4K streaming (1 Viewer)

[his1]

I'm trying to find out if my Sony Blu ray Player(S1700)

connected via HDMI to my new 4K TV can truly STREAM 4k from Netflix, Prime, etc.? Do I need a 4K Blu ray player to do this? Do I also need to consider a Fire-stick type of device or the 4k player gets the best picture? Thanks!

 

[Gary Neuwirth]

Before buying a 4K streaming player make sure you have a spare HDMI input, sufficient internet bandwidth (I believe 4K requires 4x the bandwidth of a regular 2K HD stream) and, if required, a recent (and/or short) good quality HDMI cable. Make sure the player supports original frame rate mode (when available from the streaming provider). Good luck.

Very good advice there. If your internet speed is not fast enough then your streaming of 4k stuff (like 4k Vudu movies) will be reduced to lower resolution automatically. Be sure that your hdmi cables are 4k capable and whatever your streaming device turns out to be recognizes that your tv is 4k. That last part is just dotting the “I” and crossing the ”T”.

I’ll just throw this out there….my personal favorite streaming 4k device is the Nvidia Shield TV but it cost more than the roku.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Just wanna throw out that bandwidth is the real factor in 4k streaming. Unleds you have a high end fios connection you wont see past 1080 with HDR applied.

And even THEN most streamers conk out at 1440p.

 

[JohnRice]

Well... FIOS is great, but you definitely can get solid 4K HDR with reliable download speeds of 200Mb/s or more, though 300 is probably preferable. Theoretically it should work with 100Mb/s, but in reality it needs more than that.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Well... FIOS is great, but you definitely can get solid 4K HDR with reliable download speeds of 200Mb/s or more, though 300 is probably preferable. Theoretically it should work with 100Mb/s, but in reality it needs more than that.

Personally, I found 100Mbps to be just enough (for the few months I tried that w/ Spectrum's 100/10 cable service, which used to be their lowest basic service), but yeah, more would definitely be better, especially if some of that bandwidth gets shared w/ others and/or your router setup isn't that great...

Technically, seems you really only need to sustain about 40-50Mbps since none of the streaming services exceed that last I checked a year ago (and I doubt that's changed at all). A couple of the best services might peak at 50Mbps, but generally avg below 30Mbps, and the poorer 4K services like Netflix and Amazon (and HBO Max, at least when they first rolled out 4K) only avg around 12-15Mbps...

_Man_

 

[JohnRice]

Personally, I found 100Mbps to be just enough (for the few months I tried that w/ Spectrum's 100/10 cable service, which used to be their lowest basic service), but yeah, more would definitely be better, especially if some of that bandwidth gets shared w/ others and/or your router setup isn't that great...

Technically, seems you really only need to sustain about 40-50Mbps since none of the streaming services exceed that last I checked a year ago (and I doubt that's changed at all). A couple of the best services might peak at 50Mbps, but generally avg below 30Mbps, and the poorer 4K services like Netflix and Amazon (and HBO Max, at least when they first rolled out 4K) only avg around 12-15Mbps...

_Man_

What I discovered is that they typically don't just download a steady stream. So it might average to 40Mb/s, but it takes it in gulps at up to 300Mb/s, then is stagnant in between. That would explain why a 100Mb/s service, which seems like it should provide 4K will often drop back to HD.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

What I discovered is that they typically don't just download a steady stream. So it might average to 40Mb/s, but it takes it in gulps at up to 300Mb/s, then is stagnant in between. That would explain why a 100Mb/s service, which seems like it should provide 4K will often drop back to HD.

Hard to be sure what exactly is going on w/out deep, thorough analysis (that we probably rather not do), particularly w/out source code... but I suspect the whole process is (or should be) dynamic enough to never require exceeding 3x the avg sustained bitrate, if not less than that.

IF they do it right, I'd think they'd start off by maximizing the available bandwidth to quickly create a generous buffer rather than need to spike usage later because of need -- and then keep doing that everytime something like fastforwarding or skipping or the like is needed or the buffer runs unexpectedly low or the like. I seriously doubt they ever actually need more than say ~50Mbps peak (vs just using more for buffering purposes, if more can be provided), except for buffering purposes. What's more likely is some of them might start w/ lower quality at those key points until they've done some buffering and can ascertain higher/highest sustainable bitrates and occasional needed peaks -- that definitely seems the case w/ Amazon and YouTube, both of which seem especially bad at that, and maybe also NetFlix and HBO Max amongst some others.

Here's some possibly outdated info on bitrates that fall well w/in my experience (of using a 100/10 cable service for a few months a year-and-change ago... that my 4K-capable Roku running off wifi regularly reported just 60-80Mbps in its built-in speed tests):

Netflix cuts 4K bitrate in half, promises same quality 4K video

Netflix is currently reencoding all 4K, HDR & HFR titles

www.flatpanelshd.com

Streaming: Video/audio quality (bitrate)

Together with our Danish forum users on Flatpanels.dk we have been measuring video/audio quality on streaming services for the past 2 years. We're now starting

www.flatpanelshd.com

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem official, published, comprehensive (enough) info on actual bitrates...

Of course, as I also alluded, there could be other factors that might temporarily impact actual available/sustainable bitrates, including one's router/LAN setup, possible throttling by one's ISP, issues somewhere along the internet pipe and/or the streaming host servers, etc. One might see more impact from some of those if one's broadband service has less "headroom" to help make up for temporary deficiencies... short of simply downloading the entire content to be played back locally...

_Man_