Discussion Disney+ Hotstar App & Website - News & Updates

[Tanishq]

I know bro. I have been seeing reviews on Play Store and requests on Twitter where users are asking Hotstar team to use x265 codec since 3-4 years now. Users highlighted how pirated sites requires less bandwidth than Hotstar. Yet, they don't care.

That is mainly because of the patent issues where even most of the companies still don't have the license for x265. The same problem persists with x266. The only answer to this issue is to use AV1 which is royalty-free.

 

[Prithi Deb]

I know bro. I have been seeing reviews on Play Store and requests on Twitter where users are asking Hotstar team to use x265 codec since 3-4 years now. Users highlighted how pirated sites requires less bandwidth than Hotstar. Yet, they don't care.

Hotstar consumes high data, but the quality isn't all that good.
On the other hand, Netflix plays/downloads the content according to your device specifications and requirements.
A 1080p episode of 1hr 20mins in 1080p consumes 1.4-1.7GB when watching/downloading on my Laptop. The same episode in 1080p consumes only 400-700MB on my smartphone. And the quality looks exactly same.

 

[Tanishq]

That's probably because the stream was in regular x264 codec. If it was x266, it would've consumed significantly less data.

x265 provides same quality at 60-70% of the size of x264.
Whereas, x266 claims to provide same quality at Half the size of x265.

The H.266/VVC video coding standard has been finalized, promising the same quality at half the size of H.265/HEVC

The H.266/VVC is the video coding standard the succeeds the H.265/HEVC standard, promising the same quality at half the size for 4K and 8K content. Read on!

www.xda-developers.com

I don't think they use H264 on live streams it's VP9. It's in one of their blog I read recently.

 

[Prithi Deb]

I don't think they use H264 on live streams it's VP9. It's in one of their blog I read recently.

I see.
VP9 is basically Google's "Free" alternative to x265.
Netflix also uses VP9 instead of x265. They use AVC (x264) as well. They are also testing AV1 for some titles.

Netflix switches to the AV1 codec for data-saving streams on Android

Way back in 2015 Netflix announced it would team up with Amazon, Google, Intel and other companies to develop a royalty-free codecs that worked well on modern devices. Two years ago they revealed the fruits of their labor as the AV1 codec, that promised not only freedom from licensing payments...

www.engadget.com

 

[marvel44]

I don't think they use H264 on live streams it's VP9. It's in one of their blog I read recently.

They use AVC that is H264 on Live Streams and most of the content as well.

For Example this is the one I Had captured while I was testing something when @Basil bro asked regarding Live Streaming.

{"Device Name":"COR-AL00","Buffer Time":"2.5 s","Screen Resolution":"2129 * 1080","Video Resolution":"1920 * 1080 @25.0 fps","Video Id":1540006118,"Video format":"video\/avc \/ avc1.640028 @2.9 Mbps","Audio format":"audio\/mp4a-latm @$48.0 kHz","Dropped frames":"0","Network speed":"8.4 Mb ps","Buffer count":"17.0 s"}

 

[marvel44]

Hotstar consumes high data, but the quality isn't all that good.
On the other hand, Netflix plays/downloads the content according to your device specifications and requirements.
A 1080p episode of 1hr 20mins in 1080p consumes 1.4-1.7GB when watching/downloading on my Laptop. The same episode in 1080p consumes only 400-700MB on my smartphone. And the quality looks exactly same.

Regd this. I just downloaded very old Sitcom, i.e., Malcom in the Middle. The FHD episodes only required 320-330 mb ie., if its a 40 episodes its almost equal to 650-700 mb.

And Regd your claim that Netflix uses very low on Mobile. Here's my experience with the same. Mine is L3 certified so its SD max on Netflix ( which is not a problem on Hotstar or even Voot now) for SD alone for Friends episodes it took like 250mb each. I haven't tested FHD as I wont get them. Hotstar's Video player has improved a lot in last 1 year or so.

Ps. Sometimes on Samsung QLED TV(which Hotstar hasn't updated yet) I feel Hotstar's service better than Prime Video (No problem on Netflix). Even today I had watched The Personal History of David Copperfield without any pixelation or what's so ever on Hotstar, but Jaati Ratnalu ON Prime pixelated so many times (I had tested on Speed Test speed was around 8-10 Mbps consistently) for that FHD video it's more than enough imo. I agree Hotstar has a long way to go to get better performance but saying almost everything isn't proper isn't good imo.

As a matter of Fact HOTSTAR now supports even HEVC as well. This is from one of the Episodes I had downloaded.

{"Device Name":"COR-AL00","Buffer Time":"2.5 s","Screen Resolution":"1080 * 2128","Video Resolution":"1920 * 1080 @-1.0 fps","Video Id":1000114253,"Video format":"video\/hevc \/ hvc1.1.6.L120.90 @132.0 kbps","Audio format":"audio\/mp4a-latm @$48.0 kHz","Dropped frames":"0","Network speed":"0 KB ps","Buffer count":"18.0 s"}

 

[Prithi Deb]

And Regd your claim that Netflix uses very low on Mobile. Here's my experience with the same. Mine is L3 certified so its SD max on Netflix ( which is not a problem on Hotstar or even Voot now) for SD alone for Friends episodes it took like 250mb each.

Yeah, I experienced the same. Not much difference in size between SD & FHD.

For a 1h15m episode -

FHD Download Size

SD Download Size

Maybe they use AVC for SD & VP9 for FHD contents?

 

[Tanishq]

Regd this. I just downloaded very old Sitcom, i.e., Malcom in the Middle. The FHD episodes only required 320-330 mb ie., if its a 40 episodes its almost equal to 650-700 mb.

And Regd your claim that Netflix uses very low on Mobile. Here's my experience with the same. Mine is L3 certified so its SD max on Netflix ( which is not a problem on Hotstar or even Voot now) for SD alone for Friends episodes it took like 250mb each. I haven't tested FHD as I wont get them. Hotstar's Video player has improved a lot in last 1 year or so.

Ps. Sometimes on Samsung QLED TV(which Hotstar hasn't updated yet) I feel Hotstar's service better than Prime Video (No problem on Netflix). Even today I had watched The Personal History of David Copperfield without any pixelation or what's so ever on Hotstar, but Jaati Ratnalu ON Prime pixelated so many times (I had tested on Speed Test speed was around 8-10 Mbps consistently) for that FHD video it's more than enough imo. I agree Hotstar has a long way to go to get better performance but saying almost everything isn't proper isn't good imo.

As a matter of Fact HOTSTAR now supports even HEVC as well. This is from one of the Episodes I had downloaded.

{"Device Name":"COR-AL00","Buffer Time":"2.5 s","Screen Resolution":"1080 * 2128","Video Resolution":"1920 * 1080 @-1.0 fps","Video Id":1000114253,"Video format":"video\/hevc \/ hvc1.1.6.L120.90 @132.0 kbps","Audio format":"audio\/mp4a-latm @$48.0 kHz","Dropped frames":"0","Network speed":"0 KB ps","Buffer count":"18.0 s"}

which show?

 

[marvel44]

which show?

If you had gone through the post, in the first line itself I said 2000's sitcom MALCOM IN THE MIDDLE. Even you can check the Same on multiple new shows which are added recently.

 

[iDJ]

We can pay now pay for Disney+ Hotstar Premium too combining Supercoins and Debit/Credit Cards.