Actually it is all about Ultra-HD and 4K. Netflix, another online video store, wants these days in the US for the first time streaming videos in 4K resolution offer – with data rates by 15 Mbps. Good news, but for now, there are two 4K series – the new season of “House of Cards” and the cult show “Breaking Bad”. Compared to a few thousand content, which can be seen in Netflix in SD or “normal” HD resolution, the media hype around the 4K premieres a bit strongly violent, especially since you can see it here, yes, only with some technical tricks. But in the distress and in the absence of other 4K sources, the quality-conscious home cineast clings to every straw.
How much HD is there in the United States?
The whole thing has brought me to another question: What HD quality do we actually get from our online video stores? As long as we are dealing with file-based downloads, such as iTunes or Sony Video Unlimited, the question is quite easy to answer.
Also interesting is
ITunes, for example, offers a resolution of 720p (or correspondingly lower line count in Cinemascope films) with data rates of 4.5 to 5 Mbps in the Apple MPEG4 codec on the PC and on Apple mobile devices. When watching movies directly via Apple TV is synonymous 1080p. Then one should have however a fast DSL connection from 16 Mbps, otherwise the waiting times to the filmstart sprawl. Sony is partly still slightly higher data rates - and like iTunes many HD movies with 5.1 sound. Bottom line, neither iTunes nor Sony Video Unlimited deliver true Blu-ray quality, but quite comparable pictures like the current HDTV channels on TV.
Data rate measurement in streaming offers
It is more difficult to answer the question at pure streaming video stores like Lovefilm, Watchever, Sky Snap or Maxdome. And at Netflix, so you can actually use the offer. They all automatically adjust the data rate and video quality to the available bandwidth, but also provide HD quality according to their own specifications. However, details about the actual data rates, resolutions and video formats are only rarely published. Exception: Lovefilm recently reported that HD movies with data rates of up to 15 Mbps in 1080p quality streaming - as the best of three HD variants. The smallest offers 720p with 2 to 3 Mbps.
Maxdome streams up to 12 Mbps
I just wanted to check it out. For this I have the computer data rates of the video store streams determined and compared with their picture quality. That sounds simple, but requires a few tricks, because the streams are running in a special player in the browser - or directly on the TV, if you look at them via a smart TV app. Technical specifications can not be queried with on-board equipment.
A small utility called "MenuMeters", which shows, among other things, the real data rate of the network port on the computer, helped me. So stop all other online progams, read movie and rate data.
To determine average values, I allowed the data rate to average over every 20 seconds and collected the values during playback for 5 minutes each. I ran the test with Lovefilm, Maxdome, Watchever, Sky Snap and Sky go through - as well as with the US Angbeot from Netflix out of competition. All films were tested on two DSL connections: one with 6, one with 16 Mbps maximum data rate.
Download: Measured data rates of the online video stores
First of all, it is noticeable that the measured HD data rates of the offers differ greatly. While Maxdome in the best case, and of course only at the 16 Mbps port, an HD stream with very even 12 Mbps transfers, Watchever came both times on average 1.7 Mbps, but in very short time periods strongly swayed. Correspondingly, the picture at Watchever was partly quite detailed, but often changed the resolution and offered in HD passages sometimes block artifacts. Also Lovefilm streamed with variable data rate, but on much higher level than Watchever. The image was a bit less crisp than at best in max cathedrals, but always differentiated and almost always free of artifacts.
The two Sky offers Sky Snap (Test) and Sky Go ranked in the midfield, but offered a barely better quality than Watchever. Above all, both Sky versions quite frequently set the resolution from HD to SD. The differences between Sky Snap (3.3 Mbps) and Sky Go (3.6 Mbps) could be due to the various audited content, one from Season 1 and Season 3 from "Boardwalk Empire". There are no duplicates between the two Sky-Videotheken. However, the nature and quality of the streams did not differ very much - neither in data rates nor in their quality.
Netflix is clearly different: the US service even provides a higher data rate and better picture quality than Watchever or Sky Go / Snap in the United States despite a long data connection across the Atlantic and without a local video distribution network. Netflix transmits in the first few minutes always a very high data rate: At the DSL-6000 connection was actually nearly 6 Mbps, at DSL 16,000 it was about 9 Mbps. Then the data rate decreases to approximately 3 Mbps and remains at this level with fluctuations.
Practice: Watch TV series on the tablet
The picture and sound quality is the other way round: At the start, Netflix shows a faded SD-image, which gets very fast in detail. HD quality usually starts after one or two minutes - the player control then also displays the HD mode. Netflix does not quite reach the level of Lovefilm and Maxdome, but with the lower data rate the picture impression is very good.
Image Quality at Netflix
By the way: Netflix regularly records and publishes statistics on the achieved data rates of its streams in all countries and networks. According to Netflix, in most countries in which the vendor is active, data rates are significantly below 3 Mbps - in the US, the figure in December 2013 was only 1.85 Mbps. A positive outlier is Holland with an average transfer rate of 3.25 Mbps. This is, as I have seen, already for HD image resolution, but certainly not for maximum picture quality.
Whether one or the other Stream is transmitted in 720p or 1080p is, with these findings anyway not to say with certainty - Lovefilm transmits according to own data in the two highest data rates 1080p, Maxdome 720p. But both do not look bad when the port passes through enough data.
Conclusion: Not everywhere HD is where it stands on it
In terms of HD quality, however, especially Watchever currently has to catch up. In the past, I had already seen much better pictures here than at the time. Watchever may have to expand its server capabilities because it is overloaded by more and more subscribers. On the other hand, however, I have tested the throughput and the quality not only at the Primetime but also in the morning between 9.30 am and 11.00 am. The target group mostly sits in the office, at school or at the university, and the data highway should be largely free for HD videos in the best quality.
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