(USA - Texas, Current version 1.2.8.3, No VPN).
Hey, just in case it is of aid, I had noticed with 1.2.8.0 that Netflix had opened up 1920x1080 on a lot of shows that were originally limited to 960x540. I downloaded a bunch of them (no issue downloading). upon further observation, I found that almost (like 20 out of 22, and the 2 could fall under the always working 1920x1080 netflix shows, so may not be related) had the 2 minute mark failure.
I noticed with 1.2.8.3, that many of these now were limited to 960x540 again, and after downloading, seemed to work fine.
I then noticed that The Lovely Bones, still had 1920x1080 available, for which I downloaded it. Checking it showed it to have the same 2 minute failure from previous. I then proceeded to download the 960x540 version (not the highest for this particular movie, but still available). This version worked without a problem. So, I would deduce that it has something to do with not filtering out the higher resolutions for some movies (however ya'll do it) like was previously done. 1.2.8.3 seems to resolve the availability of most of these higher resolutions again (like pre 1.2.8.0 did) for the ones that didn't work (obviously not all of them, but out of the 20 I mentioned redoing again, only Lovely Bones still had 1920x1080 available, but still not working).
Hope this info is of use. if more is needed on my end let me know.
PS Happy Holidays!