Netflix streaming quality - Page 81

What most people do is mention things like titles cut off or incorrect aspect ration like showing 3:2 squeezed image instead of it being stretched to 16:9 is to write a review mentioning it. I've found two titles with the squeezed image and people already had mentioned it in the reviews and one Asian title where the subtitles were cut off even viewing the full image on a computer. There doesn't seem to be much QA at Netflix about streams though there are only enough new ones released every week to give one person a full or part time jobs just running each title for a few minutes.

I have observed wrong aspect ratios on the PS3, appleTV2, and Lg BD670. Some of the time it switches back and forth mid-stream. When stuck on the wrong aspect ratio it can sometimes be fixed by restarting the video or ff or rewinding a few seconds.

Someone should be watching every new encoding from beginning to end looking for problems. They're currently grossing $2B+ a year on streaming--there should be sufficient profit in that to pay the salaries of people to do that much (they wouldn't be very large salaries).

We've been using Let the Right One In as a quick test for whether people are getting the 1080p streams or not since its upper subtitles are cut off in only the 1080p encoding. It's been that way for months, making it very difficult for people who don't speak Swedish to watch. I'm really surprised that they haven't fixed that yet. I should think that they'd received plenty of complaints about it.

While I would take that job, if be happy if they just updated the "report a problem" functionality so we could be a bit more specific.

That's a great idea, crowd sourcing which titles are broken. I could add something to TV and Movies now for us to keep track of it.

I've also seen the problem where Netflix says a title is captioned and it's not. I usually takes weeks at minimum to get it fixed even with folks complaining. I should go back and see if the ones I complained about months ago are fixed.

I'm using a Roku XR and been watching a few of the Jean Rollin vampire flicks. They were Lips of Blood and The Shiver of the Vampire. Watched The Nude Vampire last night but surprisingly it was dubbed. I remember this happening maybe once a long time ago but never had it happen till I watched the first two this week. You could only see about one third of the words when one line of dialogue was on the screen, with two or three the bottom line was always 2/3 missing. Aspect ratio appeared right but no matter what setting I tried (full, zoom etc) the subtitles all looked the same. I reported them to Netflix.

Is it just me or is there a lot more programming in HD now? I logged in after not using the system for a while and it appears to have a lot more stuff in HD.

Just as a warning to anyone who tries to stream the movie Lourdes. I was watching it the other night on my Roku XR and just as it was getting interesting the stream just ended. Tried replaying it but it would just end at the exact same spot. I checked the time after the film stopped and it said 53 minutes and then it occurred to me that that was all there was to the stream TO watch. The film is one hour and 36 minutes long. So I called Netflix (it was past 2am) and told a nice lady what had happened and she checked and said she had never, ever seen something like that happen before. So they were going to look into it. Pretty strange.

Can you go online, play the movie there and try moving the slider past the point where it cuts off on the Roku? Then go back to the Roku and resume playback to see what happens.

I can watch through the end of the title on my Roku 2 XS. If you pause the film how how long does the scrub bar say that it is?

53 minutes. How recently did you watch the film? This happened Wednesday night and they did say they were going to check it out. Maybe they already corrected the problem. When i get home tonight I may try and watch it on my 2 XS in the living room to see if the full time is there. Will try online also.

I tried it just prior to posting that, so it might have been fixed since you last tried it.

Im thinking the same thing.

Apparently Netflix fixed the issue with Lourdes. Played in its entirety on my XR. Very good film.

they've been moving to make everything HD as much as possible. Not surprising, since they're focusing on streaming more than anything.

HD content is about 30% of Netflix's entire streaming catalog. I don't know whether the percentage has been increasing or not. I feel certain that they've always tried to get permission to put up HD encodings for all new titles--perhaps the content rights holders have become more receptive to the idea.

Looking at a list of all Netflix titles sorted by date added, 59 of the last 100 titles added have available HD encodings. From that I'd guess that the rate at which HD titles are added is increasing. (That list has separate entries for each individual season of a television series and one for the series as a whole, so the first 100 aren't exactly 100 distinct titles).

Really? I would have guessed higher, simply based on my own experiences recently (50+ titles in my instant queue and not a single SD title among them).

I would guess that a higher percentage of the stuff being released recently is HD, perhaps? I've kindof gone through quite a bit of my backlog of old SD material so most of what is in there now is stuff I've added in the last 6 months or so. Just seems strange that without even trying everything in my queue is HD.

As I said in the second paragraph, it looks as though 60% of recent additions have HD encodings (more like 50%, discounting multiple entries for TV series in that list), so it look as though that rate at which HD titles are added is increasing. (EDIT: I went back and looked at a list of only movies sorted by date added and 59 of the last 100 movies added have HD encodings).

My queue is top-heavy with HD because I usually only browse the HD content .

I have decide to join the NetFlix bandwagon.

I have two video locations :
Family area that has a XBox that is wireless to the ATT Router.
I have a Plasma 58" with Audio separates and speakers.
Hopefully no issues there.

(2)
HT room has separates with a Marantz Front Projector all HDMI
I currently have an OPPO-83 that does not have a ethernet streaming ability.
Both locations have Directv.

I originally was going to buy a new OPPO-93 and use it but I have read several threads that indicate that may be a future issue regarding approval.

I am a MAC person so I ask the Question :
I am looking at either the new AppleTv3 that is rumored to be released next week or
The RoKu 2XS.
Any advice or other devices I should be looking at ?
I would be willing to spend more money on a better device.

I realize that the AppleTv3 specs are not available I doubt any radical changes just improvements.

Thanks,

Greg

The Roku 2 XS is a full-featured Netflix player: it has the currently rare ability to play the 1080p encodings, 5.1 DD+ sound and captions/subtitles for titles which have them. I have, however, become a bit disenchanted with it due to a few annoying bugs I feel as though they should have fixed by the this time and an annoying limitation. The primary annoying bug is that it cannot see that some titles have HD encodings and/or available 5.1 sound. The HD thing isn't that bad since if the encodings are there you'll get them whether the description mentions them or not, but since you have to turn 5.1 sound on, if the player doesn't know about it it won't give you a menu from which to turn it on. The annoying limitation is that they do not process Dolby sound (no doubt to save the cost of licensing it) and merely pass it through. In the case of Netflix's DD+ sound they can't be confident that the connected AVR or other device can handle the format, so they can't make it the default. The other devices I have which can play Netflix's DD+ sound (the PS3 and a Panasonic BD player) can process it if necessary and make 5.1 sound the default. Having to turn it on for every title on the Roku is annoying, particularly when I'm watching episodes of a TV series and have to remember to turn it on with each new episode.

It'll be interesting to see the specs of the next Apple TV. I have yet to find the perfect streamer which can play VUDU, Netflix with 1080p/5.1/CC and Amazon with 5.1 sound. The Roku 2 has Netflix and Amazon, my BD player has Netflix and VUDU (its Amazon player does not feature 5.1 sound). The current Apple TV doesn't have any of them--no VUDU or Amazon, and its Netflix player, although it has probably the best user interface available, does not play the 1080p encodings.

Thanks,

No matter what I will wait for the 3 version of AppleTV.

I have Directv so the extra Apple pay per view is not a big issue for me.
Not sure what Apple charges, Directv seems a little high.

Greg

I too am eagerly awaiting the appleTV3. However keep in mind that it may not be released for a long time, perhaps not until 2014. AppleTV rumors have always been around and it took a long time between version 1 and 2. As of yet, there is no credible evidence that apple is even working in such a product. It's only an assumption that they are because it seems to make business sense.

Atv2 is currently quite nice though. If hacked and running xbmc, it is quite a capable machine. It even plays 1080p files quite well. But additional processing power would be nice in order to make post processing possible without dropping frames. And then of course there is the current limitation of not being able to output anything higher than 720p. This includes not only the inability to output 1080p or 24 fps, but also being limited to the 720p Netflix streams.

According to many of the MAC web sites (not official Apple site)

There will be an announcement this coming wednesday for a new iPad 3 and and AppleTv 3.

That is what I meant by waiting, if no new one announced wednesday then I will make the decision with which one to go with.

Rumors are rumors but many of the MAC stores are out of them and not getting any shippings till next tuesday. Hint maybe ?

Greg

Mac rumor sites are an echo chamber for whatever rumor generates page views. If you read closely, there is zero evidence of an atv3 release. Everyone is just paroting the same rumors without ever claiming to have a source, not even an anonymous source The same rumor has turned out to be false many time in the past. Granted, it could be true this time. If they keep posting the same rumor, it will be true eventually.

If an atv3 is released, my bet is that it will output 1080p and that apples iTunes store will start offering 1080p material. To bring this back around to the topic at hand, this would likely mean Netflix 1080p support. Ironically, the ability of the atv to play 1080p netflix is likely completely dependent on if apple wants to also sell/rent 1080p video.

To follow up on the previous post... the rumor was finally true this time around, the new Apple TV (announced today) supports netflix 1080p. It will be interesting to see if it uses the same streams as the other 1080p devices.

I've read that it supports 1080p, but not that it support 1080p Netflix. There are certainly plenty of platform which support 1080p video and don't do it in Netflix (Panasonic's 2011 DMP-BDTx10s, as a case in point). I suspect that it will support 1080p Netflix, but is there confirmation of that?

I'd have more interest in AppleTV if it had more commercial video sources--iTunes and Netflix seem to be all. No VUDU, no Amazon, no CinemaNow, no Hulu Plus.

EDIT: Okay there is confirmation that ATV3 does 1080p Netflix. For some reason they still seem to be supplying basic DD to ATV instead of DD+.

What I was referring to is that the Apple website says that it does Netflix at 1080p. (not just netflix and 1080p separately)

"Netflix streaming. Browse and play movie and TV favorites.

From classics to recent Hollywood blockbusters, Netflix on Apple TV lets you watch even more movies and TV shows in 1080p HD and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound when available.5 Apple TV organizes the huge catalog of streaming titles from Netflix so you can find what you want fast. Since Apple TV lets you access your Netflix account — and even subscribe to Netflix — directly from your HDTV, you can enjoy more of your favorite entertainment any time you want."

Granted, I will only accept your bandwidth test as official confirmation. Netflix should be paying you for that public service. I don't think anyone else in the world has taken that task on!

Edit: The "5" in the above quote references a footnote: "Selected titles now available on Netflix. Subscription required for Netflix and some other content shown."

Also it is interesting to note that both the netflix blog entry and the apple website mention "dolby digital" not "dolby digital plus".

Inasmuch as I don't forsee buying an Apple TV (as much as I'd like play with one, as I said above, it doesn't do enough of what I need), you'll have to use the currently reliable Let the Right One In test.

I was told by someone who apparently got it from a reliable source that Apple is receiving basic DD 5.1 and not DD+ (I won't say who told me this but his AVS Forum member name rhymes with "Danger Fun" ). As you point out, they're the only ones whose specs for Netflix say just "Dolby Digital" and not "Dolby Digital Plus". Netflix supposedly chose DD+ because it was easily separated from the video so that they could provide multiple selectable soundtracks (stereo, 5.1, alternative languages, etc)--basic DD has to be provided integrated with the video. It's difficult to believe that they'd be willing to keep a separate set of encodings with integrated basic DD around just for Apple while providing discrete video and stereo/DD+ streams for everyone else (unless of course Apple's paying for it).