-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Crunchyroll lowers bitrate by 40-70% [Edit: Not an accident]
- Thread starter axisofweevils
- Start date
- Status
Unknown Soldier
Member
What's hilarious about this is that a certain site which offers torrents of CR rips will undoubtedly be offering the full quality rips since they will rip the episodes on day 1. So people paying for CR will get bad quality unless they watch everything literally the day of release. Pirates will just laugh and torrent the best quality. Stay winning CR
Hardware acceleration of H.265/HEVC is gaining acceptance quickly because it's what 4K streaming services use, in addition to 4K UHD Blu-ray. Most new phone SoCs support it. Both Nvidia and AMD recent GPUs support it. Intel integrated GPUs support it. Older machines will of course not support it and have to rely on CPU decoding which can be quite intensive. You'll probably need to upgrade your media PC, but Intel Core i3 is quite cheap now (like $100) and they have plenty of per-thread performance and decoding of H.265/HEVC on the iGPU.
Hardware acceleration of H.265/HEVC is gaining acceptance quickly because it's what 4K streaming services use, in addition to 4K UHD Blu-ray. Most new phone SoCs support it. Both Nvidia and AMD recent GPUs support it. Intel integrated GPUs support it. Older machines will of course not support it and have to rely on CPU decoding which can be quite intensive. You'll probably need to upgrade your media PC, but Intel Core i3 is quite cheap now (like $100) and they have plenty of per-thread performance and decoding of H.265/HEVC on the iGPU.
CaviarMeths
Member
Their problem seems to be the paying sub stats; 20 million free users vs 1 million paid users. They should really work on strategies for converting those free users into paid. They should be asking themselves how Spotify, for example, is able to convert 30% of its sub base to paying customers at a $10/mo rate.
Maybe anime fans are just cheap and want free shit, I dunno, but surely there's a strategy CR could come up with to increase the value of the service in the eyes of potential customers.
I know I cancelled my CR premium membership when they started fucking over Canadians by offering worse service than to those south of the border. I get that our dollar sucks right now, but they could do what every other sub service does and just list prices in USD or charge a buck or two extra for CAD.
Maybe anime fans are just cheap and want free shit, I dunno, but surely there's a strategy CR could come up with to increase the value of the service in the eyes of potential customers.
I know I cancelled my CR premium membership when they started fucking over Canadians by offering worse service than to those south of the border. I get that our dollar sucks right now, but they could do what every other sub service does and just list prices in USD or charge a buck or two extra for CAD.
Crimsonclaw111
Member
fuck how am i gonna watch jojo now
They can't be serious. I pay for this service and I already thought it was low quality, now they are further kneecaping it? For profit? Come on Crunchyroll! I don't care if you raise your prices, as long as quality rises too. This is just horrible for anyone looking for anime subs. I love their simulacast service, especially for JOJO, but their library is very small in my country and shows no signs of growing that much. Netflix came here and quickly built a massive library that I'll never finish(hopefully 😄
. Crunchyroll really needs to stop this and take some notes from Netflix, pricing be damned. I will pay 50USD per month(I think that's 200 AED here?) if that's what it takes for them to increase their quality.
. Crunchyroll really needs to stop this and take some notes from Netflix, pricing be damned. I will pay 50USD per month(I think that's 200 AED here?) if that's what it takes for them to increase their quality.Yall don't get Konosuba?! I wouldn't survive in Germany!
I appreciate their efforts in multi language subs too. But Netflix does that too and it's still getting some anime, is it only a matter of time until Netflix has a bigger anime library in my country than Crunchyroll? 😅
This action says that they were already being replaced and this is them trying to bail water out of the titanic.
killer rin
Member
Not like I personally have much choice here in Canada. Crunchyoll turned off the ability to view the library for free with ads specifically in Canada after our Dollar tanked. To top this off, we don't get Hulu, Amazon Prime and Netflix have tumbleweeds for libraries, many other services don't operate in Canada (despite owning rights to the entirety of North America). I guess there is Funimation, but as of late they haven't exactly been focusing on Subs.
So, it's either pay for Crunchyroll, relegate myself to only watching Funimation Dubs, go bankrupt purchasing bluerays or torrent (and by proxy not support the industry)
michaelius
Banned
Yeah not much alternatives in Poland too. We only have Netflix and it has like 2 or 3 series of anime.
And even Crunchy had like half of it's library available here.
They should have created cheaper sub for people outside of USA - personally I refuse to pay same amount and get half of the content.
And even Crunchy had like half of it's library available here.
They should have created cheaper sub for people outside of USA - personally I refuse to pay same amount and get half of the content.
The app isn't the source. Video is encoded and dumped on server. Their encoding method determines bitrate.
In short: Yes.
Netflix just removed a bunch of Asian stuff including a lot of Anime.
Hulu has a pretty massive Anime collection. A lot of classics and new stuff.
PaulExcellent
Member
So... what's left?
Daisuki, Hulu, and Funimation?
Sometimes Netflix?
Damn.
Daisuki, Hulu, and Funimation?
Sometimes Netflix?
Damn.
Mass_Pincup
Banned
A shame.
We're thankfully pretty much covered here in France, we have like 3 or 4 streaming service specifically for anime backed by the Japanese producers (Shueisha and Aniplex comes to mind).
Crunchyroll has always been a little player here.
Add Amazon and that is pretty much it right now in the US.
ZombiePlatypus
Member
This actually makes me sad. I want anime to thrive and do well in the west, even if it's a small industry.
Crunchyroll is (was?) the biggest face in the anime streaming game, and here they are basically rewarding/encouraging viewers to pirate. :/
Crunchyroll is (was?) the biggest face in the anime streaming game, and here they are basically rewarding/encouraging viewers to pirate. :/
LOWERING the video quality of your content. Has this ever gone well for any other video provider? Seems like the exact opposite of what you should be striving for.
I haven't subbed since HxH ended... but I won't be going back for any reason if they don't shape up.
Did they even trial this to see what people thought of the quality changes? Seems so poorly executed.
I haven't subbed since HxH ended... but I won't be going back for any reason if they don't shape up.
Did they even trial this to see what people thought of the quality changes? Seems so poorly executed.
Yeah that's the thing that really bum me out, the industry need all the help
wtf CR, aren't they just broke subscriber record or something like that?
way to kill all the goodwill, why they not just close the free service if they want being stingy
Chairmanchuck
Member
They evolved from a piracy site....
Besides that CR always had low bitrate. A normal ripped RAW from japanese TV usually looks far better than the streamed episodes. Cant even imagine why they would lower the bitrate even further.
I think the change sounds possible within the next 4-5 years but not right now. I still remember the huge shit storm the community threw with h264-h10p back when availability was a lot more of a thing. Wait until people actually start getting Skylake (1080p H265 HW decoding), Kaby Lake (4k h265 HW decoding) or newer processors.
It's a shame Ryzen7 doesn't have it but pretty much everyone on that will have a discreet GPU that supports it. Not like they NEED it anyway.
Edit: I guess they could launch it side by side? Maybe we'll get more quality and they'll get to conserve bandwidth! Who am I kidding? They'll totally just tweak things so we get no quality increase while they save their beloved bandwidth.
Yeah, this will happen eventually if CR keeps getting more people watching. 1m subs is hard to ignore. And then there's also that 20m of potential subs.
Legitimately asking this: what's the reason to believe what this guy is saying?
I mean I can believe the stuff about the bitrate of older episodes being made lower and stuff, and it does all seem scummy on Crunchyroll's part. But not sure why I should believe he's doing anything but speculating when it comes to Crunchyroll's reasoning.
They already have that, it's called a subscription.
In terms of what? That it wasn't an accident?
I guess that if you're really into it and don't believe him at all you can get a 2-3 year old pirate/ripper release, the current version on CR and the BD release and compare them all. You know, for science.
Not saying that pirating is the way or anything like that. But thanks to those groups, we actually have a way of verifying these claims.
Hulu is a lot more difficult to get outside of the US than it used to be. It's impossible to use a non-US credit card on the site and Hulu gift cards which used to be all over eBay seem much more scarce these days.
MikeHattsu
Member
You can get digital gift cards from gyft or other such places.
Lilalaunebaer
Member
Yeah, i said that i was going to unsubscribe before in this thread, but then there was that thing were it was supposed to be an error/bug and was going to get fixed.
Now, well, i turned off auto-renewal.
You´re supposed to up the bitrate over time, not lower it. Crunchy is going to the shitter anyway right now. Firing tons of staff and now this to save some money.
Now, well, i turned off auto-renewal.
You´re supposed to up the bitrate over time, not lower it. Crunchy is going to the shitter anyway right now. Firing tons of staff and now this to save some money.
Labombadog
Member
Why didn't they just increase the price just slightly if they are struggling with rent, yo.
Yeah, I am thinking of cancelling mine due to their content in UK. Seems very light compared to the ones in US despite being more expensive.
If this Bitrate is indeed a trouble, then I am definitely cancelling mine and hope that Funimation sort out their IOS app for me to consider theirs.
nintendoman58
Member
I can't believe how scummy this is. Restoring the bitrate because of the backlash but lowering a day later hoping people won't notice? That's just low.
And yet I can't unsubscribe. I just can't. I live in Canada, so it's not like I have much other means of legally watching shows.
I can't encourage any other form of piracy either. Not when the PR guys on Twitter go so far to explain just how much it hurts studios. The way people are using this as vindication for using pirate sites over them stings so much.
This whole situation just sucks in general. I just hope the drop in subs because of this will manage to convince somebody there to come to their senses.
And yet I can't unsubscribe. I just can't. I live in Canada, so it's not like I have much other means of legally watching shows.
I can't encourage any other form of piracy either. Not when the PR guys on Twitter go so far to explain just how much it hurts studios. The way people are using this as vindication for using pirate sites over them stings so much.
This whole situation just sucks in general. I just hope the drop in subs because of this will manage to convince somebody there to come to their senses.
I mean we're at the point now that people can pay for the sub then pirate shit they're paying for anyways and get a better quality service off the fansub site that stole the content from the site they're paying access for to begin with. That's how completely batshit this move is.
Eventually people are just going to stop paying for it. Quality and reliability are the cornerstones of valve's "beat the pirates" strategy, and cr just blew both of them in the same day.
Worsening the experience for paying customers is the absolute dumbest decision that they could of done.
If you need to cut costs, water down the free versions and fill it up with ads if you must, but paying customers should get the absolute best quality available. Not only to maintain the postive cashflow from content customers and to uphold your image as an industry leader, but to also give incentives to free users to jump to premium.
If you need to cut costs, water down the free versions and fill it up with ads if you must, but paying customers should get the absolute best quality available. Not only to maintain the postive cashflow from content customers and to uphold your image as an industry leader, but to also give incentives to free users to jump to premium.
nillapuddin
Member
just subscribe to VRV?
nilla logic: (because its cheaper, CR will get less money and you get the same amount of anime?)
other nilla logic: (the less money CR has, the worse it will get?)
nilla logic: (because its cheaper, CR will get less money and you get the same amount of anime?)
other nilla logic: (the less money CR has, the worse it will get?)
fuck
iRAWRasaurus
Banned
Wait did that really happen? Wow..
immortal-joe
Member
Yeah can we get confirmation that they did this? Can't find it within the thread.
Stallion Dan
Member
When piracy > paying you fucked up bad.
Never used it though personally, the selection in UK has been dire everytime I checked.
Never used it though personally, the selection in UK has been dire everytime I checked.
Chairmanchuck
Member
This is fucking stupid, because CR started of as a website that "stole" fansubs from other sites and streamed them on their website, earned that nice ad money by piracy and then just started to buy rights....
funimation is only a decent alternative if you liked dubbed anime as their deal with crunchy means crunchy has most of the subs for their shows.
that being said when funimation redid their stuff to funimation now they screwed up some stuff and for the last two months all the apps have serious buffering issues. They don't always show up, but I would say about 30-40% of the time at some point during an ep my stream starts pausing every 5 seconds to buffer for a second. Never had the issue before the funimation now stuff, and it doesn't matter if I watch on ps3 or PC I can get the issue. it goes to about 95% of the time if I ever want to fast forward or rewind on the video :/
actually VRV is owned by the company that owns CR so they will get pretty much the same money.
that being said I wonder if VRV would have higher quality video and if this is ultimately a push to get people to leave crunchy for it. it still lacks apps for PC and consoles like the ps3 and 360 though :/
cj_iwakura
Member
Just use the free version and wait. Don't support a sham of a company.
GoldCrusader
Member
Or he could use funimation or Daisuki.
s_mirage
Member
Or, become the market leader then slash costs for more profit as customers don't have great (legal) alternatives. That could be a mistake though; there are case studies that could be written on companies that have suffered fatal declines after penny-pinching noticeably reduced the quality of their product.
MosquitoSmasher
Member
Been too busy with Zelda to watch any anime, mostly One Piece lately but I hope the quality is still good. I like how they have added remastered versions of the older seasons now.
Tertullian
Member
So how viable is Funimation's streaming service? Do they have series licensed from other rights-holders? How's the selection? And it's better quality than this nonsense, yes?
- Status