Netflix shows off its features
The crowning glory of Netflix’s media briefings this week was a 4K stream of an episode of House of Cards, with the streaming service keen to show off its ultra high definition credentials to differentiate it from its competitors.
And of course execs were also keen to play down the perennial grumbles from Aussies that the internet here is just too slow still to support such high quality streaming.
Unfortunately, despite being in the heart of Sydney, the strain on the network meant instead of the crystal clear picture, Netflix showed off its “adaptive streaming” capabilities which saw it buffered down to HD quality.
“We have software called adaptive streaming and it will essentially notice that the network is getting congested and it will automatically step down the resolution from 4k to better than HD and if more people are on the network it will step down to HD and then if its still congested it will step down to SD,” corporate spinner Cliff Edwards explained.
A spokesman for Netflix was keen to point out the device was a “test device pointed at servers in the UK” which was not indicative of the “end user experience when it launches in Australia”.
The real proof of the pudding will come when the service launches officially in March.
