When will streaming high bitrate 1080p become mainstream?

when internet speed in usa will catch up with the rest of the world .

No one knows as no one can predict the future. There are several reasons why it is not available now. The biggest hurdle is hollywood studios.

You are assuming that streaming itself is mainstream. That's hardly the case. When it does become mainstream (if and when that happens, maybe 5 years IMO), 720p with 5.1 will most likely be the norm for many years afterwards with maybe 20% streaming at 1080p (i.e., first-run movies, major sporting events). I would not look for universal 1080p for at least 10 more years and maybe never. It all depends on how the streaming market develops.

The biggest problem is that the TV industry is 720p/1080i, and they are not going to upgrade to 1080p anytime soon.

We will just have to accept a happy medium for streaming the vast majority of content at 720p.

I'd rather watch 720p at a given bitrate than 1080p or i at that same bitrate.

The media companies are pushing people to watching everything on their 'Smart'phones, iPads, etc... They seem to be designing streaming to match these low-quality devices, and the fact that 99% of people don't give a damn about picture quality...

Also, as the US moves more and more toward a low (or no) cap/high data fee setup, HD streaming will become a luxury.

Best quality out there today is VUDU. You can get a 1080P / 24 fps stream from them with Dolby Digital Plus. It's not Blu-ray quality but it's pretty close. There are some Netflix titles available at 1080P as well but the bitrate is lower than VUDU from what I can see.

Since the OP mentioned Canada, you'll have to take into consideration the archaic usage caps still in place (and not likely to go away anytime soon) the large incumbent carriers still enforce.

Watch a couple of high-bitrate 1080p movie streams and poof, you've exceeded your limit for the month.

Heh true the bandwidth caps are ridiculous in canada, far worse than US.

1080p content is supposedly coming to itunes this year, of course for a higher fee. Apple has a stupid name for it, super HD or something.

720p content is fine with me. I'd prefer 5.1 sound instead 1080p.

My own opinion, based on the progression that internet streaming has attained so far, is that most people don't care about 1080p. As long as it is 720p (or more accurately to most people) as long as it says HD, they are fine with it. Heck, most people would not be able to discern 480p from 720p streamed content.

I don't think mainstream streaming will go to 1080p any time soon. It will top out at 720p. However, places like Vudu will continue to offer it for a premium price.

Finally, for my personal use 720p is more than enough for most all streaming, as long as bluray or some other option is available to get a higher quality version of some of the more visually demanding videos. I wouldn't specifically pay extra to stream most of the stuff I stream in 1080p vs 720p or even 480p.

-Suntan

I don't know if it will ever be mainstream (1080p). Netflix is currently streaming that for some titles and 2 devices and Vudu and Zune do as well. I don't think anyone else is.

I suppose if the studios would stop fighting Netflix at every turn, they would stand the best chance of making it mainstream with a combination of more 1080p devices, more titles, and the popularity of the buffet pricing structure.

And there are other factors at work preventing that as well (such as bandwidth caps). As pointed out, there area lot of moving parts to streaming in the current market, and few of them are good or consumer friendly or bode for a bright future IMO.

The only aspects of streaming's future that are negative are the most important: studios and cable companies. Both will do whatever to slow its progression. Compression technology, bandwidth, storage, etc will only improve with time.

True, bandwidth caps can prove detrimental to non-ISP services. I'm sure Comcast will let you stream all the $4-$6 VOD you want as long as you're getting it from them, but putting in caps will make it hard(er) to use services such as Netflix or Vudu....especially if the caps go down while these services improve quality and their bandwidth use goes up.

I don't get the response of those saying 1080p will never become mainstream. Do you expect your children's children to still be using 720p when they're old or are you expecting 1080p to be bypassed for something even better? I think it's illogical to say 1080p streaming will never be mainstream when almost every HDTV sold in the last 4-5 years has been 1080p.

People were sold on 1080p because it sounded good. Even though they don't really know what it is. Most people still feed these new 1080p sets with an SD feed from their cable or satellite provider and think they are watching HD.

1080p isn't necessary by the large majority of people based on how they watch TV. In short, most people don't need 1080p. Even if it sounded good when they were looking at the TVs in Best Buy.

Most people just don't sit close enough to their Tvs to justify the need for 1080p. More importantly, most people just don't notice the difference even when it is pointed out.

How many mainstream people sit 7' or closer to a 50 or larger TV? I would argue that few do.

http://carltonbale.com/1080p-does-matter

-Suntan

Its not really resolution that is the problem. Its the compression and low bitrate streams.

When you compare, say a 720p Hulu+ stream (from what I've read 2.5Mb stream) to what you get with OTA HD, the difference is noticeable. Even on 720p Hulu+ vs 720p OTA.

If we could actually get all our streamed HD content with solid +5MB streams, I doubt we'd be crying 720p vs 1080p. Or newer, more efficient codecs.

I honestly find Netflix 1080p and Amazon VOD 720p sufficient for streaming HD, today. They don't seem to have the banding I see on Hulu+(not nearly as bad atleast). I think they do offer streams around 5MB however. (I use a Roku 2)

I want more and better CONTENT with atleast decent 720p/5.1 streams before we all cry for 1080p, but that's just me.

I totally agree. They need to work on all the macro pixellation, stuttering frame drops, and buffering problems first. I dropped Netflix streaming when they hiked/split the price. I went back to bluray until streaming gets at least as clean and smooth as Cable/Sat HD (it's not yet).

Hulu Plus varies based on the content and I have seen 3.2Mbps. Netflix goes over 5Mbps with it's 1080p encodes and VUDU goes all the way up to 9Mbps with HDX.

Yeah, I was pretty much just raging on Hulu+ there... Im kind of picky, but they seem a bit behind on their HD quality comparatively. Vudu, of course, is excellent for streaming content. Netflix is pretty darn good, depending on the encode itself, for moderate bitrate 1080p/5.1. I cant really even tell much of a difference on my 50" plasma between Netflix and Amazon either. Im pretty happy with Amazon HD too.

Im sure if Hulu gave a bit of a bitrate boost, they would match Netflix and Amazon for quality. Which makes me think, Hulu is also 2.0 only. 5.1 is also a must before we start demanding high bitrate 1080p streams. Freaking Hulu...

Vudu is really impressive when it comes to 1080P... In my eyes it is blu ray quality. I'm sure some can point out a difference but the difference is negligible to my eyes.

The price is a little bit too much.. but if it's a choice between paying $6 on U-verse Movies or Vudu. I'm picking Vudu.

If you want to do that bring up their content... who cares what it looks like if there is nothing you wish to view. I received six months free and have logged roughly four hours (tops) after three or four months.

Good point. I'm still in my free week trial and while I like the service, I'm already running out of content.

Also with the commercials to my thinking the content has to be x percent better than something else or I won't even bother. Having used a DVR for over a decade I find it next to impossible to sit through them.

Well, with the release of the atv3 and apple upgrading almost all of their tv shows and movies to 1080p I don't think you will get any more mainstream than that. This happened quite sooner than a lot of people in here thought. I've watched more than 10 of their 1080p encodes and they are actually quite good considering the fairly low video bitrate (5000-5500 Kbps). Not only are they visibly sharper but there is actually less banding and blocking than their 4000 Kbps 720p encodes. They moved to High profile 4.0 with CABAC for their 1080p encodes.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/20...mpression.ars?