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Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

bbc.co.uk

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

#311

Post by MaxBarraclough »

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…

Also, for 5.1 surround sound, no browser will do, you must use the Windows 10 app. (That's if you're playing from a PC, of course.)

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/14163

> I really wish they'd just allow up to 4K streaming on all main browsers

Do all the major browsers support this?

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

#312

Post by robocat »

There’s so much that seems wrong about this.

1: home network capacity used to be at peak around 7PM IIRC. There should be significant spare headroom on the network during the working day.

2: Netflix already downgrades when bandwidth is limited. The smart move would be to tell Netflix to downgrade more aggressively, on the theory that would allow more “important” traffic to get priority, while still allowing people to watch Netflix (important to keep people from social contact!), and not affecting quality for consumers where ISP capacity isn’t an issue (edit: added clause).

3: Allow individual ISPs to ignore agreements and bandwidth limit Netflix traffic from their POPs, if ISPs are having capacity issues.

This seems political, possibly pushed by Netflix so they can sell more subscriptions while having a third party to blame for reducing service levels. Or maybe just knee jerk dumb reactions from politicians - stupidity seems like an option too!?

Edit: I keep being amazed at how consumerism drives side benefits. Without Netflix and gamers, how much worse off would we all be right now?

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

#313

Post by skeletonjelly »

dragonwriter wrote: post #231
jandrese wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that if you pirate 1080p or 4k content you'll always get the full resolution you asked for.

If you pirate it originally yourself, sure. Pirated content from other people that lies about what it is isn't unheard of, though.

Depends on your sources!

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

#314

Post by rahimnathwani »

Sosh101 wrote: post #288
amelius wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except residential upload speeds are usually only 1/10th of the corresponding download speed.

Maybe 10 years ago? I don't know anyone with a connection that badly asymmetrical.

It's pretty common if your last mile technology is old, e.g. cable internet coax, or copper phone lines for ADSL.

Most Comcast plans in my area come with 5Mbit/s upload, even if the download speed is 15x to 25x that.

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

#315

Post by gowld »

kingo55 wrote: post #237
jandrese wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that if you pirate 1080p or 4k content you'll always get the full resolution you asked for.

What a joke. We're punished for being paying customers. It's like the oppressive DRM that hurts actual paying customers of games rather than the pirates who circumvent it.

And shoplifting is also easier than waiting in line at checkout.

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

#316

Post by op00to »

coffeefirst wrote: post #107
bmmayer1 wrote: post #92

Isn't this sort of rationing exactly the thing that anti-Net Neutrality advocates have been warning about?

No, that would be the ISP playing "you can't use Netflix or Zoom unless you pay for Super Premium." This is the services themselves downgrading to handle the highest peak service they will ever see.

Not just that. Eyeball network ISPs also shake down companies like Netflix with extortionate fees when peering points are overloaded to upgrade the connection.

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

#317

Post by Shivetya »

turbinerneiter wrote: post #51
Hamuko wrote: 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.

it is a no cost request for a government official to make and gives them a ready out should things go wrong, in that they can point and say "if only they had done what I asked"

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

#318

Post by itg »

robocat wrote: post #312

There’s so much that seems wrong about this. 1: home network capacity used to be at peak around 7PM IIRC. There should be significant spare headroom on the network during the working day. 2: Netflix already downgrades when bandwidth is limited. The smart move would be to tell Netflix to downgrade more aggressively, on the theory that would allow more “important” traffic to get priority, while still allowing people to…

Regarding point 1, I imagine capacity is much higher during working hours due to so many people working from home.

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

#319

Post by throwaway744678 »

TrickyRick wrote: post #272
amelius wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except residential upload speeds are usually only 1/10th of the corresponding download speed.

Doesn't really matter though, still means (Slightly oversimplified) that a peer can connect to 10 hosts and not have to download at all from the origin server. Also this simply isn't true in a lot of European countries where upload and download speeds are equal, but that's a different thing.

Can you explain what you mean by that last statement? It does not sound true to me. As far as I can tell (in my country) almost all consumer offers are asymmetric: ADSL, obviously, but also fiber. Symmetric offers are very much for professional access, and typically more expensive.

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

#320

Post by majewsky »

robocat wrote: post #312

There’s so much that seems wrong about this. 1: home network capacity used to be at peak around 7PM IIRC. There should be significant spare headroom on the network during the working day. 2: Netflix already downgrades when bandwidth is limited. The smart move would be to tell Netflix to downgrade more aggressively, on the theory that would allow more “important” traffic to get priority, while still allowing people to…

> home network capacity used to be at peak around 7PM IIRC. There should be significant spare headroom on the network during the working day.

That's because people used to be in the office over the day. Now many are working from home and thus at home all day.

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