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Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

bbc.co.uk

191–200 of 763 posts

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

#191
post #24

Is this for the entirety of Europe? Because I imagine we're not having any issues with this in Finland.

It's a made up problem. In Germany, journalists asked the network providers and they said everything is fine. Such a ridiculous and pointless thing to do by the EU. Especially since all the apps drop the quality automatically anyway if the connection is slow.

Would any ISP actually openly say that it's "not fine"? Are these publicly owned companies? Wouldn't be risky to your business if you admitted things are not fine or that they are on the edge of capacity?

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

#193

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…

That sounds awful.

I'm on MacOS Mojave and the main issue I have with Netflix is that every few minutes there is a white flash for a few ms. In Safari and Chrome if i remember correctly. But I never investigated that as I don't stream a lot.

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

#194
post #13
post #5

Does anyone know of public ISP dashboards that show used/total capacity on their network in terms of customer usage? I'm sure its trivial for an internal employee to pull up solarwinds or whatever, but I'd be curious to see if these ISPs are merely running above normal, running hot, barely hanging on with intermittent "isp brownouts" etc. This is probably a pipe dream but not gonna get any questions answered if I don…

The largest backbone in the world publishes statistics: https://www.de-cix.net/en/locations/germany/frankfurt/statis...

Thanks. I dont see there any anomaly. Just one higher spike and than normal transfer. So... There is no increase?

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

#196

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…

This is really driving me nuts... Netflix is consistently giving me subpar resolution in firefox. It's quite rare that I even get 720p. Yet switching to microsoft edge, boom suddenly it's great. There used to be some extensions to switch the resolution up on chrome and firefox, but I do believe they're not working anymore. Another case for piracy I guess.

This is because of DRM integrations. If any part of the chain between netflix and secure memory in your display cannot be verified, or does not meet some standard, you get the degraded experience.

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

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a made up problem. In Germany, journalists asked the network providers and they said everything is fine. Such a ridiculous and pointless thing to do by the EU. Especially since all the apps drop the quality automatically anyway if the connection is slow.

It's not an invented problem. In Spain, ISPs like Telefonica and Vodafone are posting tweets are telling newspapers that people need to use the Internet with responsibility [0]. They also passed a law yesterday that allows ISPs to close connections if they know they're being used to spam the network. Maybe in Germany is different because people are more used to work from home or just being at home while watching Netf…

They're talking about a 50% increase in voice and 25% in data on mobile networks. The problem is not the wired home connections. In fact, they even suggest that you use your landline for talking instead of the mobile networks.

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

#198

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.

The technical needlessness of this decision has been thoroughly reviewed in this thread; therefore this is just a fear-based decision because of the panic. Why should anyone tolerate pointless moves like this to appease people that are panicking?

It's not a fear based decision. ISP companies sell more bandwidth than is actually available during peak times but because of everybody staying home now their services are oversubscribed creating slow downs or outages.

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

#199
post #50

Does it mean they’ll pay me back for the 4K package?

You know, right now is not a time to be thinking about your ability to get the luxury service and goods you're used to. It's about us all staying alive and keeping each other alive and making it through this. Maybe you have to do with a little bit less than you're used to, maybe you don't think it's fair because you've paid $5 extra for your extra stream quality. None of us think what's happening is fair, but we have…

First of all, that kind of tone is not appreciated here.

But beyond your tone, why do you think right now "staying alive" means that a business should be collecting an extra $5 per person, instead of it staying with people?

Considering the difficulties many people are going to have making rent etc... it seems like the default sympathetic position here should lie with the customer, not the business. To me, that's "getting your head straight." Siding with the common person over a corporation.

It baffles me how anyone could defend the current situation as an opportunity for more profits that customers should just shut up about.

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

#200
post #24

Is this for the entirety of Europe? Because I imagine we're not having any issues with this in Finland.

It's a made up problem. In Germany, journalists asked the network providers and they said everything is fine. Such a ridiculous and pointless thing to do by the EU. Especially since all the apps drop the quality automatically anyway if the connection is slow.

German ISPs to public: "Everything is fine!"

German ISPs to EU representative: "Could you please ask Netflix to turn down the traffic so we don't look too bad?"

Not too hard to imagine, is it?

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