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Odd Netflix issue - X-High/HD no longer available - Page 8

post #211 of 429
12/26/12 at 3:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by michaeltscott View Post

That episode of Jessie does play with fluctuating quality whereas the first one that I tried (season 1, episode 1) is not. However, it's quite stable on the PS3. Whatever--I'm not testing any more. Good luck biggrin.gif!

Thanks a bunch you helped me a lot testing out programs that you normally don't watch and you seen fluctuating quality as I do on certain episodes. I know it is not my connection as I run speed tests all the time and I am getting my full speeds. Anyway I will be reporting those episodes on the Netflix site but I doubt they will do anything.
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post #212 of 429
12/29/12 at 10:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by reddice View Post

Thanks a bunch you helped me a lot testing out programs that you normally don't watch and you seen fluctuating quality as I do on certain episodes. I know it is not my connection as I run speed tests all the time and I am getting my full speeds. Anyway I will be reporting those episodes on the Netflix site but I doubt they will do anything.
I've been having similar issues since the outage a few days ago was fixed.
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post #213 of 429
1/3/13 at 3:22pm
The shots on the left are from October 2011. The shots on the right are from today, January 2013. Haven't been able to access the HD streams today, for reasons I don't understand.

0.235Mbps: abwTxzWd.jpgadm6VvSh.jpg
0.375Mbps: abiwRHht.jpgabg1l0Vu.jpg
0.560Mbps: abgRe3nX.jpgadiuJXE4.jpg
0.750Mbps: [N/A] ......................................... acdcsU5t.jpg
1.050Mbps: adyzFEQ5.jpgabwI7nGm.jpg
1.750Mbps: abpTOtNM.jpgaby7k4uD.jpg
2.350Mbps: adrs6uk0.jpg
3.600Mbps: acwQmkuQ.jpg
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post #214 of 429
1/3/13 at 3:56pm
Both sets of shots were from the PC web player? They're definitely different with the new ones being noticeably less sharp. It doesn't make any sense that they'd have re-encoded those resolutions at the same bit rates (what would be the point?) and if they did they should look better, according to their claims. At those bit rates the PQ is pretty poor, particularly in that title (some scenes from Law & Order: Special Victums Unit, right?). It will be interesting to see some comparisons of frames at HD resolutions; if they suck in comparison to the old perhaps we can get some bloggers to call shenanigans on Netflix smile.gif.
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post #215 of 429
1/3/13 at 4:07pm
I bet you those 0.235Mbps streams look like crap on a CRT TV too. They really should get rid of Low/SD, Even some old videos from the 80's I downloaded off the web look better.

The new HD encodes don't look that bad now because my eyes are use to them now.
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post #216 of 429
1/4/13 at 11:05am
As an aside, "Example Short 23.976" has been updated such that its new 3000 Kpbs 720p and 3850 Kbps 1080p video encodes have those bit-rate/resolution information overlays. The new encodes on "Example 8 Hour 23.976" don't have them, so the overlays disappear when you get to them.
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post #217 of 429
1/4/13 at 1:37pm
I tried the example shorts but I can't get any overlay information to show up. Select just shows the time, video quality and sound display like any other video shows. It just shows the video of the Netflix headquarters.
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post #218 of 429
1/4/13 at 1:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by reddice View Post

I tried the example shorts but I can't get any overlay information to show up. Select just shows the time, video quality and sound display like any other video shows. It just shows the video of the Netflix headquarters.

There are many "Example" video clips--AFAIK only two of them have those information overlays: "Example Short 23.976" and "Example 8 Hour 23.976".
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post #219 of 429
1/4/13 at 3:33pm
Thread Starter 
Also, you only see the text if your player uses the adaptive bitrate. If it's an older player that does a pre-roll test and picks a single speed, I don't think you get the text.
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post #220 of 429
1/4/13 at 4:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by andyross63 View Post

Also, you only see the text if your player uses the adaptive bitrate. If it's an older player that does a pre-roll test and picks a single speed, I don't think you get the text.

He's been talking about streaming in the Windows 8 app and on his PS3, both adaptive bit rate.
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post #221 of 429
1/4/13 at 5:26pm
Well tonight I can't maintain a HD stream on anything I watch. Both on the PS3 the Windows 8 App and the website. It is not my connection as I ran various speed tests and they are normal. I notice when streaming the lights on my router blink slower so I am not getting the rapid blinking problem. I just turned off the PS3 and closed the Windows 8 app I am not going to bother.




C:\Windows>tracert netflix-822.vo.llnwd.net

Tracing route to netflix-822.vo.llnwd.net [69.164.37.106]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 32 ms 13 ms 12 ms tenge-0-2-0-4-nycmnyr-rtr01.nyc.rr.com [24.168.1
35.153]
4 19 ms 20 ms 14 ms bun120.nycmnytg-rtr001.nyc.rr.com [184.152.112.6
3]
5 18 ms 13 ms 13 ms bun6-nycmnytg-rtr002.nyc.rr.com [24.29.148.250]

6 16 ms 13 ms 13 ms ae-4-0.cr0.nyc30.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.78]
7 12 ms 13 ms 13 ms 107.14.17.171
8 15 ms 21 ms 32 ms 66.109.12.122
9 15 ms 13 ms 17 ms ve5.fr3.ewr1.llnw.net [68.142.125.126]
10 34 ms 14 ms 12 ms cds899.lga.llnw.net [69.164.37.106]

Trace complete.
Edited by reddice - 1/4/13 at 6:38pm
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post #222 of 429
1/4/13 at 7:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by reddice View Post

Well tonight I can't maintain a HD stream on anything I watch. Both on the PS3 the Windows 8 App and the website.

I don't have a solution, but out of curiosity did you try streaming "Example Short 23.976" (specifically)? Can you see the info overlay in it?
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post #223 of 429
1/4/13 at 7:43pm
I did everything I can think of. Reset the router (30-30-30 reset), reset my cable modem. Connected the modem directly to my laptop. Tried my default Earthlink DNS, Google DNS and then back to OpenDNS. Still can't get it to stream in HD or maintain a high quality stream. I think that Netflix is getting too many users that they can handle. Also with all the DNS servers and even connecting the cable modem to the laptop and I ran traceroutes it still connects to Phoenix, Arizona.

The thing is the past week it was fine but I did notice the last couple of days that when I went to load even SD programs it would be slow in streaming and even buffer in the beginning and then it was fine. Today it is just terrible and for it to do it in the Windows 8 app and the website which always use to work fine there is a problem somewhere. I'll go back to my DVD series and BluRay movies as they are more reliable. mad.gif

Also I bet you after midnight it will be fine. I am going to bed so I will try again Sunday afternoon.
Edited by reddice - 1/4/13 at 8:33pm
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post #224 of 429
1/4/13 at 9:55pm
Watched Voltron Force: Ssn 1: Lion Riders Return which I had trouble earlier with. It took nearly three minutes to rev up to HD. I noticed this started a few days ago on all devices. It use to rev up to HD about 30 seconds and when I first subscribed to Netflix and the PS3 went disc free in August it use to rev up to HD in less than 10 seconds and back then I only had 10/0.5. Now I have 15/1 which has not improved streaming much. Does anyone know how many millions of streaming only subscribers they have. Could not find out that information. All I am saying is that Netflix better invest in more server farms as the streaming only subscribers keep growing.
Edited by reddice - 1/10/13 at 2:32pm
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post #225 of 429
1/4/13 at 10:36pm

23 million US streaming subscribers, 25 mil worldwide.

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post #226 of 429
1/5/13 at 2:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by reddice View Post

It took nearly three minutes to rev up to HD.

I just tested and it took about 30 seconds for either the Roku 2 XS or Win 8 app. According to the Stream Manager in the Win 8 app, It was 6-7 seconds before it started buffering the highest bit rate encode but the stuff that it read in those 6-7 seconds took 30 seconds to play. Both players should do a more effective test at start and skip some of the lower bit rate encodes.
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post #227 of 429
1/6/13 at 11:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by michaeltscott View Post

I just tested and it took about 30 seconds for either the Roku 2 XS or Win 8 app. According to the Stream Manager in the Win 8 app, It was 6-7 seconds before it started buffering the highest bit rate encode but the stuff that it read in those 6-7 seconds took 30 seconds to play. Both players should do a more effective test at start and skip some of the lower bit rate encodes.

Yes but you tested it in the middle of the night. Friday evening I could not get HD playback but late night I was able to.
What CDN IP address does Netflix connect where you are?
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post #228 of 429
1/6/13 at 2:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by reddice View Post

Yes but you tested it in the middle of the night. Friday evening I could not get HD playback but late night I was able to.

Sounds like things were pretty busy either on your path to your provider or the path from there to Netflix's servers on Friday night. Or you got hooked up with servers which were overloaded (with sophisticated load balancing by the CDNs, it shouldn't happen but with the addition of tons of new Netflix streaming Christmas presents on a night when some people are still on Christmas/New Years vacation the problem is intensified).
Quote:
What CDN IP address does Netflix connect where you are?

Last time I checked while running the Windows 8 app, I got hooked up to some servers in Kansas, in the Limelight CDN, I think. This surprised me because it was not particularly close, geographically. I don't know whether I get that every time; it's a PITA to check.
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post #229 of 429
1/6/13 at 3:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by michaeltscott View Post

Last time I checked while running the Windows 8 app, I got hooked up to some servers in Kansas, in the Limelight CDN, I think. This surprised me because it was not particularly close, geographically. I don't know whether I get that every time; it's a PITA to check.
How do you check when running the Windows 8 app? I just use "tracert netflix-822.vo.llnwd.net" with cmd.exe and it always connects to the CDN in Phoenix, Arizona with any DNS address and I tried Earthlink DNS from my ISP, Google DNS and OpenDNS which I am using now.
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post #230 of 429
1/6/13 at 8:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by reddice View Post

How do you check when running the Windows 8 app? I just use "tracert netflix-822.vo.llnwd.net" with cmd.exe and it always connects to the CDN in Phoenix, Arizona with any DNS address and I tried Earthlink DNS from my ISP, Google DNS and OpenDNS which I am using now.

I look at TCP connections in the resources monitor (in Control Panel/Administrative Tools) and filter the list by the Netflix.exe image (a bit tricky). Though it won't give me names (EDIT: wrong--it does give server names in the Network Activity panel), I run the IP addresses through a web site to get more info about the servers. When I first start the app, Netflix.exe establishes two connections to servers in Amazon's AWS CDN (right now, 50.19.235.248 aka ec2-50-19-235-248.compute-1.amazonaws.com, apparently in Ashburn, VA). Once I play anything it opens up a slew of other connections. I just streamed something for a few seconds and paused it, leaving two connections to AWS servers in Ashburn, VA, one to a Limelight server in San Francisco a bunch to 4 or 5 different Limelight servers in Tempe, AZ. After it'd been paused for a while it released all but the two AWS connections and three of the Tempe connections. I'm using http://whatismyipaddress.com for IP server name resolution and geo-location.

How do you figure that that tracert tells you what servers it's using? (BTW, it appears to be a Limelight server in Tempe).

EDIT: I've been playing around with this some more--I ran the Netflix app and got it and my desktop open simultaneously by using "Snap Left" on it. I then started it streaming (in a tiny little window in its pane on the left) and monitored its connections and network I/O. It opened a couple of servers on the Level 3 CDN in the Wichita, KS area and for a while it was exchanging various amounts of data on 5 different connections, one AWS server in VA, two Limelight servers in Tempe and that Level 3 server in Wichita. After playing for quite a while, it now has only two connections, one AWS one and one Level 3 (it switched to another server) with the stream obviously coming from the latter. I just stopped and restarted and it's gone through a similar bunch of antics, this time choosing to stream from some Limelight servers in Tempe; after about 5 minutes it's still sucking data from 6 (now 4).

Kind of cool to watch; you should try it smile.gif.
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post #231 of 429
1/7/13 at 8:40pm
I streamlined my process for monitoring the Windows 8 Netflix app's network activity and thought that I'd share it. Enjoy!

Process for Monitoring Netflix App Network Activity (Click to show)
Run the Resource Monitor (Control Panel/Administrative Tools) on the desktop and select the Network tab. There will be a panel on the left separated into three collapsible areas: "Processes with Network Activity", "Network Activity" and "TCP connections". Start the Windows 8 Netflix app; once it's running snap it left. In the "Processes.." area of the resource monitor, click the check-box for Netflix.exe; this will make the other areas display only info about the Netflix app's activity (if the Netflix app has been idle for a while you may have to ask it to do something to get it into the "Processes..." list). Collapse the "Processes..." area. Start streaming something in the Netflix app (it'll display it in a tiny 16x9 inset of the left panel) and watch the network connections it opens and activity on those connections in the Resource Monitor. The "Network Activity" area will display connections with active I/O with the names of the addresses resolved: domains will end in stuff like amazonaws.com, llnw.net (Limelight Networks) and level3.net (Level 3 Communications). I suspect that Netflix is still using some Akamai servers and you may see servers on Netflix's own fledgling Open Connect CDN (they plan to ditch the others as they expand their own). It'll also open connections temporarily to ports on your PC. The "TCP connections" area will display all connections (even closed ones, grayed out) with numeric IP addresses.

I customize the windows to minimize clutter, eliminating all columns on "Network Activity" except for "Image" (can't be eliminated), "Address", "Send (B/sec)" and "Receive (B/Sec)" and every column on the "TCP Connections" area except "Image", "Remote Address" "Latency (ms)", "Send (B/sec) and "Receive (B/sec)". I collapse the righthand panel with its 3 little graphs and narrow the window to be just wide enough to show everything. If you kill the Resource Monitor with it set this way it'll be the same next time that you run it, minus the Netflix.exe filter.

It looks like this. In that shot, after running for about 5 minutes, most of the app's connections have been closed. Note that it is using an Akamai server, the only time I've seen that (ostensibly in Cambridge, almost as far from here as possible; the geolocation could be wrong).
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post #232 of 429
1/8/13 at 2:25pm
Thanks I have to try this.
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post #233 of 429
1/8/13 at 2:37pm
So it seems X-High is back. Since they just announced and rolled out SuperHD my X-High has returned on my PS3. Your ISP has to be a part of the Netflix Open Connect partnership in order to get it. Something tells me what I'm seeing now as "SuperHD" is really just the old "X-High"
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post #234 of 429
1/8/13 at 3:07pm
Now I know why I have been having problems. I tried what you said and it seems like I am connecting to the Amazon CDN in Virgina. You are on the west coast so you have been connecting to a different CDN. It does not matter if I change my DNS server to Earthlink or Google either because it still connects to the crappy Amazon CDN. I did just watch "The Garfield Show" which gave me problems and it streamed in HD on the Windows 8 app and had the four minute buffer at the end. Also the past few days on the PS3 are fine too but I too notice that sometimes it will ramp up to the highest quality within 10 seconds and other times as with Murder She Wrote I watched yesterday it took about 3 minutes.

Also I have been reading that Amazon has been having streaming problems too. I know it is probably not possible but is there any way I can tell Netflix to choose a different CDN? I hate the Amazon CDN. They should just get rid of it. Isn't Amazon a competitor.

Edit: Nevermind. I just launched the Netflix app and used Resource Monitor before so I read your post and it does connect me to the Amazon CDN in Virgina. I could not try it streaming because the snap feature does not work. This is because I am using ClassicShell and disabled the annoying hot corners and Charms bar when in the Desktop but not in the Modern UI apps.
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post #235 of 429
1/8/13 at 3:49pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jlomaga View Post

So it seems X-High is back. Since they just announced and rolled out SuperHD my X-High has returned on my PS3. Your ISP has to be a part of the Netflix Open Connect partnership in order to get it. Something tells me what I'm seeing now as "SuperHD" is really just the old "X-High"
What is your ISP? From what I read, CableVision is the only US ISP at the moment.
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post #236 of 429
1/8/13 at 4:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by andyross63 View Post

What is your ISP? From what I read, CableVision is the only US ISP at the moment.
Do they own Time Warner and Cincinnati Bell?
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post #237 of 429
1/8/13 at 6:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by reddice View Post

I know it is probably not possible but is there any way I can tell Netflix to choose a different CDN? I hate the Amazon CDN. They should just get rid of it. Isn't Amazon a competitor.
Edit: Nevermind. I just launched the Netflix app and used Resource Monitor before so I read your post and it does connect me to the Amazon CDN in Virgina. I could not try it streaming because the snap feature does not work. This is because I am using ClassicShell and disabled the annoying hot corners and Charms bar when in the Desktop but not in the Modern UI apps.

I really don't think that they're going to get rid of AWS anytime soon--they've written couple of dozen technical blog posts about what they do with it, which is a lot more than just streaming (it's the cloud computing platform which they use to create their video encodes). Perhaps once they've expanded their own Open Connect CDN to the point where it fulfills all of their needs.

In any case, I'm not seeing the Windows 8 app ever use an AWS server to actually stream video from. While it's streaming it exchanges a small amount of data with one of those servers continuously, but never more than about 30 Kbps, settling down to a tiny trickle within a couple of minutes (like 100 bytes/sec or less). All of the actual video has obviously come from Limelight, Level 3 and Akamai servers (judging by received data rates).

Most of the time the player gets streams from Limelight servers in Tempe, about 350 miles from here in San Diego, but it's less predictable in peak hours.

If you hate the hot corners so much that you can't enable them to try this experiment then I can't help you biggrin.gif. Personally I never hit them by accident so they don't bother me.
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post #238 of 429
1/8/13 at 7:55pm
There was a change today. Netflix announced Super HD and many selections are labeled as this. There was a software update for Netflix for PS3. Now selections labeled Super HD when played show as HIGH/SD but appear to be HD. Those that are still labeled as HD still can get to HIGH/HD. But on a Sony BluRay player the selections labeled Super HD show as X-HIGH HD. I am connected to provider that supports this change-Cablevision and have a download speed of 30Mbps.
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post #239 of 429
1/8/13 at 10:12pm

Not to derail the thread but...

Can anyone with a PS3 tell me if your Instant Queue line on the app has been relocated-from it's normal 2nd position in the list of rows after Recently Watched, to the very last? I was scrolling down after not seeing it, and found mine in last position. Of course, I can always scroll up and get it first that way, but I'm just wondering if anyone else's changed as well. There were rumors floating around last summer that they were going to get rid of it. Seeing it moved to last place had me worried.

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post #240 of 429
1/8/13 at 10:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Westly-C View Post

Not to derail the thread but...
Can anyone with a PS3 tell me if your Instant Queue line on the app has been relocated-from it's normal 2nd position in the list of rows after Recently Watched, to the very last?

I don't understand. My IQ is and has always been the first row in the PS3's browser, followed immediately by "Recently Watched". Perhaps you meant that "Recently Watched" was the 2nd position in the list of rows after IQ, which still true for me.
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