Netflix has developed a new algorithm that saves about 20% of bandwidth when watching a movie or serie. The reduced bandwidth consumption is possible due to a new technology that Netflix uses on its streams. The company worked for more than four year on the technology.
A new algorithm analyzes the type of video that is streamed and adapts to that. That way it's possible that an animation video consumes less bandwidth than an action movie.
The videos are still streamed in 1080p, full HD quality and the only noticeable difference should be the amount of bandwidth consumed. Netflix checks for each video how much data the stream consumes which can dramatically cut the bandwidth the video service requires.
Obviously the technology not only benefits users, especially for Netflix itself it's a big advantage. The video streaming service consumes incredible amounts of bandwidth and sometimes takes up about 30% of the entire bandwidth consumed in the United States. Therefore some internet providers tried to make Netflix pay for allowing it to stream to its customers. Also on some slow connections the video quality often dropped to 480p. This should now happen on lesser occasions. The new flexible streaming technology should reduce the consumed bandwidth and should make videos work in higher quality on slower networks.
The new technology works for each video, and even for each episode in a serie. The algorithm works entirely automated so it could go wrong on some occasions, however Netflix notes that it improves with the number of streams that use the technology, it's pretty much self learning.
