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

[Manzanito]

I don’t think the effect will even be noticed, but still it was the decent thing to do.

 

[daveak]

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.

The struggling to work from home is more likely to be down to their employer not having adequate infrastructure in place or an ISP that has never cared about being able to provide what people pay for in the first place (i.e. those who suffer with contention when kids get home from school). Reports in the UK from BT, i.e. the people who connect the majority of the people to the internet no matter who their ISP is, are that there is no problem handling the load, it isn't as bad as evening peaks so there is plenty of capacity.

 

[itsmilo]

They can just look outside the window - not 480p, not 1080p, not 4k, but infinitely many p's or k's!
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People working from home. Ever heard of that? That's the one part of business that keeps running. People wasting bandwidth are interfering with the only part of the economy that's still going.

unfortunately not for long! Everyone is starting to be out on paid leave indefinitely. Including myself.

 

[Sakurambo-kun]

Just tried watching a bit of The Banker here in the UK. It's pretty much unwatchable. Looks like a really, really bad DVD. My TV is a 65" OLED so not exactly forgiving on poor quality. Not sure why Apple have reacted to this in such an extreme way.

I guess I'll be cancelling ATV+ then.

 

[MarkAtl]

It really about the latency, not the bandwidth. From what I've seen ISPs in the EU usually have enough bandwidth but, with everyone needing live broadcasts (for video game streaming, live streaming, and video conferencing), the quality is going to suffer greatly. Offline game downloads can be higher latency without losing out on much, but anything live is going impact the network a lot. Anything live usually use UDP protocols, which a little like the source shouting into a void, while regular download uses TCP, where the destination will send an acknowledgement back that it is sent. This also means UDP will prioritize the freshness of the data over the quality without checking for lost packets or errors. I've seen the quality of Zoom and other video conferencing tools drop quite a bit over the past few days, and I would much rather work based traffic is prioritized over entertainment in the current situation.

I’ve noticed my Zoom Phone also be slower to dial and connect. Call quality still seems fine (low bandwidth anyway). I’m sure they are also getting slammed with signups.

As I’m a paying customer I hope they are prioritizing my traffic over free subscribers.
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Just tried watching a bit of The Banker here in the UK. It's pretty much unwatchable. Looks like a really, really bad DVD. My TV is a 65" OLED so not exactly forgiving on poor quality. Not sure why Apple have reacted to this in such an extreme way.

I guess I'll be cancelling ATV+ then.

Apple needs to get their act together and improve their streaming codec. They should be able to halbe bandwidth requirements without killing picture quality.

 

[mike...]

In the UK ISPs aren't even anywhere near struggling. Millions of people stream stuff in the evenings and the networks cope, which means they can cope exactly the same during the day. I'm fed up of this. I'll turn to piracy instead.

 

[Nütztjanix]

Oh the entitlement …

 

[Sakurambo-kun]

Oh the entitlement …

It's more about getting what people are paying for. AppleTV+ was until a few days ago sold as a 4K service. Now it's an SD service, so the subscription fees should be reduced by 4x.

As for Netflix, their 4K tier now makes no sense and should be abolished.

I guess this will do wonders for the sale of 4K blu-rays.

 

[Nütztjanix]

It's more about getting what people are paying for. AppleTV+ was until a few days ago sold as a 4K service. Now it's an SD service, so the subscription fees should be reduced by 4x.

As for Netflix, their 4K tier now makes no sense and should be abolished.

I guess this will do wonders for the sale of 4K blu-rays.

Going by all the negativity here over tv+, I doubt that all that much people are actually paying for it. Most of those watching will be on their free trial year.
Or, people just brag about it being s*** and not paying for it. Who knows … 😉

 

[ElectricPotato]

Mental health will be negatively impacted by a lower quality stream? Get a grip.

I agree completely. The OP had a point but mental health is not an accurate way of framing it. Many people will react poorly to minor inconvenience and act out in destructive ways. It's not crazy, it's a lack of toughness and maturity. Unfortunately, that is the populace we have and smart politicians arrange sufficient distraction to placate them.

 

[Maetzle]

Good thing that they did. Starting monday when the semi-lockdown started here in Austria my ISP definitely had problems. Only really have a stable connection since Friday/today.

Also a big lol to people complaining about this. This just goes to show that our networks aren't ready for streaming anything and everything from music over 4k video to games whilst keeping a stable connection for everything else going on.

Particularly funny when it's Americans are calling Europe a mess because of something like this.

 

[4jasontv]

People wasting bandwidth are interfering with the only part of the economy that's still going.

I am pretty sure my ISP is still charging me, and that combined with my online purchases, makes me part of the economy. The whole point of net neutrality was supposed to be that all data is equal. One persons Netflix is equal to another’s Teams/Skype/FaceTime meeting. If data isn’t going through that is the fault of the ISP alone. Content distributors are lowering the speeds because their customers connections are poor and they look bad due to the low bandwidth issues caused by the ISP, and not because they identified a possible problem NESTLE middle managers might be experiencing. It was only going to be be time before their just enough capacity maximum profits business strategy caught up with them. Don’t put any customer on trial for capitalizing on what they paid for. Maybe local governments need to investigate these business practices a little more and start offering ISP executives some taxpayer funded social isolation.

 

[Morgenland]

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?

Do not worry, the EU commission is fighting on all fronts, and that is good. I don't care if you don't like the fact that your streaming is reduced.
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I am pretty sure my ISP is still charging me, and that combined with my online purchases, makes me part of the economy. The whole point of net neutrality was supposed to be that all data is equal. One persons Netflix is equal to another’s Teams/Skype/FaceTime meeting. If data isn’t going through that is the fault of the ISP alone. Content distributors are lowering the speeds because their customers connections are poor and they look bad due to the low bandwidth issues caused by the ISP, and not because they identified a possible problem NESTLE middle managers might be experiencing. It was only going to be be time before their just enough capacity maximum profits business strategy caught up with them. Don’t put any customer on trial for capitalizing on what they paid for. Maybe local governments need to investigate these business practices a little more and start offering ISP executives some taxpayer funded social isolation.

We are currently at war with the viruses in Europe. The discussion whether the ISPs have outdated technology is not at all helpful. If you're worried about $20 ISP costs, you're living in a very crazy world.
If home office, VoIP and information retrieval breaks down, it would be an economic and social disaster, who should care about your little leisure issue?

 

[adamjackson]

Plex?

 

[Morgenland]

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.

1 The proportion of pupils in the population is small.
2 It is well known to everyone that pornography (YouTube etc) accounts for the largest share of Internet traffic worldwide. This will increase dramatically with more leisure time, for anybody not clear in decision.
3 The bandwidths are technically not designed for this, nor for the actually countless changes in professional life. Just ask engineers, developers, and many, many other people in such professions, they will tell you.

 

[Duncan-UK]

So only the immature and uneducated masturbate?

what a load of old wank!

 

[Peepo]

2 It is well known to everyone that pornography (YouTube etc) accounts for the largest share of Internet traffic worldwide.

YouTube is a pornography site? I am thinking that you made a typo and meant a different site.

 

[konqerror]

1 The proportion of pupils in the population is small.

76 Million in the US, working out to be 23% of the US population. 1 in 4 is not "small"

More Than 76 Million Students Enrolled in U.S. Schools, Census Bureau Reports

New data on the makeup of student bodies from kindergartens to universities, show that classrooms are more racially and ethnically diverse.

www.census.gov

2 It is well known to everyone that pornography (YouTube etc) accounts for the largest share of Internet traffic worldwide. This will increase dramatically with more leisure time, for anybody not clear in decision.

Incorrect. Youtube + Netflix, which is not pornography, consumes more traffic than all other video streaming services combined, pornographic and not (i.e. Amazon Prime video, Hulu, etc.). User-generated content sites, including Youtube, use low bitrates, i.e. single megabits, whereas streaming sites now push 10 Mbps due to the higher production quality of films. Thus, a single film stream equals 10 lower-quality streams.

This was brought up in another thread. Often traffic is measured by pageviews or streams started. For videos, it is often measured in minutes streamed. Those numbers do not directly correlate to bandwidth.

Netflix Bandwidth Consumption Eclipsed by Web Media Streaming Applications

Netflix dropped to second place behind web-based media streaming apps on Sandvine's 2019 internet bandwidth report.

variety.com

 

[Osamede]

And this is why I still buy Blurays.

Exactly - rented content has limitations. You dont own it, and you still pay, and they can gyp you on what they deliver or claim "well we cant, but we took your money anyway!". Been saying that for a long time and people dont get it

 

[Peepo]

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?

Unfortunately AppleTV+ and Netflix exclusives etc. are not available on Blurays

What type of ISP do you have there? Is it cable, DSL, Fibre?


Here is info on Netflix open connect system for ISPs

Netflix | Open Connect

openconnect.netflix.com

Presuming many ISPs have this system, I wonder, is the bandwidth bottleneck with these ISPs the last mile infrastructure from ISP to home? Maybe too much oversubscribed by ISP eg. too many users per node.

 

[oldtime]

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.

Unfortunately empathy is in shorter supply these days than hand sanitizer and toilet paper.

 

[Joseph_U]

Not arguing over the immediate effect (quality of content), arguing about the EU politicians overreaching themselves to mess with non-problems and creating even more government interference where there should be none.

REmember it's in times like these that civil liberties can be abolished by those in power, never to return as people are scared and accept everything because "people are dying".
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EU politicians overreaching themselves???

They are simply asking for some help.

The whole point is that the reduction in bandwidth is neither needed, nor helping those in need of a better VPN to their office to work from home to start with.

Again, you are completely off. Internet has been falling out in many countries in western Europe (not only 'poor nations' to the east or south).

It's getting better, thanks to these efforts, but it'll be interesting to see how it will turn out on Monday again.

 

[s66]

Internet has been falling out in many countries in western Europe (not only 'poor nations' to the east or south).

<sarcarsm>And I'm sure you'll know that they failed in *many* countries, and that all of those were caused by streaming services.</sarcasm>
And of course no list of countries and ISP involved, so nobody can check any of it.

 

[Tech198]

ISP's have the right idea, and starting to provide more bandwidth to cope to "everyone" for the "strain" not limiting with wants happening here.


I hope Apple follows suit.

 

[Joseph_U]

<sarcarsm>And I'm sure you'll know that they failed in *many* countries, and that all of those were caused by streaming services.</sarcasm>
And of course no list of countries and ISP involved, so nobody can check any of it.

So you doubt mine or others report that the Internet has been struggling under the load of home offices and the lock down? You also doubt that limiting streaming services also would help the Internet to not break down?

What makes you the guru on the topic?

Netflix and YouTube are America's biggest bandwidth hogs