Netflix not coming thru in HD on my WDTV play - why not?

Hi, I recently purchased a wdtv play device in an attempt to ‘cut the cable’ because it had a sling player and Netflix in addition to a number of other great Apps. However, I am disappointed in the Video quality with the Netflix app.

I am using an HDMI connection, and other apps are coming thru in HD (including the sling box), but not Netflix.

I have a blu-ray DVD player that does stream Netflix in HD, but not the WDTV Play device.

Is there some config setting somewhere that I need to set to fix this?

1 Like

Hello,

There is no setting on the WD TV for this. On the WD TV media player Netflix selects the quality automatically depending on the internet speed.

Make sure your NetFlix profile is set to AUTO.   This is changed at netflix.com / My Account / Playback settings

Thanks for the resonse. Currently, my Netflix account is set to ‘HIGH’ for HD video quality… I dont understand how changing it to ‘Auto’ will then make the WDTF Plat device suddenly stream in HD…??? Can you explain?

glide66 wrote:
Thanks for the resonse. Currently, my Netflix account is set to ‘HIGH’ for HD video quality… I dont understand how changing it to ‘Auto’ will then make the WDTF Plat device suddenly stream in HD…??? Can you explain?

Well, it would have if you had it set to LOW…  But you never said that before, so I had no way of knowing…

Thanks for the response… I’m just beginning to worry that perhaps I bought the wrong product here — if the WDTV Play device cannot stream Netflix in HD, then that seriously lowers its value to me. 

side-by-side - on the same wifi network, my bluray player will stream Netflix in HD, and the WDTV Play device will not.

#disappointed

Yeah, I can understand that…  It is most definitely capable of doing HD (mine does it with no issue) – even with WiFi.

You might try temporarily using a wired ethernet connection just to rule it out.

I saw this thread about Netflix Issues in the WD Live Hub forum:  http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Hub-Discussions/Netflix-issues/td-p/644027 — starting to wonder if this issue is wider than just me, but instead a WD device issue?

I have been having the same issue for you. it happened right after charismas for me. the good old days i watched 720 all the time. now 288 most while 420 is a speacial moment now. i have called netflix with mixed results, first person told me they detected  my comcast connection being up and down. it turned out that was not the case. after about the 3rd call to netflix i learned something interesting. 

Some devices have different streams. the wd player and ruku etc… uses a lower compressed video stream ( looks better on tv ) and devices like blurey players etc… uses a higher compressed lower overhead video feed. the resolution is way better but you can see the difference in textures and such. 

my personal opinion since everyone is playing the blame game, is netflix got hammered during the Christmas season. they cant keep up with the lower compressed feeds so things just default to 288p. i came to this conclusion  because if i wake up at 4 in the morning and turn on my wd… behold 720p then latter in the day 288p with buffering. 

i just wanted someone to tell me “we are working on it” and i will be fine, but no one seems to want to take ownership of anything.