Netflix adds 3D and Super HD - Page 11

Unfortunately not. The Win8 app cannot even get the 192 Kbps stereo sound, just a mediocre 64 Kbps mix.

Yes. I rebooted my Roku 2 XS and now I get Super HD on it, though its player does not display the logo. Again, it seems to be all of the HD titles which aren't constrained to 720p (like MI: Ghost Protocol, Captain America, Warrior, Super 8, Rango, Thor, etc; none can be played in HD on the PC and most lack digital 5.1 sound).

I cannot get Super HD on either the Panasonic DMP-BDT220 or Sony BDP-S390, though I see Super HD logos in their Netflix player UIs. Whatever I do the BDT220 ends up using Limelight servers and the S390 uses other servers, but not nflxvideo.net ones.

I've experienced a little weirdness in the responsiveness of this web browser (a sort of start/stop jerkiness)--if it persists I may have to dump the Unblock-US DNS. (EDIT: I had the unblock-us.com site open in a tab; I think that might have been the cause of the jerkiness).
Edited by michaeltscott - 2/6/13 at 7:03pm

FYI:I just tested the Win8 Netflix app and am getting DD+ just fine out of my ATI 6950's HDMI output. The titles clearly list which ones are DD5.1.

As far as Unblock-US goes, I'm using their little Win app. All you need do is turn it on and off when you want. I realize it's just for Windows, but it does the job. If you have a lot of devices, obviously you're going to want to change the DNS in your router.

I have a WD TV Live somewhere, I might hook it up and give it a shot. I'm not sure if Super HD is supported on it yet though.

I stand corrected. I didn't even know that there were HDMI graphics cards with integrated sound; it's been forever since I was into PC gaming, so no fancy cards for me. I get basic DD and DTS out of the S/PDIF port out of VLC, WMP and Zune but no play from the Win8 app. (Huh--I can get a low end 6450 card for $45--I may invest ).

 

How about $20 for another day... http://www.frys.com/product/6609074?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

 

Fanless although it doesn't support Dynamic Contrast.

WoW!! I wish I had seen this before the weekend when I watched the entire series, House of Cards. I just set it up. I see it's showing SuperHD on my BoxeeTV. I'll need to check my other Netflix devices.

EDIT: Although I never saw the bitrate go above 3850kbps on the Boxee TV. My TiVos went to 5800kbps but took around 3 minutes to get to that.
Edited by aaronwt - 2/6/13 at 8:05pm

Kind of bumming I'll have to use my PC to get Super HD. My PC fans are kind of loud, and I'll probably want to invest in a PC remote too (just what I need, another remote). I have my doubts that the WD TV live will be able to get over 3850 but I'll give it a shot tomorrow, from what I've been reading it's supported.

I wonder why the only dedicated device that seems to be able to get >3850Kbps is the TiVo?

My Panasonic DMP-BDT220 got the 5800kbps stream on the Example Short 23.976. I have no idea why MichaelScott didn't see anything past 3850.

EDIT: My Roku2 in that room is now showing the 5800kbps stream. I guess it just took a long time. I only waited four or five minutes when I tried it earlier.

Darn it.. I thought I was looking at the Panny player earlier but it was actually the Roku2. So my panny BDT-220 is still showing the 3850kbps stream while the Roku2 is showing the 5800kbps stream.
Sorry for the confusion. I still need to get used to these new inputs. I moved everything around recently and changed most of my inputs around.

EDIT: I went back to my BoxeeTV. Earlier, the first time I tried the Example short, it didn't go above 3850. But now I just tried it again and it ramped up to 5800kbps in just 30 seconds.
Edited by aaronwt - 2/6/13 at 8:14pm

The only thing that I have noticed now is that my two wireless devices(Roku2 XD and Panny BDT-220) didn't go above 3850kbps. While my wired devices played the 5800kbps. I have one Roku2 that is wireless only. That one didn't do the super HD streams while my wired Roku2 (Roku2 XS) in the other room did play the Super HD streams. No idea if that is just a coincidence. Since even the superHD streams shouldn't tax the wireless bandwidth.

Yes this would be good to know.

I use OpenDNS for now and would change to get the Netflix higher speed streams - but obviously don't want to cause adverse effects on other Internet activity.

I get Super HD from my Roku 2, Win8 app, PS3 and TiVo Premiere. I cannot get it out of either my Panasonic BDT220 or Sony S390 BDPs; no matter what I try they won't connect to the nflxvideo.net servers which have the Super HD encodes. (I tried setting the Sony's DNS addresses manually to the Unblock-US servers, but I couldn't get it to connect to the net after that; I set the Panasonic's to it and it made no difference. Both BDPs put the Super HD logos on the title descriptions no matter how I have them set. (Everything's wired; I only use wireless for portable devices).

Did you set it up on your router? Or are you setting it up on each device?

I set it up in my router (using primary, secondary and tertiary DNS addresses from Unblock-US). The only devices I tried setting it up in were the two BDPs since they didn't get the Super HD encodes. It didn't work.

So I can't seem to get over 3850k on PS3, BDT220 and WDTV Live. The Win 8 app works fine. I wonder why?

Set it up in my router as well.

My (wireless) PC now says 'Your Internet Provider is ready for Super HD!'

But my wired Roku 2 XS can't see SuperHD titles and only gets the 3850 kbps streams - checked on both the 24P short and on my real time bandwidth monitor on my Tomato router.

I have reset both the router and the Roku 2 XS.

Yeah--it's very strange and unreliable. Checking to see that everything was copacetic while using the Unblock-US name servers I did a speed test and noticed that I wasn't getting nearly what I should be. I restarted my cable modem and my router which restored reasonable speed but now access to Super HD is kind of iffy. "Example Short 23.976" is broken; on a couple of platforms it won't ramp up through its encodes and the PS3 will not play it (though it plays everything else and seems to transition into Super HD (moving from "High/HD" to "High/SD" without a drop in PQ--the 4300 Kbps and 5800 Kbps encodes show as "High/SD" on the PS3 player's PQ indicator).

I'm still getting the same speeds using the Unblock-US name servers. I'm on the FiOS 150/65 tier and my speeds are the same as when I was using the FiOS name servers. I guess I'll try this out over the next few days and see how things are with everyday use and cancel before the trial period is up since I won't really have time to be watching much Netflix streaming for the next week or so. Then when I start watching more streaming titles again I'll re-evaluate whether it will be worth it for me to pay the $5 a month for it.

I'll need to hook my PS3 and Xbox 360 back up, sometime over the few days, to give them a try too.

EDIT: Hmm, I am getting slightly faster speeds from the speed test over at DSL Reports. But those tests never came close to maxing out my connection. I would usually get around 91mbs down but now I hit around 92.5 mbs down. Not that big of a difference but I never got that high with the FiOS DNS servers or with the Google DNS servers over many months. And the only change I have made was when I input the Unblock-US DNS servers into my router last night.
Edited by aaronwt - 2/7/13 at 3:10am

Same here. I have many other devices (2 PCs, iPod Touch etc.) and I don't want to change my DNS.

According to Unblock-US they don't effect internet speed.

Now I just need to figure out how to change the Primary DNS in FIOS' router. Anyone have FIOS?

I ran the Vudu speed test after making the change and I got the same speed as normal (~20Mbps). Looking at the real time bandwidth profile on my router it may (?) have started a little slower than normal and then ramped up to full speed.

I will run some ping tests as well as speed tests tonight when I get home.

I signed up for the free trial at Unblock-us and have changed the DNS on my WDTV Live streamer and Apple TV 3.

The WDTV shows the SuperHD logo now. I played Death Race 3 which I haven't seen before but which has DD+ sound. By pushing the option button on the remote I could see it ramp up from Low SD to High/HD in less than 10 seconds. I have to assume High/HD is the highest rate it can achieve since it remained there for a few minutes before I stopped the playback.

On the Apple TV 3 after the DNS change I could not see the SuperHD logo until I noticed there was a firmware update available. After the update it did show the logo but unfortunately Apple is still opting to stay away from DD+ and the same movie only played back in Dolby Digital. On the Apple TV there is no way that I know of to check the playback rate.

I will test out out several TV shows and movies during the trial period before deciding whether it's worth continuing.

Well, I figured out how to change the Primary DNS in my FIOS router and the PS3 ramped up to 5800kbps in the 23FPS test right away so everything is looking good (too bad the PS3 can't do 24FPS, but I'll live with it).

It still doesn't seem like the BDT220 or the WDTV Live will get anywhere near Super HD levels, even though the "Super HD" logo is clearly visible.

The unblock service, affects only the video websites and services that are listed on their site (there's a page that lists them all under Support). It won't impact normal surfing or other activities and can be turn off (if you setup their DNS address on your router) using a small app that you download to the pc.

I initially had problems with my Comcast Xfinity gateway, and had to call them (Comcast) to have them turn off DNS Hijacking. After that, with the gateway slaved to the router, the service worked fine.

 

The Example Short 23.976 went up to 5800.

apw2607 reports that he gets Super HD on his Sony BDP-S790, but his ISP is in Open Connect so he's not using Unblock-US. I still can't get Super HD on my Sony BDP-S390 or Panasonic DMP-BDT220; both display the Super HD logos in title descriptions but neither connects to servers in the nflxvideo.net domain. Neither can open "Example Short 23.976" this morning (they'll open "Example 8 Hour 23.976" but the bit-rate/resolution info seems to be gone from that clip now).

I note that they've removed 3 of the encodes (at least from the Super HD servers), being 235-, 375- and 750 Kbps. The 560-, 1050-, 1750-, 2350-, 3000-, 3850-, 4300- and 5800 Kbps encodes remain, three standard def, two 720p and three 1080p. I'm pretty sure that that happened last night or this morning, since I'm certain that I saw them in the CTRL-SHIFT-ALT-S display in the Win8 app yesterday.

I will not miss the 235- and 375 Kbps encodes--they were pretty worthless and should have been pitched long ago. If conditions on your connection to Netflix's servers is such that your player can't keep ahead of at least 560 Kbps then you should give it up and try again later . EDIT: The 235-, 375- and 750 Kbps encodes do show up for non-Super HD titles (i.e., standard-def only or 720p-only titles). Weird.
Edited by michaeltscott - 2/7/13 at 2:22pm

I have a Sony 790 blu ray player wired to the internet via three routers and a Fios modem. I am willing to try the Unblock but not sure what I should be putting where. Can anyone help with specific instructions? Also it sounds like one may get the Super HD logo but not be getting Super HD speed. How do I verify this? Thanks.

Go http://unblock-us.com/#trial and sign up for the free 7-day trial. You'll probably have to set the DNS servers up in your router (it's supposedly possible to do it in your BDP but I wasn't able to get it to work in my S390); there are instructions on unblock-us' site for setting it up.

Three routers? How's that work?

Fios modem goes to 5-channel Linksys router. Channel-1 to 2nd floor, Ch-2 to 1st floor, Ch-3+4+5 to three ground floor computers. 1st floor has router #2 to feed computers and audio router (#3), which feed Sony, Dish, etc. It was set up 11 years ago except for the audio router. I have a home office.

I am confused as to where to enter the DNS information.

Thanks for your help.

Unblock-US' site shows you what to do for Linksys routers here. Directions here tells you what to do to set it up on your S790 (as an alternative to setting it up on your router), but that didn't work for me on my S390.

For some reason I'm having a problem connecting with the PS3 to the 11min 23.976 short. It keeps on disconnecting. I can connect fine with the BDT220 and WDTV Live but only at the lower bitrates.

I'm really uncertain as to whether or not I'm getting SuperHD encodes or not. It seems like the Win8 Netflix app on the PC is the only reliable platform that consistently gets the SuperHD encodes through Unblock-us.

Got it. Will try over the weekend and report back.

Your detailed help is very much appreciated.