Z21 - Netflix problems

I have the Z21 - i7, 6 Ram, 256 HD, 1920x1080, Blu-Ray PMD. When playing HD movies on Netflix, the picture "stutters" during fast moving scenes. And it's not just a little, but so much to make action movies impossible to watch. This happens on the computer's screen and when hooked up to an external monitor (with out PMD).

When using the PMD, the picture is perfect. But there's another problem. Every so often, the window goes blank while playing a movie (HD and regular movies off Netflix). I have to hit refresh on my browser to get it going again. This can happen as often as once every five minutes. This only happens with the PMD. I called netflix and they just said to re-install Microsoft Silverlight. That didn't help and they don't have any other suggestions.

Anyone else experience these issues? And to note, my Z21 is from the Microsoft store, with their own image.

 

i got the same problem before. i have posted in owner lounge but seem like no one has any help.i just dealt with it and now my problem is gone by itself.

 

Which problem did you have that fixed itself....the stuttering during HD fast moving shows or Netflix just timing out by itself with the PMD?

 

How many different HD movies have you tried? I'm not sure how they transcode their stuff, but some movies seem to be less prone to this type of thing than others.

Also, high-motion scenes use more bandwidth and CPU cycles than ones where only the main actors are moving. If you have some process in the background or barely enough bandwidth, jitters can occur.

As for a fix, you can removing/reinstalling Silverlight, but that's a shot in the dark.

 

Zoinks, I have tried several HD movies with the same results. I understand there is higher bandwidth and more CPU usage during fast moving scenes. There is plenty of bandwidth with my cable modem, and my other computers have no problems, so bandwidth isn't an issue. And I even tried rebooting my computer and just running Netflix, but it didn't solve the problem.

I called Netflix and they recommended reinstally Silverlight as well. I did, but it didn't help. Just wondering if there are others who have the same issue.

 

what power plan are you set to? The power plans on the Z are a bit odd, switch to high performance and it should resolve.

 

I have a Z11 and have found only sometimes I need to move up power plans, but interestingly I have never had the problems the OP describes, either on the Intel or nVidia settings. My only problems with Netflix stuff - and no different with high def or std, is that the video will just freeze, as if you paused it, but the audio continues. It usual just takes a relaunch of the browser.

But you guessed well Zoinks! About once every month or two I have to uninstall/reinstall Silverlight. Much of the time, the browser, or Netflix server, no longer finds it.

Overall, the Z1 does great with Netflix, but then so do a couple of 2009 HPs I have, so there seems to be something amiss with the Z21.

 

the stuttering, i never use PMD so i didn't know another one.

 

What "fast moving" HD videos caused this problem (just one or two)? I'll try them and see what happens.

 

Another thought on this...

I have random problems watching movies via HDMI from the PMD while using the main display for email and whatnot. Stutters happen from time to time, but not all the time.

This may be a figment of my imagination, but launching a fresh browser on the external display and browsing to Netflix there renders stutter-free movies 100% of the time. Launching netflix from the laptop display and moving it to the external display produces stuttering video more often than not.

Perhaps Silverlight doesn't like switching screens/GPU's/display busses? This happens in IE and Chrome.

 

You nailed it! It was the power plan causing the stuttering. My Z2 has the Microsoft Signature image, so the power plan was on a "Microsoft Signature" plan. I had to create my own plan and I put pretty much everything on performance settings. The stuttering problems went away!!!

I haven't had the chance to try this out with the PMD and see if the time-out issue is affected by the power plan. Will try that next week when I get back home.

Thanks!

 

^Glad it worked. The Z's power plans use a VERY slow to react CPU governor. I discovered this doing some benchmarking. Basically - it takes a few seconds (literally) of load before the CPU will speed up. When there is a fast moving scene, etc. in a video that require some horsepower - a few seconds is too long and the CPU is stuck at that lower speed and you get dropped frames and stuttering.

 

Wow....a few seconds of lag is a long time. But that would definitely explain it.

I have noticed the battery running down much faster in the new power plan that I created. But that should be expected.

 

Beaups, do you have to run the Z2 at high performance settings to avoid the lag, or is it only on Power Saver settings that it has the lag? Doesn't make sense for a power player to require max power profile to handle a relatively easy app like Netflix, which runs without a hitch on my 2009 $400 HP notebook.

 

^balanced works fine usually. Keep in mind netflix uses silverlight and your $400 HP likely isn't scaling to a 1080p display.

 

Dont forget about the power settings in Control Center.

 

I hear you, but it does just fine scaling to 1080p via HDMI.

 

Yet more reason we need a new driver package for the Z2

 

^It's not a driver problem. It's Sony's cpu governer that helps achieve the crazy long battery life for such a small battery. When we don't like the side affects we can just switch to a different power plan.

 

Fair enough, but I don't know why Sony doesn't make this more transparent and rather than having people figure out they're doing something in std power plans that NO other computer does, why not just make it a toggle in VCC - "cpu governor to improve battery life (note: may adversely effect performance on some apps)"

 

^agreed

10char

 

So the power settings were the culprit in stuttering Netflix HD movies when playing without the PMD.

I now have the PMD plugged in and the problem of Netflix timing out continues. Really a pain trying to watch a movie on one screen while working on other screens. By timing out means that while playing the movie, the screen just goes black. I have to hit refresh for it to continue. Power setting is on performance, but I don't think this is a power issue.

And it doesn't matter which screen I use to play the movie. It times out on all of them. Anyone else tried playing Netflix movie with the PMD?

 

Ok, I think I solved my own issue. I had another application that uses Silverlight running at the same time. I have closed that other app and now I've been watching Netflix for an hour without it timing out. Kinda sucks as I need that other program while I work. But this isn't a Sony issue, it's a Microsoft Silverlight issue.