Netflix Connection Quality

Q: How can I check the quality I'm getting from Netflix on my device?

A: Netflix streams video in different qualities based on the amount of bandwidth available. The company has a good test video called "Example Short 23.976"; this video displays the bitrate and resolution in the top left corner, to provide details about your video quality. A common goal is a bitrate of 5800kbps and a resolution of 1920x1080, which you should see within 30 seconds (the resolution is quite low at first). If you're getting less than this, it's your Internet connection speed or possibly some throttling that's being applied. It's also interesting to try viewing in different browsers, because they all handle video differently, with different levels of caching—which means even if you have a bitrate of 5800kbps, Netflix might actually be using much more bandwidth as it caches the video for the future.