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Silverlight stutters on Netflix

  • 8 replies
  • 243 have this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by Hasan

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Feels like a cache is being filled somewhere -- movie starts out fine, but ~5 minutes in, video pauses for half a second every three-four seconds -- irritating. Download speeds measure at 2.8±1 MB/s; system memory 1.04 GB, available 482 MB, system cache 632 MB. Ideas?

URL of affected sites

http://netflix.com

Feels like a cache is being filled somewhere -- movie starts out fine, but ~5 minutes in, video pauses for half a second every three-four seconds -- irritating. Download speeds measure at 2.8±1 MB/s; system memory 1.04 GB, available 482 MB, system cache 632 MB. Ideas? == URL of affected sites == http://netflix.com

All Replies (8)

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I have the same issue. To my eyes, it's a memory leak issue. I can open dozens and dozens of web pages, and keep browsing. But once I start streaming Netflix thru Silverlight, Firefox's memory usage skyrockets.

I tested it. Firefox spawns and settles at ~65K mem. I click the link I set up to start streaming from Netflix, and less than 5 minutes later, Firefox is now utilizing 184K mem. The plugin-container.exe for Firefox also starts eating more and more memory.

At first there are spikes above 200K. It drops back, but just a bit higher than before. Same with both the plugin exe and Firefox. At some point, the stuttering kicks in and I have to restart Firefox.

It got so annoying, that I actually spawned IE, signed in to Netflix, and did not have this issue.

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Thanks for reply. Yeah, that's what the Netflix lady said: use IE. I just can't quite bring myself to do that, though, like, watching movies is not worth French-kissing a garbage disposal....

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Same problem but using Chrome not IE to view Netflix. Not quite frenching the disposer, more like throwing my my diary into it.

Modified by Gerard Cerchio

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Our connection tests at 30Mbps down and the machine we're trying to stream through has 4GB of RAM, we have the same issue--stuttering--as well as shearing and audio out of sync sometimes after five minutes, sometimes one, sometimes twenty. This occurs in Firefox, IE, and Chrome. A few months ago we had the same issues on a notebook (different computer) with the same specs. Streaming via YouTube or any other video site (Hulu, Amazon, etc.) is fine. On our PS3, however, no problems whatsoever. In looking at the processes via the system resource manager it doesn't appear to be a memory leak because it grows to a consistent level and then stays there. Seems like a Netflix issue to me. Painful. I don't want to phone their support. Has anyone been able to resolve this fully yet? Thanks in advance :).

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I suspect this is mostly Silverlight not playing nicely with Firefox and Chrome. It's not unusual for Microsoft's technology to not quite work well with a competing product. It seems to work splendidly well on I.E., so Netflix is likely not to blame.

Modified by interstellarsurfer

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This is actually, exactly what I've been wondering about. YouTube uses flash (I think) to play its videos, and I've never had any problems with YouTube. It's just when I use NetFlix, which runs on Microsoft Silverlight, that I have any problems. What enormously crooked, cynical people they must be if they've intentionally made their program unworkable on other browsers. At the very least, I refuse to use their browser to solve this problem. I'd rather end my NetFlix subscription than use IE again.

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I have had problems with Netflix streaming on Firefox also with most versions but was able to solve the problem, but now with Firefox 6, I can no longer go full screen while watching Netflix because the screen just freezes ASAP while the audio keeps going. I'm using Windows 7. If I exit full screen then it works fine. I've disabled all addons 1 by 1 and even uninstalled Silverlight tons of times and did a complete Firefox uninstall including my profile and nothing worked. I have been all over the internet looking for a fix but no luck yet. It works fine on IE but there's is NO WAY that I'm using IE so I guess I'm cancelling Netflix also.

Modified by deserthiker77

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