I started getting emails from customers complaining about missing subtitles, HD titles only showing up as SD, duplicate entries in the RSS feed, and even missing streaming shows like LOST. Tech of the Hub was the first to tie the problems to metadata:
Customers have seen the issue on Netflix’s web site, Apple TV, Sony Playstation3, Panasonic Blu-ray players and the Roku 2 among other devices. While the Netflix website normally lists thousands of TV shows and movies in HD, last week it only listed hundreds. On the Apple TV, closed captions still function but none of the titles are flagged as having them. The Roku and Playstation3 were no longer providing the option to chose alternate audio tracks or turn on closed captioning. On all of the aforementioned devices, some titles were not being flagged as being in HD. However, when playing titles, they would still play in HD and with surround sound. Regardless, it’s still confusing for the customer. There has not appeared to be any issue with the data that is fed to third-party developers.
Is anyone still seeing problems with the Netflix subtitles, HD, RSS feed or missing shows?
Thanks to everyone for sending in the problems.
Last week I noticed the missing shows when one sorts by genre. The religion category only had 20 or 30 shows. I even suggested on this website that the problem seemed due to a degradation of their data management.
Posted by: Judy_ | January 28, 2012 at 10:40 PM
Thank goodness!
Someone else, besides a friend of mine and myself, noticed this issue. We both have Apple TVs and found HD shows listed as SD. I called Netflix support twice. They said they knew nothing about these problem and suggested it was our ISP's (i.e., Comcast's) fault.
That is, they said my throughput--to my Apple TV, Panasonic TV, and Computer--was between 0.4 and 4Mb/s which would cause the HD to SD issue. With Netflix support on the phone, I tested my network speed at http://www.speedtest.net and came up with a consistent 35Mb/s download throughput.
They didn't care! They just kept repeating that the throughput from me to them was slow thus it must be my Internet connection. I suggested it might be server issues on their end but got nowhere.
Thankfully, several days ago the issue seemed to resolve itself. I'll keep an eye out for a repeat performance and report it here.
Thanks again for the alert!
Posted by: Randy Sandberg | January 28, 2012 at 11:19 PM
Perhaps Yury Israelevski's "monkeys" have run amok. His restructuring of Netflix data retrieval seems badly flawed.
http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2011/07/netflix-explains-simian-army-testing-strategy.html
Posted by: Judy_ | January 29, 2012 at 04:40 AM
qing zhe zi qing a nan dao shi cuo de
Posted by: ray ban uk | January 29, 2012 at 11:31 PM
We were missing subtitles on the Roku2, but they were not missing on the Wii. Also, it was not every movie/TV episode, just some of them. By the weekend, the problem seemed to resolve.
Since our Roku2 firmware was not updated at any point during the disruption or afterwards, I agree NF's metadata is a good candidate for the cause.
Posted by: jheartney | January 30, 2012 at 03:08 AM
Yup, my recent viewing of Mad Men is in HD but doesn't show the loggo during buffering the show as many others do show it.
Posted by: John | January 30, 2012 at 03:47 PM
Last night my PS3 wasn't even able to load. It just had the red Netflix loading screen. The laptop at least brought me to my home screen.
Posted by: vknight | January 31, 2012 at 07:56 PM
Yep. I also have this problem ;o
Posted by: Free MW3 | January 31, 2012 at 09:35 PM