Netflix’s new plan: save a buck with SD-only streaming | Hacker News Reader

Netflix’s new plan: save a buck with SD-only streaming

arstechnica.com

25 pointsshawndumas31 comments

I got Netflix this December 1st and it's been amazing! My wife enjoys it a lot, she sees lots of romantic comedies. My kids watch Lazy Town and I get to see a lot of shows I never heard of such as Archer.

The service is now indispensable for me. I think a lot of people will get this plan, not to save money, but to be able to watch videos faster with less choppyness.

I don't know why but Netflix on my PS3 is lag free, and looks DVD-like. But on my PC or Mac or phone or ipad it's very laggy and takes a long time to buffer and pauses to buffer during the video.

Different devices can get different streams from Netflix (to support different encoding/decoding and bitrates/capabilities, I expect).

The implementations behave differently, that's for sure. For example I know my Apple TV buffers at the top resolution it can before playing video so it starts in HD. My older TiVo (and my PS3?) start playing instantly but you can notice when it switches over to the higher bitrate streams.

For fun, on the PS3 you can press a button (select?) which will display the current video and audio data rates from Netflix in the corner in a small font. You can watch it adjust as network conditions change.

That's weird, my Apple TV (latest model) starts in a lower res and you notice the HD stream "pop in".

>I don't know why but Netflix on my PS3 is lag free, and looks DVD-like. But on my PC or Mac or phone or ipad it's very laggy and takes a long time to buffer and pauses to buffer during the video.

If you don't mind the reduced quality, you can manually force a lower quality setting. Just hold Shift+Alt (Shift+Option on Mac) and left click the screen. This will allow you to set the bit rate. I'm not sure if this can be done on your iPad and phone.

Your PS3 most likely has a more competant video card than your other devices.

I find it difficult to believe that you can get a device that'd have problems playing back a Netflix stream. Even Intel integrated graphics can scale a 720p stream to 1080 without issues, unless you use a pixel shader-based upscaling algorithm.

You must have a thicker wallet than I.

The mid-range laptop I am currently typing on has trouble displaying video fluidly at times which is most likely due to it's lack of a dedicated video card.

My desktop which is running the exact same operating system and core programs plays video much more fluidly, and it has a dedicated (still extremely weak and outdated) video card.

Considering even a Raspberry Pi can playback HD video, there's almost certainly something very wrong with your software configuration.

add windows and .net and silverlight and DRM monitoring in the stream app and bogus graphic card drivers and other concurrent programs fighting for bandwidth on the same machine such as torrents with the awful bandwidth scheduler of said windows, and you have your answer somewhere.

Fully on board with this. I would much rather have SD resolution that's quick and responsive than HD that continually pauses to rebuffer, or freezes up for no apparent reason, pixelates, and generally makes itself insufferable.

Negroponte nailed it 20 years ago. HD pictures are not the issue. Content on demand is.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.01/negroponte_pr.html

It also maybe a win for tablets streaming over capped mobile plans where an SD stream may suffice and incur less bandwidth overall.

I live in the mountains, and the only ISP available offers 5 megabit DSL. If I stream HD video, I typically can't browse the internet because my connection is just barely fast enough.

I'm torn. I want 1080p content from Netflix, but they seem reluctant to deliver that to the Windows 7 box I use in my living room. Apparently if you have Windows 8, or any number of devices, you're fine.

https://support.netflix.com/en/node/8731

Just pay $30 for a Chromecast. It's a much nicer experience than trying to wrangle a Windows machine, to boot.

> Just pay $30 for a Chromecast.

I already own an HDMI cable. The "wrangling" involved plugging that in, along with a dongle for a wireless mouse and keyboard, then turning on High DPI mode.

I get general purpose computing from my couch. None of the living room solutions I've seen so far come anywhere near my experience.

It occurred to me that maybe this is just a marketing hack. Some people out there are just cheapskates, and need to feel they are getting a deal. I am related to several such people.

This is a way to make those people feel happy.

Sounds like a market test or elasticity check to me as opposed to a full blown plan. Though I guess selling SD for ~80% of the price probably represents much better margins on the bandwidth.

I don't know, with the recent slowdown in cellular data speeds as the networks have gotten overloaded, there might not be much point in streaming HD video to your mobile device when you don't have wifi. For someone who's on the road a lot, I can definitely see value in an SD only plan.

Huh. Maybe this is designed for people with data caps?

Could just be a plan to lure new customers in...then when they have it for a while think "well for a dollar more I might as well get a HD option"

Speaking of SD on Netflix. I just got an Apple TV and the only way I could get iTunes to sell me SD movies was to change the settings to tell it my tv is SD. But now Netflix will only stream in SD. Total bummer.

You should be able to go into Settings -> iTunes Store -> Video Resolution and set it to SD - then your purchases are in SD but you can still view in 1080p (at least I believe so).

That's actually exactly what I did. But it seems like everything in Netflix is in SD now.

(But perhaps I'm only watching things that come in SD anyway?)

The article seems a bit sarcastic, but let's not forget that the discount is a full 12.5% discount.

You guys have it pretty damn good, $7-8 for unlimited streaming would be amazing. Here in Australia we have nothing comparable to Netflix. The closest thing is Quickflix - it's twice the price and doesn't have anything you actually want to watch.

You should get a VPN. Sure, it will cost you a bit extra, but Netflix has absolutely no qualms accepting your non-American credit card and you'll be able to watch other region-locked content. The VPN I use has absolutely no problems delivering HD content from Netflix and Hulu.

The legalities of this are still a grey area however. Some have suggested that bypassing geo-licensing restrictions is as bad as straight out torrenting: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/computers/blogs/gadgets-o...

that shows a total lack of touch to their own product, or the more probable answer, they are bleeding thanks to content owners boycoting them and so they are scrapping the bottom end.

see how this thread is full of joyfull clients on their first months? everyone loves it... until they ve seen all of it, which is very limited to begin with. and they only add things like sharknado...

I'm not meaning to gripe, and netflix is still worth the few bucks a month... but it seems like the service is declining. From content losses to constant buffering issues it often leaves me wondering if i should continue to subscribe or just use other means of getting content.

sounds like more of a setup to eventually charge $1 more for 4k

Anyone have a wget one liner for getting all of the videos?

Oopps..meant to post this on the Computer Chaos club videos.

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