Netflix choppy, am I doing it wrong?

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munkle

[H]F Junkie
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Jan 16, 2005
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So I set up a netflix account for streaming. I am watching it through windows media center on a i3 2100, gt 430, 4gb ram. We have a 16mb cable connection. Cpu usage is around 10%.

The problem is netflix seems choppy. Not like it stalls to buffer but like a frame was cut out and motion isn't smooth so it seems like it jumps a frame. Basically it seems like the frame rate is too low.

Is this just netflix or is there something wrong?
 
What's your network situation are you using wireless? If so wire it up to test it?.
 
RiZnO said:
What's your network situation are you using wireless? If so wire it up to test it?.
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Wired on a gigabit switch. My router is a e4600, 3gb, 2 intel gigabit nics running clear os.
 
Log in to Netflix and check the streaming quality settings.
 
It's a little better after setting it to best quality. But there is still some choppiness. My guess is its just crappy netflix encoding. :confused:
 
Could be. They have been making some serious changes lately after all, so they might have done something that botched up streaming rates, etc on their end.
 
try installing the MS silverlight 5 beta. Some how after I did this, my netflix streaming became much better.
 
Vengance_01 said:
try installing the MS silverlight 5 beta. Some how after I did this, my netflix streaming became much better.
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Did that as well, still a little choppy. What I have noticed it is on mostly scenes that pan across an area. If it just a static scene with people moving around it is fine.
 
munkle said:
Did that as well, still a little choppy. What I have noticed it is on mostly scenes that pan across an area. If it just a static scene with people moving around it is fine.
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You sure you aren't seeing 3:2 pulldown?
 
Movies generally have a frame rate of 24 FPS while televisions generally deal with multiples of 30 FPS.

The process of converting 24 FPS source material over to multiples of 30 FPS is called 3:2 pulldown.

Suppose that a 24 FPS source material has 4 frames:

1 2 3 4

You then may perform 3:2 pulldown by multiplying odd frames by 2 and even frames by 3:

11 222 33 444

... and finally you would normalize the above frame duplication:

11 22 23 34 44

Notice that we now have 5 frames for every 4 original frames. (30 is divisible by 5 but not by 4.)

Essentially, we mix frame 3 in with frames 2 and 4 to create 2 frames from what would otherwise be a single frame, 3. This means that frames 2 and 4 appear to be stretched out into 1.5 frames and frame 3 now straddles two frames without a frame to itself.

Some people are sensitive to the inherent unevenness introduced by 3:2 pulldown moreso than others. Quick, drastic, changes between frames certainly exacerbate this effect. (Fast action sequences and fast pans around a large room are the most common sources of 3:2 pulldown grievances.)
 
Can you stream video from other sites without the issue?
 
illram said:
Can you stream video from other sites without the issue?
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Yes. I think it's netflix crappy encoding. If I watch the exact same tv episode from amazon instant video it isn't choppy at all (the quality sucks on amazon videos though).

Edit: I tired the same show on netflix through an apple tv. It's not as choppy but it is still there so pretty sure it's just netflix.
 
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I had this issue too, I had to go into the stream quality setting on Netflix and drop it down to the next level (don't remember what it was, the second level of quality I guess). After that things stream great, I don't really notice much of a drop in quality either.
 
munkle said:
Yes. I think it's netflix crappy encoding. If I watch the exact same tv episode from amazon instant video it isn't choppy at all (the quality sucks on amazon videos though).

Edit: I tired the same show on netflix through an apple tv. It's not as choppy but it is still there so pretty sure it's just netflix.
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I get a little tearing and an occasional choppyness on netflix as well... it's no blu-ray for sure.
 
shift-alt left click on the stream and then click on "A/V Stats" to see the cpu load, bitrate and framerate/dropped frames.

If your cpu or bandwidth aren't up to the task it will hiccup and drop frames but if that is the case dropping it to a lower bitrate will just make it look worse but at least you'll have the numbers to show what is the issue.
 
undermined said:
shift-alt left click on the stream and then click on "A/V Stats" to see the cpu load, bitrate and framerate/dropped frames.

If your cpu or bandwidth aren't up to the task it will hiccup and drop frames but if that is the case dropping it to a lower bitrate will just make it look worse but at least you'll have the numbers to show what is the issue.
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intresting
 
Netflix choppiness is rarely caused by their encoding, many times video card driver version and Internet congestion along the path from their content servers to your house are big culprits. I do Netflix streaming on a P4 2.8 with an ancient GeForce card and the streaming is usually very smooth.
 
This is a common problem that you will find across the net. There's a big thread on it over at AVS, and I just made a post about it at missingremote asking for help. I changed from a 2600xt card to a 6570, and that's when I started seeing the choppiness more. I definitely think it is somehow related to the video card or at least the driver version. But since people experience it with all kinds of different cards and brands it has to be more to it. It's either Netflix or Silverlight.
 
Just did some further testing. It is the encoding, the entire deep space nine series is choppy like this but I watched all of firefly and it was fine. Watched some HD movies and it was fine.

Seems like they just did some crap encoding on star trek deep space nine because the problem is only on those.
 
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