Netflix Streaming Does 5.1 Surround Sound with Dolby Digital Plus on PS3!

[yepimonfire]

your TV should display the resolution when you press HDMI on the remote. DD+ should show up on the receiver.

 

[GlocksRock]

your TV should display the resolution when you press HDMI on the remote. DD+ should show up on the receiver.

that's not what I meant... I meant when browsing netflix for titles that are available to watch instantly, how do I know which movies/tv shows are in HD and/or have 5.1 instead of stereo?

 

[EJ1]

I use this to find HD content.

 

[yepimonfire]

it will say up by the title in the movie's menu.

 

[jostenmeat]

I don't know anything about this editing of which you speak, but I HATE Netflix because I used their service at 2 different times and both times they quickly began throttling me after my trial period was up.

Gimme a break, they were sending me movies from CT to try and slow my rental rate down. Don't tell me it's "unlimited" rentals when it really isn't. Screw Netflix!!!

Here are a couple of posts regarding the editing I speak of:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showpost.php?p=726236&postcount=10
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showpost.php?p=684984&postcount=76

You can probably just google it too.

I've always* had very quick deliveries of my rentals. Someone was telling me about their delivery system, and the number (which I forgot) of discs they process a day, and all I remember was that I was astounded.

IMO, what was it $11, for "unlimited", or perhaps for you it should be more like "limited plus", is not a bad deal for BDs. I do wonder which titles are coming all the way from CT?!? Some rare release thing or something, or perhaps more possible is that they had it in stock there, but not near you (super popular release?).

That sucks that they throttled your streaming after your trial period, but TBH, I consider streaming to be throttled already by definition. There is a reason I demand the physical BD, and always.

 

[jostenmeat]

AND DD+ is apparently legacy compatible. either that or it's not actually DD+ because im using a standard DD decoder and getting 5.1.

It's either being recoded somewhere, or they have a system where there is an accompanying lossy track (because every TrueHD and DD+ disc title I know of will have a separate* accompanying lossy track, ie DD).

Most BDPs will take a lossless mch PCM from a music BD without an accompanying lossy track, and recode it into DD/DTS for you for use with a legacy receiver, for example.

 

[yepimonfire]

it's possible the PS3 is doing that, i know it has the capability to re-encode pretty much anything into legacy codecs because i've seen it do that before with MCH PCM etc. either way, i'm still glad i can get 5.1 now. i'm not entirely sure what DD+ os vs. other lossless codecs, anyone mind explaining the difference?

 

[jostenmeat]

i'm not entirely sure what DD+ os vs. other lossless codecs, anyone mind explaining the difference?

Well, the main difference is that it is not lossless. Still much better than the legacy codecs though in terms of bitrate, at least in previous implementations (read HDDVD). It also can handle 7.1, but I don't expect to see that anytime soon with the streaming format in question.

 

[GlocksRock]

Found some nice looking HD content on netflix via PS3 last night, didn't have time to find anything with DD+ but the video did look really good. My tv displayed 1080p as the resolution, but I'm sure that's just the PS3 doing upscaling as it showed the same resolution when using my XBOX 360.

 

[ratso]

bumping an old thread here that google found for me. a few podcasts ago on AVRant, i heard tom talk about what was then the 'new' 5.1 streaming on the ps3. he said something along the lines of the ps3 was doing the 5.1 streaming decoding "on the fly" using it's processing power - in other words it was doing it with software and not hardware. i cannot find any other mentions of this online - does anyone have more info on this? because that would mean that (aside from probably the xbox360) no other current devices would be able to stream surround sound. apple tv, roku, wii, BD players, etc don't have this processing power. and netflix said that "new devices would be added" in the future for streaming. does this mean that roku et al will have to come out with all new boxes to support this, as current hardware could not?

 

[jostenmeat]

bumping an old thread here that google found for me. a few podcasts ago on AVRant, i heard tom talk about what was then the 'new' 5.1 streaming on the ps3. he said something along the lines of the ps3 was doing the 5.1 streaming decoding "on the fly" using it's processing power - in other words it was doing it with software and not hardware. i cannot find any other mentions of this online - does anyone have more info on this? because that would mean that (aside from probably the xbox360) no other current devices would be able to stream surround sound. apple tv, roku, wii, BD players, etc don't have this processing power. and netflix said that "new devices would be added" in the future for streaming. does this mean that roku et al will have to come out with all new boxes to support this, as current hardware could not?

All of the codec decoding is done "on the fly", and the processing power needed is not great. Every time you select DD, DTS, TrueHD, DTS-MA, there is on the fly decoding happening somewhere, whether your player, or your receiver.

You might want to be more specific with details, ask Tom directly, or link the podcast with specific mention of the time mark when this is discussed. (I probably won't listen to it, but someone else might.)

 

[engtaz]

Very few movies are in multi channel that I can find.

 

[ratso]

Very few movies are in multi channel that I can find.

nope not too many. but here ya go:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1297186

 

[ratso]

All of the codec decoding is done "on the fly", and the processing power needed is not great. Every time you select DD, DTS, TrueHD, DTS-MA, there is on the fly decoding happening somewhere, whether your player, or your receiver.

You might want to be more specific with details, ask Tom directly, or link the podcast with specific mention of the time mark when this is discussed. (I probably won't listen to it, but someone else might.)

yeah, i think the point tom was trying to make was this is how the ps3 does it. i think i jumped to the wrong conclusion that it takes a lot of horsepower to do this as i have recently been told that a lot of devices CAN stream 5.1 (like apple TV) they just don't do it from netflix.

the bigger issue may be the overall demand for streaming 5.1. there is obviously some market for it, as netflix is working on it and has rolled it out for the ps3. but they haven't ever really seemed to give it top priority. i know from our little AV corner of the universe that it seems like a no brainer, but i wonder how many "joe public" guys even care.

 

[Kipowsky]

Change Netflix quality setting to get surround sound

To get surround sound from Netflix on Apple TV (or any device) – at least in Sweden – you have to change an video quality setting on your Netflix account page: https://movies.netflix.com/HdToggle

When it's set on "High" it only streams with stereo sound. But set on "Highest" I finally get surround sound on my Apple TV.

And yes, trying to figure this out drove me crazy changing all kinds of settings on my Apple TV, surround system and television set which didn't help. And no, Netflix support didn't figure this one out for me, it was more of a coincidence.

 

[mtrycrafts]

To get surround sound from Netflix on Apple TV (or any device) – at least in Sweden – you have to change an video quality setting on your Netflix account page: https://movies.netflix.com/HdToggle

When it's set on "High" it only streams with stereo sound. But set on "Highest" I finally get surround sound on my Apple TV.

And yes, trying to figure this out drove me crazy changing all kinds of settings on my Apple TV, surround system and television set which didn't help. And no, Netflix support didn't figure this one out for me, it was more of a coincidence.

Thanks Just changed settings from nothing to highest.

 

[afterlife2]

Netflix introduces one unified TV interface to rule them all | The Verge

 

[j_garcia]

Netflix introduces one unified TV interface to rule them all | The Verge

Yep. That came out a few weeks ago. I actually kind of like it.

 

[MidnightSensi2]

Really interesting thread.

When we do live streaming (like for festivals/concerts) generally you need a 1.5mbps uplink for video in H264 1080p in stereo. That's the minimum anyways.. gets interesting when your not in a place with internet service, or service below 1.5. Then you have to do it by air, which is annoying.

So, when someone streams a video FROM netflix, for example, and they are using asynchronous streaming (they use NGINX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nginx for anyone interested)... so each video, regardless of people playing it, is called once (over simplified, but, that's the idea). Still, with all those movies, I wonder what size uplink they need per movie. Anyone know? Like will this require 6Mbps per movie for them?

 

[j_garcia]

Not just 6mbps but I read an article saying that they have something like 120 different streams for any given title available at one time, all at various quality rates and the "correct" one is streamed to you based on your connection speed.