Netflix Streaming Problems?

CNet reports that some customers are experiencing problems with Netflix's streaming and the Roku Player, Roku Netflix Player suffers mystery glitch.

Tim Twerdahl, vice president of consumer products at Roku, told CNET News on Monday that the company is still unsure about what exactly triggered the problem, but he said indications are it originated at Netflix. Twerdahl added that the problem likely affects Netflix's other boxes as well as Roku's player.

"All we know is Roku didn't make any changes," Twerdahl said. "This is not a box problem. We know from some reports that this seems to be correlated with a change in Netflix's content distribution network (CDN), and Netflix is trying to figure out what the issue is."

Do you have a Netflix streaming device? How many dots or bars are you getting?

Comments

[Matt White]

I was getting between 1 bar and no service last night on my XBox. I supposedly have a 15MB line from my ISP (Bresnan Cable), but I've been having trouble streaming content for the last several days. I've been trying to narrow the problem down between my ISP and NetFlix, but haven't gotten a conclusive answer yet.

[Del]

Occasionally I get a 1 dot connection, I just stop it and re-start it until I get aleast 2 dots. I am on ATT 3.0MB DSL in central California. The 1 dot thing is random and most of the time I get between 2 and 4 dots.

[kalvin]

Got 3-4 dots when i bought the box a month ago. Now i can never get more than 1 dot.

[mw]

A few days ago I started seeing one or two dots (and it was even rebuffering when I got two dots). I've never had this problem before. I stopped the Netflix stream and checked my connection with Speedtest and had ~3100 kbps (down) which is about the max my DSL connection will run (and is usually plenty fast enough to get three or four dots). I'm on AT&T in Knoxville, Tennessee.

I'm glad to know it isn't just my problem.

[Patrick]

I've been using instant viewing since before the New Xbox Experience was released and had no problem until last saturday. The detected video quality has been stuck at one bar during much of the day for the past 4 days. Like everyone else, I've run bandwidth checks through more than once source and have found no problem with my internet speed. Right now, Netflix struggles to maintain streaming even with a terrible picture. The single bar video quality is present on all computers in my network. I'm in central Texas with an 8.0 mbps cable connection.

[Jeremy Martinez]

I usually get 3-4 bars, occasionally I will get two bars. I even get 3-4 bars when the kids are watching the Roku downstairs.

I can't complain.

[goodboy_stay]

I've had the Roku player for @ least 4 months now and up until yesterday I always had 3-4 bars. For a short time yesterday I had no bars...then 1 w/ buffering...then 2. I then stopped watching for a half hour and it was 4 again. Otherwise no problems here.

[hutbay]

I get 4 dots on my 8MegaBit cable (Occasionally get 2 - 3 when I have other downloads going). When I tried on a 768KB DSL I got 1 dot.

[jimmy]

Mine was all good, 4 dots until about a month ago. Now it rebuffers all the time, and commonly gives me only one dot. So lame.

[Chris]

I got my Roku box back in June or July and the bars flowed like fine wine. A few days before the NXE launched, I started getting 2 bars at first, than reset into 1 bar. It's been that way ever since. I can force the stream on the Roku box to 3-4 bars, but it takes a half hour to load the video, and I'm impatient. Calls to Netflix get me nowhere, and speed tests on my end confirm it's not my connection.

I actually feel bad for Roku; they are the ones being called out in the article, but all three of my devices (Xbox, Roku, PC) are suffering, so its clearly an issue on Netflix's end.

[Dave Burke]

Thanks for bringing this to light, Chris. I bought a Roku when it was released and until recently have enjoyed 4-dot quality. Now it's typically at 3 and sometimes drops to 1 or 2 dots.

[George]

Real nice impression netflix is making on the xbox community with this terrible release onto the xbox thank god im still on a trial.
this is one user who wont be renewing their membership if they cant figure this out soon.

[Kris]

There were a couple of days a couple of weeks ago that I was getting 2-3 dots, but now it's 4 dots every time.

So it's all good here.

[James]

had my roku for like three months and always got 4 dots with out forcing it to. but within the last week i can't get one dot. modt of the time i get my selection is temp unavail. now when i force it, it takes a long time to load then it will need to rebuffer about every ten mins. now. extremely frustrating. i have time warner cable. and speeds are testing great. ugh

[Jay T]

I stream Netflix to my Xbox 360 and, prior to this weekend, would consistently get 4 bars at decent quality even over a relatively pedestrian residential DSL connection.

The past couple of days I've had connection speed issues -- generally it comes up as 2 bars now unless I restart the movie, at which point it then detects 4.

However, now the stream regularly freezes for me, and the entire console locks up. According to some forum posts, other Xbox 360 users are experiencing this as well.

[james]

the first few days after nxe launched i was getting 3-4 bars almost always.. now I can never get up to HD speeds always 2 bars sometime 1.

[Matt White]

As a follow-up, after my cable provider diagnosed some problems with my connection things have been much improved. I still get buffering on my 360 occasionally, but it's far less frequent. I think the remaining playback issues are more likely on NetFlix's end...

[David]

I have been having issues streaming to my PC for about 3 weeks now. It will show high quality then when the movie starts playing it starts buffering. I have had 30 minute TV shows say it will start in 2 hours. When I check my download speeds it is 20 Mbps.

Prior to this streaming was great.

[Jonny]

I bought a Roku a few weeks after it came out. Honestly, sometimes it's not the best quality- but it's cheaper than cable and doesn't have all those damn comercials. Sometimes I have to look...but there's always something to watch. Patience is key:)

[Meet2x4]

Well they say it's been fixed but I'm still having the same problems for the past 2 weeks. 6 meg connection and shawdy video and it STILL stops to rebuffer. This is what happens when you get the cheapest bidder =) Do you have any idea how AWFUL 640x480 looks on a 92" screen? Thanks for all the hype and huge letdown there Netflix. Do the words Dai Katana mean anything to you?

[McLoven]

i have verzion fios i have a full 20/20 mbps i just downloaded a 1 gig file from a test server at 2.33 megs it took 7 minutes and 17 seconds to complete .i upload just as fast but netflix on my xbox and even on my pc i still get those your net has slowed! thats B.S i just ran a 1 gig test file and held a cool 2.33 MEGS ok well just got off the phone with netflix today is jan 31st 12:30 a,m eastern time so if anyone sees this they are experiencing network issues so they say. hope things get fixed