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Netflix and other streamers urged to Stream in SD


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In order to not break the internet. 

 

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The European Union is urging Netflix and other streaming platforms to stop showing video in high definition to prevent the internet from breaking under the strain of unprecedented usage due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With so many countries on forced lockdowns to fight the spread of the virus, hundreds of millions working from home and even more children out of school, EU officials are concerned about the huge strain on internet bandwidth.

Netflix and Google (GOOGL) together account for nearly 25% of the data transmitted via the internet.

European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who is responsible for the EU internal market covering more than 450 million people, tweeted Wednesday evening that he had spoken with Netflix (NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings. Breton called on people and companies to "#SwitchtoStandard definition when HD is not necessary" in order to secure internet access for all.

In a statement on Thursday, Breton said that given the unprecedented situation, streaming platforms, telecom operators and users "all have a joint responsibility to take steps to ensure the smooth functioning of the internet during the battle against the virus propagation."

 

Physical media for the win! In all seriousness if they do this, then Netflix should refund the cost for those paying for HD plans.

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The Commission said that while there has been a sharp increase in internet usage, no outages or adverse affects have so far been reported.

Yeah, there has been a sharp uptick in usage, but I'd love to know if internet infrastructure in general is actually at risk of being overwhelmed. 

 

My sense has been the opposite. We've seen AT&T, Comcast, and pretty much all Canadian ISPs remove their data caps, which to me says that they have an excess capacity if anything. Maybe Europe is much worse off than North America, but I doubt that's the case everywhere on the continent.

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23 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

I'm one of those weirdos who still have a netflix disc plan!

 

 

22 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

 

DOESN'T FEEL THAT WEIRD NOW, DOES IT?

I’m almost ready to resubscribe to that. I’m so used to get getting dvds from the library when something isn’t readily available to stream.  :(

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2 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

Is anyone's streaming service or internet in general on some sites being REALLY slow? Hulu won't load on my laptop or PS4, can't get into my health insurance site, but I'm able to do d1p, Resetera and Facebook.

 

 

My internet was acting up on Tues/Weds but it seemed to be normal Spectrum fussiness. I reset the router today and haven't had any problems.

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2 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

Is anyone's streaming service or internet in general on some sites being REALLY slow? Hulu won't load on my laptop or PS4, can't get into my health insurance site, but I'm able to do d1p, Resetera and Facebook.

We have been having the same issues with Hulu, I assume they are being hammered right now.

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4 minutes ago, Chairslinger said:

 

 

My internet was acting up on Tues/Weds but it seemed to be normal Spectrum fussiness. I reset the router today and haven't had any problems.

 

Just now, SimpleG said:

We have been having the same issues with Hulu, I assume they are being hammered right now.

 

If it's just a few sites and not others, reset your router.

 

I did and everything's working. Not that ultra peak times aren't gonna be an issue, but this fixed a lot!

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Youtube will default to SD streaming worldwide

 

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Last week, Google announced that it would be temporarily defaulting all videos on YouTube to standard definition in the EU. Today, that decision has been expanded worldwide.

“We continue to work closely with governments and network operators around the globe to do our part to minimize stress on the system during this unprecedented situation,” a Google spokesperson told IGN.

“Last week, we announced that we were temporarily defaulting all videos on YouTube to standard definition in the EU. Given the global nature of this crisis, we will expand that change globally starting today.”

 

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