4 ms·

Bandwidth is extremely cheap, so 15 million by a few kB is just 15+ GB, which costs pennies in terms of bandwidth. That doesn't buy you that much encoding compu

Bandwidth is extremely cheap, so 15 million by a few kB is just 15+ GB, which costs pennies in terms of bandwidth. That doesn't buy you that much encoding compute time.

Yetanfou 8y ago
Bandwidth can be cheap, all depending on the connection you're using. It can also be extremely expensive: [ Dutch ] https://www.telegraaf.nl/vrij/2167192/zoontje-duitsers-kijkt-films-tijdens-cruise-12-000-euro https://www.telegraaf.nl/vrij/2167192/zoontje-duitsers-kijkt... If your Dutch isn't up to this let me summarise: A German family took a boat trip from Kiel to Oslo. Their 12yo son watched a few movies (or clips, no idea) while on board. Total data consumption was 470 MB. They got a bill for €12.000,- which comes down to just over €25 per MB. Bandwidth can be very expensive as well. Of course this is an extreme case but any byte shaved off an encoded stream can end up saving some people a lot of money.
phlakaton 8y ago
For you, perhaps, it's cheap. For the use cases they are talking about, it's expensive and limited. Agreed that, if all they can do is shave a "few kB" off a video, it's probably not worth the investment. But what if they can buy a 5–10% bandwidth improvement that actually looks better on the device they're targeting?
kemitche 8y ago
Netflix isn't necessarily trying to reduce the bandwidth on _their_ side. They want to be able to deliver higher quality to users on lower bandwidth connections. The better that goes, the larger their prospective customer base.
- dick_sucker2 8y ago
  That's a big issue in rural areas with microwave links. Everyone who has one of these links is limited by bandwidth and they all want to watch Netflix.
  - icebraining 8y ago
    I wonder if there's a market for a "Netflix ISP" - essentially setting up an antenna for local WAN and a microwave antenna, and then asking Netflix for one of their caching appliances.

Bandwidth is extremely cheap, so 15 million by a few kB is just 15+ GB, which costs pennies in terms of bandwidth. That doesn't buy you that much encoding compute time.

Yetanfou 8y ago

Bandwidth can be cheap, all depending on the connection you're using. It can also be extremely expensive: [ Dutch ] https://www.telegraaf.nl/vrij/2167192/zoontje-duitsers-kijkt-films-tijdens-cruise-12-000-euro https://www.telegraaf.nl/vrij/2167192/zoontje-duitsers-kijkt... If your Dutch isn't up to this let me summarise: A German family took a boat trip from Kiel to Oslo. Their 12yo son watched a few movies (or clips, no idea) while on board. Total data consumption was 470 MB. They got a bill for €12.000,- which comes down to just over €25 per MB. Bandwidth can be very expensive as well. Of course this is an extreme case but any byte shaved off an encoded stream can end up saving some people a lot of money.

phlakaton 8y ago

For you, perhaps, it's cheap. For the use cases they are talking about, it's expensive and limited. Agreed that, if all they can do is shave a "few kB" off a video, it's probably not worth the investment. But what if they can buy a 5–10% bandwidth improvement that actually looks better on the device they're targeting?

kemitche 8y ago

Netflix isn't necessarily trying to reduce the bandwidth on _their_ side. They want to be able to deliver higher quality to users on lower bandwidth connections. The better that goes, the larger their prospective customer base.

dick_sucker2 8y ago
That's a big issue in rural areas with microwave links. Everyone who has one of these links is limited by bandwidth and they all want to watch Netflix.
- icebraining 8y ago
  I wonder if there's a market for a "Netflix ISP" - essentially setting up an antenna for local WAN and a microwave antenna, and then asking Netflix for one of their caching appliances.