US Cable Support → Charter Internet/TV > Netflix HD - What is going on?

Re: Netflix HD - What is going on?

Got a cheap Linksys E1200 from WalMart and now have great HD on Netflix. Must be something with the AirPort Extreme and the modem. I did notice my modem has a firmware date of July 23. That is about when this started happening.

see this post, tsheley has the same hardware as me, anyone else experiencing this using an Airport Extreme?

»[Speed Issues] airport extreme + Cisco DPC3008

Just an update. I had my Airport Exterme unplugged all night. Plugged it in and did a factory reset, restored it to firmware version 7.5.2 and then updated each version up to the newest on it and now everything is working great. I am going to give it a few days and see what happens. Maybe something on the Airport Extreme got screwed up and being off all night reset it. Got me.

so weird. 7.5.2 is super old firmware, mine is at 7.6.4 right now - is there a reason you went back that far?

No reason. Just went back to the last one in the list. Wanted to start from scratch I guess. I case you don't know here is how to restore the firmware...

»www.cultofmac.com/234366/downgra···roubles/

My son and I noticed that Netflix hasn't been streaming in HD for a few weeks now. This is on our Xboxes, Vizio TV, iPads, and phones connected to my network. No issues with other services though.

I'm posting again just to report that, for the last three days, we've seen marked improvement when watching Netflix on our Charter connection, which is great!!! Videos are buffering very quickly again and playing regularly in HD (like they should, given our 30mbps connection), just like they used to do.

Nothing's changed on our end, so I'm sure that Charter must've fixed something—or made some new arrangement with Netflix—to improve the service. I doubt that we'll ever hear an official response to the problem, but I'm just glad that somebody out there was listening...and things got better. (Doesn't always happen in life, right?)

Has anybody else out there seen similar results—Netflix suddenly working much better on their Charter connection?

I downgraded my airports' firmware down from 7.6.3 to 7.6.1, and got HD here and there, some 3-dot quality on the Roku tonight. I'm not ready to call it solved yet, but something is better.

Also having issues with Netflix, Charter, and Apple TV. Saw it come up on the DSLReports.com homepage and had just had this same issue tonight. This was only the second time I have tried to watch Netflix on Charter (30 Mbps tier, Columbia, MO but routed through St. Louis, new resident/new subscriber) and while I get 30-35 Mbps on most speed tests, videos have been taking 20-30 seconds to load and often time out in the middle, resulting in navigating back to the menu, choosing the video again, waiting for it to buffer, and choosing to resume where I left off.

Trying to identify if it's something in my network (but other streaming like ESPN3 and MLB.tv work fine) or if there is an issue with Charter, especially (from what I'm seeing in this thread) Charter in Missouri/St. Louis area.

is your Apple TV running over wifi? what base station or router are you using? what firmware on it?

AirPort Extreme 7.6.4, 5th Gen
Ethernet connection

if you have airport admin 6 or above (the one with the spacey diagram of your network), you can option-click on the firmware and select a different one. tsheley went from the oldest one all the way back to 7.6.4, I went down to 7.6.1. curious to see if you get improvements making a firmware change.

Maybe I spoke too soon: Netflix is no longer playing in HD for us. Just had a few more days where quality was stinking again, dropped to 2 or 3 "dots" on every movie and is taking a long time to buffer. At the very same time, Amazon Instant Video has played perfectly in HD the whole time.

What is going on with Charter? My connection is great and speed tests consistently at very close to 30mbps. But, Netflix stream is limited to about 2-3mbps. Anybody else have any answers?

I'm convinced that Charter is limiting Netflix content (Netflix Support is telling me the same thing...).

I tried a web chat with Charter support and get no where. They have me run speed test, reset my modem and the same song and dance as always with no answers. I get speed test of between 30-45 meg down, Vudu movies start up instantly right in to HDX, Hulu and Amazon full HD. Netflix steaming will almost never get above 480p if even that. It use to work great, Charter is doing something on their end.

So if you're streaming Netflix how do you tell what your what your download speed actually is? Just running a standard speed test tells you nothing about what you are getting from a specific site. How do I tell what my speed is from Netflix?

If you try using it from a PC you can press CTRL, ALT, Shift and D to see the diagnostic screen.

This is my speedtest from Dallas servers but cant get above 1meg from Netflix.

I think you're right; the question is what can we do about it? All I can suggest is to keep pummeling their support team with calls/chats about the issue, until they improve the situation.

NOTE: Some of you have noticed that their "Live Chat" option often results in a non-live, automated answer. Instead, just enter "live chat" over and over 'til the system lets you deal with a human being.

I've been talking to both Charter and Netflix support tonight. Netflix insists that everything is fine on their end; Charter can't find anything wrong with my connection, and insists that they're not capping Netflix streaming.

After many, many attempts, I'm still unable to stream Netflix in HD on Roku, iPad, or MacBook Pro (via ethernet or wifi). At the very same time, I can stream Vimeo or Amazon Instant Video in HD almost instantaneously.

Something here clearly does not make sense. I think Charter is up to something: Please keep calling, chatting, and tweeting their support team until somebody fixes this!

#1-800-581-0081

If no one else is having an issue, the problem could be local to your network. I have no issues at this time with any streaming service on my connection.

This thread contains several reports like mine, and I have to wonder how many other users out there just aren't savvy enough to recognize the restriction-problem when they see it: Up until fairly recently, the world spent a lot of decades being accustomed to 4:3, low-res video.

In any case, what kind of local network problem could consistently restrict Netflix streaming to all of my devices...but have zero negative impact on AIV, YouTube, Vimeo, etc? (Just to reiterate, this problem continues whether I use a direct ethernet connection or my wifi network.)

I have this exact same problem where I cannot get HD anymore. Nothing has changed on my end and my speeds are perfectly fine. Charter and Netflix must be doing something to restrict bandwidth usage. I have a VPN service, I may try that to see if it makes any difference. It may be a while as free time is a luxury right now.

I also have access to a CenturyLink DSL line and it will not show HD when attempting to stream The Walking Dead.

I don't know, just going by my experience. No problems here with Netflix or Hulu

just did a full reset of my whole home network, from leaving the modem off for an hour and letting it boot for about 30 minutes before plugging stuff in, full factory resets of the Airport Extreme and the Airport Express, resetting the whole WiFi network, and got HD via NetFlix on my hardwired machine and the Roku around noon yesterday. Then last night my wife reported it dipping back down the 3 dots on the Roku. It's totally unpredictable, and I know nothing in my house is changing because I get solid repeatable speed tests day and night here, so there's got to be something going on.

Sneaky what's your Charter setup like - the usual 30mb plan? what kind of modem from Charter, and what router do you have? At least one other poster here has the DPC3008 which I have - they pushed a firmware update on July 26 which is right around when all this mess started happening.

I'm on the Ultra100 plan, Zoom modem and m0n0wall firewall. Apple TV connects wireless on 2.4Ghz and the PS3 is wired into the network.

Update on the streaming quality, after reading that changing routers helped some other users I ordered a new router (switched from a WRTG2 to a WD N750). Hooking up the new router and everything is working fine again, full speed tests and full HD on Netflix.

Not sure what changed but I assume some sort of technical change on Charter's end 7 or 8 weeks ago which led to the router no longer working properly (I used 2 different modems over the time frame, one I owned then the one charter gives you after I moved a month ago).

For those still experience issues I would suggest trying a newer router.

Also in the same boat....not getting HD through Netflix on any of my devices (laptop, blue ray, xbox360). Netflix blames Charter as from their end they stated they can see my connection speed drop/choke as soon as it attempts to stream HD quality. All my other services stream in HD just fine (Amazon, Vudu, etc....)

Equipment Im using- Motorola SB6120 and Netgear WNDR3800 with the 30mbps internet package. I was using the Cisco DPC3010 and switched back to my Motorola SB6120 to see if that fixed the problem but it didn't.

Troubleshooting I have done so far:
Modem directly to XBOX360 - No HD
Modem to router, router hardwired to devices - No HD
Tethered to my Verizon Samsung Galaxy S4 with 4g LTE - HD works fine!!!!!

Charter has no idea why this is happening and from their end they told me they are unable to observe the signal drops Netflix speaks of. They are sending a tech out tomorrow morning so maybe they can see something different from out here.

Would love to see a fix for this but haven't seen one posted anywhere....