Increasing quality of Netflix streaming video

[Adam]

Hey, all. I have Netflix and a relatively slow internet connection of about 1.5 Mbps. My one real disappointment has been the poor video quality that I get with their "Watch Instantly" streaming videos. I couldn't figure out how to force Netflix to buffer the video and provide higher quality...until today!

Thanks to a fine person at this link, I now know the trick. I thought that I'd share it because I know others here have Netflix and might have the same issue as me. I've only done this on a PC, so I don't know about the Roku boxes.

After you start the video and Netflix does it's initial speed check ("Checking your internet connection" or something similar), you can hit Shift-B and a drop-down box will appear in the lower right corner of the browser window that contains the available bitrates for that video. Select the one that you want, and away you go. If you pick a high bitrate with a slow internet connection, it will take longer to load (of course), but I personally think that it's worth it.

Anyway, I was extremely happy to find that out, and I thought that maybe some people here might also benefit from it.

 

[Omega Supreme]

Thanks Adam. I have been wondering about this for over a year now. I live in a rural part of Alabama and 1mb is the fastest that i can get. I am currently buffering a movie to give it a try. Just 1h 59min to go

 

[Wheatenterrier]

Thanks this worked for my PC. Now if only I can figure out a way to force quality on my xbox360!

And I hope that some day better audio quality is available through netfrix, even if its DD I would be happy.

 

[Tom Andry]

Thanks this worked for my PC. Now if only I can figure out a way to force quality on my xbox360!

Hear Hear!

 

[zstar5000]

This sounds like a great trick, but I can't seem to get it to work. Any idea if using Hotspot Shield affects this? I'm not sure how it would, but I need to use it because I'm in Korea and can't watch Netflix without it. I'm using IE7 if that makes a difference.

 

[Adam]

This sounds like a great trick, but I can't seem to get it to work. Any idea if using Hotspot Shield affects this? I'm not sure how it would, but I need to use it because I'm in Korea and can't watch Netflix without it. I'm using IE7 if that makes a difference.

Welcome to the forum!

I don't know about Hotspot Shield, but the new Silverlight player that Netflix went to uses a different trick that I mentioned at this other thread linked here. Specifically:

After clicking in the movie window, click the following:

Mac: Cntl + Shift + Option + S

PC: Cntl + Shift + Alt + S​

A window will pop up that allows for manual selection.

Hopefully that will work for you.