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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

#391

Post by mulmen »

rococode wrote: post #246

I've been having major internet issues lately (Seattle area), have had 4 techs come try to figure it out. Yesterday's tech finally correctly diagnosed the problem as happening before the connection reaches our home but was unsure of the cause. He called his supervisor to investigate, and they found that the capacity for our neighborhood's node was nearly at 100%, while ideally it should always be under 80%. Fortunate…

What ISP? I’m on Comcast “Business Class” in Seattle and experiencing occasional slowdowns as well.

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

#392

Post by lawnchair_larry »

fibers wrote: post #363
btgeekboy wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1000/35 for me. Yay DOCSIS.

why is docsis so slow/asymmetric?

DOCSIS is fine now, but being a cable network supporting legacy systems takes up most of the upload spectrum for any cable ISP.

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

#393

Post by paranoidrobot »

capableweb wrote: post #365
orcasauce wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it Netflix has hardware in ISP data centers to do exactly that. https://openconnect.netflix.com/en/

Netflix might have data centers that gets closer, but nothing will ever get as far reaching and close as P2P would. A residential building who are all watching the same movie would only have to download the movie from building internet once. Replicate this system on every level (local network building city country) and you get so much more bandwidth available. Of course there are other considerations and we (humans)…

> Netflix might have data centers that gets closer, but nothing will ever get as far reaching and close as P2P would. A residential building who are all watching the same movie would only have to download the movie from building internet once.

This assumes that residential internet connections act like a larger version of your home LAN.

For all the ISPs that I know about in Australia, all of those connections are terminated within the ISPs network in a central location. This is done using PPPoE/IPoA which is handled generally at the state level.

Even for HFC networks where the local node is a shared medium, you can't get client-client communications.

Perhaps the situation is different for small WISPs, but I can't see it being too different for most people. Happy to learn more if you have examples.

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

#394

Post by mulmen »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #386
op00to wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tech was full of shit. This happens literally all the time. You probably won’t get a “node split” unless more people loudly complain. It’s cheaper for them to roll a tech and hope you get fed up than it is to actually fix the problem.

I don't see what motivation a tech would have for lying about this.

I asked a Comcast tech when IPv6 would be available and he said “IP v what?”. Don’t attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence.

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

#395

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

wtallis wrote: post #390
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Network Operations should be raising known problem issues to front line call centre staff. Network congestion issues shouldn't be handed off to field techs to check local loop (last mile) and CPE (Customer Premises Equipment.

I'm pretty sure it's standard practice at these companies to never let front line call center staff acknowledge known problems. Sometimes, the automated phone menu will give you a recorded generic message that they are currently experiencing a service issue, but that's intended to convince you to hang up and patiently wait for them to sort their shit out. I've never had a front-line rep be at all useful in diagnosing…

Yeah true.

I guess I need to remember the ISP I work for here in Australia (front line tech support, and then network operations physical security and infrastructure) was widely recognised as the best ISP in Australia multiple years running, so I shouldn't use it as a baseline expectation.

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

#396

Post by kodt »

dylz wrote: post #306
Bnshsysjab wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d rather see 60-144hz before any increases in resolution above 1080p and maybeeee 4K. I think lower quality rips show themselves a bit more on high quality playback devices, but I generally don’t hit low quality releases purely for Snob factors so I could be wrong.

Are movies actually made in 144 FPS?

Not that I'm aware of. The only high FPS movie I know of is Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ang Lee, it is shot at 120fps. The Hobbit is shot at 48fps.

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

#399

Post by paulmd »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #392
fibers wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why is docsis so slow/asymmetric?

DOCSIS is fine now, but being a cable network supporting legacy systems takes up most of the upload spectrum for any cable ISP.

You can configure cable to use more of its channels for upstream. They just don't because that would hurt downstream and force them to run more cables to make up the difference.

There's absolutely no reason you can't have symmetric cable if cable companies wanted to pay for the infrastructure.

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

#400

Post by orcasauce »

capableweb wrote: post #365
orcasauce wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it Netflix has hardware in ISP data centers to do exactly that. https://openconnect.netflix.com/en/

Netflix might have data centers that gets closer, but nothing will ever get as far reaching and close as P2P would. A residential building who are all watching the same movie would only have to download the movie from building internet once. Replicate this system on every level (local network building city country) and you get so much more bandwidth available. Of course there are other considerations and we (humans)…

I think you are overestimating the capabilities, and potential "savings", of P2P here. For one, OpenConnect already does what you're suggesting at the "city" level since it's sitting in ISP DCs. Second, there are minimal gains in the last mile via P2P, if at all, considering the numerous types of devices streaming. How do you handle TVs that are already memory constrained by the streaming app? Do mobile devices constantly upload and eat up your bandwidth cap? What if you're streaming from a neighbor who turns off their computer? Do you need to refetch data from some distant host? Is that really a better experience? You also run into privacy/security concerns. How do you reconcile hosts that _cannot_ leverage P2P? Do you now need to support a "P2P" mode and legacy/vintage non-P2P mode? This doesn't sound good for the end user.
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