Netflix says that despite the squeezing back of video bit rates in Europe, the UK and Australia among others to reduce strain on bandwidth-stressed networks worldwide, it’s still going to be streaming HD and even Ultra HD content.
The company says that technically speaking while you’ll still be able to see HD & 4K broadcasts, they’ll just be delivered with lower image quality. The company is reportedly targeting a temporary 25% reduction in overall bandwidth consumption to ease overloaded networks during the coronavirus crisis.
Ken Florance, Netflix’s VP of content delivery, said in a blog post last night that the actions they have taken maintains the full range of video resolutions. It’s just that in order to chop bandwidth utilization, Netflix has removed the highest-bandwidth streams for the next month.
As a result: “If you are particularly tuned into video quality you may notice a very slight decrease in quality within each resolution. But you will still get the video quality you paid for.”
In other words, it will still be HD or 4K which they charge different rates for, it will just be with lower picture quality due to lower compression rates – resulting in more blurring, pixelation and some color degradation.
Netflix isn’t the only one doing it – YouTube, Amazon, Apple and Disney are all following suit in the EU, while some parts of Latin America are also likely to see bandwidth reductions soon as well.
Source: Decider
