Netflix, the world's most popular video-on-demand service, has always been cutting edge when it comes to quality. His original series and movies were among the first 4K content that we could easily enjoy, For example.
And now, have wanted to bring that quality also to the sound of their productions and their service with "High-quality audio" that we can enjoy from today.
In the Press release that they have published, They tell us how they have come to be able to offer this audio quality with a small video and the story behind the sound of Stranger Things.
On the technical side, and the way Netflix sums it up, If our television or player supports 5.1 audio, we can expect a bitrate between 192 kbps and 640 kbps. In the case of having Dolby Atmos, we would speak of between 448 kbps and 768 kbps. And they hope to keep improving this bitrate over time.
To know if the series, film or documentary that we want to see is available with this audio quality we must look at the icons (as we do today with 4K or 1080p) where We will see “Dolby Digital Plus 5.1”, only “5.1” or, where appropriate, “Atmos”, which implies that Dolby Atmos is available.
Of course, better sound quality also means more bandwidth usageTherefore, those connections with a lower bandwidth or other limitations will see the audio quality reduced to the bitrate that suits them best, as Netflix does today with image quality.
Bitrate, compressions, formats and everything related to sound quality is a complex world and when we read things like "High quality audio" one does not know what exactly they refer to, but, If you want to know more about how Netflix High-quality audio works, here you have an entry from your own blog explaining it all.
