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Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

bbc.co.uk

261–270 of 763 posts

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

#261

Maybe if we had kept using bittorrent for TV distribution we wouldn't have so much global traffic downloading "The Avengers" for the millionth time, you would just download it from the nearest host (also the way the internet worked before HTTPS, there used to be way more local caching of content being downloaded over and over again)

Wasn’t Netflix originally p2p in some manner? I can’t remember the exact details (and I may be wrong), but I could have sworn their original architecture was distributed in one way or the other.

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

#262
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

So companies can charge for products they can't deliver? Why should consumers bear the full brunt of the contractual price and not receive promised goods? It's not like we are stealing refunds from ordinary folks, these are heartless corporations (in USA) who squeeze every dime they can.

Like the travel industry does with their non-refundable charges?

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

#263

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 Netflix that can't handle the load, though. It's your ISP. If there's anyone to be angry with, it's them.

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

#266
post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not always at a great bitrate though. I haven't really torrented anything in a while but I doubt there are many 20GB+ Blu-ray quality rips out there that you can download in a reasonable amount of time. EDIT: after reading the replies I stand corrected; it seems like there are some better quality uploads out there than I thought.

Availability aside (bluray rips are a thing), most people can’t tell the difference between FullHD and 4K at all, at least in moving pictures[1]. I doubt bitrate will make much difference on top of that, as long as you start from some reasonable value. I seriously can’t tell the difference between a very low quality YIFY rip and a proper Bluray. If you freeze frame they both look bad, and when they’re moving they bot…

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.

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

#267
post #261

Maybe if we had kept using bittorrent for TV distribution we wouldn't have so much global traffic downloading "The Avengers" for the millionth time, you would just download it from the nearest host (also the way the internet worked before HTTPS, there used to be way more local caching of content being downloaded over and over again)

Wasn’t Netflix originally p2p in some manner? I can’t remember the exact details (and I may be wrong), but I could have sworn their original architecture was distributed in one way or the other.

You might be thinking about Spotify, which had a torrent-like technology originally. Nowadays I think it's fairly limited.

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

#268
post #9

Interesting counterpoint to the "broadband is so much better in Europe" trope. Unless of course we are under strain here in the US as well....

It's not a counterpoint. Netflix's actions, from a network perspective are not neccessary, at least not Europe-wide. My ISP is more than able to cope with it. I've been checking at peak times and I can consistently saturate my gigabit connection piping traffic to/from Amsterdam, about 800km away.

Maybe Netflix feels the need for its own business reasons (e.g. it pays for some of its bandwidth and now users are using enough that they're unprofitable) but it's not needed to ensure the integrity of Europe's networks.

Were it necessary, the ISPs can simply shape Netflix and let adaptive bitrate take care of the user experience, the same way mobile ISPs do in the US.

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

#269

Maybe if we had kept using bittorrent for TV distribution we wouldn't have so much global traffic downloading "The Avengers" for the millionth time, you would just download it from the nearest host (also the way the internet worked before HTTPS, there used to be way more local caching of content being downloaded over and over again)

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

If you’re downloading ten segments from ten different uploaders it can all balance out I think.

Bittorrent can be damn quick. Haven’t used it in a while but it was certainly fast on well seeded items.

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

#270

So they are rolling out gigabit fibre in homes but 5mbs is overloading the system?

Just because they're selling you Gigabit, doesn't mean that they actually have the capacity to provide you a guaranteed Gigabit pipe. They're overprovisioning their network and hoping that not enough people want to max their connection out at the same time.
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