3 ms·

Many of their plans downscale video, or at least they used to

by canes123456 3y ago

artogahr 3y ago
This is interesting, I don't see how this is possible from a technical sense
- dylan604 3y ago
  If it is an HLS or DASH type of video stream, they could just query the playlist for a smaller video size and throttle that connection so that you're only served the smaller encode vs the full frame highest quality. Pretty simple thing to do really
- pjc50 3y ago
  Identify (by IP or traffic shape) video traffic, then throttle the stream to the desired bitrate. The viewer's player will usually silently adapt.
- ikiris 3y ago
  its trivial with a simple rate limit.
- justsomehnguy 3y ago
  Netflix should have it own set of AS. And after that it's quite simple, routers can do throttle for decades.
dghlsakjg 3y ago
On my older plan, they downscale video from some providers to 720, but don’t include that video in my data count. I can opt out, but then any streaming goes against my high speed data limit. I think it’s actually a pretty fair trade off.
lopkeny12ko 3y ago
I've never experienced this. How would this even work for encrypted (HTTPS) streams? Even if this were technically feasible, it sounds like a massive infrastructure investment with little to no value. T-Mobile would need to have enough compute and network horsepower to DPI all outbound traffic, intercept every video stream, detect if it's over some resolution threshold, and re-encode it at a lower resolution or bit rate, all in real time.
- sodality2 3y ago
  Throttle video CDN ISP/ASN's
- dghlsakjg 3y ago
  It is in collaboration with certain video providers. YouTube over mobile for me is downscaled to 720p. In exchange, that doesn’t get counted in my high speed allotment of data. I can opt out, but then my data can get deprioritized over a certain threshold.
- kalleboo 3y ago
  "Downscale" is not quite the right term to use, they just throttle the video CDNs so the streaming platform chooses a lower bandwidth version

Many of their plans downscale video, or at least they used to

artogahr 3y ago

This is interesting, I don't see how this is possible from a technical sense

dylan604 3y ago
If it is an HLS or DASH type of video stream, they could just query the playlist for a smaller video size and throttle that connection so that you're only served the smaller encode vs the full frame highest quality. Pretty simple thing to do really
pjc50 3y ago
Identify (by IP or traffic shape) video traffic, then throttle the stream to the desired bitrate. The viewer's player will usually silently adapt.
ikiris 3y ago
its trivial with a simple rate limit.
justsomehnguy 3y ago
Netflix should have it own set of AS. And after that it's quite simple, routers can do throttle for decades.

dghlsakjg 3y ago

On my older plan, they downscale video from some providers to 720, but don’t include that video in my data count. I can opt out, but then any streaming goes against my high speed data limit. I think it’s actually a pretty fair trade off.

lopkeny12ko 3y ago

I've never experienced this. How would this even work for encrypted (HTTPS) streams? Even if this were technically feasible, it sounds like a massive infrastructure investment with little to no value. T-Mobile would need to have enough compute and network horsepower to DPI all outbound traffic, intercept every video stream, detect if it's over some resolution threshold, and re-encode it at a lower resolution or bit rate, all in real time.

sodality2 3y ago
Throttle video CDN ISP/ASN's
dghlsakjg 3y ago
It is in collaboration with certain video providers. YouTube over mobile for me is downscaled to 720p. In exchange, that doesn’t get counted in my high speed allotment of data. I can opt out, but then my data can get deprioritized over a certain threshold.
kalleboo 3y ago
"Downscale" is not quite the right term to use, they just throttle the video CDNs so the streaming platform chooses a lower bandwidth version