Netflix Gains High-Quality Audio

Netflix today announced a new feature for its streaming TV and movie service, high-quality audio, which Netflix says takes its sound quality "to another level."

High-quality audio is designed to provide audio that more closely matches with what creators hear in the studio, resulting in a "richer, more intense experience."

Netflix's audio bitrate now goes up to 640 kb/s on devices supporting 5.1 surround sound and 768 kb/s for devices that support Dolby Atmos. For the improved Dolby Atmos sound, a Netflix Premium subscription is required.

Most TV devices that support 5.1 or Dolby Atmos are capable of receiving better sound. Depending on your device and bandwidth capabilities, the bitrate you receive may vary:

5.1: From 192 kbps (good) up to 640 kbps (great/perceptually transparent)

Dolby Atmos: From 448 kbps up to 768 kbps (Dolby Atmos is available for members subscribed to the Premium plan)

For those with bandwidth or device limitations, the high-quality audio feature is adaptive, so it will provide the best possible audio to match your device or connection's capabilities.

Netflix says its new bitrates will "evolve over time" as its encoding techniques get more efficient.

Tag: Netflix

Top Rated Comments

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busyscott

20 weeks ago

Loving all the demands for “lossless” in the comments even though basically no one could tell the difference between an mp3 and a wav or flac lossless in a double blind test.

I’m excited for 5.1 and Dolby Atmos, but I’d rather see higher bit rates of 4K content. Netflix compresses the bajesus out of video.

Rating: 23 Votes

iModFrenzy

20 weeks ago

Why do I feel like this will cost more eventually

Rating: 9 Votes

Unity451

20 weeks ago

This will be perfect for The Office theme song!

Rating: 8 Votes

archer75

20 weeks ago

There's a website, if I can remember it i'll post a link, where they had music files encoded at different bitrates and then a lossless file. You listen and rate what sample is what. I scored 100% on it though it was quite difficult to pick out 320kbps from lossless. But yes, depending on your ears and audio equipment you can hear a difference. I can on my main home theater but can't on my second home theater with its smaller, cheaper speakers.

Rating: 8 Votes

Remy149

20 weeks ago

Why do I feel like this will cost more eventually

It already does it’s part of the premium tier that offers 4K and hdr content I pay $14.99 a month for it
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huh. The Xbox One X already has Atmos audio, provided you have the proper setup. i wonder if this announcement is about other platforms or just an upgrade in general for all (included the X)?

The Xbox and Apple TV offer Atmos support but it was never available from the Netflix app on either device

Rating: 4 Votes

vipergts2207

20 weeks ago

Where does this leave those of us with dual HomePods?

In need of a proper home theater setup. Homepods were never designed with that use case in mind, even though at least a few people here shoehorned them into that application.

Rating: 4 Votes

vipergts2207

20 weeks ago

Now Hulu just needs to pull their heads out of their rears and give Apple TV even basic surround sound support.

Rating: 3 Votes

JGIGS

20 weeks ago

Totally agree. Compression is pretty tough to hear in today's audio much more apparent in video. Especially dark scenes.

Rating: 3 Votes

NickName99

20 weeks ago

Netflix just keeps getting better. I love their downloading feature for plane trips too, especially with the high quality option.

I would sure love an option to disable auto-play video previews on the AppleTV app. Sometimes I browse on my iPhone, then play it on AppleTV to avoid all the annoying auto playing.

It irritates me that they keep increasing the price, it’s set to increase to $15.99 per month. As long as they offer ad-free viewing, I don’t feel like I have an alternative.

Rating: 3 Votes