Video streaming quality (Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney+, etc)

orangpelupa

Elite Bug Hunter
Legend
My experience with Netflix
  • Aliens looks like shit, full of low compression artifacts. Maybe due to a bunch of low light scenes and its heavy film grain/noise?
  • New shows like stranger things looks superb. Even the dark scenes.
  • Old Indonesian movies looks super shitty and sounds like a pirated release. Better go to nearest shopping mall or traditional market , and buy a pirated disc (a couple of years ago there's used to be a bunch of legit disc sellers, but now.... nowhere to be found. Now there a bunch of parallel importers tho).
  • New Indonesian movies sounds good but looks crappy due to low bitrate. Fortunately most Indonesian movies didn't have fast-moving action scene in dark and each shot are quite long.
how is your experience with NF and other streaming services?

EDIT:
im subscribed to 30Mbps download bandwith (upgraded for free to 50Mbps), but in reality i got 70Mbps
 
I mostly watch Netflix originals and they look fine to me. Watched October Sky the other day and that looked fine as well.

Don't really have any complaints.

Prime video is utter shit though. 4k HDR basically doesn't work on any of my devices (TV, fire stick and Shield TV). Though I guess that is more a complaint with the service rather than the actual video quality because if you do get 4k HDR (one way or another...) It does look good IMO.
 
Netflix has been great for me consistently, but I mostly watch 1080. It is sharp and stutter/artifact free for newer stuff, when you get in to older shows they just didn't have the same fidelity as modern ones do so the picture isn't quite as hot.

Prime video is utter shit though. 4k HDR basically doesn't work on any of my devices (TV, fire stick and Shield TV). Though I guess that is more a complaint with the service rather than the actual video quality because if you do get 4k HDR (one way or another...) It does look good IMO.
4K works for me fine on PC, I'm using super resolution on a 1080 monitor but still amazingly sharp.

As a person who watches most of their shit on PC I've found that other devices just don't deliver as high quality of a playback experience. Not sure if that's the more polished players or the processing power, but it's been the case for me pretty much for the last decade+.

EDITED BITS: Current bandwidth is 950MB down and 40MB up with no data cap, but I gotta share it with 3 other people. :(
 
Netflix has been great for me consistently, but I mostly watch 1080. It is sharp and stutter/artifact free for newer stuff, when you get in to older shows they just didn't have the same fidelity as modern ones do so the picture isn't quite as hot.


4K works for me fine on PC, I'm using super resolution on a 1080 monitor but still amazingly sharp.

As a person who watches most of their shit on PC I've found that other devices just don't deliver as high quality of a playback experience. Not sure if that's the more polished players or the processing power, but it's been the case for me pretty much for the last decade+.

EDITED BITS: Current bandwidth is 950MB down and 40MB up with no data cap, but I gotta share it with 3 other people. :(

I assume you mean Mbit and not megabyte ;)

Why the frowny face though? Do you need to upload?
 
No quality loss on anything this side of the pond in Ohio, USA.

As far as quality of streams goes for HBO content, from absolute worst to best in terms of video and audio bitrates:

cable provided HBO channels < cable provided HBO Video on Demand << HBO GO / HBO Now < HBO Max << HBO Amazon Prime Live Channel < HBO Amazon Prime Video on Demand
 
I'm frustrated with the lack of refresh rate sync in most playback devices using TV as screen. Are people actually happy with continuous frameskips?
 
I'm frustrated with the lack of refresh rate sync in most playback devices using TV as screen. Are people actually happy with continuous frameskips?

This is more of an app issue than a device issue. Don't know about Apple but Android supports refresh rate syncing.

I'm not sure if webos does it (probably not) but to be honest I never really notice it.
 
They don't have v-sync on TVs?!? (I don't really use any TVs, just my monitor and setting up my wife's bedroom one with an Amazon Firestick)

It's not the same thing as v-sync on or off in pc games. V-sync in that sense is ok in video players, framebuffer is finished before shown on display.

But videos have a fixed frame rate, and to be able to show each frame at exactly correct moment, the display frame rate has to be dividable by the video frame rate. 24fps film stuff on 50 or 100hz tv is painful for me to watch, as well as 25/50fps stuff on 60/120hz screen.

I believe YouTube etc has poisoned the sense of smooth video playback for most people nowadays.
 
isnt that the frame pull up / pull down? like 3:5 pull down or something... Some TV can automatically detect it and fix it. I personally really like soap opera effect for panning, so i usually enable them for videos, it automatically eliminates frame rate issues. Too laggy for games tho.
 
Yes, reprojection or frame interpolation is the complex and imperfect way to try to fix it on the fly.

The ideal way is to actually match the display frame rate to the content, as XBMC already did ages ago. I see Shield TV has beta support for similar functionality now. Not sure about anything else, my interests on that field died of frustration at some point - I feel the video and audio quality experienced by the average consumer took a steep nosedive at the advent of internet broadcast ecosystems and mobile playback devices. Last decade has been a slow climb to get closer to level it used to be.
 
Yes, reprojection or frame interpolation is the complex and imperfect way to try to fix it on the fly.

The ideal way is to actually match the display frame rate to the content, as XBMC already did ages ago. I see Shield TV has beta support for similar functionality now. Not sure about anything else, my interests on that field died of frustration at some point - I feel the video and audio quality experienced by the average consumer took a steep nosedive at the advent of internet broadcast ecosystems and mobile playback devices. Last decade has been a slow climb to get closer to level it used to be.

With VRR, maybe this issue will be gone, by running the display at video frame rate? (assuming the VRR can go low enough)
 
You don't need VRR for that, (all) TV's can switch to 24fps no problem. The question is whether the OS/application supports it.

For example Android supports refresh rate switching and apps such as Kodi, Emby or Plex can switch to 24fps if you play such content. However for example the Netflix app doesn't support this on Android afaik so you'll end up with some kind of pulldown.
 
You don't need VRR for that, (all) TV's can switch to 24fps no problem. The question is whether the OS/application supports it.

For example Android supports refresh rate switching and apps such as Kodi, Emby or Plex can switch to 24fps if you play such content. However for example the Netflix app doesn't support this on Android afaik so you'll end up with some kind of pulldown.
Not all of them https://www.rtings.com/tv/tests/motion/24p

It seems some brands starting from 2019 and 2020 will supports it tho.
 
I'm frustrated with the lack of refresh rate sync in most playback devices using TV as screen. Are people actually happy with continuous frameskips?

What TV are you using and how are you watching Netflix? E.g. TV's own app, external device etc.
 
One thing I forgot to mention is that HBO and HBO Max does NOT offer any 4K or HDR content. This has been a major sore point with AT&T's fumbled launch of their latest HBO Max streaming service. So any WarnerBrother movies are best watched on other platforms that offer higher bitrates or 4K HDR options.

Also, in the USA most cable providers also down-resolution and lower the bitrate of their video feeds just to pack more channels in the same QAM bandwidth. So with providers like Comcast you end up with low bitrate 720p feeds of even the premium channels.
 
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