NF - Banding In Dark Scenes

[zanetti]

Been out of the AS game for a few months, so I decided to grab something from NF. 1080p. I have noticed more than significant banding in darker scenes. If you want to see what Im talking about, check out the last episode of Better Call Saul, towards the end when Walter and Saul are talking. It happens in previous episodes as well, whenever there is low light situation in the scene the banding appears and its really a lot of banding. Ive never experienced that before with NF, for it to be this bad. I recently moved from a 1080p display to a 4K display, and 720p content that looked good before now looks a lot worse so I thought maybe it is the resolution, it maybe somehow emphasizes the banding, or maybe my picture preset is off somehow, but nope. Banding is always there and it is horrible. Anyone else experience this? It is so bad that Im thinking of ditching NF altogether, because Im not paying for blocky picture at high settings in every low light scene. i could live with little banding here and there, but this is a sea of banding and blockiness in low light scenes. So, anyone else experienced this? Cheers.

 

[RedWeasel]

I think Netflix added more security to their high bitrate 1080p streams. I believe you now need a l1 key to decrypt and watch these and AnyStream usually only has access to l3 keys so it's like the same 1080p you get via desktop browser. I also think they lowered their desktop browser quality to help reduce bandwidth during the Covid lockdowns and never bothered to re-up them. All in all yeah Netflix kinda sucks now.

 

[DeepSpace]

I haven't actually watched NF in the past few month, but it is known to have worse video than Amz in general.
So I think it is just because of the low bitrate and you can notice it better since you have a 4k monitor (I am on HD, but think to buy 4k at one time).

 

[DeepSpace]

I also think they lowered their desktop browser quality to help reduce bandwidth during the Covid lockdowns and never bothers to re-up them.

That is true, they did that. But I don't think there is any way to know if they re-upped them unless you have files from before that and can compare them with the current downloads.

 

[BoomKapoow]

Yup, they even have "Bad Quality" as an predefined answer when you finally hit that unsubscribe button, recall I checked ✓ all answers you get to pick when ending so they kinda know .. It's like they just wanna see for sure if someone has an opinion about it or if they should continue ripping off .. In general people perhaps lazy/unknowing to compare services or simply opt for that provider they've always used, only a higher price seemed to have an real impact, but yeah bad quality is a big one to

 

[DeepSpace]

"Bad Quality" as an predefined answer when you finally hit that unsubscribe button

I only subscribed to Amz and NF because of the existence of AS. I theoretically should unsubscribe, the quality is bad and I don't even used it right now. Especially with P+ coming "soon", I will have even more on Amz (if they get the channel as well) and P+ itself to download.
Currently I am on Amz JP, have some things on Amz DE as well and want to take a look at Amz US.
Well, now that I'm thinking about it... I will unsubscribe. In addition to the reasons above, I have much else to download, to do and I long want to create a list anyway about what I even have already before I continue NF. And that will take some month and I can save that money.

 

[BCloud]

So, anyone else experienced this? Cheers.

Yes I saw a lot of banding and blockiness on NF, they have a too low bitrate and I noticed it on dark scenes (banding) and fogs (blocky). I watched The Witcher recently and I saw it in the night scenes.
If you just changed your TV, check to calibrate the brightness and other settings, maybe you have too much brightness. You can find images or movies on Internet to do this.
The upscale also tends to "increase" the flaws if you moved from 1080 to 4k.

 

[Kalemvar]

Maybe it’s time to introduce NF MPL to AS. At the moment we only have access to 1080p HPL (high profile level), 1080p MPL (main profile level) give us most of the time a better bitrate level, lot less artifact, blockiness. That would be a great addition and solve that problem.

only a suggestion

 

[Lonald]

I noticed a similar effect with H, particularly in The Old Man. Bit rate/color depth was not up to the task. Interestingly, when played through Edge or Chrome on a 4k monitor this effect was not present. I wonder if the streaming services are adjusting the bit rate/color depth according to the browser being presented. AS uses Chromium, I think.

Then again, it may just be how the network is functioning at the moment.

 

[Flymo]

I think it can depend on the software you use to play the videos. VLC is a great all-in-one player that caters for many codes and containers but the video quality is pretty barebones.

 

[RedFox 1]

I use Chromecast, and it looks fine.

 

[DeepSpace]

"Bad Quality" as an predefined answer when you finally hit that unsubscribe button

Interestingly, when played through Edge or Chrome on a 4k monitor this effect was not present. I wonder if the streaming services are adjusting the bit rate/color depth according to the browser being presented. AS uses Chromium, I think.

That is true, you can only get 4k Streams with Edge.
And yes, AS uses Chromium, at least for the Amz part. The other providers are with their own implementation, but I cannot tell if they use some parts of Chromium as well (under the hood, for example).

 

[cartman0208]

If you just changed your TV, check to calibrate the brightness and other settings, maybe you have too much brightness.

That.
If you turn up the brightness high enough you will see banding in dark scenes everywhere...

 

[Jimc115]

I think Netflix added more security to their high bitrate 1080p streams. I believe you now need a l1 key to decrypt and watch these and AnyStream usually only has access to l3 keys so it's like the same 1080p you get via desktop browser. I also think they lowered their desktop browser quality to help reduce bandwidth during the Covid lockdowns and never bothered to re-up them. All in all yeah Netflix kinda sucks now.

All browsers have L1 keys....if you only had an L3 key, all your video would be SD.
The provider can "at will" reduce the quality sent to browsers...or any other device whenever they choose. 1080p and lower H264 streams across NF suck in quality...no matter the device.
H265 and H264 2160p streams appear to be much better quality and where they intend on concentrating.
They are now providing 6 different streams in 1080p and 2160p each for at least new content.

H265 DV -Dolby
H265 HDR
H265 Standard AVC
H264 DV
H264 HDR
H264 AVC

That's a lot of bandwidth....so don't expect them to improve the quality of lower level streams any time soon.

 

[FannyTastic]

I use Chromecast, and it looks fine.

Most likely because your TV does some hardware dithering.

 

[zanetti]

That.
If you turn up the brightness high enough you will see banding in dark scenes everywhere...

yeah, i dont think thats it. other shows look significantly better, its just BCS that looks horrible in low light scenes. other also have banding, but its less obvious.