Netflix several times last year took shots at metered billing, calling the shift anti-competitive, unnecessary, and an effort to try and slow or crush Internet video services that could one day pose a threat to traditional television revenues. In the interim they've tried to do several things to help users with low caps, including last year implementing new settings that help manage video quality and bandwidth consumption. The company is also working with a video encoding company named EyeIO to make their bandwidth consumption even more efficient:
Standard-definition Netflix streams can consume up to 2.2 Mbps of bandwidth. Netflix s 720p HD videos come in at roughly 3.8 Mbps, and 1080p videos go up to 4.8 Mbps. EyeIO CEO Rodolfo Vargas told me during a phone conversation on Tuesday that his company s encoding technology can achieve better-looking results than most established encoders with 20 percent bandwidth savings and that eyeIO can still deliver similar quality to other encoders with up to 50 percent bandwidth savings. Content in 720p could be streamed using 1.8 Mbps, he explained.
Such technology is of particular use in Canada, where broadband users see some of the most constrictive usage limits anywhere -- while also paying some of the highest prices for broadband of any developed nation.read comment(s)