Why Won't Netflix Load?
Netflix serves more streaming video than any other website on the Internet, using record amounts of bandwidth -- close to 20 percent, according to Wired Magazine -- to serve customers high-definition video streams of popular television shows and movies. The one drawback to Netflix service is that a number of software solutions must exist for movies and videos to load and stream properly.
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Bandwidth
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Make sure your Internet connection is capable of handling streaming video. Netflix does a performance test before deciding what quality video to send to your computer. If you do not have a high bandwidth connection, Netflix sends low-definition, pixelated video that's difficult to watch. Video often proves choppy or may not load at all over a slow connection.
Operating System
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Netflix only supports certain operating systems. GNU/Linux, an up-and-coming desktop operating system used by roughly five percent of the world's Internet users as of March 2011, remains unsupported. According to Netflix, this is due to security issues, but speculation exists that Silverlight, the Microsoft plugin Netflix uses to stream video, is the root of the problem. If you run an operating system other than the supported Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X, Netflix will not load.
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Microsoft Silverlight
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The Silverlight plugin allows for the streaming of high-quality, digital rights management (DRM) protected video. This allows the content producers to maintain the rights to their videos and keeps Netflix users from downloading the content directly to their computers. Microsoft's Silverlight plugin has only been made available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, with the GNU/Linux version -- Mono -- being denied the necessary codes to make it fully functional. If your version of Silverlight is not updated or should become corrupted -- unusable due to hard drive or software errors -- Netflix is unable to serve you video.
Third-Party Device Errors
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Although available on Apple iOS, Apple's mobile operating system, as well as on Microsoft Windows Mobile devices, Netflix has yet to make their streaming services available on other mobile platforms. Attempting to run their services on an Android or BlackBerry device causes immediate errors and failure to load. Additionally, a number of third-party devices that use the Netflix streaming service, such as the Xbox 360 or some Blu-ray players, may have platform-specific issues that keep Netflix from loading. When using a third-party device, it's important to remember that the problem may originate with the device's network connection, rather than Netflix. Networked media devices are new technology and tend to have issues that manufacturers are still working to resolve. Frequent firmware upgrades appear on the websites for these devices and many problems can be solved by downloading the latest firmware updates.
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References
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Comments
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so basically half thier customers are out of luck.
