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While streaming services have worked hard to improve their video quality over the years, audio quality tends to be an afterthought. Now, Netflix corrects the problem with much higher sound rates, at least if you have surround sound and some bandwidth to spare.
For users of Dolby Digital 5.1 systems, Netflix will now broadcast audio at a maximum speed of 640 kbps, up from 192 kbps previously, and Dolby Atmos users will have data rates of up to 768 kbps. At these compression rates, Netflix claims that the sound quality is "indistinguishable" from a 24-bit studio master recording. (Some audiophiles may not agree, but most people probably would not be able to see a difference.)
To avoid buffering, Netflix will also encode low-quality audio streams and adjust the sound quality on the fly by predicting each user. network conditions. This approach is similar to how Netflix adapts video quality with the help of predictive algorithms. And while Netflix does not display audio compression scene by scene as with video, it seems like it might change in the future. "We expect these flows to evolve as our coding techniques become more efficient," says the company.
Netflix is deploying enhanced audio streams today, and eligible users will start receiving them automatically.
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