Netflix Opts for ‘Per-Title’ Encoding to Save Bitrates

Netflix has announced a new system of compression called ‘per-title encoding’. This is not a new codec – the company will continue to use H.264 – but a new way of looking at different types of content. For example, a cartoon – which uses ‘simple’ images – could use just 1.54Mbps to reach Full HD, while in the old system (in which resolutions were tied to bitrates) it used 5.8Mbps. In addition, there is no longer an upper limit on bitrates; complex images can be shown more accurately. Netflix says that its full library should be running under the new system by the end of Q1’16. The next step is per-scene encoding. Read more on the tech blog: http://tinyurl.com/ng7eo7a.

An example of bitrates used by a cartoon encoded under the new and old systems.