 will make a difference. I need at least 20' of cable to reach from the RG to the entertainment center. 

[duenor]

ok... now here's more oddness.

I've been fiddling with it today - trying to reduce interference, etc. 

I've actually been able to stream a few episodes and two movies on netflix in HD perfectly!

but it isn't reliable. 

sometimes, it will return "insufficient bandwidth" - not enough even for their super-low res stream.

othertimes, it will say "streaming HD"... and five minutes later (an acceptable buffer time, I think), it will stream the entire move perfectly. I can even fast forward, rewind... perfect.

it's like there are only so many streaming seats on a VDSL merry go round... and each time I try to connect, I have to see if I'm lucky enough to get a seat. if I do, I have a great HD time. If all the seats are taken, I get "insufficient bandwidth". 

[Big-B]

Any of you feel free to post physical state you are in. Would be interesting to see if are similar areas or using same peers.

That being said I also have problems but have post about this many times. Lvl 2 can't do anything and Noc people say everything is normal on my 14+ hop just to get off AT&T route and that my higher pings 90+ off network are because my state has only one peer.

Download speeds themselves are fine (which makes me wonder why darn videos wont play for crap. Games I understand as my ping is too high, which also {word filter evasion} me off) but videos should not care on ping, just that I get a steady stream of speed.)

Anyway hope something happens soon and its a bigger issue on the network so something gets done.

[fyend]

I am having Netflix issues as well as of about 1 week ago.   All computers in the house (5 of them) and my Roku box have the same issue.  The Roku sits at the buffering video screen and nothing ever plays on Netflix, but Hulu works fine on the same unit.  On the PC's Netflix sits at the "determining video quality" and nothing ever plays.  Everything worked a week ago and nothing has been changed on my side.  A friend in town with Uverse reports the same issue and our buddy who has Time Warner cable modem is working just fine.  I've power cycled all equipment, etc. all to no avail.  ATT changed something a week ago on their network, I'm hoping they change it back soon or I'm cancelling and getting Time Warner.

[duenor]

I'm in east los angeles, CA i suggest using uverse realtime (search for it, it's a tiny free program) to analyze your connections. I strongly suspect that uverse has a problem with netflix/amazon

[index]

I am in South Florida.

[duenor]

I spoke too soon. 

Netflix/Amazon VOD are still very intermittently failure-prone on all devices. On my laptop, I can get it to work perfectly every few tries... on Xbox, maybe once out of every six or seven tries. I keep loading over and over again... 6 times it'll tell me that my connection is too slow, but if I keep struggling with it it will go through. no other settings in the entire house have been changed. 

i have no had enough patience with my blueray player to test this out, but i suspect it would be the same. 

I don't understand. I can get an internet connection... but I can't get streams started properly. I can even get youtube and hulu started pretty reliably, just not amazon or netflix.

uverse realtime indicates a problem with my profile, that it's not right. I wish I knew how to fix this (the highlighted in red part). 

I'm doing way more than I should have to to reduce interference. I should have been told about this vulnerability when I was sold the service - and certainly the technician who came to my house to install it should have told me about it. 

[seanmcc]

Little worried about this.  We have Netflix on the WII and watched it last 2 days with no issues... but we have only havd Uverse for 4 days. 

[Jeffster_1]

I use my Roku box just about everyday(used it today) watching Netflix and not had any problem.

I'm streaming it wireless also.