Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

What would you say is the percentage drop in visual quality as a result of this and what reduction do you think you should be offered?
Without this thread I wouldn't have known they'd done anything, 4K HDR stuff is still looking absolutely top drawer and noticeably better than before I bumped my sub up to the top tier.
 
And in the meantime I'll just watch my media in full-fat bitrate and resolution, because I'm one of those dinosaurs who likes to collect "outdated physical media". :)
One of the reasons I still buy the physical discs is because not so much the odd lowing of bit rates, but if the internet goes down, or as happened a few weeks back, there was a power cut that didn't affect us, but did take out the street cabs.
 
Are you comparing this to the lack of content available on sky sports? It's not the same at all.

What would you say is the percentage drop in visual quality as a result of this and what reduction do you think you should be offered?

I was watching last night and the picture seemed much softer. As if parts had been meshed together. Finer details missing. It is impossible to quantify.

I'd say the fair thing would be to give a month free I've been a customer for half a decade if not more. I've stuck with them through the good and seen their subscription more than double in those few years.
 
Without this thread I wouldn't have known they'd done anything, 4K HDR stuff is still looking absolutely top drawer and noticeably better than before I bumped my sub up to the top tier.

It depends on a lot of factors. Quality of TV. Size of TV. Viewing distance. Quality of eyesight.

I mean if you are blind and watching it on a 14" piece of crap then yeah no doubt it looks brilliant still.

TV enthusiasts that have 2 fully functioning eyes, large decent quality screen and sit a reasonable distance will be able to notice it.

The general public generally won't notice as much like GD they don't care about the finer details. They wouldn't know if the sound was mono either. As most are ignorant to proper quality and buy cheap crap.
 
It depends on a lot of factors. Quality of TV. Size of TV. Viewing distance. Quality of eyesight.

I mean if you are blind and watching it on a 14" piece of crap then yeah no doubt it looks brilliant still.

TV enthusiasts that have 2 fully functioning eyes, large decent quality screen and sit a reasonable distance will be able to notice it.

The general public generally won't notice as much like GD they don't care about the finer details. They wouldn't know if the sound was mono either. As most are ignorant to proper quality and buy cheap crap.

Do you know if its possible to check the bitrate of Netflix using the apple tv box, I know its possible with the in built app on my oled by pressing the info key on my harmony.
 
TV enthusiasts that have 2 fully functioning eyes, large decent quality screen and sit a reasonable distance will be able to notice it.

A 15Mbps 4K HDR stream will do me just fine in these tough times, it looks good enough on a 55" OLED. If it was 20Mbps last week then yes, as a normal person, that last 5Mbps probably wasn't adding enough for me to notice.

Edit - just Googling for Netflix bitrate suggests 15Mbps is pretty much the norm for their 4K HDR content, which probably explains why I haven't noticed a difference, mine is still streaming at the same quality it ever was.

Did they confirm when the quality reduction applies from? I suspect it hasn't actually been implemented yet
 
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To use an analogy: If the milk man tells me he can only bring me 3/4 as much milk this month due to increased demand for deliveries I'd be fine with that as I'm sure more people are needing to have it delivered right now, but if he tried to charge me the regular price for only 3/4 I'd refuse to pay it. That's effectively what Netflix are doing here, it's just because they charge a month in advance nobody can refuse to pay regular price for 3/4.

They've created a $100m relief fund and I'd rather the money went to a good cause as opposed to me getting a few quid back for something that doesn't even deprive me of the essentials. And for most people they won't even notice the difference in quality.
 
What were you watching? And you'll need to try and quanifiy it if you want to justify that 25% cost reduction you were asking for !

Without an a to b comparison it would be impossible to quantify I'd need access to both bit rates at the same time and identical TV's side by side.

Even then it would be guesswork as to exactly how much quality had been lost as how do you measure quality in a quantifiable manner when it comes to image quality? It's not just resolution that matters but a combination of many different parts. Frame rates, type of interpolation used, colours, resolution, etc.

It's not as easy as you would think. If they are donating 100 mill to charity then I'm happy for that in response. I therefore now knowing that I am okay with the action taken.

Had they just pocketed the cash though as it would cost them less to provide a worse picture then I would rightfully be peeved at them taking us for a ride for their own benefit.

Much like the milk man analogy. If due to unprecedented demand he could only provide me with 3/4 of the milk as before I'd expect a discount. He would be raking in more money anyway due to the increase in custom.

Much like Netflix will be raking it in. Which I guess is why asda donated money. They realise they are making billions out of this crisis. Whilst others suffer.
 
Without an a to b comparison it would be impossible to quantify I'd need access to both bit rates at the same time and identical TV's side by side.

What bit rate are you getting currently?

Interesting if you're getting lower than the standard 15-16Mbps 4K HDR normally is on Netflix when others aren't - it would suggest they're not reducing quality universally.
 
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So by that 'logic', nobody's ever allowed to complain about anything because, and sorry to break this to you, people lose their lives fairly frequently.
Roughly 150,000 people die every day around the world, does that mean people can’t be annoyed at anything now then?

we've got a full blown pandemic affecting every country in the world, when was the last time this happened?

netflix streaming quality should be the least of our worries
 
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