Netflix quality - Hows yours?

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One NZ

#995734 27-Feb-2014 19:02

surfisup1000:
This will happen more and more.

The broadband connection division will come into conflict with value added services division.

Just like happened with sony -- the music division demanded that the audio player hardware division implemented punishing DRM -- thus aiding and abetting apple to smash sony to bits.

Personally, I wouldn't remain with vodafone (not a subsriber anyway) due to this either.

Vodafone really need to support ip issues regardless of conflicts with value added services. The best that can happen to vodafone is that a customer abandons netflix due to lack of support. The worst is that customers will abandon vodafone . I think the latter is more likely.

Did you read anything beyond the bit you quoted. At all?

sbowness

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#995964 28-Feb-2014 07:48

People will go to the ISP that can provide them with the services they need at the price they can afford. That is simple market dynamics.

Or they will continue to use the alternative methods of seeing the programs that Sky's 'business model' seems to be stopping us from seeing either for some time or at all. It is then that the people who produce the programs lose out. Netflix should not be seen to be a competitor for Sky as Sky only plays a fraction of the Netflix content. Most of the HBO stuff is played only for one week (with the occasional 'box set' weekend) and is not available after that. Netflix is a catch up service in that respect.

Just another reason why the Commerce Commission's investigation is so important.

JimmyC

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#996000 28-Feb-2014 08:39

Lets not make this just a Netflix issue either. Hulu, Hulu Plus, BBC, HBO, Amazon, to name but a few... Are they all against Sky's T's&C's with VF?

It's the internet people, and I pay to access it. My connection, and what I connect to should not be in any way restrained or legislated against by an extraneous 3rd party content provider who just happens to have a partnership with my ISP. At the very least it makes both parties look like dinosaurs.

Demeter

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#996209 28-Feb-2014 11:03

JimmyC: Lets not make this just a Netflix issue either. Hulu, Hulu Plus, BBC, HBO, Amazon, to name but a few... Are they all against Sky's T's&C's with VF?

It's the internet people, and I pay to access it. My connection, and what I connect to should not be in any way restrained or legislated against by an extraneous 3rd party content provider who just happens to have a partnership with my ISP. At the very least it makes both parties look like dinosaurs.

Okay, let's take Sky completely out of the picture, because they are not legislating anything here. You're right - it's the internet and you pay to have access to it. And you do, right? However, each of those providers you mentioned (Hulu, HBO, BBC, Amazon) want to have regional control over where their content is available. If they're fine to have it here, then so are we and we'll make sure that you can see their stuff. If they're not, we're not going to actively modify our network to help bypass their controls. That is all I am saying. If you want to do it by whatever means you choose to do so, by all means go for it. But we are not going to support it.

JimmyC

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#996268 28-Feb-2014 11:54

Well you can't really take Sky out of the picture because they're your alibi for not assisting :-)

Look at your competition. Slingshot has Global Mode (which I believe still works), and I used the instructions published on Orcon's blog to get these overseas services working for me. They're endorsing and encouraging it. I haven't had time to check all ISP's, but by comparison it makes VF's position to not even assist their customers in this regard seem pretty outdated, and\or just plain bad.

But then you have your Partnership with Sky and that provides the legitimate conflict and therefore VF's exit strategy.

garvani

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#996271 28-Feb-2014 11:58

JimmyC: Well you can't really take Sky out of the picture because they're your alibi for not assisting :-)

Look at your competition. Slingshot has Global Mode (which I believe still works), and I used the instructions published on Orcon's blog to get these overseas services working for me. They're endorsing and encouraging it. I haven't had time to check all ISP's, but by comparison it makes VF's position to not even assist their customers in this regard seem pretty outdated, and\or just plain bad.

But then you have your Partnership with Sky and that provides the legitimate conflict and therefore VF's exit strategy.

Why are you still fighting this? The Vodafone rep has explained their stance on this and its not going to change (which from there last post seems reasonable enough to me). If you don't like the service you can let your wallet do the talking and move providers.

JimmyC

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#996278 28-Feb-2014 12:12

I'm not "fighting" anything. I am discussing the stance my ISP has taken with a representative from that ISP. That's exactly what discussion forums are for.

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LennonNZ

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#996340 28-Feb-2014 13:09

I know being a devil's avocate but Vodafone said "Vodafone is partnered with SKY and unfortunately Netflix contravenes SKY's broadcasting rights to their content."

Does Sky have the broadcast rights (in NZ) to everything that netflix has to offer?

ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#996346 28-Feb-2014 13:14

Just to be clear, what is the problem exactly? That it doesn't work? Or that even though you can access the content (by using some kind of region unlocking service), it won't play back reliably/buffers/etc?

JimmyC

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#996376 28-Feb-2014 13:47

ubergeeknz: Just to be clear, what is the problem exactly? That it doesn't work? Or that even though you can access the content (by using some kind of region unlocking service), it won't play back reliably/buffers/etc?

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=151&topicid=140933&page_no=1#993838

Since then I've also tried another 2 region unblock services with no improvement.

benokobi

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#997333 1-Mar-2014 22:45

JimmyC:
benokobi: I use getflix and get Super HD on my ps3 with 11 mbps to most la speed test servers. In fact on my PS3 I only get 7 but I still get Super HD and I think it looks perfect.

ISP and plan?

I'm on Vodafone's 130Mbps cable plan, viewing via Apple TV and performance is patchy at best. I'm using the Sydney getflix DNS server, not their Auckland one where performance was even worse. When I stated with getflix, streaming was really good. The last couple of weeks however and I'm buffering like a bastard. 2-3 times per episode of West Wing for 20-30 seconds at a time. Very frustrating.

I don't expect it to be perfect, but I would love to know if anyone on Vodafone cable watches Netflix via a device like XBox, Apple TV etc. with minimal disruptions.

Edit: and I seem to get circa 5Mbps to the Internode server in LA.

Telecom. VDSL

I've noticed lately its not scaling up to HD. And my apple tvs quality changes every time I change programs it gets so bad I go sit at my desk and watch it on my computer which is perfect. I just don't understand why I can get amazing quality on my computer but not on any other device. Apple TV, PS3, iPad, Note II none of them are getting hd anymore.

myfullflavour

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Full Flavour

#997378 2-Mar-2014 01:43

benokobi: I've noticed lately its not scaling up to HD. And my apple tvs quality changes every time I change programs it gets so bad I go sit at my desk and watch it on my computer which is perfect. I just don't understand why I can get amazing quality on my computer but not on any other device. Apple TV, PS3, iPad, Note II none of them are getting hd anymore.

There seems to be a known problem with Apple TV & HD right now.

For example, we (an ISP) have a super fat pipe to Los Angeles where we have a direct upstream peering with Netflix. This pipe is never saturated so capacity isn't an issue.

I get Super HD in my web browser fine but via Apple TV, it's limited to just over 1Mbps 16:9 SD resolution.

There is a thread on the apple forum many pages long where people suggest it's been an issue since an update came through.

I should add we're using a DNS redirect that makes Netflix think we're in LA

jarledb

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#997380 2-Mar-2014 01:49

There could be other things at play as well
http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/02/heres-comcast-netflix-deal-structured-numbers.html

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benokobi

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#997381 2-Mar-2014 01:50

myfullflavour:
benokobi: I've noticed lately its not scaling up to HD. And my apple tvs quality changes every time I change programs it gets so bad I go sit at my desk and watch it on my computer which is perfect. I just don't understand why I can get amazing quality on my computer but not on any other device. Apple TV, PS3, iPad, Note II none of them are getting hd anymore.

There seems to be a known problem with Apple TV & HD right now.

For example, we (an ISP) have a super fat pipe to Los Angeles where we have a direct upstream peering with Netflix. This pipe is never saturated so capacity isn't an issue.

I get Super HD in my web browser fine but via Apple TV, it's limited to just over 1Mbps 16:9 SD resolution.

There is a thread on the apple forum many pages long where people suggest it's been an issue since an update came through.

I should add we're using a DNS redirect that makes Netflix think we're in LA

Yeah I heard its all up to luck with what servers you end up getting but in your browser its always far easier. I also get problems on my ps3 which now seem to be worse than my apple tv as its forever stuck at 480 and if it goes up at all it stops working altogether.

JimmyC

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#997920 3-Mar-2014 07:05

benokobi: I just don't understand why I can get amazing quality on my computer but not on any other device. Apple TV, PS3, iPad, Note II none of them are getting hd anymore.

I believe it has something to do with the ports and\or protocols device apps utilise, as opposed to natively streaming via the web. Could be wrong but that has been suggested to me, and certainly fits what some are seeing.

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