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Not sure where you're living but that's not true. Home broadband has gotten a lot better over the last 10 years here in the UK. I don't know anyone (admittedly

Not sure where you're living but that's not true. Home broadband has gotten a lot better over the last 10 years here in the UK. I don't know anyone (admittedly I don't know many in the countryside) who can't stream at 1080p. Even 4K Netflix is often fine.

apetresc 7y ago
He's referring to upload, not download, since that is the relevant metric when talking about using a webcam.
- user5994461 7y ago
  Yes about upload, but I want to say as well that Netflix is a special subject anyway. A 1080p video on Netflix today has lower quality (bitrate) than a 720p video on Youtube 5 years ago. The only reason Netflix HD works for so many people is because Netflix has lowered the standard of what was considered HD.
  - ceejayoz 7y ago
    The video on YouTube five years ago was encoded with a far less effective codec. H265 uses half the bandwidth of H264 for the same quality of video, for example; raw bitrate isn't a useful indicator of quality if the codecs differ.
    - user5994461 7y ago
      Bitrate is a useful indicator. It's the amount of information that is directly linked to maximum quality, there are bounds on what can be compressed by how much. Fact is, x265 can do 25-33% smaller size than x264 for equivalent visual quality. The higher gain at higher resolutions (2k, 4k) that were not well supported by older codecs anyway. You can refer to Netflix own papers on that. Services doing half the bandwidth have reduced quality. The improvement in codec can only explain half the reduction, the other half is grossly lowering quality (to reduce costs and work with mediocre home connections). That's not necessarily bad for customers, better have a pseudo HD stream than no stream.
- kijin 7y ago
  That still depends on where you are. Don't assume that the rest of the world is like America. Here in South Korea, 100M symmetric is the bare minimum. For just a few dollars more, you can upgrade to an "up to 500M" plan that usually provides something like 300M symmetric. Often, upload speeds are even faster than download speeds because there's less congestion in that direction.
  - vonmoltke 7y ago
    > Don't assume that the rest of the world is like America. Where was the US mentioned, and how is this relevant?
    - kijin 7y ago
      I'm trying to point out that, in some countries, it doesn't even occur to people that their upload speeds might be significantly different from their download speeds. The very fact that the parent worries about such a difference is an artifact of where they're from. I picked the US as a worst-case example because it has some of the most asymmetric broadband plans in the developed world. How on Earth does an ISP get away with selling something like 100/5?

apetresc 7y ago

He's referring to upload, not download, since that is the relevant metric when talking about using a webcam.

user5994461 7y ago
Yes about upload, but I want to say as well that Netflix is a special subject anyway. A 1080p video on Netflix today has lower quality (bitrate) than a 720p video on Youtube 5 years ago. The only reason Netflix HD works for so many people is because Netflix has lowered the standard of what was considered HD.
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  The video on YouTube five years ago was encoded with a far less effective codec. H265 uses half the bandwidth of H264 for the same quality of video, for example; raw bitrate isn't a useful indicator of quality if the codecs differ.
  - user5994461 7y ago
    Bitrate is a useful indicator. It's the amount of information that is directly linked to maximum quality, there are bounds on what can be compressed by how much. Fact is, x265 can do 25-33% smaller size than x264 for equivalent visual quality. The higher gain at higher resolutions (2k, 4k) that were not well supported by older codecs anyway. You can refer to Netflix own papers on that. Services doing half the bandwidth have reduced quality. The improvement in codec can only explain half the reduction, the other half is grossly lowering quality (to reduce costs and work with mediocre home connections). That's not necessarily bad for customers, better have a pseudo HD stream than no stream.
kijin 7y ago
That still depends on where you are. Don't assume that the rest of the world is like America. Here in South Korea, 100M symmetric is the bare minimum. For just a few dollars more, you can upgrade to an "up to 500M" plan that usually provides something like 300M symmetric. Often, upload speeds are even faster than download speeds because there's less congestion in that direction.
- vonmoltke 7y ago
  > Don't assume that the rest of the world is like America. Where was the US mentioned, and how is this relevant?
  - kijin 7y ago
    I'm trying to point out that, in some countries, it doesn't even occur to people that their upload speeds might be significantly different from their download speeds. The very fact that the parent worries about such a difference is an artifact of where they're from. I picked the US as a worst-case example because it has some of the most asymmetric broadband plans in the developed world. How on Earth does an ISP get away with selling something like 100/5?