Apple TV+ Streaming Quality Lowered in Europe to Reduce Network Strain

[MacRumors]

The European Union has asked streaming services to temporarily reduce streaming quality to ease the strain on broadband networks caused by people working from home, a request that Netflix, YouTube, and now Apple TV+ have complied with.

Netflix cut streaming data bitrates yesterday, while YouTube reduced streaming quality this morning. According to 9to5Mac, Apple TV+ streaming quality was recently lowered as well, resulting in lower resolution streams and heavily compressed content with visibly blocky artifacts.

9to5Mac says that the lowered quality is "very noticeable," especially on larger-sized television sets, and quite a departure from the 4K HDR content that Apple normally offers. Resolutions are said to be as low as 670 pixels tall.

Compared to other services like Netflix that have also lowered quality to save data, Apple's streaming quality is described as "particularly aggressive" and akin to the kind of quality one might expect from "streaming on a phone over a 3G network."

At the current time, streaming content providers have only been asked to lower streaming quality in Europe, so the lower streaming rates do not affect the United States and other countries. The United States has not called on streaming content providers to implement data reduction measures.

It's not clear how long Apple plans to stream with reduced quality and whether tweaks will be made for a better compromise between quality and data usage. Netflix has said that it will continue using the lower quality stream for the next 30 days.

Article Link: Apple TV+ Streaming Quality Lowered in Europe to Reduce Network Strain

 

[Domen151]

I honestly doubt that Apple TV+ put that much strain on EU networks with its few shows they have available right now 🤷‍♂️

But its good that they did it.

 

[GeoStructural]

It is nice, but the impact would be negligible anyway. 🤣

 

[johnyslats]

Can confirm. Settled down to watch The Banker. Looks particularly bad on my 4K TV but perfectly watchable on my iPad. Totally the right thing to do at the current time though

 

[s66]

Complete idiotic that politicians meddle in this. Let the ISPs do the asking, let them deal with the legitimate streaming providers and get a proxy/caching server on their networks if they still don't have that.
Moreover it's utterly pointless.Legitimate streaming is much, much more friendly on the ISPs than torrent downloads are that easily peak traffic many times higher than streaming. [peaks hurt, and a 2160o blu-ray copy over a torrent download easily saturates the highest consumer bandwidths]

Politicians should stay out of technology they have no grasp of whatsoever.

 

[cycomiko]

Complete idiotic that politicians meddle in this. Let the ISPs do the asking, let them deal with the legitimate streaming providers and get a proxy/caching server on their networks if they still don't have that.
Moreover it's utterly pointless.Legitimate streaming is much, much more friendly on the ISPs than torrent downloads are that easily peak traffic many times higher than streaming. [peaks hurt, and a 2160o blu-ray copy over a torrent download easily saturates the highest consumer bandwidths]

Politicians should stay out of technology they have no grasp of whatsoever.

Wrong. Politicians will ask when its for the betterment of their communities. Thats why they are voted for and elected. You are an example of what is wrong with the world.

They are also asking ISPs to restrict non-essential bandwidth, so good luck with the torrents.

 

[JVNPhoto]

It’s kind of funny that people just accept this. Was there really that big of a problem to warrant Apple and other streaming services to throttle bit rate even though people pay extra for it (eg. Netflix)? Shouldn’t it be up to the ISP’s to figure this out? Is there really nothing more important for the EU commission to handle in this crisis?

 

[Akiainavas]

“Complete idiotic that politicians meddle in this. Let the ISPs do the asking, let them deal with the legitimate streaming providers and get a proxy/caching server on their networks if they still don't have that.
Moreover it's utterly pointless.Legitimate streaming is much, much more friendly on the ISPs than torrent downloads are that easily peak traffic many times higher than streaming. [peaks hurt, and a 2160o blu-ray copy over a torrent download easily saturates the highest consumer bandwidths]

Politicians should stay out of technology they have no grasp of whatsoever.”


Politicians rarely have grasp, perhaps. But neither do you mate. On both technology and politics.

Nobody is meddling. The commission ( by the way, not politicians, educate yourself, most commissioners are actually technical experts in their respective fields. That’s why commission is appointed and not elected anf that’s why they can only make recommendations, not laws ) made a recommendation. Netflix, YouTube and Apple followed it.

Nobody forced anyone to do anything.

People like you are the problem. They preempt the issue - you criticize. They don’t preempt and let the network collapse - you criticize.

It’s a shame the only thing you never do is offer actual, workable solutions - or have any perspective - we are in the middle of a global pandemic, hundreds of thousands of people may die, even more may lose jobs and you’re b...ng about slightly lower quality of a streaming service ?

We need the bandwidth for medicine, for people to work and be productive - nobody cares about your binging.

Get some perspective mate.

 

[Nodens]

The quality is so bad that it really hurts your eyes...

 

[now i see it]

480P video looks not too bad on a big iPhone or smaller iPad. 670p should be fine on these devices. But a giant HDTV will be another story

 

[bgalakazam]

And this is why I still buy Blurays. The ISPs should have planned infrastructure better. I pay close to 40 Euro in Italy for a crappy 100Mbit service and now they can't ever carry a 25Mbit stream?

Where are all the net neutrality keyboard warriors now?

 

[Cosmosent]

Hey Cook,

Cut a deal with HBO for ALL but the last season of Game of Thrones, & offer it up via Apple TV+ !

Do NOT include the last season !

 

[mi7chy]

Maybe it won't be so bad if watching Apple TV+ streaming with Nvidia Shield TV AI upscaling? Does Apple TV hardware have something equivalent?

 

[draumkved]

It’s kind of funny that people just accept this. Was there really that big of a problem to warrant Apple and other streaming services to throttle bit rate even though people pay extra for it (eg. Netflix)? Shouldn’t it be up to the ISP’s to figure this out? Is there really nothing more important for commission to handle in this crisis?

Why wouldn't we accept this? There are reports of people struggling to work effectively from home several places in Norway because of bad network performance. I assume it's similar in other countries in Europe, and that's why the request was made.

I think most of us agree that people working in our society with a pandemic going on should be prioritized over those who are watching streams for entertainment.

 

[Nozuka]

It’s kind of funny that people just accept this. Was there really that big of a problem to warrant Apple and other streaming services to throttle bit rate even though people pay extra for it (eg. Netflix)? Shouldn’t it be up to the ISP’s to figure this out? Is there really nothing more important for commission to handle in this crisis?

People have more to worry about, than getting a lower bit stream in this crisis.

 

[Ploki]

It’s kind of funny that people just accept this. Was there really that big of a problem to warrant Apple and other streaming services to throttle bit rate even though people pay extra for it (eg. Netflix)? Shouldn’t it be up to the ISP’s to figure this out? Is there really nothing more important for the EU commission to handle in this crisis?

you'll see when it hits US. This is one of the leanest and one of the "i'm ok with this" measures compared to what some governments (including mine) are doing.

 

[DanielDD]

It’s kind of funny that people just accept this. Was there really that big of a problem to warrant Apple and other streaming services to throttle bit rate even though people pay extra for it (eg. Netflix)? Shouldn’t it be up to the ISP’s to figure this out? Is there really nothing more important for the EU commission to handle in this crisis?

- Strain on the ISPs. Strain on companies' servers. Strain on home networks. Plus another number of variables such as preventing latency (important for work related reasons).
- Who told you billion dollar companies are bowing to a non mandatory recommendations and not coordinating with ISPs?
- The EU can do more than one thing at once.
- Streaming quality is the least of our problems right now.

 

[konqerror]

People have more to worry about, than getting a lower bit stream in this crisis.

Mental health is important. The majority of people will not die from COVID, but nearly everybody will have to deal with quarantine.

I bet somewhere in the world, there will be domestic violence from being cooped up and somebody will be killed. Similarly, if there haven't been quarantine-related suicides, there will be.

Further, if you make conditions at home miserable, people will be less likely to comply with quarantine, causing greater spread of the disease, ultimately leading to more deaths.

 

[warp9]

"...caused by people working from home..."

No it's not. It's caused by people NOT working. At least be honest about it.

 

[itsmilo]

So stupid, especially throwing a whole continent under the same bus, when this should be decided by each country, hell even each ISP.

Also they blame Home Office? Who is actually still working. Everyone I know is on paid leave for the foreseeable future

 

[DevNull0]

The quality is so bad that it really hurts your eyes...

Do you mean the streaming quality or the content quality?

 

[coolfactor]

It’s kind of funny that people just accept this. Was there really that big of a problem to warrant Apple and other streaming services to throttle bit rate even though people pay extra for it (eg. Netflix)? Shouldn’t it be up to the ISP’s to figure this out? Is there really nothing more important for the EU commission to handle in this crisis?

I don't see it as a either-or situation. It shouldn't *just* be ISPs figuring out how to increase bandwidth. They will work on that, but in the meantime, existing "heavy" data sources need to play a part, too. This is just entertaining, it's not an essential service.

We're all in this together, and that includes compromise on everyone's part. Nobody should be getting upset about this at all.

 

[Nodens]

Do you mean the streaming quality or the content quality?

Lol! The streaming quality

 

[konqerror]

"...caused by people working from home..."

No it's not. It's caused by people NOT working. At least be honest about it.

To be fair, at least here in the US, schools haven't fully figured out online instruction yet so kids are on extended vacation. Colleges have it relatively easy; it's not like a 3rd grade class is set up to distribute and collect homework, and post lecture videos online.

 

[coolfactor]

The quality is so bad that it really hurts your eyes...

This is a time to evaluate how much time we are wasting in front of our screens. There's better things to do.

In the same vein, some people will need that internet bandwidth to get real work done. Throw your support behind THIS!