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Question Is Hulu Pulling A Netflix?

zanetti

zanetti

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alas, yesterday i was downloading a few TV things from HULU and decided to snag a few movies as well. thinking, they are 1080p, AVC, why not? to my surprise movie 2012 was 999mb (just checked, resolution was 700x300 lol, so yeah either i f'd up or HULU glitched, but that's ok... other 100 downloads were just fine). hitman movies around 3.4gb and the rest were all sub 5gb. that's some NF territory for sure. is HULU pulling a NF on us? i mean, take any of the movies i got from HULU, find them on AP or HMAX and you will get far higher bitrates and filesizes. even if they were HEVC, they would be larger and there wouldn't be as much banding and blockiness etc.

thoughts? cheers!
 
Amazon been lowering bitrates recently as well, sadly
 
zanetti said:
alas, yesterday i was downloading a few TV things from HULU and decided to snag a few movies as well. thinking, they are 1080p, AVC, why not? to my surprise movie 2012 was 999mb (just checked, resolution was 700x300 lol, so yeah either i f'd up or HULU glitched, but that's ok... other 100 downloads were just fine). hitman movies around 3.4gb and the rest were all sub 5gb. that's some NF territory for sure. is HULU pulling a NF on us? i mean, take any of the movies i got from HULU, find them on AP or HMAX and you will get far higher bitrates and filesizes. even if they were HEVC, they would be larger and there wouldn't be as much banding and blockiness etc.

thoughts? cheers!
Click to expand...
Is that the name of the movie "2012"? If it is it's not on Hulu. You always are first to complain but the last to leave a logfile?
 
RedFox 1 said:
Is that the name of the movie "2012"? If it is it's not on Hulu. You always are first to complain but the last to leave a logfile?
Click to expand...
dont need a logfile, my man. 2012 was available to me yesterday on HULU, i downloaded it and was sure i picked 1080p, but it downloaded in 380p, lol. since i was VPNing i dont think much of it, its all good. when i posted i checked to see if it was my mistake or sth else, but then 2012 was greyed out for me. and as for complaining, chill. 'twas aimed at HULU not AS. i was just stating that bitrates are going down and its not only NF that is pulling wool over our eyes, but seems HULU is as well. all good here, was just checking if anyone else has noticed what i was blabbing about. btw, all errors i get from HULU, HMAX and P+ always were and always will be VPN related. and that is all ok. hope i made it clear(er). thanks. cheers!
 
I think he means this movie
Code: 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008Y778ZG

Edit: Yes it is an Amz link but it is only to show the movie I mean, as I don't have Hulu.
 
DeepSpace said:
I think he means this movie
Code: 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008Y778ZG

Edit: Yes it is an Amz link but it is only to show the movie I mean, as I don't have Hulu.
Click to expand...
Hulu doesn't have that now, they did, I searched it but it's gone now. It's an AMC release.
 
It's available on Netflix UK if you have it...1080p....approx 4GB's.
 
The reason it’s low resolution is to protect your eyes. Hopefully it also contains no audio track lest it infect you that way.

;)

to each their own! but i couldn’t resist
 
walstib said:
The reason it’s low resolution is to protect your eyes. Hopefully it also contains no audio track lest it infect you that way.

;)

to each their own! but i couldn’t resist
Click to expand...
Too many pixels overload most people's neural bandwidth anyway, forcing them to stop thinking. So it's a good thing more providers are following NF's shining example! 🤣

Also keep in mind it's not only about filesize. As of lately I noticed some shows with suspiciously small files but surprisingly good quality. I take it as a sign the providers are constantly finetuning their compression, even though sometimes making some not so funny decisions like going over 10s per GOP.
 
fretzke said:
Also keep in mind it's not only about filesize. As of lately I noticed some shows with suspiciously small files but surprisingly good quality. I take it as a sign the providers are constantly finetuning their compression, even though sometimes making some not so funny decisions like going over 10s per GOP.
Click to expand...
I am seeing the exact opposite. I am now seeing HEVC versions just slightly smaller filesize wise than AVC versions and am, irony is strong here, recently opting for AVC versions since I get much less banding with those than with HEVC versions. To make things worse, even 2-3gb AVC versions are getting worse with a tonne of banding in lowlight and dark scenes. I was just finishing series From (MGM+ over at AP channels) and noticed that HEVC versions are pretty bad, so I opted for AVC but even those fall apart in dark scenes. I know, I know, complaining too much, but it wasn't this bad a year and half ago IIRC. I'm at the point of almost regretting deleting tonne of 720p BluRay rips and replacing them with HEVC versions, but then I remember the filesizes and... and... damn providers all to hell! HD? Haha. UHD material does look great, but 1080p? It is getting worse. In general. Anyways, enough of me ranting. I'm still hoarding, and will continue to do so, hahahaha. Cheers!
 
You should really turn down the brightness on your viewing device ;)
With lower brighness/gamma you notice less banding.
Dark scenes are supposed to be that way for a reason.

Or are you afraid of the dark 😈
 
I am seeing similar stuff. A series I have been watching and getting with AS (AP) was 5GB or so per episode. Then it fell to about 1.5GB and the last one I pulled was sub 1GB. Now that is a mix of 264 vs 265 but I pulled some newer 264 versions and its only slightly larger.
 
cartman0208 said:
You should really turn down the brightness on your viewing device ;)
With lower brighness/gamma you notice less banding.
Dark scenes are supposed to be that way for a reason.

Or are you afraid of the dark 😈
Click to expand...
Hah, tried that as well. I also suspected my setup as well: PotPlayer for quick viewing, Kodi 18 for binging on PC. But, I've seen similar results on Prime Video AND AppleTV+ on Nvidia Shield Pro. I've then suspected my TV, Sony X80J65, but have gone through all picture profiles and settings and... Ive come to conclusion that it ain't me. I have also noticed that 2160p material I get from AS, aka streaming providers, does not suffer from banding, almost not at all. So, my conclusion: providers are saving many a buck by providing material that's of ''acceptable'' quality (read: it looks ok 10ft from the screen), but are advertising it as quality. Which I get, to a point. Saving 100mb per 3gb episode, across 8 15 episode seasons... multiply by XY number of users watching that particular series... I am sure it adds up. So, I try, download, delete, redownload different codec, and if all fails and sucks (looking at you NF, you low life dirtbag!) I source material elsewhere. Hah. Cheers!
 
Sodium Hypobromite said:
On old or new content, or both?
Click to expand...
Older content or files coming again in rotation, maybe just used different settings I dunno, of course this can also be vice versa so these things not carved in stone.

On a brighter note here in sweden they just implemented rentals/purchases/channels which is awesome.. but filesizes?, these things are always up for changes on every provider, just as they’re adding more and more uhd, maybe they just try to find a decent balance
 
zanetti said:
Hah, tried that as well. I also suspected my setup as well: PotPlayer for quick viewing, Kodi 18 for binging on PC. But, I've seen similar results on Prime Video AND AppleTV+ on Nvidia Shield Pro. […]
Click to expand...

I totally feel you! Banding and compression artifacts are disgusting, and I hate them from the bottom of my heart.

But are you sure what you describe is an issue with compression and not simply the difference between HDR videos and SDR? From what I've experienced and the little bit I know about video compression, it doesn't matter on what device you playback a video. The screen of course makes a huge difference, but the decoder itself not. What does matter is if a device and program are capable of decoding the high res 4k videos which are often also encoded in HDR, or if you have to settle for the lower HD versions in SDR (not to mention the mostly totally unacceptable SD versions...). You can get rid of the artifacts with a good compression, but no bandwidth in the world can spare you the limitations of SDR unfortunately.

Since for reasons not belonging in this forum, live streaming is not always and everywhere an option for me, and since you can only get the 4k videos with proprietary software and all the darn restrictions it has baked into it, or from illegal sources – both a big no no – I reluctantly accept some visual impairments in the videos. Still am often going the same way as you and downloading a video multiple times to pick the best one.
 
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