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Comment by archildress | Hacker News Reader

Am I the only one who didn't realize my Chrome streams weren't already in 1080p?

Netflix should make it clear what the resolution of your current video is. I like to see the detail of the video playback.

Like you, I paid for the HD membership assuming that I'd get 1080p video in Firefox but I subsequently discovered that Firefox is only given a maximum of 720p. I see in this thread there's a Firefox version of the extension so I'll try that.

If I watch Netflix in Safari I get 1080p video and I've been using Safari exclusively for Netflix because of this. Here's the Netflix system requirements page where they outline the maximum resolution for each browser:

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23742

You can also see the details of your currently playing video by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Alt+D (and press again to dismiss it). It'd be nicer of Netflix if they made this information accessible via a menu item rather than an obscure keyboard shortcut.

I only noticed recently as they seem to have gotten even more aggressive about it. I often watch things fullscreen at 4K at my desk(49" TV being used as a monitor, it's basically 2x2 24" monitors) and 1080p streams, like Amazon, still look great but recently Netflix took a nose dive in quality and I couldn't figure out why. Using the Windows 10 app instead of my browser fixes the issue.

I doubt the majority of users even realize that. But since this is streamed media, does it really matter if it's 720p or 1080p in the end? I see artifacts in both versions.

All the more reasons to watch Planet Earth on blu-ray.

or "obtain" a remux.

Planet Earth II is glorious, a real feast for the senses and the mind. I saw part of it in 4K and almost cried a little; certainly I teared up a bit.

So worth the hardware.

>does it really matter if it's 720p or 1080p in the end

For what its worth, a lot of 3rd party content is actually restricted to 480p (at least in Linux/Chrome). That, is definitely noticeable.

It is possible to pull some very high quality streams out of Netflix if you try hard enough.

Bluray rips are always the best quality sure. But it can take up to a year for a show to come out on BD.

And then there are the Netflix Original shows that don't even get physical release.

It’s not like their normal 1080 streams are that high quality. Even their 4k streams have some noticeable compression.

No. However small the difference in practice, I feel cheated.

Frankly HDTV, much like 3DTV, has been a bust from day one. And i expect 4K to go the same way.

The only people that "notice" are those with a private movie theater room.

You don't notice that HD (even 720p) is visibly better than SD?

720p is easily visibly better than SDTV. I have more trouble telling 1080p from 720p, unless I'm very close to a large screen (computer monitor). I doubt I could tell the difference between 1080p and 4k, even on a 4k monitor.

You mean you think people will go back to 480p?! I'm sorry but that ship sailed about ten years ago and it would have been a ridiculous statement even then. And 4K is certainly not just a fad either, however tiny the perceived difference for most people.

If you can't tell the difference between 720p, 1080p and 4k. Get a better tv/display. I was the same couldn't tell much difference till I got 4k hdr tv and played blueray files on it shit is different. Though maybe I notice it more because of hdr.

I'm guessing a lot of these comments are due to how streaming video works. 4K content on both Amazon and Netflix is very bitstarved - they stream at 15Mbit at most (might be better these days), which is VERY low for 4K content (for comparison, 4K Blu-Rays are usually encoded in something like 60-100Mbit/s). It's no surprise that there's not much visible difference between 1080p and 4K content in this case.

Could be similar for HD content as well - if you have a poor internet connection, you might not even be getting 1080p.

It's an interesting play on human desires, I always notice the people bragging about their 4K devices are somehow proud of it.

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