Netflix Lower Video Quality When Using Firefox
Hello.
When watching Netflix in Mozilla Firefox (72.0.1 (64-bit)), the video quality is noticeably lower than when watching in Microsoft Edge (44.18362.449.0) or Google Chrome (79.0.3945.130) and does not improve, even after setting my account to use the highest video quality setting (High) and watching the video for upwards of thirty minutes. I have the Premium Ultra HD subscription.
For reference, I am running a computer with Windows 10 Pro 64 bit (version 1909), I have hardware acceleration enabled in Firefox, my content process limit is set to eight, and my computer has a dedicated AMD Radeon RX 470 dedicated GPU, running the latest stable driver version, 19.12.2.
I've chatted to a Netflix representative and they pointed me to this page https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23742, where it states that Netflix has a maximum quality of 720p when using Firefox. Stangely, it also says this is the case for Google Chrome on Windows 10, but Netflix playback on Chrome appears noticeably clearer to me. Edge is clearer still, though that support page says that browser supports up to 4K playback.
Has anyone else had the same or similar issues when watcing Netflix using Firefox? If so, have you found any remedies or ways to improve the quality?
Thanks.
Alle Antworten (4)
Have you tried clearing Firefox's cache? If not, I would give that a try first:
1. go to Options --> Privacy and Security 2. In the "Cookies and Site Data" section click "Clear Data". 3. Make sure only the second box, labeled "Cached Web Content" is checked off and click "Clear" 4. Restart Firefox
d.mattera said
Have you tried clearing Firefox's cache? If not, I would give that a try first: 1. go to Options --> Privacy and Security 2. In the "Cookies and Site Data" section click "Clear Data". 3. Make sure only the second box, labeled "Cached Web Content" is checked off and click "Clear" 4. Restart Firefox
Hi d.mattera,
Thanks for your response.
As you suggested, I cleared the cached web content, doing it multiple times until it read there were zero MBs of cached data, and then restarted Firefox. This seems to have had no effect, as the video quality on Netflix remains low, even after letting the video play for upwards of three minutes.
Do you have any other suggestions?
Hmm, in that case can you do the following in order to confirm Netflix is in fact streaming at the highest resolution (720p) for you in Firefox?
1. Begin playing a video on Netflix
2. Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D to bring up the Netflix debugger
3. Find the setting labeled "Playing bitrate". The current resolution Netflix is streaming to you is the value in parenthesis at the end of this setting:
Example: Doing so on my own system, it shows "1280x720" a.k.a. 720p. Should yours show something different, I would suspect this may be something on Netflix's end.
Additionally, you may want to try creating a fresh Firefox profile and then trying Netflix with the new profile enabled. This will ensure the issue is not due to any of your addons or settings you may have changed.
Geändert am von d.mattera
d.mattera said
Hmm, in that case can you do the following in order to confirm Netflix is in fact streaming at the highest resolution (720p) for you in Firefox? 1. Begin playing a video on Netflix 2. Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D to bring up the Netflix debugger 3. Find the setting labeled "Playing bitrate". The current resolution Netflix is streaming to you is the value in parenthesis at the end of this setting: Example: Doing so on my own system, it shows "1280x720" a.k.a. 720p. Should yours show something different, I would suspect this may be something on Netflix's end. Additionally, you may want to try creating a fresh Firefox profile and then trying Netflix with the new profile enabled. This will ensure the issue is not due to any of your addons or settings you may have changed.
Hi d.mattera,
Thanks for the follow-up.
My playing bitrate reads 960 x 540 in Firefox. This did not change after leaving the video running for several minutes.
For reference, I also tried this in Chrome and Edge. Strangely, Chrome also gave this 960 x 540 readout. For confirmation, I asked another person in my house, who primarily uses Chrome, to check their playing bitrate: it was 1280 x 720. This person was also using Windows 10; though they have an Nvidia dedicated GPU. My Chrome installation was updated to the latest available version: 79.0.3945.130; the other person had this same version.
Edge's readout was 1920 x 1080, the expected resolution for that browser, according to Netflix.
Creating a new profile did not result in a different playing bitrate; the readout was still 960 x 540.
Do you have any advice based on this information?
Geändert am von gr3821