Netflix Frustrations!

[MacinMan]

Hi guys, I also started a thread on this on AVS Forums as well, trying to get as much feedback as possible.

I'm having an unexplainable issue with netflix streaming that doesn't seem logical based on my system and connection setup.

I live in central Florida and have bright house networks as my cable provide.. For internet I used to have earthlink high speed which i found out was 10Mbps down. Road Runner had a new deal for 20 Mbps down so i upgraded. Well I had some cabling issues that i fixed with coax cable and a splitter, now every speed test i run from the computer wired, or wireless turns up at leas 30Mbps down (30 Mbps is the boost feature of this package) but more commonly is 20 to 12 Mbps down Well I had an issue of random HD packages on netflix only buffering for SD. I called netflix and they said the player was only getting 2.5Mbps when trying to watch a move. I don't buy this because the computer gets much more speed then this and the player is wired to the same router. Player is Panasonic's DMP-BD85k. I don't see how netflix could be using so little bandwidth unless there was a problem to the netflix server itself. By the way any movie plays smooth, it's just the why don't i get hd every time frustration i'm trying to figure out.

Any feedback is welcome. Thanks!

[rubystone356]

I called netflix to see how well I was getting it. it was like 10 mg on the panasonic 85. he said that it could be your router, your internet connection. you might want to call them. you might want to call panasonic and see if they can help as well. it could be a setting on the router that is not working.

Jacob

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by rubystone356

I called netflix to see how well I was getting it. it was like 10 mg on the panasonic 85. he said that it could be your router, your internet connection. you might want to call them. you might want to call panasonic and see if they can help as well. it could be a setting on the router that is not working.

Jacob

The interesting thing is, the panasonic would not pass the internet tests when I connected it directly to the modem to test pure connection without the airport base station in the middle I may also contact Apple to see if it's something on their end as well.

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by rubystone356

I called netflix to see how well I was getting it. it was like 10 mg on the panasonic 85. he said that it could be your router, your internet connection. you might want to call them. you might want to call panasonic and see if they can help as well. it could be a setting on the router that is not working.

Jacob

Hey Jacob,
Try this Movie in your netflix queue "Muppets From space" i can't get an HD light on this movie though it says it's HD, however Heros will give me HD and most of my other ones regularly. I wanted to see if someone else has issues with one of the movies that's giving me trouble this might help to say if it's a netflix issue or strictly my connection. Thanks

[kurtlingle]

I use the PS3 to watch netflix, and the highest I've got is 5.8 mbps.

I would not call that HD. I wish they had a way you could pay a bit more for 10-15 mbps downloads (or 30mb).

My connection is 25 mbps (FIOS) and the PS3 (hardwired) gets 10mbs+ easily (with the test).

I'm not happy with the quality of netflix downloads.

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by kurtlingle

I use the PS3 to watch netflix, and the highest I've got is 5.8 mbps.

I would not call that HD. I wish they had a way you could pay a bit more for 10-15 mbps downloads (or 30mb).

My connection is 25 mbps (FIOS) and the PS3 (hardwired) gets 10mbs+ easily (with the test).

I'm not happy with the quality of netflix downloads.

Yeah, here is a picture of my average speed ratings from my isp, and this is doing the test over wireless. :http://ttmn.homedns.org/~tron/speedtest.png

[Volume11]

Not to be a party pooper but this is why I could care less about Netflix streaming in its current form and would NEVER put it as a priority feature on a BD player.

I like physical media.

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by Volume11

Not to be a party pooper but this is why I could care less about Netflix streaming in its current form and would NEVER put it as a priority feature on a BD player.

I like physical media.

Oh, I prefer physical Media Myself and sure, i would say a blu-ray HD movie is going to beat netflix quality. Streaming is mainly a good way for me to watch a movie i don't have on disc or may want to evaluate for cheap before buying the Disc. I don't so much mind the instability . I was more concerned it was the $250 player being unstable. as it turns out seems like the player is fine and the stability issue is netflix streaming. The good news is Most HD content I what i will get the full hd quality it's just during peak times or if the stream is funky does it mess up. Either way in SD the streams are clean and smooth too.

[rubystone356]

I played the muppets from space. I was not getting HD on it. sometimes some titles will be mistitled as HD. It will just be SD. I remember having that problem with the james cameron movie T2.

Jacob

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by rubystone356

I played the muppets from space. I was not getting HD on it. sometimes some titles will be mistitled as HD. It will just be SD. I remember having that problem with the james cameron movie T2.

Jacob

Jacob,
Thank you so much! This proves that both my internet and the panasonic player here are both working correctly. Considering all true HD sources are HD when my speed is good, which after I fixed the cabling is most of the time to all the time now, unless you factor in peak times maybe. Any way thanks. I would have hated to see something go wrong with this beautiful panasonic player.

[spolcyc]

I mostly watch TV programs, I have noticed that the majority of the movies HD or not are not in widescreen format especially the STARZ on demand films. The HD doesn't seem that bad. It is nowhere the quality of blu ray or TV programming but it is decent enough for me to enjoy. I have watched a few movies and can't complain about the quality. It is a free added service for your convenience so you don't have to use it if you don't like it.

[rubystone356]

your welcome.

Jacob

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by spolcyc

I mostly watch TV programs, I have noticed that the majority of the movies HD or not are not in widescreen format especially the STARZ on demand films. The HD doesn't seem that bad. It is nowhere the quality of blu ray or TV programming but it is decent enough for me to enjoy. I have watched a few movies and can't complain about the quality. It is a free added service for your convenience so you don't have to use it if you don't like it.

Yeah, I noticed that the HD stream of the matrix reloaded was zoomed in or had the black bars cropped it was HD but it looked wrong compared to the blu-ray and DVD versions.

[rubystone356]

it seems that people still hate the black bars. so the studios have recropped the HD titles to fit the screen and lose the black bar. some movies are in the proper format like from paramount. most of warner bros titles are cropped.

Jacob

[Volume11]

Originally Posted by rubystone356

it seems that people still hate the black bars. so the studios have recropped the HD titles to fit the screen and lose the black bar. some movies are in the proper format like from paramount. most of warner bros titles are cropped.

Jacob

Warner open mattes a lot of titles.

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by Volume11

Warner open mattes a lot of titles.

Not familiar with the term "Open Mattes" what does it mean? and what does it include doing?

[ewsjr]

Originally Posted by MacinMan

Not familiar with the term "Open Mattes" what does it mean? and what does it include doing?

It's when a film is transferred to a home video format with the full frame exposed. Films can be hard or soft matted, this involves filming a movie onto a 1.33:1 frame and matting the frame during post-production to get its intended aspect ratio. The main difference between the two is how the movie is processed for home viewing.
Most open matte films have the mattes removed when transfered to a "full frame" home video release. This can dramatically increase the potential for unexpected material such as boom mikes to appear in the home video version. In fact, some directors simply placed cardboard on the monitors to simulate the matted theatrical version. This would have made them unaware during filming if the boom mikes and so forth were actually on the frame because the cardboard was blocking that part out.
Hard matted films are "locked" to their aspect ratio and are subjected to the pan-and-scan process for the "full frame" home video release. This results in the loss of visual information on the sides of the frame.
As far as the discussion about netflix, I have been using two Roku boxes that are hard wired for over three months and they work great. I already invested in an Oppo BDP-83 for my home theater so that's why I went with the Roku. Easy to use and they look very good.

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by ewsjr

It's when a film is transferred to a home video format with the full frame exposed. Films can be hard or soft matted, this involves filming a movie onto a 1.33:1 frame and matting the frame during post-production to get its intended aspect ratio. The main difference between the two is how the movie is processed for home viewing.
Most open matte films have the mattes removed when transfered to a "full frame" home video release. This can dramatically increase the potential for unexpected material such as boom mikes to appear in the home video version. In fact, some directors simply placed cardboard on the monitors to simulate the matted theatrical version. This would have made them unaware during filming if the boom mikes and so forth were actually on the frame because the cardboard was blocking that part out.
Hard matted films are "locked" to their aspect ratio and are subjected to the pan-and-scan process for the "full frame" home video release. This results in the loss of visual information on the sides of the frame.
As far as the discussion about netflix, I have been using two Roku boxes that are hard wired for over three months and they work great. I already invested in an Oppo BDP-83 for my home theater so that's why I went with the Roku. Easy to use and they look very good.

Well as far as Roku goes, I was hearing stand alone netflix boxes were being phased out, and the way to go was integration with a blu-ray player. So my netflix needs have been met with the Panasonic DMP-BD85k. From the research I've done, The only big difference i've seen between the oppo and panny are the oppo supporting more audio disc formats e.g. dvd-audio and SACD, which neither one i have. I found a video on youtube a while back listing the top 10 blu0ray players as of june, the oppo is #1 the ps3 is #2 and the Panasonic is #4 with a samsung as #3. I tried star wars the phantom menace on the panny upconverted in 24p mode and It was almost blu-ray quality. I'd say as much as a DVD can get. So overall I've satisfied finally with my 2010 blu-ray upgrade from my 601k from last year.

[rkish]

Thanks for the heads up on the Roku box...I'm thinking along those lines.

My only problem is, that the Roku box does not have an audio option for digital coax (only optical/TOS link).

I've got (2) optical inputs on the back of my Yamaha receiver, one for DTV/cable and the other for CD. I've got my DirecTV receiver using the DTV/cable optical currently and an upconverting DVD using the digital coax.

If I use the CD digital/optical connection...will I still get DD 5.1 or just stereo?

Thanks!

[ewsjr]

Originally Posted by rkish

Thanks for the heads up on the Roku box...I'm thinking along those lines.

My only problem is, that the Roku box does not have an audio option for digital coax (only optical/TOS link).

I've got (2) optical inputs on the back of my Yamaha receiver, one for DTV/cable and the other for CD. I've got my DirecTV receiver using the DTV/cable optical currently and an upconverting DVD using the digital coax.

If I use the CD digital/optical connection...will I still get DD 5.1 or just stereo?

Thanks!

I'm not totally sure but I think it would only be stereo. But you have to remember that Netflix isn't offering 5.1 with their streaming (not yet, supposedly they are working on it) and it doesn't come with all of Amazon
streaming choices, if that makes a difference. No HDMI? Also they do make these: 2-way digital audio converters
http://www.ambery.com/2diauscowopa.html