Netflix Studio Quality Audio Truly Transparent?

[gene]

Many audiophiles will be skeptical of Netflix’s claims about how much lossy compression can be applied to an audio signal without audible degradation, but the company’s efforts to improve the audio quality of its streams should certainly be applauded. The quality of video available via streaming has gotten awfully good, but the audio has never really approached what a Blu-ray disc can offer. If Netflix has succeeded in its goal, that performance gap will now be narrowed significantly.

Note: Netflix new "studio quality" sound is achieved by increasing its audio bitrate up to 640 kbps on devices that support 5.1 surround sound and up to 768 kbps for Dolby Atmos (premium subscription required).

Read: Netflix Boasts Studio Quality Audio

 

[aarodynamics]

I'm confused... wasn't legacy DD already 640kbps? I thought that Netflix was using DD+ which allows for bitrates beyond just legacy DD?

Was Netflix previously using the lower minimum constant bitrate of 320kpbs for DD+ and they're now just using a variable bitrate at 640kpbs?

If so, this hardly seems like we'll just be getting DVD audio quality at best, no?

 

[gene]

I'm confused... wasn't legacy DD already 640kbps? I thought that Netflix was using DD+ which allows for bitrates beyond just legacy DD?

Was Netflix previously using the lower minimum constant bitrate of 320kpbs for DD+ and they're now just using a variable bitrate at 640kpbs?

If so, this hardly seems like we'll just be getting DVD audio quality at best, no?

Yea I thought Netflix was doing DD+ which is up to 640kbps, so not totally sure what this difference is. Sounds like they are doing some adaptive compression that is good enough to sound transparent according to their testing.

DVD-A is lossless BTW which would still be higher res.

 

[lovinthehd]

I'm pretty sure my DD 5.1 soundtracks on dvd vary a bit. The wiki seems to confirm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital. Seems DD+ went down to 256kbps....

 

[Paul Lane]

Any improvement is welcome..
How does it compare to VUDU ??

 

[baronvonellis]

Dolby Digital Plus can do bitrates of : 0.032 to 6.144 Mbit/s with up to 15.1 channels of audio.

Apparently Netflix was doing 192kbps before this. Now they can do variable bitrates of up to 640 kbps or 768 kbps on Atmos soundtracks if your connection can support it.

 

[Grandzoltar]

When I engage auto earc on my tv my receiver reads it as DD+ while I watch a Netflix Atmos movie . When I turn auto earc to off on my tv my receiver will read the Netflix Atmos content as Atmos. Sony 65xbr950g. Anyone else with an earc enabled tv experience this