Netflix adds 3D and Super HD - Page 14

Yes, but can you get it consistently?

My six year old Linksys router just died. I had on hand a D-Link DSS-8+ Switch, which I just installed. Works great and seems to be much faster than my old router.

I will try Unblock tonight. It looks like the only place I can put the DNS is in my Sony S790 player. Does using a Switch vs. a router affect anything?

Not sure. It's 1:40 AM here so I'll try again tomorrow. I just tried the Example clip on US servers a couple of times today to check if the High/SD thing on PS3 was a bug because those Example clips are not available on Finnish servers.

 

I tried every option including standing on my head (Diamond version of the card - latest AMD drivers). Called support and they asked if they could test it out and call me... an hour or so later they called and said I was hunting ghosts... their higher model supported it but not the lowly 6450... they swapped cards on the same PC. I find the i3's version of Contrast Enhancement to work rather nicely... lowers the black level without any crushing. If it didn't have the 29/59 bug (local CBS station) I'd stick with it. Perhaps it has the same 29/59 bug... which causes the flashing...

Edited by Charles R - 2/8/13 at 3:55pm

With just a switch you'll have to change DNS in each device, if you can't do that you're SOL.

Check out the PC remote I bought for $4 on eBay:



Heh. $4 shipped w/USB dongle. I went as cheap as possible.

Its definitely not consistent for me. It seems like some prioritization is going on. I can come in, throw on a 3D flick and get 5800 X-High/HD and be good....as long as I dont stop the movie. If I ever stop it I cant reconnect. I just did that and now the same movie that was x-high/hd wont go past medium/hd.

I just hooked my PS3 back up. I'm now able to get the 3D streams with the UN Block US DNS servers. At least I found something I can use my PS3 for since the Panny BD player doesn't show the 3D streams. Although according to the link from the earlier post, there are only a handful of 3D titles on Netflix right now.

I've had it playing Immortals for the last five minutes and it's showed X-High the entire time. Is that the highest bitrate encode?

Yes I have gone back to OpenDNS for now.

If they can make it reliable I am definitely interested.

When I could see Super HD it did look good - but for now it is too inconsistent. Sometimes Super HD sometimes not. In fact on occasions it didn't even manage to get up to 3850 stream that I can get reliably with OpenDNS.

Unblock-Us shouldn't effect speed. I've never used OpenDNS, how are they, and I gather they don't support Super HD streams?

It seems Unblock-Us is really only good right now on Win8 Netflix App and TiVo(?), otherwise all good on the Canadian Netflix servers. At least that's the way it appears to be from most users from US ISPs (I'm on FIOS).

Tried twice and couldn't get any higher encodes on my Roku 2, but first time today on the s390 I got highest (first time on this device). It's so weird. I know netflix does weird things with devices, though. They were matching the AppleTV to the same crappy servers for awhile and a lot of us had stuttering on almost every show and never on other devices.

I agree unblock-us shouldn't affect the speed - and most of the time my Roku 2 does get to 5800 kbps if connected to the Super HD servers - but on a couple of occasions it never got above 1050 kbps when connected to Super HD servers.

You will see a couple of other people have reported the same in this thread.

I have used OpenDNS for years as it provides a safe reliable internet connection. When my kids were teenagers I could also block certain content from all devices in my Network.

Roku even suggests trying OpenDNS if you are having connection issues. http://support.roku.com/entries/420570-how-do-i-improve-my-roku-player-connection-to-content-servers

OpenDNS won't of course give you Super HD if your ISP doesn't support it.
Edited by undecided - 2/9/13 at 12:35am

If you are running any AMD drivers from the past 12 months or so, then you can definitely enable dynamic contrast on the 6450. Just uncheck "Enforce Smooth Video Playback" first, then the other checkboxes are available, including dynamic contrast.

Do I want dynamic contrast? For the life of me I have no idea what most of these settings do.

I have a 6450 for my HTPC. It does bitstream all the formats and works generally well. It's just a little too low powered to do hardware acceleration for 1080p it seems (I always get stuttering in Mpc hc)

Is 1080P actually a problem? Even back in 2005 with a low power video card, my HTPC had no problems sending 1080P to my TV. 2D 1080P should be easy for any basic video card nowadays shouldn't it. Even my old laptop I've had for over four years with the crappy Intel graphics has no problem sending 1080P over it's HDMI output.

And back on topic, I ended up watching over half of the Netflix 3D title Immortals. The PS3 always showed X-high for the encode it was playing.

The 6450 supports video acceleration in hardware and should be more than enough for 1080p. AFAIK, the Win8 Netflix app takes advantage of some hardware acceleration features, so he should be OK.

Yeah, I have yet to be able to get X-high to show on the PS3 on a SuperHD title. I give up. PC it is for SuperHD.

Anytime I've tried using dxva or the like it stutters bluray rips for at least the first 5-10s of playing if not longer.

 

Thanks. I'd give it a try but the card went back to Fry's already and the sale is over... $20. If it has the 29/59 bug I wouldn't have used it anyway. That's what I'm trying to cure. Picked up a NVIDIA 610 (fanless too) and it looks like it might have the same bug from one account I read. Just looking for a low-end graphic card that bitstreams HD audio and features dynamic contrast.

 

Regarding the question do I want dynamic contrast... turn it on the see. :) What it actually does is alter (adjusts) the instrascene contrast of the image. The end result is much like having a display with a higher contrast ratio. Where the darks get darker and the lights get lighter. In my case I appreciate it lowering the black level (a good thing) without crushing shadow detail.

If you know what you're doing, it's not too hard to use with other devices. I just try playing "Example Short 23.976" and if it will play the device has been assigned to Super HD servers. If I can't get it to play I back out and start the Netflix app again and try again. It takes an indeterminate number of restarts to get assigned Super HD servers but it will generally happen within 6 attempts . (The PS3 is the most annoying to do this with since the procedure to back out and restart is so complicated; all my other device have one button to the main menu, one button to start Netflix). Once you do get those servers it may not get get up to the Super HD bit rates and stay there but I see that as a separate issue. I occasionally hit times on the normal servers where it won't get to 3850 Kbps 1080p and stay there. Some devices do seem more likely to get rock solid high bit rates than others; for me those are the Roku 2, TiVo and PC (TiVo and PC always get Super HD servers, every time).

My freakin' motherboard graphics will play 1080p video clips in VLC with a < 10% CPU load and it's 3 years old.

Umm - this doesn't meet the Wife Approval Factor.

When we sit down to watch a show or movie stopping and starting the Netflix app until we get Super HD won't cut it.

As above we are back to OpenDNS and 3850 kbps streams for now - it is reliable and works.

That said we would love the Super HD streams if unblock-us would work reliably - both of us appreciate better picture quality and on a calibrated 55" Plasma the differences are noticeable.

Understood, but it is do-able by the hardcore and determined .

I definitely get it.....

this holds true for me, except if watching a 3D stream, I HAVE to watch the movie all the way through right then (which I intend to do, but just testing right now). If I back out of that movie, thats it....it wont play again and you have to repeat the steps mentioned to get the streams again. I can play a title without backing out of the app, but it wont be SuperHD. I wish this was reliable but its just not.

I went back last night and watched the rest of the Immortals in 3D from the PS3. When I first went back to resume it, it kept saying that the video wasn't available, so I tried the other 3D streams and it said the same thing. It wouldn't play those streams. So I had to back out of Netfliux and start it again.But the second time it did the same thing. So the third time I turned off the PS3 and restarted it. AFter that all the 3D streams were available to me again. SO that is really more annoying than anything else. SInce I was used to never having to mess with Netflix in the past and always being able to get the highest streams. I guess at least with the PS3 you are able to see if you are getting the higher encode.

I also found out that the PS3 had enabled DTS-HD MA playback fro 3D BDs. I had read that initially this was not the case and was one of the reasons I picked up a stand alone 3D BD player. But I also see that it still can't play back Dolby True HD from a 3D BD title. And more and more 3D BD titles are coming out with DOlby True HD on them because of Dolby Atmos. So because of Netflix Super HD and 3D and at least partial 3D BD capability with the PS3 I will probably start using my PS3 more. And I think I'll go ahead and move my Panny 3D BD player to my secondary 3D viewing location. I just hope Netflix 3D and Super HD comes to more devices.

I'll probably just go ahead and start paying $5 a month to unBlock US since when the Super HD streams are working, there is a noticeable difference in the quality. I had checked out Stargate Continuum on the PS3 from Netflix last night since I am very familiar with the Netflix stream. I had never seen it look as good streaming as when it was playing the SuperHD stream last night.
Edited by aaronwt - 2/9/13 at 6:40am

Thanks for clarifying that. Now I'm able to get 5800kbps (at times) on the BDT220 on the US server. It just takes a lot longer to ramp up to it on the BDT220 than it does on other devices.

PITA to keep backing out and reconnecting tho- glad I have a harmony remote, makes life much easier.

I'll probably pay the $5/mo now, and switch my viewing back and forth between my PC and my BDT220.

Where have you read about the bug with High/SD? That's all I've been able to get using the unblock DNS settings. The stream ramps up to Medium/HD and then finalizes on High/SD but I've seen others here mention they see X-High/HD on their PS3s. I'm just trying to determine if it's working for me here. I do see the SuperHD logo in the content listings when using the unblock DNS.

Just to be clear, are you saying the bug is that the graphic will say High/SD but the stream is actually the X-High/HD stream rate? To be honest, I've been focusing on the screen info read-out and haven't really paid that much attention to the actual image quality I've been getting.

Just play "Example Short 23.976" and see what the PS3's info overlay says at the Super HD bit rates. For me, it says "High/SD" for both 4300- and 5800 Kbps. See an example in a post earlier in this thread.

My Sony BDP-S390 has the same stream info display and it reads "Medium/HD" for 2350- and 3000 Kbps, "High HD" for 3850- and 4300 Kbps and "X-High/HD" for 5800 Kbps. I think that it's just displaying according to the original bit rate ranges: >= 2350 Kbps < 3600 Kbps is "Medium/HD"; >= 3600 Kbps < 4800 Kbps is "High/HD" and >= 4800 Kbps is "X-High/HD".

One big problem with that app is a lack of discrete rewind or fast-forward functions; it doesn't have onscreen controls for them and does not respond to IR codes for them. What it has instead is a scrub bar with a control which can be dragged across it with the mouse (not do-able with a remote alone, not cool for an HTPC app). While dragging it displays frame thumbs and a time code; I'd rather it displayed thumbs and time when I mouse over the scrub bar so I can click when I see what I want--Netflix's own web browser player does this in fullscreen. That control is flaky as good pie crust; it's easy to kill stream playback or the app by using it and last night it borked my system, completely freezing it, requiring a power-button reboot. Not quite ready for prime time.

I've only seen x-High HD when I've been playing the 3D streams . The other things kept showing high SD or something like that when it was playing the 5800kbps encodes. I did notice that the frame short showed up as 3d as an option today. But every time I started trying to play the 3D encode, it would pop up a message saying it isn't available. Although I did watch a couple of other 3D titles from Netflix today. The Live Fire title was I interesting.