TL;DR: More 4K adoption lead to higher traffic costs for us, so we have to optimize that.
Netflix is now doing per-shot encoding for UHD content
161–170 of 200 posts
Re: Netflix is now doing per-shot encoding for UHD content
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am shocked at how many people watch Netflix in their browser. I have multiple different ways (AppleTV, Xbox, TV Smart App) to watch Netflix on my tv, and at least 2 of them support 4k.
I don't have a TV, so if I watch Netflix it's in a browser. Most people don't realize this but you can only watch Netflix in 4K in a browser if you're using Microsoft Edge on Windows or Safari in macOS 11. In fact, you can only get 1080p if you're running Chrome in Chrome OS, or IE, or Safari. All other browsers, including Chrome and FF on macOS, Linux, and Windows, are stuck at 720p. Their blog post[0] from 2017 sou…
If you are watching on a windows computer the Netflix windows store app can play 4k and 4k hdr titles.
Re: Netflix is now doing per-shot encoding for UHD content
#163It's really too bad that they haven't rolled this out for 1080p too. Their 1080p video quality is god-awful compared to Amazon. They may even have made it worse: from the "ladder" comparisons, it looks like they jump to higher resolutions at lower average bitrates now, so if you're stuck at 1080p you're going to be getting worse quality after these changes than before. Also, something that's kind of weird about all t…
It's gotten so I use my Netflix subscription as a catalog more than a streaming service. If I find I really like something I pirate a higher-quality version of it.
Re: Netflix is now doing per-shot encoding for UHD content
#164> Sometimes we ingest a title that would need more bits at the highest end of the quality spectrum — even higher than the 16 Mbps limit of the fixed-bitrate ladder. From just a cursory inspection using my Apple TV 4K, 12 Mbps is their target bitrate but their ceiling was ~16 Mbps. That's still only a third of what AppleTV+ offers (36/48) and only 2/3 of Disney+ (18/24). Netflix is still higher than Prime Video (10/14…
> only a third of what AppleTV+ offers (36/48) and only 2/3 of Disney+ (18/24) I'm very suspicious of these numbers, I think they might be the maximum transient bitrate and not the average bitrate. Do you have an example of an AppleTV movie or show that actually has an average bitrate that high?
I know this is very unscientific, but I regularly watch a part of a 4K movie on the Apple TV app on my 4K Samsung, and then in 4K on Netflix as well.
Netflix is superior in every regard (easy to browse, quick to buffer, if I rewind it’s instant) but even to a naked eye Apple’s quality is way higher. Less smudgy, more definition.
Re: Netflix is now doing per-shot encoding for UHD content
#165> Sometimes we ingest a title that would need more bits at the highest end of the quality spectrum — even higher than the 16 Mbps limit of the fixed-bitrate ladder. From just a cursory inspection using my Apple TV 4K, 12 Mbps is their target bitrate but their ceiling was ~16 Mbps. That's still only a third of what AppleTV+ offers (36/48) and only 2/3 of Disney+ (18/24). Netflix is still higher than Prime Video (10/14…
I watch a lot of anime, and Netflix consistently looks the worst. Recently, Devilman Crybaby in particular looked so bad I thought I was experiencing a technical issue but nope, I was watching the anime at Netflix’s top quality. The banding artifacts in many scenes were intolerable. It’s hard to get excited about Netflix saving bandwidth when their top bitrates consistently have huge artifacting problems.
It’s so bad that I will pay Apple $3 per episode than watch whatever garbage bitrate Netflix has decided is suitable for anime.
To my eyes, Apple TV+ consistently offers the highest quality images, with a 23 minute anime episode using 700MB+ total instead of 70-170MB I see on Netflix. Even Amazon is a huge drop in quality compared to Apple TV+, although it is better than Netflix.
Re: Netflix is now doing per-shot encoding for UHD content
#166That seems like a pretty impressive achievement! Question for anyone here: What do you use to play 4K/HDR? I have an Apple TV 4K, which can do 4K Dolby Vision playback and looks ok, but the Apple TV tends to have some jittering when streaming certain shows (very noticeable in panning shots of animation). The sound quality is also noticeably worse on my set with it (it doesn’t seem to be able to do direct pass through…
I use an Apple TV 4k into a Denon AVR-X4500 which then outputs in to my 2018 LG 65” TV. Match frame rate is on. All supports 4K Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos (I have ceiling height speakers as well as normal surround). Looks and sounds great.
I also have a second setup which is similar to the above in a dedicated cinema room with projector as well, but with even more speakers.
If you have a receiver, it should be where your video playback devices attach. Only the receiver attaches to the TV.
Re: Netflix is now doing per-shot encoding for UHD content
#167Looks amazing and while I would like to enjoy such quality and am willing to pay for the premium plan (in fact I do already), I still can't watch the 4K content even in a world where I accept DRM modules in my browser, because some DRM plugins seem to be more equal than others.
I am shocked at how many people watch Netflix in their browser. I have multiple different ways (AppleTV, Xbox, TV Smart App) to watch Netflix on my tv, and at least 2 of them support 4k.
I have an appletv connected to a projector but sometimes I just want to throw on something on the computer when I’m eating/waiting for something else.
And of course because I’m on Linux I can’t get even 1080p encoded at a shitty bitrate unless I force it with a Firefox extension that they can gimp at any time (in a way, many thanks to the engineers who made the extension possible by relaxing checks on the browser).
I don’t understand why most platforms hate their paying users like this - I can and will pirate a Blu-ray quality rip if I can’t pay for it easily.
Re: Netflix is now doing per-shot encoding for UHD content
#168That seems like a pretty impressive achievement! Question for anyone here: What do you use to play 4K/HDR? I have an Apple TV 4K, which can do 4K Dolby Vision playback and looks ok, but the Apple TV tends to have some jittering when streaming certain shows (very noticeable in panning shots of animation). The sound quality is also noticeably worse on my set with it (it doesn’t seem to be able to do direct pass through…
Yes unless you have a new tv that supports eARC it won’t pass Dolby Atmos to your receiver from the tv. There is a solution to this which is currently in preorder. https://www.hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/
So if I understand correctly, using this device you can e.g. hook up a HDMI 2.1 device directly to a HDMI 2.1 TV, then pass the audio through an eARC port to the device, which then outputs a normal HDMI signal with full audio support (including Dolby Atmos) you can plug into a HDMI 2.0 receiver that has no eARC or HDMI 2.1 support?
If that’s how it works that would be awesome as I bought an expensive 11.2 receiver not long ago, but when the new consoles are out I want to have VRR and ALLM, which means HDMI 2.1, which means it has to go straight into the TV, which means I would lose Dolby Atmos (assuming PS5 will support it of course, but that seems pretty likely)
Re: Netflix is now doing per-shot encoding for UHD content
#169> Sometimes we ingest a title that would need more bits at the highest end of the quality spectrum — even higher than the 16 Mbps limit of the fixed-bitrate ladder. From just a cursory inspection using my Apple TV 4K, 12 Mbps is their target bitrate but their ceiling was ~16 Mbps. That's still only a third of what AppleTV+ offers (36/48) and only 2/3 of Disney+ (18/24). Netflix is still higher than Prime Video (10/14…
I watch a lot of anime, and Netflix consistently looks the worst. Recently, Devilman Crybaby in particular looked so bad I thought I was experiencing a technical issue but nope, I was watching the anime at Netflix’s top quality. The banding artifacts in many scenes were intolerable. It’s hard to get excited about Netflix saving bandwidth when their top bitrates consistently have huge artifacting problems. It’s so bad…
Is crunchyroll even higher quality than Apple TV? It seems like every episode is 1.3GB at 1080p.
Re: Netflix is now doing per-shot encoding for UHD content
#170That seems like a pretty impressive achievement! Question for anyone here: What do you use to play 4K/HDR? I have an Apple TV 4K, which can do 4K Dolby Vision playback and looks ok, but the Apple TV tends to have some jittering when streaming certain shows (very noticeable in panning shots of animation). The sound quality is also noticeably worse on my set with it (it doesn’t seem to be able to do direct pass through…
"I have an Apple TV 4K, which can do 4K Dolby Vision playback and looks ok, but the Apple TV tends to have some jittering when streaming certain shows (very noticeable in panning shots of animation)." How don't more people complain about this? I avoid streaming on the Apple TV because it does some sort of bizarre framerate thunking that is just brutal for panning. Do so few people use the product that it just goes un…
I believe most people just don't notice the judder, and many of the rest don't care. E.g. it took a lot of convincing to get Google to add "use 50p output" to Chromecast settings years ago (and that didn't fix 24p of course, just European 25p/50p which is more severely
affected).
Also, most high-end TVs are able to recover the original 24p (or other) frame rate and thus remove the judder by using specific settings: https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/c9-oled/settings#judder
I tested with a high-speed camera that with correct settings my old Samsung UE75H6475 was able to recover the original frame rate perfectly from quite a few framerate mangling combinations. Haven't done similar testing with my current C9, though.