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Is Netflix quality supposed to be so horrible?

Locut0s

Locut0s

Lifer
I tried out Netflix's 30 day free trial and the quality is horrible. Even stuff labeled as HD is blurry and IMHO worse than DVD quality. WTF? How can they label this stuff HD? I was viewing this on a 58" plasma off a PS3. I'm shocked how bad the quality is. Is it like this everywhere? Is this just in Canada?
 
The internet here in Canada sucks compared to what the states have, so you were probably not getting fast enough speed to actually stream the whole HD. From what I understand netflix will try to stream HD but if it can't keep up then it will stream lower quality, to avoid buffering.
 
I've found the HD to be decent, but that depends on the title sometimes because I've seen from great to horrible.

Overall though, 8/10 I'd say. Not as good as something like Vudu, but that's to be expected.

I live in Chicago and have Scamcast internet, 20mb down.
 
Ahh ok the dynamic compression explains it then. The PS3 was using WiFi at the time. We have a speedy connection here so it's probably not the internet so much as the Wifi.
 
Red Squirrel said:
The internet here in Canada sucks compared to what the states have, so you were probably not getting fast enough speed to actually stream the whole HD. From what I understand netflix will try to stream HD but if it can't keep up then it will stream lower quality, to avoid buffering.
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chimaxi83 said:
I've found the HD to be decent, but that depends on the title sometimes because I've seen from great to horrible.

Overall though, 8/10 I'd say. Not as good as something like Vudu, but that's to be expected.

I live in Chicago and have Scamcast internet, 20mb down.
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I've got 50mb down which is better than most so I don't think it's the internet connection. Must have been because I was using WiFi.
 
No its not very good, but neither is any other streaming video I've seen. Netflix streaming is for watching something with content that interests, not for being wowed by the visual fidelity I suppose.
 
its on par with the other streaming i have used IMO. no comparison to blu ray tho. i like it for streaming TV shows, for movies ill stick with blu ray.
 
My HD stuff has been really good, it almost maxes my 25/Mb connection though. I think it pulls something like 2MB/s or 2.5MB/s
 
shortylickens said:
You should be grateful they even allow it in Canada.
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They didn't have it up here till recently. But the content available is still so poor it's not really worth it. Mostly TV shows and a handful of newer releases, getting better though. I think the reason for this are the stricter broadcasting regulations we have here or something. Anyway we have other non streaming alternatives like zip.ca.
 
I'm quite happy with the HD Netflix stream. I just wish it'd have surround sound instead of stereo (360 / PC). :\
 
Locut0s said:
They didn't have it up here till recently. But the content available is still so poor it's not really worth it. Mostly TV shows and a handful of newer releases, getting better though. I think the reason for this are the stricter broadcasting regulations we have here or something. Anyway we have other non streaming alternatives like zip.ca.
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I basically have Netflix streaming for the TV shows and for documentaries when I can't sleep at night. The TV show collection is actually quite impressive in the US. I've maybe watched 3 movies on it.
 
Locut0s said:
Ahh ok the dynamic compression explains it then. The PS3 was using WiFi at the time. We have a speedy connection here so it's probably not the internet so much as the Wifi.
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My PS3 using wifi usually couldn't get any better than low quality SD which is as low as they go. Hooked up through a wired connection and I get xtra-high HD which is as high as they go and it looks great. The wifi on the PS3 is worthless. While watching a movie if I hit the info button on my harmony remote it brings up an on screen menu that tells me what quality setting Netflix streaming is currently running at.
 
thedarkwolf said:
My PS3 using wifi usually couldn't get any better than low quality SD which is as low as they go. Hooked up through a wired connection and I get xtra-high HD which is as high as they go and it looks great. The wifi on the PS3 is worthless. While watching a movie if I hit the info button on my harmony remote it brings up an on screen menu that tells me what quality setting Netflix streaming is currently running at.
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Which PS3? I am on the latest PS3 slim and i get the Xtra-high HD quality with Wifi.
 
Have you tried using it in a browser? I find the quality to be quite nice when I have my laptop hooked up. Never used Netflix on a console other than the Wii (and of course that can't do real HD), but it is worth a shot.
 
make sure to check your account settings. it may be lowering quality based on your bandwidth. you can force to always stream the highest quality. at least in the US you can
 
slayer202 said:
make sure to check your account settings. it may be lowering quality based on your bandwidth. you can force to always stream the highest quality. at least in the US you can
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Yeah in the account settings you can set to stream low/mid/high quality.
 
mnewsham said:
Yeah in the account settings you can set to stream low/mid/high quality.
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If you force to high, but your bandwidth drops, it will stop playing and start buffering.

I'd rather let it dynamically adjust to a lower quality than stop playing in the middle of a show/movie.
 
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