Soon after Netflix launched its service worldwide I quickly signed up for a free trial to see how good will the streaming be over our lousy internet connection, and I was unsurprisingly very disappointed with the experience.
I have a 2Mb connection, and I was never able to stream a show in HD, the maximum resolution I was getting was probably 360 or 480p despite setting the playback parameters in my account to only play shows in HD. A friend of mine who has a 4Mb was also failing to load anything in high quality. And judging by the figures Netflix posted on their data usage, the results seemed pretty reasonable since 1 hour of HD streaming consumes up to 3GB, so there’s no way you can get that quality unless you probably have an 8Mb subscription.
Therefore until the internet infrastructure gets a massive upgrade here in Lebanon you’re better off without a Netflix subscription. And even if you managed to get a super fast connection, you should know that the Middle East’s catalog is different than that of the USA and lacks some of our favorite shows like House of Cards for example due to licensing issues. To get over that you’ll have to resort to using some VPN service all over again to cheat the geographical restrictions.
So basically just ditch the idea of subscribing to the service and keep that torrent client installed in your PC for the time being.
I just want to say that you will not get good quality even with 8Mb.
The 8Mb in Leb is shared = when there is rush hour “6PM till 6AM” your conn will go down dramatically.
What i get at home is a 4 Mb HSDSL = High Speed DSL = 150 $ / Month = Perfect netflix 😀
When i tried to work netflix on xbox and didn’t work i contacted their support and we went live on skype discussing the issue.
The tech girl advised me to have a good connection to enjoy the Netflix and she told me that she has a 30 Mb Dedicated conn at home “she was telling me that with shame that it is all what she has”.
Basically I told her sadly I’m living in Lebanon and this is what i can get and this is what i can pay and she was like speechless for few seconds 😛
True, video quality sets itself automatically so that you don’t experience alot of buffering,
while i’m always comfortable watching videos in 360 or 480p , sometimes the quality of the video streaming at the starts is very bad .
Second point, I was surprised by the very limited content they made available for Lebanon , making the service – even with perfect internet connection – not worth the worthless 8 bucks per month. And I was even more surprised when I installed the vpn of how much content is available for USA and CA.
My previous experience with VPNs is not very good , most of them need a subscription and they slow down the internet connection a whole lot. But reading an article from 2013 on how to bypass geo-restrictions for netflix , I discovered http://www.hola.org which is completely free browser like vpn , and with no effect on speed whatsoever so I would recommend it for anyone wanting to make his lousy netflix experience be less lousier.
I am still through my free month now, but i’m still not sure if this whole experience with our Lebanese connection is worth my buck, especially with a 1.5Tb hard disk full of downloaded series and movies that are half watched.
Guess where Hola is based http://hola.org/about_hola
Hint: “Hola is headquartered in Israel”
Good morning everyone,
Well I DISAGREE with you all 🙂
I have 2 mb unlimited Ogero subscription.
Router: linksys 1000. (Although it doesn’t affect the speed but it has a good mobile app that I can track who is connected to my network- I will explain why later).
The trick for HD:
You need to shut off all connections in the house. Don’t allow any single computer or mobile to
download anything. Keep all the connection for Netflix. The movie/series will start with 360/480 resolution, give it a minute and it will turn to HD. The picture is amazing! Also the 5.1 surround works perfectly on my home theater.
Whenever I see the picture went back to 480k or less, I directly know that there is a device started downloading an update. Once I stop it, resolution goes back to HD.
The same thing goes to youtube (I watch it on my smart TV) I always get HD quality when I do the same.
Note that many of series and movies are not allowed in worldwide Netflix for example house of cards.
Also check your relatives or friends, I am using my brother’s account since all Netflix accounts can have two profiles watching at the same time.
I also have a 2MB Ogero connection, and have been having a similarly good experience as Abed. I was pretty surprised at first—i thought it was going to be impossible, but after the first minute or so, the buffer achieves HD, and I have an easy time watching it on my 55″ TV through apple TV. The only faster internet connection i’ve been able to find is the 4G through MTC Touch, but it’s incredibly expensive—even by Lebanese standards.
My speed (according to speed test) is 10Mbps. I tried Netflix 1 month free… and not only could I not play any video over 480p, but the video was hanging every like 3 seconds or so.
Went to help files…. changed the setting to force it to play HD… tried several settings… even fiddled with my network and called both a network and electric expert to check all my connections in case I may have missed something…. but they did even less than what I did and nothing improved.
I’ll go back to my original judgement which has been proven correct for all my years living in this shithole…
That Lebanon is one of the sorriest and most pathetic excuses for a country I beleive I’d ever come across!
If I ever have the chance to leave this dump and go to the USA… I wish I could find a Doctor to give me a thorough lobotomy, so I’d not remember a single second of my dreadful experience wasted in this hell hole!