NETFLIX: We're having trouble playing this title right now...

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FL00DY

Senior Member
Jul 15, 2010
75
1
Sydney
I'm living in Panama City, so I'm natively in the Mexico Netflix region. On my apple TV I'm using unblock-us to change regions. Obviously for chromecast I've removed all DNS settings from my S3, TF700 and MBP. I can watch Netflix fine on all three devices. On Chromecast I only get a few minutes, maybe 5, before I get "We're having trouble playing this title right now. Please try again later or select a different title."

This happens with all my devices. Netflix plays fine on those devices.
Google Play Movies plays perfect, Youtube has no problems.
Looking at internet traffic as the message appears, I dont see a drop in traffic at all. However in recent weeks, watching Hulu on our apple tv can sometimes take 20 minutes longer thanks to lots of pauses.

I purchased this so I didnt have to keep moving my ATV up and down stairs. I like that it's cheap, I like using a phone or chrome to control it - but I wonder if Google ever plan to add manual IP settings. How much will they add to it in the future?

I'm very tech savy, have been in IT for 13 years. The cable modem and router I have are completely foreign to me, I dont know the username and password to login and even look at the firmware. All I know is it's a motorola something. But I did miss the window for rooting it :( and I was thinking if I could roll the firmware back to allow rooting, but I doubt it.

Anyone have any suggesting?
 

bhiga

Inactive Recognized Contributor
Oct 13, 2010
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If Netflix is working on other devices I would suspect your Chromecast is not getting a good/stable WiFi signal.
Use the HDMI extender, try a different (side/front) HDMI port if your TV has one and make sure it has line-of-sight to your router with as few obstructions as possible.
 
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FL00DY

Senior Member
Jul 15, 2010
75
1
Sydney
If Netflix is working on other devices I would suspect your Chromecast is not getting a good/stable WiFi signal.
Use the HDMI extender, try a different (side/front) HDMI port if your TV has one and make sure it has line-of-sight to your router with as few obstructions as possible.

Sadly this doesnt work either :( Why would the unstable wifi signal be problem with Netflix and not Google Play? Better connection to Google's own servers?

I tried this and still no luck :crying:
 

bhiga

Inactive Recognized Contributor
Oct 13, 2010
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Sadly this doesnt work either :( Why would the unstable wifi signal be problem with Netflix and not Google Play? Better connection to Google's own servers?

I tried this and still no luck :crying:
Differences in encoding rate can make one service work while another has problems, so really depends.

Has Netflix on Chromecast ever worked okay in this configuration?
 
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FL00DY

Senior Member
Jul 15, 2010
75
1
Sydney
Differences in encoding rate can make one service work while another has problems, so really depends.

Has Netflix on Chromecast ever worked okay in this configuration?

Nope, I'm yet to finish a program without interruption, I keep switching to my ATV after the 4-5 attempt.
My wife is a apple faithful, I cant show her my new google toy and have it not work 100%. Netflix works fine most of the time on the ATV, maybe a few times the video freezes and the audio keeps playing. I think maybe the ATV handles the little dropouts better, Hulu will pause for 10-15 seconds and keep playing.

Speedtest only records 4.5-5Mb :(
 

scandalousk

Senior Member
Jul 29, 2012
563
182
I think I know what your problem is since I've encountered it myself.

You're using a different dns configuration to watch Netflix from a different region, let's take the USA as an example. When you configure the unblock-us setting into your router or your mobile devices they'll work and play the USA Netflix content just fine. But these settings will never work for the chromecast since it will always use google's dns which is 8.8.8.8. Or 8.8.4.4 since this is baked into the chromecast and cannot be changed.

Once you start streaming us based Netflix content to your chromecast... It's going to see that that content is not available in your region and it'll time out and show you the message you've mentioned.

The only way around this is to root your chromecast which is now impossible if you haven't already done so, or you have to have a dd-wrt supported router. So you can reroute the google dns to the unblock-us dns.

Sent from the dark side of the moon
 
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bhiga

Inactive Recognized Contributor
Oct 13, 2010
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The only way around this is to root your chromecast which is now impossible if you haven't already done so, or you have to have a dd-wrt supported router. So you can reroute the google dns to the unblock-us dns.
Root and iptables (which is supported by open/hacked router firmwares other than DD-WRT as well) are not the only ways:
You can also try adding a static route to an unresponsive local address
Or if your router supports blocking access to specific IPs, you can block 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Depending on your router one or both may work.
If Chromecast times out in trying to reach Google DNS, it will fall back to the DHCP-supplied DNS.
It has to try and fail timeout, rather than get immediately refused though. Immediate refusal will make it nag about not being able to reach the Internet.
 

scandalousk

Senior Member
Jul 29, 2012
563
182
Root and iptables (which is supported by open/hacked router firmwares other than DD-WRT as well) are not the only ways:
You can also try adding a static route to an unresponsive local address
Or if your router supports blocking access to specific IPs, you can block 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Depending on your router one or both may work.
If Chromecast times out in trying to reach Google DNS, it will fall back to the DHCP-supplied DNS.
It has to try and fail timeout, rather than get immediately refused though. Immediate refusal will make it nag about not being able to reach the Internet.

Correct. Silly of me to not even mention this since this is the method I use lol. Thanks for pointing it out mate!

Sent from the dark side of the moon
 

bhiga

Inactive Recognized Contributor
Oct 13, 2010
2,501
1,018
Correct. Silly of me to not even mention this since this is the method I use lol. Thanks for pointing it out mate!
There are so many little details, even I forget from time to time. ;) Just wanted to make sure people didn't think it's hopeless, at least not on the DNS front. :)
 

FL00DY

Senior Member
Jul 15, 2010
75
1
Sydney
I think I know what your problem is since I've encountered it myself.

You're using a different dns configuration to watch Netflix from a different region, let's take the USA as an example. When you configure the unblock-us setting into your router or your mobile devices they'll work and play the USA Netflix content just fine. But these settings will never work for the chromecast since it will always use google's dns which is 8.8.8.8. Or 8.8.4.4 since this is baked into the chromecast and cannot be changed.

Once you start streaming us based Netflix content to your chromecast... It's going to see that that content is not available in your region and it'll time out and show you the message you've mentioned.

The only way around this is to root your chromecast which is now impossible if you haven't already done so, or you have to have a dd-wrt supported router. So you can reroute the google dns to the unblock-us dns.

Sent from the dark side of the moon

scandalousk thanks for the advice. However like I said, I'm not running any unblock-us service on my devices or routers. It's running on my ATV but it was switched off while I was trying all this...

Any method that means changing my Router config is useless as it was equipment provided by the cable company in Panama and while I can hide my device from my wife, I cant very well hide a new router. I dont know the username and password to even checkout the firmware and features. When I google the part numbers and model numbers I'm lucky to get 3-4 search results.
 

cmstlist

Senior Member
Jan 11, 2010
3,348
522
Toronto
Google Pixel 4a
scandalousk thanks for the advice. However like I said, I'm not running any unblock-us service on my devices or routers. It's running on my ATV but it was switched off while I was trying all this...

Any method that means changing my Router config is useless as it was equipment provided by the cable company in Panama and while I can hide my device from my wife, I cant very well hide a new router. I dont know the username and password to even checkout the firmware and features. When I google the part numbers and model numbers I'm lucky to get 3-4 search results.

Why would you need to hide it from your wife? :)

If your Chromecast is unrooted, the *only* ways to view out of region content are by modification of the router. If necessary you could add a second more customizable router on top of the cable company's equipment, and use that network for all your casting needs.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 

manichon

Member
Sep 7, 2011
45
0
Same problem here

Living in Panama City, same problems as OP, the difference is that it used to work when I first got it. I'm on build 16664 with no VPN or anything else to change regions. Netflix works fine on PS3, nexus 5, nexus 7, windows PC, Ouya, 3DS and Macbook. I've tried reseting the CC (holding button, and through the android app) and reinstalling the Netflix apps on my android devices (even though I knew that wasn't the problem since I can't cast from my PC either). Any ideas on router configuration we could try?
 

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    If Netflix is working on other devices I would suspect your Chromecast is not getting a good/stable WiFi signal.
    Use the HDMI extender, try a different (side/front) HDMI port if your TV has one and make sure it has line-of-sight to your router with as few obstructions as possible.
    1
    Sadly this doesnt work either :( Why would the unstable wifi signal be problem with Netflix and not Google Play? Better connection to Google's own servers?

    I tried this and still no luck :crying:
    Differences in encoding rate can make one service work while another has problems, so really depends.

    Has Netflix on Chromecast ever worked okay in this configuration?