Out of the stone age at last.

[d000hg]

Maybe you have keener eyes, or a better TV

I don't really know what Netflix mean by HD and "ultra HD", I thought they roughly equated to 720p and 1080p but that's only a guess.

[VectraMan]

Maybe you have keener eyes, or a better TV

I don't really know what Netflix mean by HD and "ultra HD", I thought they roughly equated to 720p and 1080p but that's only a guess.

This is half the problem. By saying "HD" they get away with much lower quality as people think as long as they tick the HD box it's all the same. But that only tells you the resolution, not how much it's compressed, which is where the quality goes. Their HD service is 1080p (or i possibly), and "Ultra HD" is 4K. It's ridiculous that people will pay extra for a 4K service when the HD service is much lower quality than it could be. But that's marketing for you.

It's meant to be the future, but what we actually get is way below what the original TV engineers that worked on HD thought was the minimum possible acceptable quality.

[d000hg]

I thought they were going to do 4k separately - ultraHD has been around for quite some time. But hey ho - I guess I never use the ultraHD service as I don't have a 4k TV.

Actually, it might depend what you're watching Netflix on... on the PS3 it's pretty great in my view, but set-top boxes or smart TVs might all be different internally. Anyone know... VM, NF?

[MicrosoftBob]

This is half the problem. By saying "HD" they get away with much lower quality as people think as long as they tick the HD box it's all the same. But that only tells you the resolution, not how much it's compressed, which is where the quality goes. Their HD service is 1080p (or i possibly), and "Ultra HD" is 4K. It's ridiculous that people will pay extra for a 4K service when the HD service is much lower quality than it could be. But that's marketing for you.

It's meant to be the future, but what we actually get is way below what the original TV engineers that worked on HD thought was the minimum possible acceptable quality.

Which is why I still get blu rays sent in the post, at least I know I'm watching uncompressed 1080p

[VectraMan]

Which is why I still get blu rays sent in the post, at least I know I'm watching uncompressed 1080p

[VectraMan]

Actually, it might depend what you're watching Netflix on... on the PS3 it's pretty great in my view, but set-top boxes or smart TVs might all be different internally. Anyone know... VM, NF?

It shouldn't be; it's all the same data compressed the same way. Of course Netflix could do different things at their end depending on the device it detects; if it detects Android for example it might assume you're on a smaller screen and therefore use a lower bitrate

I was watching via a tablet with an HDMI cable, which probably wasn't the best, possibly was only 720p and it would get a bit juddery at times. Now I have a Chromecast, which doesn't have the judder, but you still get the same blurriness and blotchiness.

[minestrone]

I moved to BT fibre last year and have been fairly unimpressed. Drops fairly often for 5 - 10 seconds.

I'm hoping to get virgin round my way now they are doing a second burst of installs, They cabled the street, just never done the houses which is fairly annoying.

[TheLordDave]

I went from 1mb to 40 a few weeks ago, life changer. The walking dead was ready for me in 720p when I got home from work last night.

[d000hg]

It shouldn't be; it's all the same data compressed the same way. Of course Netflix could do different things at their end depending on the device it detects; if it detects Android for example it might assume you're on a smaller screen and therefore use a lower bitrate

I was watching via a tablet with an HDMI cable, which probably wasn't the best, possibly was only 720p and it would get a bit juddery at times. Now I have a Chromecast, which doesn't have the judder, but you still get the same blurriness and blotchiness.

I definitely don't see that issue. I definitely see a difference between my iPad and my wife's Android tablet. I wondered if they are forced to use different protocols on different platforms. For instance on PS3 it often is very blocky for the first 10s, then 'snaps' to be very clear - but on my iPad that just doesn't happen, which makes me think the caching or streaming work differently.
Also, the Netflix code has to be optimised to run fast enough.