Netflix PS3 streaming comparison PIX - Page 6

I was wondering, is there any difference in Netflix, if say my internet feed is like 25 MBPs, or higher, does Netflix adjust quality up to that level or does the highest it go 4.8 MBPs? Thanks

The feed will peak out .. beyond whatever arbitrary point NF has set, addtional speed will not improve the PQ .. that's pretty much the same rule of thumb with any streaming service ..

All of the content streamed from Netflix is pre-encoded. They have several encodings and one is dynamically chosen to suit current conditions (available bandwidth on the connection to Netflix's servers--limited but not determined by your nominal service speed--and responsiveness of those servers). The highest bit rate encodes are the 1080p ones, which most titles with HD encodes have (only about 25% of titles have HD encodes). The 1080p encodes average 4.8 Mbps and with 5.1 DD+ sound total 5.2 Mbps. If conditions are right, you'll get that 5.2 Mbps stream; having more than enough available bandwidth on your connection to the servers won't get you anything better because Netflix doesn't offer anything better. (It takes a sustained 6-7 Mbps to keep ahead of the 5.2 Mbps stream).

Thanks guys, i thought as much just wanted to be sure,

msgohan, did you ever figure out exactly what happened to your screen capture collection? Was it just all spontaneously ruined by ImageShack?

Sweet! It'll be nice to see a comparison of the new 3850 Kbps 1080p Netflix to the old 4800 Kbps and 3000 Kbps 720p to the old 3600 Kbps 720p. Thanks in advance!

As a side note, I find that Photobucket won't reduce the resolution of my shots if I post them as JPEG. For some reason it also will tend to send reduced resolution PNGs. Perhaps it has something to do with file size? The 1920x1080 JPEGs I put up are a fraction of the size of your PNGs. I took one of your 2.6 MB PNGs (this) and converted it to a JPEG by opening it in Paint and saving it as a JPEG (this). I cannot see the difference between them flipping back and forth in fullscreen Chrome and at 585 KB it's only 26.3% of the original's size.

It'd be nice to get some shots with a lot of fine sharp detail in them--sharp focus facial close-ups of adults are my favorite, like that shot of Jack's face from Lost pilot and of Trinity from The Matrix Revolutions in the top post. Also the face of the dying guy from Outpost in this post. Also I liked that shot from the titles of The Resident that I linked to. Sadly, neither Outbreak, The Matrix Revolutions or The Resident are available to stream from Netflix anymore.

I don't know why, since looking at the BBcode I see the imgbox.com URLs, but clicking on the thumbnails (or dragging them up to my browser's new tab control) doesn't take me to those images; I just get the thumbnail again. EDIT: Of course, after I post that, I try again and they work properly .

These are all your old shots, right? No shots of the new Netflix HD encodes?

Funny you guys posted The Killing. Just started to watch the first 3 episodes. I find that the darker scenes seem to be a bit grainy, which probably has more to do to the video transfer then the streaming bandwidth.


Ian

Photobucket has a bulk uploader though I've never used it. Don't the others?

BTW, are you getting Netflix Super HD encodes from your provider in Alberta (if you don't know, click the link to find out)? If so, could you get us a few frames of highly detailed, sharply focused scene (you know me--I love the facial close-ups ) to compare 3850-, 4300- and 5800 Kbps? This frame from the Lost pilot would be great, since it could be used to compare with the old 4800 Kbps encode and the BD.

Sweet! I asked if you were getting Super HD on your system; I suspected that you might since you're in Canada and Netflix seems to have most extra-US ISPs (possibly all) hooked up to their Open Connect CDN.

Netflix started building up its own single-purpose Content Delivery Network last year, called Open Connect. Previously (currently for most of their US customers) streams were delivered through one of the big commercial CDNs, Limelight, Level 3 and Akamai. Netflix is trying to dump those guys and use their own exclusively, but to do this they need the cooperation of the ISPs. The only major US ISP to sign up thus far is Cablevision, the 6th or 7th largest (for some reason they make a point of mentioning Google Fiber, which is tiny, serving only some areas of Kansas City).

At CES they announced their new "Super HD" video; for most HD titles they've added 4300 Kbps and 5800 Kbps video encodes. They're also offering a tiny selection of 3D titles, requiring from 6000 Kbps to 12000 Kbps available bandwidth (I assume that to be the range of 3D encodes for a title, from the worse to best quality). So now HD titles have 5 HD encodes, 720p at 2350- and 3000 Kbps, 1080p at 3850-, 4300- and 5800 Kbps, the last two being "Super HD".

Controversially they've tied access to Super HD and 3D encodes to your ISP's participation in Open Connect. Again, only a small percentage of US ISPs have decided to be a part of it. Time Warner has come out in vocal protest of this policy, saying that Netflix is holding Super HD "hostage" and that their networks are perfectly capable of handling the new stuff without Netflix's CDN.
Edited by michaeltscott - 2/1/13 at 2:29am

DL'ing now and can seed 24/7.

You're in Canada, right? Not all providers outside of the US are hooked into their Open Connect CDN, but they claim that most are. (I just read someone in Canada with Shaw say that he isn't). Go to https://signup.netflix.com/superhd; if it says "Your Internet Provider is ready for Super HD!" in green letter underneath the picture of a TV, then you're in. (Sometime last week my ISP, Cox Communications, went live with Open Connect/Super HD access).

If your ISP is not set up for Open Connect access, you could sign up for a trial at Unblock-US.com; when you're using Unblock-US' DNS servers you should be able to get assigned Open Connect servers (nflxvideo.net domain). When I use it I set its DNS server addresses in my router; I haven't noticed any ill effects of doing that and there's no way to set it locally in my Roku 2 XS. It's currently a bit unreliable (except for the Win8 Netflix app and TiVo Premiere). You can test whether you've been connected to Super HD servers by playing "Example Short 23.976", which won't play for me at all when using Unblock-US' DNS servers unless my player's been assigned Open Connect stream servers. (If your ISP is set up for Open Connect access you should get connected to those servers every time). My procedure for making sure that I'm on Super HD servers is to start the player and test to see if I can play "Example Short"; if not, I restart the player and test again (usually I get it within 6 attempts). Let it play for a while and watch it get up to the 4300 Kbps and 5800 Kbps "Super HD" video encodes. Note that once you get assigned Open Connect servers it won't necessarily hold on to them if you stop playing something, so you might want to test between uses.

Before they unveiled Super HD Netflix replaced the 4800 Kbps 1080p encode with a 3850 Kbps 1080p one and the 3600 Kbps 720p encode with a 3000 Kbps 720p one. These are encoded with technology which they obtained from a company called eyeIO which supposedly delivers as-good-or-better picture quality at reduced bit rates. For HD titles there now are 2350- and 3000 Kbps 720p encodes, which the PS3's updated quality indicator will call "720 HD", a 3850 Kbps 1080p encode which will display "1080 HD" and for most HD titles 4300- and 5800 Kbps 1080p encodes which will display "1080 Super HD".

Unfortunately you cannot tell which "720 HD" or "1080 Super HD" encode you're getting on any platform other than the Win8 Netflix app, in which you can both see what you're getting and control the maximum one that you get with the Stream Manager dialog, activated with CTRL-SHIFT-ALT-S (the dialog covers too much of the frame to leave it on in a frame capture).

Anything with lots of tiny sharp focused details. You know me--I like close-ups of human faces, the more weathered, wrinkled and hairy the better. I don't care for comparing landscapes, since generally nothing in the frame is in very sharp focus. I'd love some frames of the new encodes to compare to ones you got of the old encodes; unfortunately many of my favorites that you captured aren't available anymore in the US, like those frames from The Matrix Reloaded and Outbreak in the top post and from the titles of The Resident. If you sign up for an Unblock-US trial, you can get The Matrix Reloaded in Super HD in Brazil and Outbreak in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland (unfortunately those last four countries don't have access to "Example Short" so you can't use it as a test).

You might want to get some new stuff for comparison of the encodes: is Super HD actually much better than the 3850 Kbps encode or is it a case of "the Emperor's new clothes" ? One of my favorites that I've discovered is this frame from The Grey, a close-up of Liam Neeson's craggy, bearded, frost-covered face (that example is the 3850 Kbps 1080p encode, captured from the Win8 Netflix app with PrintScreen); it's at around 19 minute in--that scene, inside the cramped space of a crashed plane's broken body, is full of good stuff for comparison, both close-ups and wider shots. (I love that poster frame, but if it's in the film I haven't found it).

Something else you might get some shots of are the highly detailed modern animated films. If you're using Unblock-US, you can get Monsters, Inc in the Brazil region--it's outrageously crisp with tons of fine detail everywhere, especially Sully's wonderfully animated fur.

Sadly, some things which claim to be Super HD in some reasons aren't, like Rango. It's a shame--it has nearly photorealistic artwork which looks great even at 720p.

This may be really dumb and off-topic, but why are all the screenshots you posted is really low res (800 x 480) now? I remember them being 1920x1080. It's not just this thread, it seems to be the whole forum!

No--I get Super HD on all of my 1080p Netflix capable devices: PS3, TiVo Premiere, Sony and Panasonic BDPs, WD TV Live, Roku 2 XS, Roku 3 and the Win8 Netflix app running on this PC. The Super HD logos show up in every device except the Rokus but they still get the encodes, as observed in "Example Short 23.976" (well, the Roku 3 gives a text indication on the title's menu if you drill down into it, but says simply "HD" on the descriptions which pop up as you navigate through the browser).

Who is your ISP? Are they mentioned on Netflix's Open Connect page? If you visit their Super HD page, it should tell you whether you're getting it or not on a line beneath the picture of a TV.

If you're not getting Super HD you can sign up for a one week trial of Unblock-US.com; using their DNS servers should get you Super HD in any Netflix region (and you can change regions at their site). If you like it, it's $5/month (that's Canadian dollars, it being a Canadian company).
Edited by michaeltscott - 3/19/13 at 2:38pm

From Netflix:

"Netflix Super HD will be available on PS3, WiiU, Windows 8, Roku, Apple TVs with 1080p, and select smart TVs and Blu-Ray players. "

Do you guys think SuperHD will be better than Vudu HDX/Zune 1080p? It seems inferior just judging by the bitrate, but does Netflix have a trick up their sleeves or something?

It's doubtful that it's as good as 3-bar VUDU HDX (Netflix's old 4800 Kbps 1080p encodes were about equivalent to 1-bar HDX), but Netflix has switched to some new video encoding technology from a company called eyeIO which claims to deliver equal or superior results at lower bit rates. These claims are offered without any proof whatsoever, being the reason why I'm keen to get new screenshots, both for comparison to the old and comparison to themselves at different bit rates.

msgohan's old screenshots as linked to here were auto-magically reduced from 1080x1920 to 600x800 by ImageShack . Thankfully he still has the originals.

Thanks for the info! And wow, that was really annoying of imageshack.