[geeks] Network software pointer

[David Eisner]

On Jul 2, 2012 6:44 PM, "Andrew Jones" <andrew at jones.ec> wrote:

> On 07/02/2012 05:21 PM, David Eisner wrote:
>
>>
>> I'm paying for 25 Mbps up/down, and when I used various online
>> bandwidth testers (speedtest.net, etc.) I did measure bandwidth that
>> good or higher. But the (excellent) support person at Netflix
>> confirmed that I was getting only 720p -- with the occasional burst to
>> 1080 -- while I was streaming and on the phone with him.
>>
>>
> Virtually all Netflix content is 720p.   Netflix can vary the bitrate of
> the stream to match conditions, but as far as I know, they don't transcode
> 1080 content to 720 or vice versa.


To be specific, I was comparing the experience of watching Mad Men over a
TiVo Premier XL. Like most people who watch HD content (I imagine), I can
easily perceive the difference between 720* content and 1080* content.
 Previously Mad Men's appearance was consistent with what I consider 1080
sharpness, and with what I see watching on AMC HD.  There was some bad
posterization [1] at times though.

It was immediately obvious when I watched Mad Men at the new place that the
quality was poorer. It would occasionally sharpen up for 5 to 10 seconds,
but then it would suddenly become blurry again. I can only tell you that
Netflix support told me that they could see on their end that I was getting
720 definition with occasional improvement to 1080, and this before I told
them it was sharp once in awhile.

Whatever the case, the quality is now consistent with what I used to see
(except for the first few seconds of any stream -- this appears to be an
issue with the new Netflix app on TiVo -- a confounding variable.)

-David

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posterization