Some Xbox owners see poor-quality Netflix streams
Some owners of Microsoft's Xbox 360 who have signed up to receive movies via Netflix's streaming movie service have seen the same loss of video quality as owners of Roku's Netflix Player.
A mysterious glitch has been hobbling video streams distributed by the two set-top boxes for at least two weeks, said a source close to Netflix on Thursday. The problem is the first setback for Netflix's streaming, which has won accolades since the $99 Roku box debuted last spring. Microsoft, LG Electronics, and Samsung followed with their own set-top boxes featuring Netflix's service. Microsoft did not respond to an interview request.
Those affected by the problem have been frustrated by long delays before a movie is playable and "unwatchable," according to one Roku box owner. Steve Swasey, Netflix's spokesman confirmed the company is working on a fix but declined to discuss which set-top boxes have seen a drop-off in video quality. He said the glitch is affecting a relatively small number of Netflix users.
"We can't stress highly enough that we want everyone's experience to be the best it can be," Swasey said. "We've seen the (complaints on the message boards). It's a small number of people involved but we don't want to diminish the fact that's it important."
The malfunction has apparently stumped Netflix and Roku engineers for weeks. Roku, which counts Netflix as one of its financial backers, asked those affected by the problem to post information on the company's forums that could help the company pinpoint the problem, such as their ISP, what kind of connection speeds they typically get, and what part of the country they live in.
Earlier this week Roku posted a message on the forum asking any San Francisco Bay Area residents having problems whether they would mind letting engineers poke around their system for clues. Netflix has also been working hard on the problem, Swasey said.
"We're doing all of the analysis we can," Swasey said. "We're looking at region, at carriers...we're working diligently to identify the problem. Until we have, we certainly don't want to speculate at all. Look, there's no manual to take off the shelf here. Netflix has created something new here."
Delivering full-length movies over the Web is extremely complicated and has always been plagued with long download times or fuzzy streams. But Netflix is also competing with itself here. The streaming service was free of these kinds of quality issues for six months. Why are they cropping up now?
A Roku executive told me earlier this week that the problems coincided with changes Netflix was making with its content distribution network (CDN). It may be a coincidence but about the same time Roku customers began seeing problems with video quality, some Apple TV owners began complaining on the company's message board about long delays downloading movies.
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET. 
*cue crickets chirping*
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10112759-93.html?tag=mncol
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10110480-93.html
From what I gathered there where 4 mentions of the xbox in those comments. Three complaining of the same problem and one person suggesting that since the problem started occurring when the xbox was updated to allow netflix streaming maybe it was a bandwith issue.
Typical Apple apologist, "The world is out to get Apple."
Take your blinkers off, please. The world is not out to "get Apple", but more than a few bullet-heads who blindly worship Ballmer's wee company certainly spare no chance to say something... even if it more often than not turns out to be wrong (see also the whole Apple Antivirus thing, as a great example).
ddesy nailed it. Deal. :)
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On here you've got to expect any article about Apple is going to bring out the silly haters, just as you know that any post about MS is going to have a pointless thread from Penguinisto.
If you're having this kind of problem with Netflix Instant Watching add a pin to this map showing your general location and the box you're using (xbox, roku, blueray, PC ...).
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=104445276136252010198.00045c53d408cc8601093
Post the link to the map on any forums you visit where people are having such problems.
Although, I am not getting the full 15mbps as advertised (but we all know how that works), I get an average of 10mbps even on peak user times. Now the Netflix instant-play loads really quick and I have no issues of bandwidth but the quality on the HD videos is not like the first few days.
And as of this week, I am also looking at the VUDU....
Are the ones who are having problems?
Just last week I went to a friend's house who had a) and b) but used a small DSL provider and they had no problems what so ever.
Add to the fact that Comcast has just released new tiered internet (which by the way caps existing subscribers to 4/mbps) which I am sure is designed to require video streaming users purchase more expensive subscriptions.
What you dumped both the $55/mth cable and $45/mth voip service from comcast but you are keeping your $55/mth comcast internet? Well I guess we will just have to reduce your service, add more pricing tiers and charge you more money! (That's Craptastic!)
Oh if you want FIOS speeds well you can pay our $160/mth (FIOS is only $45/mth) because Comcast has spend good bribe money to have a monopoly in your area so FIOS can't install or lease lines. Waahaha.. Craptastic!
- by baisa December 5, 2008 10:05 AM PST
- "The streaming service was free of these kinds of quality issues for six months." Really? That's news to me. I have a up-to-date media PC connected to my TV, and have had nothing but hassles trying to watch Netflix movies on it. I'd say only 1 in 2 or less worked flawlessly from start to finish. Often, the movie starts, then after a minute or two it says "Your Internet connection has slowed, buffering...", sometimes with ridiculously absurd target times like "Your movie will resume in 1 hr 20 minutes" (that actually happened!) Often, it freezes, typically nearer the end, and just won't restart no matter what, so you have to close the browser, re-navigate to your movie, seek to your spot, etc. What a hassle! I installed the Mac player on my notebook 2 days ago and watched an episode of "30 Rock" -- it was awful -- I couldn't even watch it full screen (1280x960-ish), and even in the window, it often stuttered badly.
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(18 Comments)It is a crap system. A system that works only part of the time is useless -- after awhile, you don't want to bother. "The inmates are running the asylum."