Netflix Picture Quality (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

It really is this bad:

 

[PaulDA]

Hmmn. Here in Canada, Netflix has never looked better (at least not to me). But I tend to watch things that are not necessarily in high demand, so perhaps it's a bandwidth issue at their end? (just a guess, I'm not computer tech savvy at all)

 

[DaveF]

Started a 30d trial, to watch Switched at Birth S1; not exactly high demand. Prime time, weekdays and I get 288SD. I subscribe to Fios for 15 Mbps service. Netflix looks like SD at best, and has poor macro blocking during complex or high-motion scenes. Later at night and on the weekend, it buffers and plays pseudo-HD within a few minutes. It's convenient, but I don't think I can watch a full season at such inferior quality. If this is typical, it's not worth even $8/mo. I'll gladly stick with cable and TiVo.

 

[DaveF]

And related:http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/verizon-seeks-payment-for-carrying-netflix-traffic-wsj-reports/http://ispspeedindex.netflix.com/usa

 

[TonyD]

Comcast and apparently now Verizon are throttling NFS.

 

[[email protected]]

I must just be lucky, I'm sitting here with 3 meg service streaming fine, not HDX fine but it looks real similar to most stuff on directv HD. Maybe if you live in a heavily populated area that's what's killing it?

 

[Jim Mcc]

I must just be lucky, I'm sitting here with 3 meg service streaming fine, not HDX fine but it looks real similar to most stuff on directv HD. Maybe if you live in a heavily populated area that's what's killing it?

That's what I think. Another possibility is the streaming device people are using does not stream in 1080p. My Panasonic player streams Netflix in 1080p to my 106" screen, and it looks excellent. If I'm lucky, that's fine with me.

 

[TonyD]

Jim that's a very small part of the problem. The real issue as already mentioned is that Comcast and Verizon are hamstringing the feed. But at least Comcast may have come to and agreement with NFS. http://gigaom.com/2014/02/21/comcast-netflix-peering/

 

[DaveF]

Watching Thursday night: getting pseudo HD (high pixel count but soft image) around 7:30pm. About 8:30 pm, quality noticeably drops to SD-type level with macro-blocking in complex scenes.

I'm not sure what to make of Netflix. It's super cheap and convenient. An order of magnitude cheaper than my cable and Tivo subscriptions. And I'm not beholden to schedules and commercials from Fios nor hard-drive space in my Tivo. But the quality is so much worse than cable TV (and everyone bags on cable for its inferiority to OTA HD and especially Blu-ray).

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Really? I just watched the first episode of Season 2 after binge-watching all of Season 1 in just over 1 day with no problems getting 1080p throughout.

 

[Sam Posten]

Netflix surrenders to Comcast:http://recode.net/2014/02/23/netflix-and-comcast-solve-their-web-traffic-problem-with-a-long-term-deal/

 

[Mark-P]

Netflix surrenders to Comcast:http://recode.net/2014/02/23/netflix-and-comcast-solve-their-web-traffic-problem-with-a-long-term-deal/

That is some good news. The throttling of Netflix streams has been killing me lately.

 

[TonyD]

That looks very similar to the news that someone posted a few days ago.

Anyway this is good. Now I wonder when it starts.

 

[Jim Mcc]

OK, but what about the other broadband cable companies?

 

[John Stockton]

So when are we expected to see an improvement with Comcast connection??

 

[Towergrove]

That is some good news. The throttling of Netflix streams has been killing me lately.

Yes but watch for raised prices $$$ coming soon to a consumer near you. I would be interest in seeing what will happen when prices rise. Will people jump ship like they did in droves a few years ago?

 

[Sam Posten]

I know the way I phrased it might make it seem like I agree with this:

Yes but watch for raised prices $$$ coming soon to a consumer near you. I would be interest in seeing what will happen when prices rise. Will people jump ship like they did in droves a few years ago?

But no, this is way incorrect. http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/02/media-botching-coverage-netflix-comcast-deal-getting-basics-wrong.html

Naturally, many of these same people are also implying that because Netflix has to pay Comcast, consumers will foot the bill for this as Netflix will have to charge more for their service. This could not be further from the truth. Those stating this have no clue how Netflix delivers their content today or what costs they already incur. If they did, they would know this is not a new cost to Netflix, it’s simply paying a different provider, and it should be at a lower cost. It should actually be cheaper for Netflix to buy direct from Comcast, and they also get an SLA, which also improves quality and that’s a good thing. Given that Netflix has many options to buy transit from many different transit providers, why would they pay more? They wouldn’t.

Even worse, some want to imply that today’s announcement has to do with Net Neutrality and Tech Crunch went as far to say that the deal “may be legally outside of the traditional net neutrality rules.” May be? Are they serious? Commercial interconnect relationships, also referred to as paid peering agreements, have been around since the Internet started, and it’s how the Internet works. Commercial interconnect deals have NOTHING TO DO WITH NET NEUTRALITY. Implying otherwise shows a complete lack of regard in understanding how traffic is and has been exchanged across networks for the past twenty years.

 

[Towergrove]

I know the way I phrased it might make it seem like I agree with this: But no, this is way incorrect. http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/02/media-botching-coverage-netflix-comcast-deal-getting-basics-wrong.html

Sugar coating is sweet but In "economy 2014" the consumer ALWAYS pays in the end.

 

[Sam Posten]

You already are, in what Netflix is paying their side of the SLAs / peers.Verizon and Netflix is a different story tho. Check this:http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/netflix-packets-being-dropped-every-day-because-verizon-wants-more-money/If what Cogent says is true, this isn't an SLA or peering issue, it's that Verizon's OWN network is incapable of getting bits to customers.

 

[Sam Posten]

Interesting:

Dan Rayburn ‏@DanRayburn 22mVerizon CEO says on a call this morning that he expects Verizon to announce a deal with Netflix shortly.Collapse

And:http://www.cnbc.com/id/101439383