Netflix Intro's Video Quality Management For US Users

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Bandwidth caps are something that many rarely think of when it comes to home use. Sure, on the mobile side its a bit more in your face, but in the home you are generally safe. Well, that is unless you are streaming lots and lots of high quality video.

That being said, it looks like Netflix has rolled-out a tool (for the US market) that they first made available when Netflix launched in Canada — Manage Video Quality. And interestingly enough, it seems that streaming on the best quality can use up to 1GB per hour for SD video and up to 2.3GB per hour for HD video.

And on a side note, with as much as my kids, my wife and I stream Netflix, maybe I should be a bit concerned about how much bandwidth I am using. Anyway, focus, back on track.

The new management option can be found by going to Netflix and then clicking on the “Your Account & Help” link in the upper right hand corner. And then once there, look down a bit until you get to the “watching instantly on your tv or computer” section and you will see the option to “manage video quality.”

Netflix breaks this down as follows;

“We know that some of you have Internet data caps and we want to make it easier for you to manage how much data you use.
We offer 3 video quality settings to help you manage your data usage. No matter what level you choose, your Netflix membership price will remain the same.”

Once there you have three simple options to choose from — Good, Better or Best, which are estimated to use 0.3GB, 0.7GB and 1GB for SD/2.3GB for HD respectively. Me personally, I am sticking with the best, and hoping that I stay within my limits from Verizon FiOS.