I've heard there used to be one but they removed it a while ago... why?
I have Netflix on mobile, and there have been times where I was FORCED to pirate, torrent or use streaming sites because I couldn't find a way to bump the quality up despite having a decent internet connection, not to mention the horrendous bitrate that I've noticed hasn't improved for years.
The most absurd thing about this, is that most of the films with these problems were produced BY NETFLIX themselves. THEY should have majority of the controls and the necessary technical information to fit the movie specs to their own website, and yet it's STILL somehow worse.
And yet, despite all that, I hop on over to the dark side and the quality is pristine AND free, playing THEIR FUCKING MOVIE, WHaAAT?!?!?!
This is absurdity in the highest order.
It's the same reason why Edge is the only browser that can play Netflix in 4k on Windows and all the other browsers only play content in Full HD, and also the same reason they won't tell you about that until you look it up by yourself on an obscure help center page. They want you to pay up without actually having to provide.
I don't even want to know how many people have a subscription that supports 4k just for them to watch in Full HD because they use the wrong browser, without them ever noticing. Financially that's the best thing that can happen to them. Maximum income, minimum amount of bandwidth needed. That's why they don't clearly tell you what quality you're currently watching in, and that's why they don't clearly communicate that all except one browser can't even play video in 4k. And guess what, that's also part of the reason why you can't select a quality manually, because that would give away that you actually don't get what you pay for a lot of times.
On Linux it's even worse. The only browser that can even play at Full HD is Opera (and who's really using that?). All the other browsers can't go above HD (720p). It's laughable.
And the funniest thing about it is that they (at least proclaim to) do this to fight piracy by making it harder to rip movies and shows in the best quality, not realizing that this is the reason why a lot of people pirate the content in the first place instead of paying for Netflix.
This is actually not true at all. On all these other browsers simply go to your settings and disable hardware acceleration and it pretty much disables the DRM that Netflix has and allows you to view those videos in full quality on any browser of your choice
Why does it depend on the browser?
I'll give you a better detailed answer.
All browsers use DRM for Netflix. The reason why only edge can serve 4k content, is because Microsoft PlayReady has a hardware encryption method that supports 4k playback.
Firefox and Chrome use Widevine L3 for DRM. This is a software based encryption method that doesn't support 4k video playback. Widevine L1 however would support 4k, but major browsers like chrome and Firefox do not use Widevine L1.
Netflix doesn't seem to be favoring edge. They are required by the content rights holders to use DRM, and they are using the best available option on each browser.
The Netflix UWP app, Mobile apps, TV apps, etc usually use Widevine L1 or PlayReady so they don't suffer the same fate as chrome/firefox/etc.
Conversely you actually can watch these videos in full quality on other browsers You simply need to disable hardware acceleration
DRM
You can also use the windows 11 app for netflix to get 4k.
Sure you can, but I guess most people just use the browser.
Just putting it out there in case people wanted to avoid using Edge.
Aka edge is the only one that supports playready DRM and that one supports 4k alongside widevine L1 and fairplay (apple) and windows only has playready and widevine l3 (low quality) and ofc Microsoft won't share playready with other browsers
Also IIRC they don't have DRM test page, so setups cannot be tested. Different wires, monitors, gpu, cpu, and OS could affect Widevine capabilities
The answer is always greed. Always. Move on.
Not only that, I got access to an Anime early, while it will release on 13th for Netflix users.
And also in some regions, they have ads in their paid plans. That's the worst part, like I didn't pay for the ads, come on.
I'll never ever use Netflix or any streaming service, even if I get it for free.
Contact them on Support chat. I did and all the sidden i had faces instead of giant pixels.
They seny some hidden link where you can control it.
Bandwidth is expensive brotato chips ❤️
They gonna milk you till your death brodah ❤️
I guess it's the same why YT removed the P settings and calls it just low mid or high?
There is literally still the resolution shown when setting quality on YT though....
Yeah hidden like a treasure literally and you have to select it each time for each video and even then the already loaded part will play in shit quality
But... it is not hidden ? You just press options and there is a quality select bar.
Settings->quality ->advanced->resolution Where as before it was easier. It seems like just 1 extra step but feels like a lot more.
Still just "Settings - quality" for me so looks like a local change.
Lucky you. I just feel even worse now.
Well what quality were you hoping to bump it up to? What’re you working with?
Because they want to try and do quantity over quality 😅 it sucks
Yeah, it makes no sense, especially considered their own products are worse for it.
Same goes for companies that seem to think its a good idea to wall of a new trailer for a movie etc. behind the 'Premium HD'-thing on YT...
Like, why don't they want possible costumers to get the best experience when they seek out a teaser/commercial for a product.
It was mostly in response to all the drama during COVID where people were trying to blame internet issues on people streaming videos too much so in response Netflix essentially forced everyone into an automatic quality setting so they could adjust it essentially as necessary to match network demand
Most people just got comfortable enough with this automatic system that they never really bothered to add the old one back
Stremio + Torentio + RealDebrid - no problems no need to pay Netflix
because they think profits first users second (or 3rd, or 4th, or 287th), not realizing users dictate their profits.
Enshitification at it's finest, they think they are too big to fail...
Yeah they took for Adaptive Streaming "Efficiency" and Simplicity
you expect logical answer in this sub? expect biased answer lol
People don't see the difference between 720p and 4K. But if they see, through a setting for example, they only have 720P instead of 4K they will whine at the customer service.
Netflix protects the fragile ego of their sheeps by omission. It also reduces the strain on the customer service. Plus it saves a lot of money in bandwidth.
People don't see the difference between 720p and 4K
Are you blind?
Obviously he's talking about the average person, and not himself or you.
I used to run a Plex server, which infuriatingly defaulted to 720p, despite 1080p and 4k being available.
People literally do not give a shit. Even if I told them that they can increase quality, they'd be like "why??"
If the streaming quality of Netflix was actually an issue for the average user, which it most definitely isn't, it would be default to a higher quality and make settings available to the user.
People literally do not give a shit
I don't disagree with this statement, that a lot of people don't care. That doesn't mean they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between 4k and 720p
It's true enough in this context. It's not back-to-back switching between 720p and 4k (where people would very likely notice), but rather not noticing that the video isn't 4k, when it's playing at 720p.
It's true enough in this context
What context? The comment I replied to said "people don't see the difference between 720p and 4k"
Which is a false statement
People don't see the difference between 720p and 4K.
in correct. crappy tv with bad encoder make it look worst.
good encoder and tv and its easy to spot.
but people by the worst and cheapest tv they can find at size they want.
There is a difference noticeable in artifacts, the difference gets smaller between 1080p and 4k but 720p to 1080p there is a definite difference and therefore of course 720p to 4k.
Assuming their monitor supports up to 720p then you don't really see it
their way of keeping costs down, higher quality equals higher bitrate equals higher bandwidth they have to pay for