1080p and 5.1 sound comes to Netflix (PS3 only for now) - Page 3

Does the new PS3 Netflix app give you the ability to choose RGB or YCbCr output?

Is there an option to disable upscaling?

Can anyone BITSTREAM DD+ to their receiver?

I went through the 48 items in my Instant Queue and found only six with 5.1 soundtracks:

• Cashback
• Follow the Prophet
• Two Lovers
• Friday Night Lights, Seasons 1 and 3 (but not Season 2)
• The Stoning of Soraya M.

All 48 items in the list were not HD, but the only ones with 5.1 sound were.

How do you know what the resolution of the streaming title is?

I will just leave my PS3 on 1080P60 output, but ideally a Native resolution output would be best for my scaler.
I never use the PS3 with the Netflix disc anyway. So being forced to output 1080P60 from the PS3 is nothing new in my use.
The Xbox360 has the same issue.

I've checked out several 5.1 titles, searching for one where I knew that there would be big sound scenes (The Matrix Revolutions is one). They're relatively rare and none have particularly impressived me, so far. I'm somewhat disappointed.

I don't think this is a release day biggie. Rather going forward it's in place along with 1080p. As bandwidth speed increases for their typical customer more than likely you'll see the video and audio improve.

Anybody who has tried it have tomato or dd-wrt on their router to see what kind of bitrates they are doing? I'd be interested to know if they upped the bitrate for their 1080/5.1 streams.

There is no 1080i/p streaming, period. The ps3 now upscales the same 720p stream to 1080i/p. There is no change whatsoever on the stream besides few titles with 5.1 audio. Please stop making confusion between streaming and the upscaling that many other devices already do.

Anyone test the bandwidth on 5.1 yet? How is the sq? Better than the stereo or the same just with 5.1?

Just because we know that everything comes out at 1080p (or whatever you highest resolution is), I don't think that we actually know that there are not and/or will not be any 1080 streams in the future. It's possible that they've add the capability to handle such stream whether or not they've added any such streams as yet.

Unless you can find it out from your AVR, there's no way to know. If you press DISPLAY, it doesn't show you the standard PS3 A/V status that it did before, just a little elapse/total-duration clock and an indicator of video and audio format (SD/HD and stereo/5.1).

A stream can't be "handled" at different resolution than it already has. Netflix stores and sends the signal at 480 or 720P. The press release that mentions 1080i/P is a SONY thing, about the PS3 now UPSCALING the signal up to 1080P. There is NO Netflix press release that mentions anything about 1080i/P streaming, just the 5.1 DD+. When and if Netflix decides to enhance the picture quality you can be sure they will make everybody know.

A 1080i/P stream, at the same bitrate , would make the picture worse. To improve the picture they need to increase bitrate and will make most of the Americans pissed because we still have internet speed limited to 6 Mbps in many regions in US. 6 Mbps is what is required now for the "HD" quality at 720P resolution.

So before the PS3 did not upscale SD streams? Does the 360 upscale SD streams or will it need the netflix update to do this?

You can, but it's not 'simple'. It's fairly deep in the menus, and requires setting up the resolution check boxes such that the res you want is the 'best' (or only) available.


As aaronwt posted though, how do you know what the incoming resolution is to match? Right now, we can make the assumption that SD is 480i and HD is 720p, but that may not be true forever.

The 360 always outputted at whatever the dashboard is set to. The PS3 application now does the same.


The disc version for PS3 is the only one that did native output.

I don't believe this to be the case at all. For SD Netflix will stream varying levels of bandwidth (for the same content). I can watch its usage via my incoming router and the image improves or degrades accordingly. All without ever seeing any stuttering or buffering. Now Hulu Plus does let you pick a certain bandwidth speed and appears to use it exclusively. If you buffer once or twice it asks if you like the adjust your setting.

You got it, thanks! The PS3 didn't upscale the stream to 1080i/p and now it does. That's the ONLY reason why 1080i/P was mentioned by Sony and confused a lot of people. BTW, this "upscaling" doesn't improve the picture, crap in, crap out. Only a change on the bitrate can make real difference on the picture quality.

I would expect a guy with more than 5000 posts to understand the difference between bitrate and resolution. Yes, the image improves or degrades because the BITRATE changes, NOT the resolution. You can stream the same movie with a 3 Mbps or 6 Mbps internet speed and you will notice the difference because Netflix adjusts the picture quality according to the IP speed but the resolution doesn't change. Having said that, however, if the resolution is increased from 720P to 1080i/P, at the SAME bitrate, the picture will be WORSE. That's why I say only a bitrate increase, requiring faster IP speed, can actually improve the picture.

I completely stink using the PS3 controller and it probably takes me 10 seconds. As far as knowing the native resolution once they have more than SD and HD (720p) hopefully they will reflect it. My point was for the less than 1% who care you do have an out if it really upsets you that much.

This is the Netflix press release:

Netflix Taps Dolby for High-Definition Audio


Dolby Digital Plus Brings 5.1-Channel Surround Sound to Movies and TV Shows Instantly Streamed from the Leading Online Movie Subscription Service

LOS GATOS, Calif. and SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 14 /PRNewswire/ — Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) and Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB) today announced that Netflix has selected Dolby® Digital Plus to deliver 5.1-channel surround sound forTV shows and movies streamed instantly over the Internet. Beginning October 18, the PlayStation®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system from Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. will be the first consumer electronics device to support 5.1-channel surround sound on movies streamed from Netflix. Netflix said more devices would be added over time to support streaming digital surround sound.

“Netflix is committed to delivering an unparalleled experience to its members who watch TV shows and movies streamed instantly over the Internet,” said Greg Peters, Netflix vice president of product development. ”Netflix required an audio solution that could efficiently deliver an outstanding surround sound experience for a wide range of consumer devices. Dolby Digital Plus proved to be the best solution to meet our needs and the needs of our device partners.”

Dolby Digital Plus supports up to 7.1 channels of premium-quality surround sound and allows consumers to enjoy outstanding high-definition audio from broadcasts, streaming and downloaded media, and Blu-ray Disc™. To date, tens of millions of TVs, set-top boxes, Blu-ray Disc players, Audio/Video receivers, and mobile phones have shipped with Dolby Digital Plus.

“Dolby Digital Plus makes the online entertainment experience rich, realistic, and memorable,” said John Couling, vice president, marketing, products & platforms, Dolby Laboratories. ”Dolby is excited to be working with Netflix and its partners to provide premium Dolby surround sound to Netflix subscribers. This collaboration will enable subscribers to enjoy movies and TV shows presented in surround sound just as the artists and directors intended.”

Dolby Digital Plus is a sophisticated audio system based on Dolby Digital that has been adopted by many of the world’s leading broadcasters, TV and set-top-box manufacturers, and device makers to provide consumers with full digital surround sound. It is designed to adapt to the changing demands of entertainment delivery while retaining compatibility with existing Dolby Digital 5.1-channel home theater systems.

10 seconds is too long



As for whether it affects 1% or not, I don't see how that matters. If it originally only outputted at a fixed resolution, and they made an announcement to the 1% stating, "sorry - we are not going to add native resolution due to a lack of demand", that would be one thing.

Would we be disappointed? Yeah, but the reality is we are a minority and that's how it goes. This situation is different however. The features was already there, and was then removed. That makes it VERY frustrating.

So has anyone been able to get bitstreamed Dolby Digital Plus yet?

Clearly if they vary the bandwidth they aren't always sending the same resolution. If they were you would get stuttering or buffering. With my bandwidth I mostly receive 240p. Now perhaps you call a 480p image stripped of half its pixels still 480p but I don't.

It matters cause the benefit of not adding an option for it outweighs the benefit of adding an option.

I see what you are saying but overall I don't think it was a feature per se. Rather it was just how they did it… now they do it differently.

Pick any video editor, place a 480I MPEG2 video on the timeline, change the bitrate from 6 Mbps to 2 Mbps, you still have a 480i video output. When they vary the bandwidth, they vary the bitrate, not the resolution. I have hundreds of 1080i movies stored in my PC, bitrates go from 10 Mbps to 35 Mbps, they are all 1080I.

I strongly recommend everybody to read this, will make a lot of things clearer:


http://blog.netflix.com/2008/11/enco...streaming.html

It goes without saying (at least I thought it was that obvious) the number of pixels wouldn't change. Rather the amount of detail within the pixels do.

I suspect you are right, the issue may well be that that's simply how they did it. Actually, I suspect it's actually a result of BD-J.

Regardless the issue comes down to the fact that it was there before and it isn't now. Whether it was an intentional feature or not is irrelevant. People have a right to be upset that something they had before is now gone

IMO

Yep.

Bitrate is not constant. The 6Mbps you see thrown around is for avarage. Peak is higher, and many times it is lower. Using a constant bitrate would be a waste.

I give up, Charles. You are still convinced that Netflix can send now anything better than 720P ? Don't you think the marketing guys would love to issue a press release if that was true ? There are only 2 resolutions available for streaming now, 480i and 720P, read the link I just posted.

When did I say anything about what resolutions they are currently using? What I said is there are many effective resolutions based on available bandwidth.