Netflix here we go again.

SixTwoSix · 21 Jul 2022 at 09:10

Ahleckz said:
I was watching Resident Evil last night, and the quality was absolutely awful. I just have standard Netflix so it’s never going to be amazing but I was watching it on my laptop and the picture quality was almost unwatchable.

Of all the complaints i've heard about RE - the picture quality wasn't one of them

jpaul · 21 Jul 2022 at 09:39

they do encode the trailers and start of the programmes(drag you in) at higher bitrates plus algorithm to ensure faces have good PQ - so, some shennanigins - look at their technical blog.

Do they stream newer AV1 codec yet ? for devices that can hardware decode it, but, although, for mobile you potentially have better quality, decode uses more battery.

edit: nov21

Next Steps

Our initial launch includes a number of AV1 capable TVs as well as TVs connected with PS4 Pro. We are working with external partners to enable more and more devices for AV1 streaming. Another exciting direction we are exploring is AV1 with HDR. Again, the teams at Netflix are committed to delivering the best picture quality possible to our members. Stay tuned!

mrk · 21 Jul 2022 at 10:07

AV1 is more efficient but not necessarily better quality than VP9, Netflix use both still and I've forced my browser to play Netflix in VP9 (1080P) as found some dark scenes in shows and movies to have less banding in VP9. AV1 is for efficiency as far as streaming goes without sacrificing anything too much on PQ - But that will ultimately depend on your display setup too.

The stats for VP9 however seem fine.

jpaul · 21 Jul 2022 at 10:19

Does look like my ~£40 4K roku stick, 2/3 years old would not support AV1 .. I'd not previously thought of it as outdated - only negative had been it wouldn't scale for a 1440 monitor

e: ok have to wait for next black friday to buy either an amazon 4k MAX stick or a roku 4k+ streaming stick

e2: av1 not even available on many phones so netflix PQ for given bitrate may not be as good with vp9
Qualcomm's 2022 flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, doesn't support AV1. Samsung's Exynos 2200 managed to ship the video codec this year in international versions of the Galaxy S22, while the MediaTek Dimensity 1000 SoC has been shipping in phones for over a year now with AV1 support. Apple is a founding member of the AV1 Alliance, but its devices also don't support the codec yet.

jpaul · 23 Jul 2022 at 11:39

no ones bought an AV1 equipped streaming stick/tv then - and seen benefit of better netflix picture quality ?
[e: ok tv support seems/was limited

Select Samsung 2020 UHD Smart TVs
[*]Select Samsung 2020 UHD QLED Smart TVs
[*]Select Samsung 2020 8K QLED Smart TVs
[*]Samsung The Frame 2020 Smart TVs
[*]Samsung The Serif 2020 Smart TVs
[*]Samsung The Terrace 2020 Smart TVs

]

netflix splashing record $200M cash on the grey man film ... trying to make money at the box office
https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a35819956/the-gray-man-release-date-netflix/

jonneymendoza · 23 Jul 2022 at 19:02

mrk said:
The irony in them rinsing people for more cash yet here they are stealing my photography at the same time!

Wait what?

jonneymendoza · 23 Jul 2022 at 19:12

MooMoo444 said:
Hopefully they all struggle and price each other down

Hopefully they all die and just go back to the old days where it was all in sky TV and u just pay for it all in one place

mattyfez · 23 Jul 2022 at 19:33

I think amazon is better than Netflix at the moment. I have prime and a friends log in for Netflix.
Don't have to pay extra for HDR and 4k where available and enjoying more thoughtfull content like Richard ayoades travel man and James mays man in Italy.
Netflix just seems to be mostly dross.
Well so is amazon to be fair but I think they are better at the moment.

AndyCr15 · 23 Jul 2022 at 20:00

mattyfez said:
I think amazon is better than Netflix at the moment.

Well, this is interesting. I read this and the two shows you gave as examples really don't interest me and I thought how I've never been that impressed with Amazon. Then... as I use Trakt I thought 'I think I can see what shows I watch on each service'.

2022 Netflix looks like this -

2022 Amazon looks like this -

I think I would lean towards the Amazon shows actually. That really surprises me! Maybe it's just I don't like the Amazon App which taints my view...

Stu999 · 23 Jul 2022 at 20:11

AndyCr15 said:
Well, this is interesting. I read this and the two shows you gave as examples really don't interest me and I thought how I've never been that impressed with Amazon. Then... as I use Trakt I thought 'I think I can see what shows I watch on each service'.

2022 Netflix looks like this -

2022 Amazon looks like this -

I think I would lean towards the Amazon shows actually. That really surprises me! Maybe it's just I don't like the Amazon App which taints my view...

They’re changing the app to look more like Netflix

https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/amazon-prime-video-uk-major-overhaul/

Semple · 23 Jul 2022 at 20:21

MadMossy said:
Part of the problem with many of these services is they expect endless growth, but that just isn't possible and when the subscriber numbers start to drop, they look for other ways to increase revenue and this almost always means something negative for the existing members.

Just like many aspects of a business, once they see a slow down, the bureaucrats start to take over with endless targets and goals that just end up being detrimental to the customer or business.

Pretty much this.

I remember a good 15-20 years ago when I had a part time job at Currys. This was at a time when they were heavily pushing to sell Sky subscriptions - the stupid part was pretty much every customer you tried to sell it to already had a sky sub.

These companies fail to realise that the market is only a certain size. It was completely different back then too when sky was pretty much the only service available by then. Nowadays the market is swamped with services and not everyone is going to pay for every service.

Semple · 23 Jul 2022 at 20:23

AndyCr15 said:
Well, this is interesting. I read this and the two shows you gave as examples really don't interest me and I thought how I've never been that impressed with Amazon. Then... as I use Trakt I thought 'I think I can see what shows I watch on each service'.

2022 Netflix looks like this -

2022 Amazon looks like this -

I think I would lean towards the Amazon shows actually. That really surprises me! Maybe it's just I don't like the Amazon App which taints my view...

Out of those lists I've seen more of the Amazon shows than Netflix.

jpaul · 23 Jul 2022 at 21:06

Does Trackt tell you how many hours of tv you watch a week/day ... is it up to the 5 hours, isn't it, healthy average.

mrk · 23 Jul 2022 at 21:09

jonneymendoza said:
Wait what?

Yes!

jpaul said:
Does Trackt tell you how many hours of tv you watch a week/day ... is it up to the 5 hours, isn't it, healthy average.

It does, you get more stats by paying for a pro membership though:

chaparral · 23 Jul 2022 at 21:28

Semple said:
Pretty much this.

I remember a good 15-20 years ago when I had a part time job at Currys. This was at a time when they were heavily pushing to sell Sky subscriptions - the stupid part was pretty much every customer you tried to sell it to already had a sky sub.

These companies fail to realise that the market is only a certain size. It was completely different back then too when sky was pretty much the only service available by then. Nowadays the market is swamped with services and not everyone is going to pay for every service.

The amount of people i speak to these days that told me they have given up SKY due there there very high prices is crazy

jonneymendoza · 23 Jul 2022 at 23:01

AndyCr15 said:
Well, this is interesting. I read this and the two shows you gave as examples really don't interest me and I thought how I've never been that impressed with Amazon. Then... as I use Trakt I thought 'I think I can see what shows I watch on each service'.

2022 Netflix looks like this -

2022 Amazon looks like this -

I think I would lean towards the Amazon shows actually. That really surprises me! Maybe it's just I don't like the Amazon App which taints my view...

Yea amazon is really good

andybird123 · 24 Jul 2022 at 06:11

MadMossy said:
they lost hundreds of thousands if not millions of subscribers.

It comes down to basic maths, if they have 220 million subscribers and lose a couple of million, but the remaining 200+ million keep paying the higher price then they actually generate more revenue, which is the actual goal of running a company. They actually don't care about you as an individual, they care about what the maximum revenue they can generate is.

theone8181 · 24 Jul 2022 at 07:21

andybird123 said:
It comes down to basic maths, if they have 220 million subscribers and lose a couple of million, but the remaining 200+ million keep paying the higher price then they actually generate more revenue, which is the actual goal of running a company. They actually don't care about you as an individual, they care about what the maximum revenue they can generate is.

At some point though, there's got to be a crossover and I suspect they're very close to that if they keep pushing with these stupid ideas and price rises.

Semple · 24 Jul 2022 at 08:00

mrk said:
Yes!

It does, you get more stats by paying for a pro membership though:

Not sure I see much of a point in trakt. It's actually disappointing to see they don't integrate with the likes of BBC iPlayer, 4oD, my5 etc. Plex already has an excellent tracking system, made even better with tautulli.

The only benefit I see is being able to log Netflix and prime viewed content to it, but frankly paying $30 a year for that seems rather steep.

mrk · 24 Jul 2022 at 08:59

Trakt is useful. I update my Trakt via the TV Show Tracker app which has all the shows and movies I am watching. I simply tick off each one in the app once I've watched it and it then updates my Trakt history. So that covers shows on iplayer, ITV, Prime, Netflix, HULU etc etc. Trakt for me is just the central hub that the app keeps up to date via the API.

Netflix here we go again.

Next Steps​

Next Steps