Which Format Does Your Netflix Use

[derrickdj1]

I am just curious if your Netflix streams 5.1, 7.1, stereo, DD +. Also, is the dynamic range the same as playing a bluray? DD + was made for digital stream and a lower bitrate. Movie playback for me is most dynamic with a bluray disc compared to streaming. What is you take on this topic? Maybe I should also ask are you streaming from a PC, BDP, Smart TV, Roku, ect. and what is doing the decodings, the player or avr?

Edited May 6, 2014 by derrickdj1

[johnnydrama]

I stream Neflix from my Apple TV, and I believe the audio is dictated by the source of the programming you are watching, for example: Breaking Bad, House of Cards, and the movie The Avengers were all Dolby Digital. However most of the programming seams to be Stereo and I don't think they have any offerings in DD+ yet and that Hulu and VUDU are the only 2 that offer that level of audio at this time. And IMO, NO! none of these even come close to the audio (or video quality for that matter) of a Blu-Ray disc. But again it's more convenient, and we are a lazy society. So sadly it seams that streaming is the future and not Blu-Ray disc. I have over 150 Blu-Rays, but I only watch one every now and then. I stream daily and I cut the cord over a year ago and haven't looked back.

My hope is that they are able to come up with a way to stream the High-Res codecs (Dolby TrueHD, DTS Master, etc...) and I'm sure they will, but who knows when.

[beeker]

mine runs 2channel,hd&5.1 havnt seen any "7.1 or dd"(may be the way mines hooked up) and i normally run it 6ch hall 2 thru optical thru my smart tv thats actually hooked right to my router

picture quality is normally very good(depending on source of recording) and sound is good or average quality i would say

i really like netfix. tons of good political videos and true documenturies. kids movies are good. action movies lack imo although getting better. and i can run it in every room and other houses for $8 monthly

[Coleman]

I stream Netflix from my Sony BDP or Samsung TV. My Denon AVR is doing the decoding in 5.1 DD+. I use Vudu for new releases. I think the video is much better than Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. I don't run an optical and use just one HDMI from TV to the Denon. ARC channel. Vudu is obviously not as good as bluray discs but the video is very close but the audio does lack and I usually have to run at -5 to reference on the volume. Blurays I run the volume at -10 and that is quite loud for me.

[derrickdj1]

The type of streaming seams device and app controlled. My TV and one BDP will stream in stereo and I can matrix to sound. My newer BDP can do DD + up to 7.1. The dynamic range just is not there for me that if I really like a movie, I have to get the disc. And yes, When I watch the disc I get a better movie experience. I am not sure if DD+ is better or same as matrix 5.1. Something tells me it shoud be roughly the same since we are talking about digital tranfer of data.

Edited May 6, 2014 by derrickdj1

[garyrc]

The type of streaming seams device and app controlled. My TV and one BDP will stream in stereo and I can matrix to sound. My newer BDP can do DD + up to 7.1. The dynamic range just is not there for me that if I really like a movie, I have to get the disc. And yes, When I watch the disc I get a better movie experience. I am not sure if DD+ is better or same as matrix 5.1. Something tells me it shoud be roughly the same since we are talking about digital tranfer of data.

For now it's BD (or, if no BD exists, DVD) disks only for me. We tried a little Netflix streaming and the visual quality ranged from excellent to terrible. One particular movie (Barabbas) looked horrible when streamed, and had fantastic "walk-into-it" resolution and acutance -- just what you'd expect from a 70 mm source -- when we rented it as a lowly DVD. On the other hand, my wife streamed the Legend of the Seeker series, and it looked fine. I was told by a IT guy that streaming varies with the amount of traffic, as well as the source used. We didn't evaluate the sound, because we ran the streamed versions through our PC and our smaller, two channel system. The sound for The Seeker didn't grab me as being bad, or limited in dynamics, but it might have had we played it on our big system. The visual quality of the streamed Barabbas was so bad that the sound of our screaming drowned out the sound.

Question: When the internet wars are over, will they stop making disks? Will we be struck with streaming of whatever quality happens to be there?

I wonder if those who are streaming on their PCs, etc., etc. now are less demanding than those of us who use BDs in home theater? That could bode ill for future quality. I have the impression that few in the industry care.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Garyrc

[johnnydrama]

The type of streaming seams device and app controlled. My TV and one BDP will stream in stereo and I can matrix to sound. My newer BDP can do DD + up to 7.1. The dynamic range just is not there for me that if I really like a movie, I have to get the disc. And yes, When I watch the disc I get a better movie experience. I am not sure if DD+ is better or same as matrix 5.1. Something tells me it shoud be roughly the same since we are talking about digital tranfer of data.

For now it's BD (or, if no BD exists, DVD) disks only for me. We tried a little Netflix streaming and the visual quality ranged from excellent to terrible. One particular movie (Barabbas) looked horrible when streamed, and had fantastic "walk-into-it" resolution and acutance -- just what you'd expect from a 70 mm source -- when we rented it as a lowly DVD. On the other hand, my wife streamed the Legend of the Seeker series, and it looked fine. I was told by a IT guy that streaming varies with the amount of traffic, as well as the source used. We didn't evaluate the sound, because we ran the streamed versions through our PC and our smaller, two channel system. The sound for The Seeker didn't grab me as being bad, or limited in dynamics, but it might have had we played it on our big system. The visual quality of the streamed Barabbas was so bad that the sound of our screaming drowned out the sound.

Question: When the internet wars are over, will they stop making disks? Will we be struck with streaming of whatever quality happens to be there?

I wonder if those who are streaming on their PCs, etc., etc. now are less demanding than those of us who use BDs in home theater? That could bode ill for future quality. I have the impression that few in the industry care.

This is what I was getting at in my post.... there have been many articles about this issue. There are far more streamers out there than BD disc buyers. Streaming is without a doubt where things are headed, because quite honestly the majority doesn't care about sound quality. But hopefully the quality of the picture and sound will improve as time goes on.

[REDdawn6]

I`m watching the Clone Wars series and using a WDTV Live unit to my receiver , is showing DD+ .

[beeker]

I did notice on most movies and some programs netflix offers dd5.1hd i prefer optical for sound(sometimes rcs over hdmi for sound) to hdmi unless i have to use hdmi...

[derrickdj1]

I guess the DD + was made for streaming on all the new devices like ROKU, WD TV, smart phones, ect. It is a lossy format compared to DTS Master and Dolby TrueHD. I was reading that it is compressed and can fit into smaller bandwidths for transmission.