Yeah this is Kbps.
I’m guessing at 720p it should be 3000 Kbps and 1080p at 5800 Kbps
That sounds about right if you were to download it but not streaming which is 5-6 Mbps.
Netflix use h.264, I gave appropriate bitrates above.
Not following why there should be a difference?
As in the download/physical media the target is the very best quality so yeah you’ll let the bitrate go wild. To a certain degree it doesn’t matter the filesize. You have the complete data when you press play.
Streaming on the other hand you’ve got to take into account it being sent in pieces around the world and making sure that you aren’t making your customers see the sorry buffering message. There’s also an issue of how much broadband usage of a person is eating through at say 15 GB an hour.
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The Windows 10 app seems to not be affected, getting 12000 - 15000 kpbs 1080p with surround.
Yes, all that is self evident. It shouldn’t be used as an excuse to fob customers off with 5 Mbps 1080p streams. It should be triple that for most content. You can argue that you’d only want to go above 18 or 19 if you are not streaming but any connection should be able to handle 15 Mbps and if you have a non unlimited connection even 5 Mbps is going to screw you quickly.
BTW 10 Mbps is only 4.5 GB/h.
Yep the maths check out?
(10/8)* 3600=4500
(15000* 8)/3600=33.3
All I’m saying is they don’t want people burning through 15GB/hr or whatever, so they’ve capped it. Should the cap be higher for what you are paying for that’s another question. This is should people get a refund if they temporarily reduce the normal streaming bitrate they expect are used to getting for the price they pay.
I would say as this is exceptional circumstances then it’s a no from me personally.
But their backend is hosted in AWS, it’s auto scalable. It’ll automatically adjust for the amount of viewers, the only thing Netflix need to do is foot the bill. since it’s AWS, it’s Amazon that need to cope for the increased users and managing the infrastructure and since they are pretty invested in web services, I’d say they can definitely cope with it 
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They can cope with it, I guess they won’t increase it though as the general population isn’t fussed. Netflix has set these streaming thresholds as they are acceptable for the majority who either can’t tell the difference and/or don’t care about quality. The home cinema buffs are going to be buying the 4k blu rays, but they might have Netflix for general tv shows etc
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I wouldn’t be happy with such bad rips for TV let alone films.
But most HD TV isn’t higher than 10Mbps, most top out at 5Mbps.
Like if you’re watching iPlayer in HD it’s 3.2Mbps and 5Mbps if you are lucky.
I can imagine Sky Sports HD may go to 10Mbps where a higher bitrate is needed with constant fast pace action.
Like if I’m watching the new 1917 I’m looking for 20-30Mbps @ 1080p minimum to get the most out of it with the detailed complex scenes. If you were super fussed you would get the 4k blu ray.
If it’s Knives Out then it’s nice and slow and all about the story there’s going to be no advantage at a higher bitrate as there’s not going to be a noticeable difference or experience.
For watching general TV meh, and little gained from a higher bitrate in 99% of cases.
The rips you find on places like TV torrent sites aren’t going to be higher bitrate unless they’ve been ripped from blu ray releases or offered as direct downloads to buy (which maybe no higher than the stream). The vast majority will be 5Mbps and under.
It’s a bit like complaining about Spotify streaming vs ripping your own V0 or lossless FLACs.
For most Netflix/Spotify does the job and gives them access to lots of content for a smallish amount each month.
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Yeah, HD TV is pretty low-quality HD, all things considered. My ‘favourite’ part is watching HD shows with lots of dark scenes and instead of a smooth fade to dark as you get further from the light source in the scene, you get a set of concentric circles instead. Fun!
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I’m talking about TV shows not Loose Women. I wouldn’t dream of watching any at 5Mbps let alone something deserving of better like a nature documentary.
e.g. Planet Earth II streams at about 13 Mbps just at 1080p. If you want to stream the 4K it’s closer to 50 Mbps.
And yes I don’t use Spotify for that very reason.
Planet Earth II is very specific. That’s hardly the standard TV show that’s produced that you see every week, it’s a once in a decade thing, and included in that “TV” 1% that benefits from a higher bitrate it’s not exactly MasterChef. The 4k shouldn’t be that high streaming that’s higher than the 4k disc.
If you don’t watch TV or Netflix or listen to Spotify that’s fine. In terms of general population you would be in the minority if you care deeply about quality to this degree. I’m certainly not saying it’s a bad thing to care at all.
Pretty sure paid Spotify is 320 kbps. Please don’t tell me you can hear the difference between that and lossless. 
The free Spotify at 160 kbps yes that’s not great in comparison, but fine for free. I’ve got many TBs in FLAC but I’m absolutely fine with paid Spotify for general playing through home hub and out and about.
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You’re right that lots of shows don’t benefit from higher bitrate. But there are lots of other similar shows. I imagine you’ll find most popular shows like Breaking Bad, Twin Peaks, Narcos, Walking Dead, Chernobyl, etc. are similar. Hell, even Masterchef US streams at 10 Mbps.
And no, for the 4K, 50 Mbps is right as h.265. You’re right that the raw Bluray for 1080p is only about 35 Mbps though 
Netflix can’t even hope to give customers HDR if they are cutting bitrates that much 
No argument here (have never paid for it to try) To be fair, it’s more the shocking lack of content that keeps me away from Spotify.
Looking at a couple NFOs I’m seeing it as 30 @ 1080 and 43 @ 2060 if you wanted to be picky. 
Also listed here 
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC (29.99 Mbps)
What resolution and which ISP out of interest?
1080p Sky.
The Windows 10 app is what I use a lot of the time as it has surround support and uses a higher quality sound bit rate as well.
Just so everyone knows, a lot of the ISP’s dont get Netflix traffic from the wider net, Netflix give ISP’s free kit to put inside their own networks which handle the content delivery all to reduce the wider load on the net and ISP’s costs.
That 12-15000 seems to be your broadband throughput.
The video bitrate according to that screenshot is just 2490 kbps
Look for playing bitrate, first number is audio rate and the second is the video.
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Yeah the line you need to see is this:
Playing bitrate (audio/video) 192 / 2490
(1920 x 1080)
In my Star Trek example I seem to just be getting the 720p.
Playing bitrate (audio/video) 128 / 1690
(1280 x 720)
Just found this from 2018 so yeah looks like it’s half what it normally is at those sizes. Basically getting the bitrate usually for the size below.
| Resolution | Streaming Bitrate | Hourly Conversion |
|---|---|---|
| 480p (720×480) | 1750 kbps | ~792 MB per hour |
| 720p (1280×720) | 3000 kbps | ~1.3 GB per hour |
| 1080p (1920×1080) | 4300-5800 kbps | ~1.9 GB to ~2.55 GB per hour |
| 1440p (2560×1440) | 6350 kbps | ~2.8 GB per hour |
| 4K (3840×2160) | 8000-16000 kbps | ~3.5 GB to ~7 GB per hour |
That seems to tally with their results of 1080p
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