Netflix

Possibly in dropping the bitrate they might be removing the 4k option? I don't know what they're doing. I presume at least there'll be 720p content, I can't see them dropping everything to SD.

If this is in effect now 4K is still working for me

We don't seem to be sure if they're getting rid of 4K, or just dropping the bitrates for it.

Lots of Netflix platforms have a status menu that will tell you resolution and bitrate (Apple TV 4K Developer HUD, CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+D in browsers etc.)

I’m intrigued why Netflix and Disney+ are dropping bitrates in Europe but not the US. Does anyone know why or is it because there’s more regulation in Europe or less network connectivity.

I know in the US at many cable and internet headends in the US Netflix has placed servers, called Open Connect, filled with their most popular content.

Working from home in the whole of Western Europe has become the norm in the last few days, moreso next week. Domestic net connections are a degree more bandwidth hungry than corporate ones. When the US starts to shut down social activity on a broad scale similar bandwidth issues will be felt there too. Most ISPs in Europe offer distinctly different services for business and domestic internet traffic, until they are able to adjust these removing bandwidth from their business propositions to the domestic side these restrictions will become more pronounced.

I do believe that this reallocation of capacity IS being done, there was a considerable amount of switching going on in the very small hours over the last fortnight as this situation developed.

I believe the European Commission asked them to. They didn't tell them to but just asked. There is a concern that the huge surge in home working and video conferencing during office hours - coupled with lots of people no longer at work streaming video could cause issues.

I can't see a reason for the OTT companies to not do it.

Disney+'s launch has been delayed in France and India too. No plans for delays of any of the other countries launching this month... yet.

There shouldn't be any delay, "we" in Europe outside of France, will be just getting a lower bandwidth service, that's all

I don't understand the French move BTW, and it's not looking like problems are disappearing after the 7th of April

On Samsung tellies with embedded Netflix, just press the info button on the RC and the bit rate and format appears top left

It's less that surely and more bc less "internal" data will be staying within the networks, although you do wonder with the move to cloud infrastructure how much data really is "internal" these days.

Had to explain during a big team meeting the concept of slower upload speeds on domestic connections as everyone is used to identical down/up connections via JANET.

Watched Better Call Saul [1] last night. 2160p but with a bit rate of 7.5 Mb/s (it's normally 15)

[1] If you've never watched Breaking Bad (of which BCS is a prequel series of), I'd recommend both series, starting with BB, there's about 100 episodes to get through, if you can find the time