prodigyX
Senior Member
I have a 10mb line, and accounts with 3 ISPs: Mweb's premium 10mb uncapped, OpenWeb's 'Gamer King / Downloader Bling' account, and an unshaped Afrihost capped account. I subscribe to UnoDNS, Netflix, & Hulu Plus, and have tested everything with all 3 ISPs. I have a Windows 8 PC, an Xbox, and a WD TV Live Streaming Media Player. Here's what I've found:
When streaming Netflix through a browser (i.e. Chrome) I can never seem to get up to 200kBps, no matter what ISP I've used. It seems to average around 160kBps, giving me 'SD / DVD' quality. I always thought that was due to Netflix not being optimized for connections outside the US, or something to that effect. My Xbox performs similarly. 2 out of 4 bars (1 bar, 2 bars, 3 bars & 'HD'). Strangely enough, Hulu seems to stream 720p with no problems; both on my Xbox AND my PC browser. I noticed that the bandwidth requirement for 720p Hulu is about 350kBps.
Here's where it gets interesting:
I recently purchased a Western Digital 'TV Live' Streaming Media player, for about R1,000.00, and guess what.. Netflix streams in perfect HD quality. It has no 'bar' system or bandwidth monitor, but it most definitely streams at least 720p, all the time, irrespective of ISP.
I also recently discovered that Silverlight (used to stream Netflix in browsers) is TERRIBLE for streaming HD. It has no hardware acceleration at all; people around the world have complained about it. HD Netflix problems on the Xbox are also very common.
This basically means that the quality of your Netflix stream is far more device/app dependent, rather than your network setup or choice of ISP. Obviously these things do count, but if you're really serious on streaming Netflix in HD, buy yourself a WD Live TV Streaming Media Player or let me know if you discover another device that works as well
As far as I can tell, based on bandwidth & device tests in South Africa, the Xbox will never stream Netflix in HD, and neither will your PC, but if you're lucky enough to have a WD TV Live Streaming Media Player, and at least a 4mb uncapped account, you'll be smiling
Hope this helps
When streaming Netflix through a browser (i.e. Chrome) I can never seem to get up to 200kBps, no matter what ISP I've used. It seems to average around 160kBps, giving me 'SD / DVD' quality. I always thought that was due to Netflix not being optimized for connections outside the US, or something to that effect. My Xbox performs similarly. 2 out of 4 bars (1 bar, 2 bars, 3 bars & 'HD'). Strangely enough, Hulu seems to stream 720p with no problems; both on my Xbox AND my PC browser. I noticed that the bandwidth requirement for 720p Hulu is about 350kBps.
Here's where it gets interesting:
I recently purchased a Western Digital 'TV Live' Streaming Media player, for about R1,000.00, and guess what.. Netflix streams in perfect HD quality. It has no 'bar' system or bandwidth monitor, but it most definitely streams at least 720p, all the time, irrespective of ISP.
I also recently discovered that Silverlight (used to stream Netflix in browsers) is TERRIBLE for streaming HD. It has no hardware acceleration at all; people around the world have complained about it. HD Netflix problems on the Xbox are also very common.
This basically means that the quality of your Netflix stream is far more device/app dependent, rather than your network setup or choice of ISP. Obviously these things do count, but if you're really serious on streaming Netflix in HD, buy yourself a WD Live TV Streaming Media Player or let me know if you discover another device that works as well
As far as I can tell, based on bandwidth & device tests in South Africa, the Xbox will never stream Netflix in HD, and neither will your PC, but if you're lucky enough to have a WD TV Live Streaming Media Player, and at least a 4mb uncapped account, you'll be smiling
Hope this helps