# NetFlix File "size"



## JoeTaxpayer (Dec 23, 2008)

Does someone have a good, accurate idea how much data is transferred per hour of NetFlix streamed to TiVo? For SD, and HD? 

I called NetFlix, and the rep said about 1GB/hr, but I suspect hat's for SD, not HD. I searched here, and googled, coming up pretty empty. 
For those with transfer caps, this info would be pretty important, I'd think, surprised it's not readily available on their FAQs.

("size" in quotes, I realize it's streamed, I just want to know how much a usage meter from the ISP would clock for the movie) 

Thanks.


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

I don't know the actual answer to your question, but I do know that the value varies. Netflix polls your network connection for speed, and streams the movie based on that. So if you have a very slow connection you will probably get a much smaller 'file' than if you had a fast one (but I don't know the actual numbers).

From a basic "I watched a netflix streamed movie" aspect, I'd guess that at the 'highest quality' they are still streaming at around 1mbps... but that's just a random guess. I'd assume for HD feeds they go higher.


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

or if I had some patience and google, I would have found out that the answer is 500kbps - 3.4mbps in wmv (explaining why the quality seems ****tier than I would have expected for 2mbps possibly).

http://blog.netflix.com/2008/11/encoding-for-streaming.html


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## JoeTaxpayer (Dec 23, 2008)

Yoav said:


> or if I had some patience and google, I would have found out that the answer is 500kbps - 3.4mbps in wmv (explaining why the quality seems ****tier than I would have expected for 2mbps possibly).
> 
> http://blog.netflix.com/2008/11/encoding-for-streaming.html


I saw that. I didn't know if the 3400 implied peak data rate, or sustained. the 3400 multiplies to 1.53GB/hr if my math is correct. I am hoping a user with a good meter (and fast connection) can confirm that this is what they actually observe.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

According to that page HD is 2.6-3.8Kbps and SD is 375bps-1.5Kbps. So HD would be 1.17-1.71GB per hour and SD would be 169-675MB per hour.

So even if everything you watched was HD you'd still have watch about 5 hours per day to run up against the typical 250GB cap.

Dan


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