tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post930181095065187619..comments2024-01-25T15:09:03.714-08:00Comments on Whiskey's Place: Netflix and the Big MistakeWhiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01854764809682029464noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-64756181550932946822011-10-24T02:10:25.834-07:002011-10-24T02:10:25.834-07:00Country Lawyer said...
"Streaming does work f...Country Lawyer said...<br />"Streaming does work for the most part and DVDs are over the long haul dead as a business model."<br /><br />One of the common arguments the pro-streaming crowd likes to make is that advances in technology will make streaming faster in the future. Well that is technically true but what these people fail to realize is that advances in technology will also increase the capacity of optic discs therefore no amount of advances let it be 10 years from now or 30 years from now, streaming will never deliver greater capacity than a physical storage medium.<br /><br />For example blu-ray replaced DVD.<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/TDK-Blu-ray-Disc-Printable-Tripple/dp/B0041CJMRU/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1319447104&sr=1-1" rel="nofollow">BDXL</a> will replace blu-ray<br />and BDXL will be replaced by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc" rel="nofollow">HVD</a><br /><br />EAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-67099029677691630762011-10-24T01:22:57.884-07:002011-10-24T01:22:57.884-07:00Country Lawyer said...
"High speed internet f...Country Lawyer said...<br />"High speed internet for streaming is in the suburbs, its in the little towns in Wyoming, its already everywhere. So this is not an issue, which unravels the rest of your argument."<br /><br />oh woah are you totally wrong!<br />Ask any computer savvy person about bandwidth capacity and you'll get an earful. The average consumer is completely ignorant of how limited the capacity really is. Joe Sixpack looks at the Comcast advertisement that promised a 12 Mbps modem so he incorrectly believes he'll be surfing the net at that speed.<br />WRONG<br />The key phrase here is "up to 12 Mbps" so what that means is Comcast will be "pinching the pipes" and most of the time you'll be running at less than 10% of the advertised speeds.<br /><br />I agree with Whiskey, the capacity simply is NOT there. However Joe Sixpack ignorantly believes bandwidth is like a buffet dinner where you get to eat all you want. That's just not true.<br /><br />EAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-4362765388808337582011-10-10T07:18:23.125-07:002011-10-10T07:18:23.125-07:00I just got an email from Netflix. The whole Qwiks...I just got an email from Netflix. The whole Qwikster plan is off. Sort of unusual for a big corporation like this to change its mind so quickly.CamelCaseRobnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-21842829413506504582011-10-03T15:32:57.448-07:002011-10-03T15:32:57.448-07:00Passsion vine
Texas sage
Indigo spires salvia
Conf...Passsion vine<br />Texas sage<br />Indigo spires salvia<br />Conferderate jasmine<br />Royal cape plumbago<br />Arica palm<br />Pygmy date palm<br />Snow-on-the-mountain<br />Pink Powderpuff<br />Datura<br />Crinum lily<br />St. Christopher's lily<br />Silver dollar eucalytus<br />White african iris<br />Katie's cham ruella<br />Variegated shell finger<br />Florida coontie<br />Datura<br />Ming fern<br />Sword fern<br />Dianella<br />Walking iris<br />Chocolate cherries allamanda<br />Awabuki viburnum<br /><br />Is there room in my heart<br />For you to follow your heart<br />And not need more blood<br />From the tip of your star<br /><br />Is there room in my hear<br />For you to follow your heart<br />And not need more blood<br />From the tip of your star<br /><br />Walking iris<br />Chocolate cherries allamanda<br />Awabuki viburnun<br />Natal plum<br />Black magic ti<br />Mexican bush sage<br />Gumbo limbo<br />Golden shrimp<br />Belize shrimp<br />Senna<br />Weeping sabicu<br />Golden shower tree<br />Golden trumpet tree<br />Bird of paradise<br />Come in<br />Variegated shell ginger<br />Datura<br />Lonicera<br />Red velvet costus<br />Xanadu philodendron<br />Snow queen hibiscus<br />Frangipani<br />Frangipani<br />Bleeding heart<br />Persian shield<br />Cat's whiskers<br />Royal palm<br />Sweet alyssum<br />Petting bamboo<br />Orange jasmine<br />Clitoria blue pea<br />Downy jasmine<br />Datura<br />Frangipani<br />FrangipaniAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-23275984745046254032011-09-29T13:38:43.776-07:002011-09-29T13:38:43.776-07:00I have Time Warner Cable Road Runner Turbo and str...I have Time Warner Cable Road Runner Turbo and stream Netflix through my Xbox all the time with VERY few problems, and I live in a rural area. Maybe Im lucky? Anyway my wife and I never go to video stores (used to go to family video quite a bit) and will never use redbox. If there is a new movie we are in the mood to watch we either rent if from Time Warner on demand or rent if from Zune on xbox. We use Zune more, and streaming HD content have not had any problems except like 1 second of lower quality a few time. Well worth it not having to drive 20 minutes to return discs, IMO. <br /><br />As a side note, I use to have the Disc option with netflix which I personally never even used much. With the lower price for streaming only I dropped the disc, as I was not willing to pay DOUBLE for netflix. Drasticly increasing their prices is whats going to kill them, plus loss of other groups content.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-35221894429641718602011-09-29T09:16:42.523-07:002011-09-29T09:16:42.523-07:00Dave the dweeb - ”The above seems to show a high l...Dave the dweeb - <i>”The above seems to show a high level of ignorance of what networks modern networks are capable of.”</i><br /><br />Well, excuse my ignorance of the exact details of what the main fiber optic trunks where capable of (I was aware that they are rather high capacity). <br /><br />However, what you seem to be forgetting is that the term “network” applies the entire route over which data will be transmitted. <br /><br />Comcast, my provider, does have an extensive fiber optic network…but, the actual residential connections are based on far lower capacity coaxial lines run from nodes connected to the fiber optic network. If a given node is serving a coaxial line to a high number of residence, then it is likely to be operating much closer to it’s maximum capacity than, for instance, one that is serving far fewer residences in places that <i>Country Lawyer</i> described as “the sticks”. My highway analogy may be far from perfect, but is not completely inaccurate.<br /><br />And, I found confirmation of what I had heard and suspected that I had experienced <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5039766/comcasts-new-network-management-will-slow-down-heavy-users-for-up-to-20-minutes" rel="nofollow">Comcast’s New Network Management Will Slow Down Heavy Users for Up to 20 Minutes</a>, from Gizmodo. Their designed slow-downs are definitely going to impact the streaming of movies.<br /><br />I pay extra for Comcast’s PowerBoost, which turns out to be limited to the first 20 Mbytes of a given transfer, so it doesn’t help with video streaming except for the first few minutes. The reality on the ground is that when I’ve actually tried to streaming Netflix content (using either a Blu-Ray player or and Xbox 360), not only is the video quality noticeably poorer than DVD, but it does frequently sputter and pixalate. I guess that’s what I get for not paying tens-of-thousands to have a fiber optic line run to a node in my home, eh, Dave?<br /><br />And, while I see <i>Country Lawyers</i> point about streaming recent televised content (he notes ‘Person of Interest”, which I recorded using TiVo myself). I have, in fact, used Comcast/Xfinity’s “On-Demand” to do so myself.<br /><br />But, for me Netflix’ DVD service provided a more unique service. Much of my movie rentals are not of the more recent releases, but of older fare (which Red Box is unlikely to have available), and which Xfinity does not have available in it’s limited “On-Demand” library for pay-per-view. <br /><br />So, while video streaming may well be “the future”, I still have issues with price (Xfinity or Amazon), availability, and video quality that will keep me using Qwickster as long as they can manage to stay in business.<br /><br />Qwicksters viability, freed from the impending failure of streaming-only Netflix, will likely depend on people like me, who have similar issues as do I (and probably do not know a the theoretical capacities of every inch of data transfer media in the network, either).<br /><br />Okay, Dave, you can now go back to telling me what an idiot I am for not knowing that TAT-14 has a design capacity of 3.2 terabit/sec.slwernerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13293327533235793560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-62622615015025308772011-09-29T02:49:56.591-07:002011-09-29T02:49:56.591-07:00"Modern Warfare 2 couldn't just be about ..."Modern Warfare 2 couldn't just be about terrorists or even russians, the "ultimate" manipulator/villain behind the scenes was a US general." - Jules<br /><br />I found that twist rather refreshing. FPS plots are otherwise so stale and cliche.Commander Shepardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-24893691248369487782011-09-28T18:42:29.245-07:002011-09-28T18:42:29.245-07:00I agree with the fact that streaming will be more ...I agree with the fact that streaming will be more costly in the long run. Over time, the cost of DVD/Blu-ray decreases. The initial cost is recovered and Netflix will only have to worry about postage.<br /><br />With streaming, the cost of bandwidth is a constant and not at all comparable to the price of a postage stamp.<br /><br />More importantly, however, the quality and variety of streaming is poor. Compare the selection for its current streaming line-up with the selection for its DVDs. It's ridiculous. The streaming content is full of crappy movies. There are occasional blockbuster gems, but not enough to keep a customer paying month after month.<br /><br />Most of the time, the streaming content is something I would watch when I'm bored. It usually would never be something I would queue and wait for. Unless they change their streaming content to include more mainstream, quality films, then they have no case for keeping customers.<br /><br />If I lose the DVD option, then I'm gone.Kyle R.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-38867372968607539262011-09-28T17:42:46.602-07:002011-09-28T17:42:46.602-07:00slwerner said...
Ironically, the fact that you do...<i>slwerner said...<br /><br />Ironically, the fact that you don’t live in a metropolitan area likely makes the situation better for you. You end up having the same basic hardware and physical lines that are used for areas with higher population densities (and thus more people trying to transfer more data at the same time).<br /><br /> I think it’s simply a matter of the physical limitations of the networks. A four-lane highway through a big city will suffer chronic congestion issues, whereas the same sized highway running through a small town will not. </i><br /><br />The above seems to show a high level of ignorance of what networks modern networks are capable of.<br /><br />To give you an example of the capacity of fibre-optics consider, e.g., TAT-14 which is one of the major transatlantic internet links. The design capacity of this is 3.2 terabits / sec. What does it take to deliver such throughput? 8 strands of fibre in a cable around 5cm in diameter.<br /><br />Yet a single such cable at maximum capacity could simultaneously deliver about 2 million different regular quality Netflix streaming signals. This is also under the assumption that no caching of any sort is done (though Netflix in fact does cache).<br /><br />It's fairly simple to add additional strands of fibre when installing a cable - and such is commonly done as labor costs by far outweigh costs for the cables involved. <br /><br />Moore's law also applies to fibre-optic cable meaning that the amount of data that the same cable can carry increases as new transmitters are installed on the ends.<br /><br />Read up on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_fibre" rel="nofollow">dark fibre</a> if you're interested.<br /><br />Roads tend to cost a lot more to add capacity to, whereas for computer networks a whole lot of extra capacity can be added for a small price.Davehttp://www.rotundus.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-16379149586586314292011-09-28T13:52:20.688-07:002011-09-28T13:52:20.688-07:00White women hate,hate,hate netflix![*citation need...White women hate,hate,hate netflix![*citation needed]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-76829113275595194652011-09-28T13:12:13.567-07:002011-09-28T13:12:13.567-07:00I have been a fan of netflix for a long time. The...I have been a fan of netflix for a long time. The problem here is lost revenues to broadcast and cable tv (the content producers). They are trying to recoup those revenues and are trying different things. For streaming the tv show producers are keeping their best stuff on subscriber-only servers. hulu is marketing Hulu-plus. <br /><br />The bandwidth is not the problem. What is there will continue to grow. But the marketplace is uncertain about how they can maximize their revenues from the delivery of content when the old ad-driven revenue models are failing in broadcast and cable TV.<br /><br />--Prof HaleAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-30611055122017516622011-09-28T11:49:57.368-07:002011-09-28T11:49:57.368-07:00Country Lawyer -
"High speed internet for str...Country Lawyer -<br />"High speed internet for streaming is in the suburbs, its in the little towns in Wyoming, its already everywhere."<br /><br />Not even close. There are vast areas of the USA where high speed internet is unavailable, and likely will not be for some time.<br /><br />I own recreational property in southern Michigan in a county with a population of roughly 50,000. Outside of folks that reside in the county seat, broadband is generally unavailable. Strictly dial-up through Frontier(FTR). Cellular coverage is very spotty; two bars is the record at my farm. Verizon/ATT/Sprint wireless internet is even spottier. Television options are limited to Dish Network and DirecTV.<br /><br />In rural America, the scenario I've described is hardly unique. You certainly don't have to be in a wilderness area to have no access to high speed internet.Hr Lincolnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-14177302353509969312011-09-28T11:29:39.559-07:002011-09-28T11:29:39.559-07:00Anonymous, the day video game companies start inse...Anonymous, the day video game companies start inserting diversity and fairness into their video games is the day they stop seeing 500 million dollars in 24 hour kind of profits. There's already a huge liberal bias in the video game industry vis-a-vis the storylines. Modern Warfare 2 couldn't just be about terrorists or even russians, the "ultimate" manipulator/villain behind the scenes was a US general. The super mario princess in Assassin's Creed turned out to be such a cunt she wouldn't even choose an alpha male who killed hundreds of men just to get to her.julesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-20761358971615670882011-09-28T11:05:03.155-07:002011-09-28T11:05:03.155-07:00Off topic:
The Big Picture: Gender Games
http://w...Off topic:<br /><br />The Big Picture: Gender Games<br />http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/4719-Gender-Games<br /><br />Whiskey, can I get your commentary on this video? The basic gist is that men need to adjust their attitude so that women are better served by the gaming industry.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-25771572779155296222011-09-28T10:24:41.226-07:002011-09-28T10:24:41.226-07:00White women hate,hate,hate netflix!White women hate,hate,hate netflix!Father O'Learynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-67235838447582471582011-09-28T03:09:45.702-07:002011-09-28T03:09:45.702-07:00"That's diving for nickels and dimes and ..."That's diving for nickels and dimes and ignoring dollars on the table" - Whiskey<br /><br /><br />Hasn't this been corporate America's business vision for years if not decades now? Harvard Business School should be raided and shut down by the FBI before they do more damage to the country.Commander Shepardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-25265744978849008272011-09-27T19:07:52.915-07:002011-09-27T19:07:52.915-07:00Walmart has a few stand alone grocery stores where...Walmart has a few stand alone grocery stores where I live. Just food, nothing else. The RedBox in the entryway is always being patronized. As I walk by my thought is--They have to make a quick choice. They just want to see something, anything and maybe they have seen it before. Return it tomorrow and it's $1. Hold on to it and you will pay. I wonder how many RedBox patrons hold the DVD more than one or two days.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-75055264515981592162011-09-27T13:03:32.913-07:002011-09-27T13:03:32.913-07:00It very well could be Werner, that being in the bu...It very well could be Werner, that being in the burbs has an advantage over the big city due to traffic on the internet, but that runs counter to Whiskey's position in his post, which was my point.<br /><br />Streaming does work for the most part and DVDs are over the long haul dead as a business model. So too is Netflix's model, they're dead in the near future unless they reinvent themselves. <br /><br />The networks themselves have realized that streaming is the way to the future, they offer their shows on streaming with limited commercials and it will be only a matter of time before all the old shows get up and running.<br /><br />Sell an advertiser a number of users a day to be the sole advertiser for a show someone downloads (cheaper if it is any show versus a particular show) and each viewer gets a message "This show brought to you courtesy of X with limited interruptions. and voila, revenue stream, target advertising (if necessary) no fast forwarding through the advert, no getting lost in the advertising shuffle with everything else, and short enough that most people will stay and watch the ad so they don't miss anything.<br /><br />Simple.<br /><br />Look, most people in the under 40 set don't watch shows when they're broadcast and the networks know this and are slowly adapting.Country Lawyernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-66910297175492819172011-09-27T11:31:02.770-07:002011-09-27T11:31:02.770-07:00I am a former Netflix employee. I have been presen...I am a former Netflix employee. I have been present when these issues were discussed at strategy meetings. the problem is that not enough time and effort has been given to studying these issues! You know what goes on at Netflix Headquarters? WE get NAKED!! Ha ha ha thats right bitch! We gess it ON! We goss da bitches and dey be shtraight up HO's mutha fucka!! Dass right bitch! Suck on dat anaconda!! Ight!Father O'Learynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-6987653651095357052011-09-27T11:00:55.180-07:002011-09-27T11:00:55.180-07:00Redbox was the killer app for Netflix's over t...Redbox was the killer app for Netflix's over the mail business. Its true that Redbox has a tiny selection compared to Netflix, but it's right there in your hand, and therefore is much more comparable to the old video store rental experience than having to plan your movies out days or weeks in advance. Movie watching is often spur of the moment stuff. Netflix got around that for a while by undercutting video stores to a substantial enough degree such that people would wait to get the movie rather than spending more to see it *now* from the video store or PPV. And so did Netflix slay the video store, for the most part. But Redbox is now slaying Netflix, at least in its old "core" business of mail-order DVD rentals.<br /><br />I do think that their approach has been understandable yet somewhat hare-brained. Streaming isn't even close to their core business, and it's not clear at all as to what, if any, competitive advantages Netflix has in this area (whereas in the mailer model, they had clear advantages they had built up themselves), plus they have good, well-funded competition who has experience in this area and/or overall web dominance like, say, Amazon. I don't see how Netflix is going to compete successfully with Amazon, Apple and Hulu, really -- they're playing on enemy territory there.<br /><br />As for the bandwidth issues, the caps are quite high, really, unless you are a totally inveterate movie watcher. Typical 1-2 movies a week would not get you near the caps for most ISPs. And broadband is being built out way into the suburbs now in many places. In the DC area where I live, broadband is ubiquitous 20-30 miles out from downtown, no worries. This will continue to improve somewhat over the coming years as well, I think, although it does depend on where you live. I do agree, though, with slwerner's assessment of the rickety-ness of broadband movie streaming so far -- it's not really the same quality you'd expect, because the band isn't generally broad enough yet throughout the network. Also, I don't understand why someone would want to watch a feature film on an iPhone or an iPad, but that's just me.<br /><br />I'm not a big home movie watcher, so it doesn't impact me very much at all, but I do think that Netflix has to accept that it had a good thing going for a while, but it's now being outdone and squeezed, and all good things come to an end.Brendannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-28411495758411938262011-09-27T11:00:15.488-07:002011-09-27T11:00:15.488-07:00Country lawyer - ”I live in the sticks, so I know ...Country lawyer - <i>”I live in the sticks, so I know Whiskey is wrong about access, and never had a picture quality problem and never hit any kind of data limit.”</i><br /><br />Ironically, the fact that you don’t live in a metropolitan area likely makes the situation better for you. You end up having the same basic hardware and physical lines that are used for areas with higher population densities (and thus more people trying to transfer more data at the same time). <br /><br />I think it’s simply a matter of the physical limitations of the networks. A four-lane highway through a big city will suffer chronic congestion issues, whereas the same sized highway running through a small town will not. <br /><br />I think Whiskey may have over-looked what might be the more critical issue – network over-loading due to the expanded use of video streaming. <br /><br />I have heard rumors that Comcast (my provider) has surreptitiously instituted measures to deter “heavy” users, such as slowing down the data rates based on measured usage. I’ve never seen any confirmation of this, but I believe that I’ve experienced it. I have noticed that, on occasion, larger downloads seem to slowdown as they progress. And, thinking about it, the issues I’ve had with Netflix movies getting “choppy” seem to happen more towards the end of a movie (just when things are “heating up”, the picture starts to “pixelate”, and the audio sputters and drops out). <br /><br />While hard data limits (250 Gbyte) may not be “The Issue”, perhaps the larger sizes of movies and the attendant higher rates of data transmission may trigger some “soft limits” that providers have hidden in their system?slwernerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13293327533235793560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-88493686410608431802011-09-27T10:35:25.178-07:002011-09-27T10:35:25.178-07:00slwerner said...
"I take it that you haven&#...slwerner said...<br /><br />"I take it that you haven't actually tried to use it though?"<br /><br />Slwerner, yes I have. I use it all the time when my younger relatives are over and have never had a problem with quality other than the rare occassion when a movie won't load.<br /><br />I live in the sticks, so I know Whiskey is wrong about access, and never had a picture quality problem and never hit any kind of data limit.<br /><br />Streaming is the future. Netflix knows it, yes cable and the networks are going to try and control it.<br /><br />Note: Every major station has their shows online now within a day or week or so of being broadcast with less commercials. I watched "Person of Interest" this way.<br /><br />That is the easiest way for the networks to kill Netflix. Control all their content and put it out there themselves with commercials.<br /><br />They're already doing this, and this is the future of television.Country lawyernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-52757882528093237692011-09-27T09:46:23.304-07:002011-09-27T09:46:23.304-07:00Unlike mostly urban places where Netflix has expan...<i>Unlike mostly urban places where Netflix has expanded (Canada, Argentina, South Korea), most people in America still live in spread out suburbs</i><br /><br />Canada has a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_by_population_density" rel="nofollow">much lower</a> population density than does the United States.<br /><br />In Canada Netflix also has a setting that sucks up about 300-400MB/hour - that's a lot of viewing a month.<br /><br />And <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/01/netflix-charging-by-the-gigabyte-is-ridiculous.ars" rel="nofollow">their use of content-distribution networks</a> means that they aren't really a free-rider.Davehttp://www.rotundus.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-17371302270640641502011-09-27T08:38:28.537-07:002011-09-27T08:38:28.537-07:00Comcast has a bandwidth cap of 250GB/month. Strea...Comcast has a bandwidth cap of 250GB/month. Streaming 3 hours of content from Netflix a night for one month comes in at just over 80GB/month, so bandwidth caps aren't currently a problem. Netflix's bigger problem is a Karl Denninger pointed out. They are free riding on the ISPs infrastucture. They also aren't going to get the cheap deals for streaming content that were in place. Starz and Disney saying 'no' to netflix is just the beginning.Temujinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-13593334693778333532011-09-27T08:34:00.651-07:002011-09-27T08:34:00.651-07:00Country Lawyer - "High speed internet for str...Country Lawyer - <i>"High speed internet for streaming is in the suburbs, its in the little towns in Wyoming, its already everywhere. So this is not an issue"</i><br /><br />I take it that you haven't actually tried to use it though?<br /><br />The issue isn't access nor data caps (I agree Whiskey overstates the latter...a bit) It about the quality. A typical movie on DVD is 4-5 Gbytes of data. That's a lot to push out over the net. Thus, providers try to compress it down to around 2 Gbyte. This comes at a cost in picture quality (I notice it especially with Netflix streaming). And, even this compression doesn't completely overcome the issues involved with try to transmit so much data quickly enough for smooth playback. <br /><br />I've got Xfinitys top plan, their top data modem, and a high-end wireless router, and it still suffers from time to time (say, for example, in th evening when a lot of other people are home and using their Comcast/Xfinity broadband. There are limits which cannot be easily overcome. And, having increasing numbers of people opt to stream movies is only going to make it worse.slwernerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13293327533235793560noreply@blogger.com