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tk421storm
join:2009-02-17

tk421storm

Member

Netflix unable to stream HD in Northeast?

Is anyone else unable to watch netflix at anything more than 75% quality in the northeast? I've got 35mbps down, ethernet throughout the house, and I'm still lucky if I get 75% quality streams - HD is right out. Is this normal?

PoloDude
Premium Member
join:2006-03-29
Aiken, SC

PoloDude

Premium Member

»Horrible youtube speeds
FactChecker
Premium Member
join:2008-06-03

FactChecker

Premium Member

I think that is unrelated since Google is a Verizon business customer. The Netflix issues are most likely due to things Netflix is doing as it applies to many ISPs. See the comments in »Netherlands Tops Netflix Streaming Speed Country Rankings [17] comments

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
·Charter
Ubee EU2251
Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-HD

Smith6612 to tk421storm

MVM

to tk421storm
If you are streaming from a computer, press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S and shut off that stupid auto-quality selection system, and force the quality to play at the max. If the device you're streaming from supports doing the same, do this. It won't help with the buffering issue too much, but it'll fix the quality issues.

Actually, the last time I did this on Netflix I was able to progressively stream a title. Worked quite well on crap connections when playing HD content.

Dream Killer
Graveyard Shift
Premium Member
join:2002-08-09
Forest Hills, NY

Dream Killer to tk421storm

Premium Member

to tk421storm
I can verify that Super HD works on my Samsung BD-F5900 (greatest media center ever made imo) because the device eats up about 7-8mbps during shows.

Gary
@verizon.net

Gary to tk421storm

Anon

to tk421storm
I'm north of Boston, have 75 down, and cannot watch netflix from my sony blue ray with constant buffering. The quality has already been downgraded and it's still buffering.

I called verizon last week about constant buffering on youtube and they said they only guarantee network speeds within their network. I guess i see the point, but i don't think its unreasonable to expect HD youtube and Netflix streaming for what I pay for 75 down. My wireless N router is directly above in my office. Within 10 feet. I have no other wireless devices in the house except our iPhones. Seriously considering trying comcast at this point.

norm
join:2012-10-18
Pittsburgh, PA

norm

Member

Gary,

It's not just you, it's most people. I suggest you shop around if possible as given the current environment, your 75mbit is worthless. I'm seeing Netflix content pushed from Level3 a lot lately and even that buffers. I seriously doubt Level3 is having issues. I have access to an Above.Net connection and it pulls content from a lot of the same CDNs - including Level3. No issues there. Just on Verizon.

If RCN is in your area, I strongly recommend checking them out.
navyson
join:2011-07-15
Upper Marlboro, MD

navyson to tk421storm

Member

to tk421storm
I have FIOS 50/25 and Netflix buffered a few times when I was watching it yesterday.
Expand your moderator at work
Morris0
join:2011-05-14

Morris0 to tk421storm

Member

to tk421storm

Re: Netflix unable to stream HD in Northeast?

Works fine in Queens, New York

GlennLouEarl
3 brothers, 1 gone
Premium Member
join:2002-11-17
Richmond, VA

5 recommendations

GlennLouEarl to tk421storm

Premium Member

to tk421storm
Just to clarify:
said by tk421storm:

Netflix Verizon unable to stream HD from Netflix in Northeast [and other places]

oops, I meant:

Netflix Verizon unable unwilling to stream HD from Netflix in Northeast [and other places]

oops, wait a minute:

Netflix Verizon unable unwilling to stream HD much of anything from Netflix and other sites not on Verizon's network in Northeast [and other places]

(Verizon: "mo' money, please")
elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

elefante72

Member

Netflix was crashing yesterday due to load. They seem to have that issue every Xmas. I know it probably wasn't Verizon specifically because it was out on my Roku and my Xbox (XBG uses proxy servers). Maybe transit was taking a hit because I had a few downloads that were sub-par but at the very least the API was not working because I couldn't even get icons or search to even work.

And it doesn't really matter what Fios speed you have unless you have local congestion (which is not likely), so even a 15/5 or 300/100 connection will stream Netflix just fine IF the upstream pieces are working. HD only uses 2-3 Mbps, and I have seen a few SuperHD streams hit 7 Mbps, hardly enough to saturate a line with one user.

Youtube in general is a problem if you use non-native DNS servers or your own. I run my own, no problems--ever. And for measure I use HTML5 (which is mp4) versus flash. Try using native Verizon DNS servers and see if the problem clears up.
tk421storm
join:2009-02-17

tk421storm

Member

So, I guess my next question is what if anything I can do about it?

I tested at noon, and indeed I was able to get a full HD stream almost immediately. However after 6pm the results are always the same - in fact recently I've been getting the "your connection is too slow to stream content" warning.

Should I be complaining to Netflix, or Verizon about this? I posted an FCC complaint a few months back about this congestion issue, naming Verizon as the culprit, and I immediately got a call from verizon but of course it didn't really resolve anything.

netflixer
@verizon.net

netflixer

Anon

Since my other services work fine I can't really blame Verizon for Netflix problems. Seems more like Netflix won't pay for quality transit.

Solution... move to hulu and amazon who remarkably do not have these same problems... go figure...

norm
join:2012-10-18
Pittsburgh, PA

norm

Member

said by netflixer :

Since my other services work fine I can't really blame Verizon for Netflix problems. Seems more like Netflix won't pay for quality transit.

Solution... move to hulu and amazon who remarkably do not have these same problems... go figure...

Given that a lot of the content Netflix pushes out is being delivered to Verizon customers via LLNW and Level3, I'd hardly say they're not paying for quality transit. People get hung up on the whole Cogent deal but I can't remember the last time I've seen a Netflix video delivered over Cogent.
davidm00
join:2000-08-19
Philadelphia, PA

davidm00 to tk421storm

Member

to tk421storm
said by tk421storm:

I tested at noon, and indeed I was able to get a full HD stream almost immediately. However after 6pm the results are always the same - in fact recently I've been getting the "your connection is too slow to stream content" warning.

I'm having the same problem in PA. During day time, I'm able to get to full 1080 quickly. In the evenings, takes forever to even get to 480. And my smart TV is connected via cable and not wireless. I tried Amazon sometime back and it appears to get to HD much more consistently than Netflix but that was only a short trial.

norm
join:2012-10-18
Pittsburgh, PA

1 recommendation

norm to tk421storm

Member

to tk421storm
When I try to do a reverse trace route using Level 3's looking glass, it times out right at the alter.net hop.

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------|
|                                      WinMTR statistics                                   |
|                       Host              -   %  | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
|                             192.168.0.1 -    0 |  313 |  313 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |
|    L100.PITBPA-VFTTP-33.verizon-gni.net -    0 |  313 |  313 |    2 |    7 |  163 |    3 |
|  G0-1-0-5.PITBPA-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net -    9 |  232 |  213 |    3 |   10 |   29 |   15 |
| xe-15-1-0-0.RES-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net -    0 |  313 |  313 |    7 |   11 |   69 |    9 |
|           0.xe-4-3-0.BR1.IAD8.ALTER.NET -    8 |  241 |  223 |    9 |   16 |   79 |   11 |
|    ae16.edge1.washingtondc12.level3.net -    5 |  266 |  255 |    0 |   50 |   94 |   58 |
|vl-3603-ve-227.ebr2.Washington12.Level3.net -    0 |  313 |  313 |   27 |   32 |   45 |   32 |
|   ae-2-52.edge3.Washington12.Level3.net -    0 |  313 |  313 |   38 |   52 |   95 |   61 |
|                             4.31.104.14 -   10 |  227 |  206 |   60 |   66 |   76 |   65 |
|ipv4_1.lagg0.c028.iad001.ix.nflxvideo.net -   11 |  218 |  195 |   60 |   66 |   75 |   68 |
|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______|
   WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider
 
navyson
join:2011-07-15
Upper Marlboro, MD

navyson to tk421storm

Member

to tk421storm
Watching Netflix tonight and it is buffering on my 50/25 fios line.

GlennLouEarl
3 brothers, 1 gone
Premium Member
join:2002-11-17
Richmond, VA

GlennLouEarl to netflixer

Premium Member

to netflixer
Since my other "services" (Amazon, Crunchyroll, etc.) don't work any better than Netflix, I can--and do--blame Verizon.

Actually, though, hulu hasn't demonstrated the same problem (of course, I use it so seldom [during high-utilization evening hours] that I might not notice if it did) ...go figure...

garyalex
@verizon.net

garyalex

Anon

My experience is that this might be device related. I was using my htpc to access Netflix and getting constant "Not currently in HD" messages. Forcing higher bandwidths resulted in HD but lengthy buffering delays. I saw that the Google Chromecast was on sale for $29 so I decided to try that with my iPad. So far, HD is always available and no buffering. For Netflix, excellent picture quality and audio.

GlennLouEarl
3 brothers, 1 gone
Premium Member
join:2002-11-17
Richmond, VA

GlennLouEarl

Premium Member

I had approximately the same results using 3 different devices--Roku, Samsung Blu-ray player, and Sony Netbox. When one works OK, they all work OK. When one doesn't, they all don't. All of which points to--still--Verizon being the problem.
tk421storm
join:2009-02-17

tk421storm

Member

I can confirm that though only one device on my network (my stupidest, the blu-ray player) gives me the extremely low bandwidth error, if I call up the movie on my computers I see what's the equivalent of about 320p, heavily compressed at peak times.

How does one perform a traceroute like that to the server where the video is hosted? I'd like to go back to Verizon with some more data.
banshee
join:2013-06-17
Albany, NY

1 edit

banshee

Member

I just spent the last 4 hrs. on Netflix without issue, just streaming to computer, just saying

Went back on Netflix last night and couldn't watch HD, my bad.

Netflixer
@bhn.net

Netflixer to GlennLouEarl

Anon

to GlennLouEarl
said by GlennLouEarl:

I had approximately the same results using 3 different devices--Roku, Samsung Blu-ray player, and Sony Netbox. When one works OK, they all work OK. When one doesn't, they all don't. All of which points to--still--Verizon being the problem.

If you are only having the problem with Netflix it points to Netflix being the problem. Call Netflix and tell them to invest in a quality transit strategy. They totally cheaped out on their internet solution as they switched their CDN in house over the summer.

Netflix LOVES when people blame Verizon for their problem. This inaccurate blaming is central to thier strategy

... Or use Amazon or Hulu and show Netflix you don't appreciate being their OpenConnect pawn

Geot
@verizon.net

Geot

Anon

Isn't this more of the same issue that has going on for months? "a behind-the-scenes power play between Verizon and Cogent Communications".

»gigaom.com/2013/06/17/ha ··· verizon/

»cir.ca/news/netflix-qual ··· n-fios-1

Netflixer
@bhn.net

Netflixer

Anon

said by Geot :

Isn't this more of the same issue that has going on for months? "a behind-the-scenes power play between Verizon and Cogent Communications".

While Netflix wants people to believe that, the truth is the decisions Netflix making is what is causing these issues. Netflix is swinging huge traffic and breaking peering paths. Cogent is a patsy (or collaborator) in this.

If Netflix sees a problem, they should shift to alternative paths vs pushing more.
tk421storm
join:2009-02-17

tk421storm to garyalex

Member

to garyalex
If it really was netflix- and not fios-specific, wouldn't there be more questions and complaints on all telcos? I did a quick search of this site and can't come up with anyone complaining about netflix on any other telco in the past 3-4 years.

I would like to identify who is really causing the slowdown (if possible) because I want to stop giving them my money. If netflix is really at fault I can cancel streaming, otherwise I should look for another telco.

Geot
@verizon.net

Geot to Netflixer

Anon

to Netflixer
I guess in a sense you are right, Netflix is causing this issue due to their popularity. Estimates are they account for about 1/3 of the traffic overall. The articles I've read talk about Verizon's refusal to use openconnect and the conflict of interest they have with Redbox. If you have a link to a source that says this is all Netflix's problem lets see it.

Netflixer
@bhn.net

Netflixer

Anon

Lots of data and documented history in this and other ISP threads on DSLR
•Netflix is a very large traffic source and use to work well (pre OpenConnect)
•Neflix wants settlement free peering with ISPs but, does not meet their peering policies
•Netflix starts OpenConnect moving working traffic from Akamai, Limelight and Level 3 to their in house CDN
•Instead of using similar transit solutions as other CDNs, Netflix chooses transit that cannot handle the capacity and contests impacting user experience
•Netflix ranks ISPs showing performance is degrading and blames the ISPs
•Netflix says to fix the above created problem ISPs must give them settlement free peering (OpenConnect)

Since this issue is across multiple ISPs AND other video does not have the same problem, the common factor is Netflix business decions. Basic logic.

Geot
@verizon.net

Geot

Anon

said by Netflixer :

other video does not have the same problem, the common factor is Netflix business decions. Basic logic.

The only other big video streamer is Youtube. A comparison to something like Hulu is nonsensical given their trivial market share.

and guess what....people are complaining about the same thing with Youtube.

»arstechnica.com/informat ··· e-video/

Do you have any sources you can link to since your basic logic isn't working so well?