Apple TV+ Streaming Quality Lowered in Europe to Reduce Network Strain
The European Union has asked streaming services to temporarily reduce streaming quality to ease the strain on broadband networks caused by people working from home, a request that Netflix, YouTube, and now Apple TV+ have complied with.
Netflix cut streaming data bitrates yesterday, while YouTube reduced streaming quality this morning. According to 9to5Mac, Apple TV+ streaming quality was recently lowered as well, resulting in lower resolution streams and heavily compressed content with visibly blocky artifacts.
9to5Mac says that the lowered quality is "very noticeable," especially on larger-sized television sets, and quite a departure from the 4K HDR content that Apple normally offers. Resolutions are said to be as low as 670 pixels tall.
Compared to other services like Netflix that have also lowered quality to save data, Apple's streaming quality is described as "particularly aggressive" and akin to the kind of quality one might expect from "streaming on a phone over a 3G network."
At the current time, streaming content providers have only been asked to lower streaming quality in Europe, so the lower streaming rates do not affect the United States and other countries. The United States has not called on streaming content providers to implement data reduction measures.
It's not clear how long Apple plans to stream with reduced quality and whether tweaks will be made for a better compromise between quality and data usage. Netflix has said that it will continue using the lower quality stream for the next 30 days.
Top Stories
Apple can be expected to launch an updated high-end Mac mini with a new design and a faster "M1X" Apple silicon processor in the "next several months," Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.
In the latest publication of his Power On newsletter, Gurman writes that a new high-end Mac mini, which has previously been reported to feature a new design with additional ports, can be expected to replace...
In a newly published support document on its website, Apple has acknowledged an error that some users may receive when they try to use a scanner with a Mac in the Image Capture app, Preview app, or the Printers & Scanners section of System Preferences.
A screenshot of the error message from the HP Support Community When attempting to use a scanner with a Mac, Apple said users might get an...
A large number of late 2013 and mid 2014 13-inch MacBook Pro owners are reporting that the macOS Big Sur update is bricking their machines. A MacRumors forum thread contains a significant number of users reporting the issue, and similar problems are being reported across Reddit and the Apple Support Communities, suggesting the problem is widespread.
Users are reporting that during the...
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller sat down with tech journalist Steven Levy for a wide-ranging interview about the smartphone's past, present, and future.
The report first reflects upon the iPhone's lack of support for third-party apps in its first year. The argument inside Apple was split between whether the iPhone should be a closed...
Wednesday April 21, 2021 6:38 am PDT by
Sami FathiApple yesterday announced a completely redesigned 24-inch iMac with the M1 Apple silicon chip. The new iMac, the first major redesign of the Mac desktop computer since 2012, has several changes compared to the previous generation.
In the aftermath of the event, a few new features and tidbits may have slipped under the radar, so we’ve compiled this list of some of the less-talked-about...
A normal-looking Lightning cable that can used to steal data like passwords and send it to a hacker has been developed, Vice reports.
The "OMG Cable" compared to Apple's Lightning to USB cable. The "OMG Cable" works exactly like a normal Lightning to USB cable and can log keystrokes from connected Mac keyboards, iPads, and iPhones, and then send this data to a bad actor who could be over a...
The finish line is in sight! Apple's annual iPhone event is likely just a week or so away and all eyes will be on the company as it unveils the next version of its most popular product line. With any luck, we'll also see the next-generation Apple Watch and perhaps even some new AirPods.
Other news this week saw Apple making some more changes to its App Store policies in response to a...
Friday September 3, 2021 2:19 am PDT by
Sami FathiYouTube says it has passed 50 million subscribers for its Premium and Music subscriptions, making it the "fastest growing music subscription" service in the world, according to YouTube's global head of music, Lyor Cohen. YouTube says that it has more than 50 million paying subscribers collectively across YouTube Premium and YouTube Music. The Google-owned service says it attributes this...
With the launch of Apple's iPhone 13 lineup believed to be just a few weeks away, we have compiled all of the coherent rumors from our coverage over the past year to build a full picture of the features and upgrades coming to the company's new smartphones.
For clarity, only explicit improvements, upgrades, and new features compared to the iPhone 12 lineup are listed. It is worth noting that...
Apple today announced the first U.S. states that will be rolling out the ability for residents to add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch. Arizona and Georgia will be the first states to support the feature, with Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah to follow, according to Apple.
Apple said select TSA security checkpoints in ...
Top Rated Comments
Moreover it's utterly pointless.Legitimate streaming is much, much more friendly on the ISPs than torrent downloads are that easily peak traffic many times higher than streaming. [peaks hurt, and a 2160o blu-ray copy over a torrent download easily saturates the highest consumer bandwidths]
Politicians should stay out of technology they have no grasp of whatsoever.”
Politicians rarely have grasp, perhaps. But neither do you mate. On both technology and politics.
Nobody is meddling. The commission ( by the way, not politicians, educate yourself, most commissioners are actually technical experts in their respective fields. That’s why commission is appointed and not elected anf that’s why they can only make recommendations, not laws ) made a recommendation. Netflix, YouTube and Apple followed it.
Nobody forced anyone to do anything.
People like you are the problem. They preempt the issue - you criticize. They don’t preempt and let the network collapse - you criticize.
It’s a shame the only thing you never do is offer actual, workable solutions - or have any perspective - we are in the middle of a global pandemic, hundreds of thousands of people may die, even more may lose jobs and you’re b...ng about slightly lower quality of a streaming service ?
We need the bandwidth for medicine, for people to work and be productive - nobody cares about your binging.
Get some perspective mate.
But its good that they did it.
They are also asking ISPs to restrict non-essential bandwidth, so good luck with the torrents.