Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 763 posts

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#161

Post by coribuci »

BenJong-Il wrote: post #87

A few months ago there was blog post posted here from a guy making movie reviews. In the blog post he described how he managed to get 4k Netflix screenshots on his Chromecast. The effort he made was enormous and involved reverse engineering the Netflix data protocol (I probably worded this wrong). When doing that he found out that Netflix streaming in 4k isn't actually 4k. Again not exactly sure how this worked but t…

> When doing that he found out that Netflix streaming in 4k isn't actually 4k.

Well, after so many people praising streaming i wanted to check what this means. According to wikipedia the server adapts to the clients bandwidth. So you can get UHD with the quality of mpeg1.

> Does anyone know what I am talking about? I've thought about this pist several times in the past weeks.

Yes. That's why i decided that streaming is not really a solution.

It is really amazing how they are selling crap claiming that they have better quality. Damn, even an AM transmission sounds better.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#162

Post by selectodude »

lm28469 wrote: post #57
monkpit wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not like netflix 4k looks good anyway I can definitely see a difference between 1080 and 4K on Netflix. Compared on the same internet connection and streaming device in the same house. One 1080 tv and one 4K tv.

That's not what I'm saying. Try to watch a 1080p bluray, even on a 4k tv it looks (much) better than netflix 4k.

100mbit/s h.265 is going to look better than most anything.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#163

Post by afarrell »

Angelwings93 wrote: post #145
throwaway936482 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes because the luxury business customer's wants to have the UHD they paid a small sum for do not trump other people's needs to be able to work from home in order to eat and keep the real economy working because of a pandemic.

that's fine, but how is that a retort to giving someone their money back after you can't provide that service anymore

It's not a retort to that -- It's a retort to the person asking for their money back.

It is saying "what you are upset about does not matter. Don't bother someone else with it", which is both an insult and correct.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#164

Post by ehsankia »

DavidVoid wrote: post #152
BenJong-Il wrote: post #87

A few months ago there was blog post posted here from a guy making movie reviews. In the blog post he described how he managed to get 4k Netflix screenshots on his Chromecast. The effort he made was enormous and involved reverse engineering the Netflix data protocol (I probably worded this wrong). When doing that he found out that Netflix streaming in 4k isn't actually 4k. Again not exactly sure how this worked but t…

On a related note, if you watch Netflix in Chrome or Firefox then you're only getting a resolution of 720p. Google Chrome Up to 720p on Windows, Mac, and Linux Up to 1080p on Chrome OS Internet Explorer up to 1080p Microsoft Edge up to 4K* Mozilla Firefox up to 720p Opera up to 720p Safari up to 1080p on Mac OS X 10.10.3 or later *Streaming in 4K requires an HDCP 2.2 compliant connection to a 4K capable display, Inte…

Wow, they should really make that clearer, especially since IIRC they charge for 4K streaming...

This is probably how they get away with providing 4K without destroying their network: by making people think they are getting 4K when most are really are just watching 720p

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#165

Post by afarrell »

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #115
cortesoft wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the whole world is trying to deal with the worst pandemic in 100 years, you are going to have to adjust your expectation levels for bullshit.

Yeah, but not this kind of bullshit. How is COVID stopping Netflix from lowering their rates accordingly?

Taking actions like changing billing code requires time and effort.

COVID-19 requires spending time and effort on lots of things.

Everything has an opportunity cost.

Spend time and attention on things that matter.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#167

Post by quotemstr »

wtallis wrote: post #160
iptrans wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the point of rationing something that costs a hundredth of a cent per GB? You get 10TB of bandwidth for a dollar. Once average usage per subscriber goes over that, then we can talk.

I think the real problem is that the supply is too inelastic. The marginal cost of delivering more data is trivial, until part of your network gets congested, and then your short-term options are limited. This is the same problem that water utilities often face: it's cheap, until you run out. Assigning a single rate ($/TB) requires you to make some assumptions that are at risk of being violated in exceptional circums…

> Using variable pricing to charge more during peak hours is too complicated for consumers to keep track of

Why? It works for electricity.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#168

Post by iso947 »

ehsankia wrote: post #164
DavidVoid wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a related note, if you watch Netflix in Chrome or Firefox then you're only getting a resolution of 720p. Google Chrome Up to 720p on Windows, Mac, and Linux Up to 1080p on Chrome OS Internet Explorer up to 1080p Microsoft Edge up to 4K* Mozilla Firefox up to 720p Opera up to 720p Safari up to 1080p on Mac OS X 10.10.3 or later *Streaming in 4K requires an HDCP 2.2 compliant connection to a 4K capable display, Inte…

Wow, they should really make that clearer, especially since IIRC they charge for 4K streaming... This is probably how they get away with providing 4K without destroying their network: by making people think they are getting 4K when most are really are just watching 720p

If you don’t realise it’s not 4K, maybe it’s not worth the extra cost

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#169

Post by rsynnott »

cortesoft wrote: post #105
rsynnott wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shelter in Place is basically just the Bay Area, right? And a lot of people still seem to be leaving the home for work there; notoriously, people are still making Teslas! Also, California is mostly fairly urbanised and well-off. If Germany was the only place in Europe where people were being discouraged from leaving the home, this would be less of a concern. This is really targeting places, especially rural places, w…

I am in Los Angeles, and we have been told to stay home except for absolutely necessary trips to grocery stores or doctors. Also, there are very large parts of California that are rural.

> Census 2000 found California’s rural population totaled 1,876,753 persons

That's about 5%, which is pretty low.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#170

Post by rsynnott »

trigger wrote: post #139
rsynnott wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a neutral exchange. Note that it doesn't give the whole story; really big players like Netflix may have hardware directly in some of the ISPs and bypass the exchange completely. The US doesn't have many significant neutral exchanges, but here's one: https://www.seattleix.net/statistics/

Possibly, but Netflix do peer in INEX, https://www.inex.ie/ixp/customer/detail/103

They do, but they likely also have equipment in many of the ISPs.
Post reply on HN