Samsung Killed My Netflix

Awhile ago, I talked a bit about Netflix streaming, and how it was just eh, but still something I'd keep around because it did prevent me from buying so many DVDs.

Since then, my Netflix experience has definitely flopped right on its back, with its legs in the air. It's dead, Jim.

The way the stream works is, when you start watching something, there's a little delay, with a red status bar that fills up over the course of a few seconds, and then the video comes on. Thereafter, the stream continues to fill up in the background, so you never run out of video to watch. Every once in awhile you might see that status bar again, but for the most part, you just get a continuous stream, with no problem.

About a month ago, my Netflix stream started  dropping into that status bar every 20 seconds or so. I'd get 20 seconds of video, then 20 seconds of downloading; then 20 seconds of video, then 20 more seconds of downloading. Everything was completely unwatchable.

At first I thought it might be a problem with my wireless, or with my Internet connection in general; but no. Everything checks out. I also thought it might be some metal cans sitting next to the wifi modem; and I moved them out of the way. I also thought it might be the position of the modem relative to my player. But no. It was none of those things.

My current theory is that the software on my player is to blame. That software gets updated periodically, and lately it's been very obvious that the software is simply broken. For example, I'll get a "Network unavailable" error coming from the player itself. I can navigate away from the Netflix app and back to it all I want, with no change. But when I reboot the player, the error goes away. Clearly it's not a problem with my network, but with the device's ability to perceive my network.

Things like that. The player also has a tendency to lock up sometimes, and button pushes stop working on the remote, except for the power button. So I reboot the player, and then it works again for a little while.

And by "works", I mean it interrupts my video every 20 seconds with that same red status bar.

The player is the Samsung BD-C6900 1080p 3D Blu-ray Disc Player. I paid $350 for it, and I haven't been ripped off by any company that bad for years. I'd be very reluctant to buy anything at all from Samsung from now on.