Best streaming quality for Netflix / Amazon?

Hardware and technical stuff
1

I’ve been trying to read up on this, but its not all that easy to get a clear answer for this.

Can anyone confirm that its apparently not possible to get more than 3000 bitrate (aka 720p) from Netflix on Windows 7? (the available settings visible in the menu under crtl -alt -shift -s only goes up to 3000). It seems that if I want 1080, I would need to upgrade my windows to 8.1 / 10 and then use the Netflix app or is there something else I can do? (tried Internet Explorer, Firefox & Chrome)

I don’t own a PS4 or Xbox one, but do have the 360, but from what I gather the 360 also only streams 720p?

With Amazon I don’t have any numbers, but my impression is that the image quality is better on the 360 than it is on the browser…

2

Don’t know if this will help you, but it was news to me.

AVS thread

3

I think the Roku stick does a good job of streaming at 1080. Pretty cheap too.

4

Yeah, I could look into buying an addon like Chromecast or Amazon FireTV, but I just find it extremely irritating, that I have a high performance PC hooked up to my TV and its somehow not able to stream the same or better quality than a bloody USB stick!

Here’s what I’ve been able to piece together:

Chrome OS uses HTML5 to render the Netflix video. Netflix has not enabled “Super HD” (1080p) for browsers, it’s only available on their approved devices (and the Windows 8 metro app).
If we play the video “Example short 23.976” or go into the Shift-Ctrl-Alt-S menu, we can see exactly the resolution we’re streaming in.
In “Example Short”, Chrome OS tops out at 720p. However, if you watch “Example Short” in the Windows 8 metro app, it climbs up to 1080p (assuming you have a fast enough internet connection). We know that the metro app is also running in HTML5, so Silverlight is really not part of the discussion at all.

These are the possible resolutions:

5800 Kbps (1920 x 1080, 1:1)
4300 Kbps (1920 x 1080, 1:1)

3850 Kbps (1920 x 1080, 1:1)
3000 Kbps (1280 x 720, 1:1)
2350 Kbps (1280 x 720, 1:1)

1750 Kbps ( 720 x 480, 32:27)
1050 Kbps ( 640 x 480, 4:3)
750 Kbps ( 512 x 384, 4:3)
560 Kbps ( 512 x 384, 4:3)
375 Kbps ( 384 x 288, 4:3)
235 Kbps ( 320 x 240, 4:3)

I gather that 4300 & 5800 are classified as “SuperHD”, but I’m hoping to hit the fullHD rate of 3850, but apparently thats not possible with the setup I have (Win7 PC or Xbox 360). Either I upgrade to Win8.1 / 10 & use the Netflix App or buy a PS4/X1/Amazon FireTV (Roku aren’t really available in germany)

5

This makes me feel marginally worse for just hooking my desktop directly up to the TV next to it and using wireless kb/mouse to watch Netflix with the missus when the mood strikes us. But then again, I never noticed I wasn’t get all 1080 of my Ps anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter much.