Topic 'Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier' in forum 'Comcast HSI' - dslreports.com

Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:28:12 EDT

Johkal posted : The quality settings are more important for connections that are low in subscribed bandwidth & may suffer buffering.

Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:32:12 EDT

Kearnstd posted :

said by ExoticFish:

I believe lowering the setting restricts what quality level is streamed, no matter your speed.

it does, the limiter is there as to help people with low caps not go over.

Basically on the lowest setting even if you had Google Fiber you would only get that quality.

Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:12:13 EDT

ExoticFish posted : I believe lowering the setting restricts what quality level is streamed, no matter your speed.
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Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:28:28 EDT

plencnerb posted : I really have no idea on that. What I do know is that in the specific case of my girlfriends laptop, I made no changes to her system (drivers, software, additional programs, etc), and she was having the problem I described on only her laptop. All other systems in her house worked fine.

I changed that setting only, and her laptop has been fine ever since.

I guess all I can say is try it at one of the lower settings, and see what happens. If it does not work you can always change it back.

Which, btw, I did in her case. Once I put it lower, and things worked, I switched it back to "Best", and then things failed again, with the same movie. Putting it back to "Good" and things worked. It was like turning on and off a switch.

It also did not matter if I ran the movie from netflix inside of Media Center, Firefox, or IE. All three had the same problem, and all three were fixed just by changing that setting.

--Brian
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--Brian Plencner

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Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:22:58 EDT

seadan1 posted : My DNS are set via DHCP, currently to:


75.75.75.75
75.75.76.76

I am familiar with that Netflix setting -- currently it is at BEST QUALITY -- I figure that if I have 35Mbps service I should take advantage of it and get the best quality I can! I'll do some additional testing, but does setting it to Good quality mean you can never stream HD?

Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:17:52 EDT

plencnerb posted : Just curious if you have tried making changes to the above settings of Netflix.

To get to this screen, you have to login to Netflix from a web browser. Once you are logged in, click on "Your Account" and then "Manage Video Quality", in the "YOUR STREAMING PLAN" section.

My girlfriend has had Netflix for over a year, without any problems. Then, out of the blue she started having issues watching different selections, and it did not matter the time of day. The issues she was having was that the video would not match the audio (audio would be about 30 seconds to a minute ahead of the video).

I thought it was her laptop, or the fact that she was connected wireless instead of wired. However, other devices in her home (Desktops that were wired, and a PS2) did not have the same issue. I even took her laptop and plugged it directly into the back of her cable modem, and still had the same issue.

Finally, after doing a lot of searches from google, I came across a link that said to adjust the video quality options inside of Netflix. Since I was at a loss, I went and changed the above setting from "Best Quality" down to "Good Quality", and that solved the problem. She has never had the issue again, and has been totally happy.

So, you may want to see what your setting is, and drop it down a bit to see if that makes things better on your end.

--Brian
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--Brian Plencner

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Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:08:34 EDT

pflog posted :

said by andyross:

I generally have no issues if I do it earlier in the day, like a weekend morning or afternoon. It's just the peering or CDN is overloaded, or Netflix is deliberately throttling at peak times to try and push their OpenConnect CDN.

Purposely throttling would really come back to bite them in the ass. I don't believe they're doing that.
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Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:04:50 EDT

andyross posted : I generally have no issues if I do it earlier in the day, like a weekend morning or afternoon. It's just the peering or CDN is overloaded, or Netflix is deliberately throttling at peak times to try and push their OpenConnect CDN.

Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:43:16 EDT

ExoticFish posted : What DNS servers are you using just out of curiosity ?
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Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:30:40 EDT

johnnn posted : I have been on Blast with near-perfect RF conditions over the past year or so. Comcast runs congested peering/transit links regularly and does nothing to address that congestion. I have settled for a permanently lower monthly bill rather than switch to AT&T...for now. Good luck =/

Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:15:16 EDT

seadan1 posted : Yup, Roku is up to date with the latest SW available for that version.

The issues seem to be more during primetime -- weekend evenings -- but I haven't done extensive testing at other times to see how it responds. It does seem like Comcast is overloaded...so who can we talk to about getting that addressed, or re-routed over a faster link?

Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:01:32 EDT

andyross posted : Be aware that Netflix is pushing their own OpenConnect CDN for streaming the data to you. With that, you can get higher bitrate HD and 3D. Comcast does NOT currently peer with OpenConnect, so you can only get basic HD. Further, during primetime, it's overloaded. I tried watching last night and gave up as I could see it streaming continuously (hardwired Ethernet with a nearby swithc) instead of the data/pause/data/pause activity. It also kept dropping to Medium/HD instead of the normal High/HD. Speed tests were fine.

Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:56:43 EDT

ExoticFish posted : I assume it's up to date software/firmware wise ?

As far as Comcast/Netflix goes I stream NetFlix HD daily and don't have any issues in my area. Are you having this streaming issue all day long or only during peak times ?
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Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:45:57 EDT

seadan1 posted : The Roku is model N1000, one of the first-generation devices.

Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:40:41 EDT

bgoodbody posted : The 822 supports 8 channels down and 4 up

the 722 4 down 4 up
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Re: Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:07:12 EDT

ExoticFish posted : The TM722G is a D3 device so switching shouldn't really change your speed.

What Roku do you have ?
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Netflix HD Streaming w/Blast tier

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 02:29:22 EDT

seadan1 posted : I'm a new Comcast HSI subscriber at the Blast speed tier, located in Seattle. I had a few questions I was looking to get some feedback on.

The tech that did the install brought out an Arris TM722G device (I do have voice service as well). Here are my modem signal levels. How do they look? Is this what I should expect to see for my given speed tier?


Downstream

DCID	Freq	Power	SNR	Modulation	Octets	Correcteds	Uncorrectables
Downstream 1	29	591.00 MHz	3.70 dBmV	37.36 dB	256QAM	9926484201	340	0
Downstream 2	30	597.00 MHz	2.91 dBmV	37.64 dB	256QAM	9435529361	441	0
Downstream 3	31	603.00 MHz	2.64 dBmV	37.09 dB	256QAM	9303289940	428	0
Downstream 4	32	609.00 MHz	1.85 dBmV	37.09 dB	256QAM	9638734017	509	0

Upstream

UCID	Freq	Power	Channel Type	Symbol Rate	Modulation
Upstream 1	1	30.60 MHz	37.25 dBmV	DOCSIS2.0 (ATDMA)	5120 kSym/s	64QAM
Upstream 4	3	37.00 MHz	39.25 dBmV	DOCSIS2.0 (ATDMA)	5120 kSym/s	64QAM

Is there any benefit to trying to get an TM822 (if they have them in my area)?

I've been doing quite a bit of speed testing at various points in the day, and I seem to be able to consistently pull 35/5 from the major flash speedtest sites (to local servers). I thought Blast in my area was a bit higher on the upload speed--can anyone confirm what I should be seeing here?

And now to my main question: I have a Roku device (wired connection) and have been trying to stream some HD shows from Netflix the past few weekends. Unfortunately, I seem to be having more issues here compared to my old 12Mbit DSL line. Sometimes, it will stream in HD quality with no issue--but more often I'm only getting 3, maybe 4 quality dots. With the Roku speed diagnostics on, it's only detecting my connection as a 1-3Mbit connection (and thus pulling in a 1-1.5Mbit stream). When I run the Speed Test channel on Roku, though, it's constantly pulling 30Mbit+ from the speedtest servers.

So, I think that my link to Comcast is OK, but it seems like the Comcast <===> Netflix link is constrained. What's the best way to troubleshoot/diagnose/resolve this? I really like the speed increase compared to my existing DSL line, but I want to ensure Comcast will be as reliable for the services I care about.

Thanks in advance for any tips/guidance!