danielv123 t1_it9sboy wrote on October 21, 2022 at 11:57 PM

Reply to comment by Phil152 in 8K Industry Faces Challenge with New EU Regulatory Ruling by SalmonellaTizz

It's about bitrate. All video is compressed. Compression introduces artifacts - you can see this on low res youtube videos for example, rather than seeing large squares with a uniform color you see weird blob like patterns etc, especially in areas with gradients.

The bitrate is how much compressed data is transferred per second. More bitrate means less artifacts, but more expensive for the provider.

Typical 4k blue ray runs at about 100mbit/s. Apples high quality streaming tops out at 40, youtube typically runs about 15 but can reach as much as 40 in some scenes. Netflix doesn't go past 20.

This is not an inherent streaming limitation though, it's just about how much the provider wants to spend. I stream shows from Plex just fine at 120mbps.

Phil152 t1_it9z2n4 wrote on October 22, 2022 at 12:50 AM

Thanks. There's nothing I can do about what the streaming networks do at the front end. Which for a technophobe like me means it is one more thing I don't have to worry or educate myself about. I suppose the streamers will get nudged along by competitive pressures as 4k TV's become more common. (That assumes the difference is enough for most home viewers to notice or care about.)

Do you know what the current market penetration is for 4k's?

TheThiefMaster t1_itb0i81 wrote on October 22, 2022 at 7:07 AM

There's some good information on that topic in this YouTube video talking about YouTube experimenting with requiring a subscription for viewing at 4k, by someone that runs a major YouTube channel and small side streaming network (that does support 4k also).

https://youtu.be/MDsJJRNXjYI

It was about 44% penetration for 4k TVs, but for his content, TVs only made up 11% of viewers in total.

I suspect Netflix has more TV streamers so it would be different for them.