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Comment by dessant | Hacker News Reader

> Apparently, there’s no way to make the Netflix app say what resolution it’s streaming in, or what the bitrate is.

There is, search for "test patterns" on Netflix: https://i.imgur.com/nOb7BX4.png

Nope, "Test patterns" doesn't show this real bitrate and other info on my devices. There is no yellow text like on the screenshot, at least in my case. There was a real test in Netflix which did show this, I used it when testing my phone a few years ago, when I learned that it doesn't support Widevine L1. It was called "Example Short 23.976" but it looks like it was deleted since. This year I changed phone to model that supports Widevine L1 and I wanted to test it, but it looks like currently there is no way to do it.

For me it’s shown when using Chrome/Safari on macOS but not when using the app on iOS

It might show info only in some modes. E.g. I only got bitrate tests with the 60FPS test screen, but not any other.

This Chrome extension (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/super-netflix/iakp...) adds a button to the video overlay that will show some things:

https://i.imgur.com/1SvTQny.png

Ok, I sheepishly deleted the image because it had some PII.

It showed how the extension presents info like resolution, both a/v bitrate, total throughput, and more.

I used to use this extension to force a bitrate, but Netflix removed the ability. Was super useful when you were stuck watching 144p and Netflix refused to serve you anything better despite your connection improving.

The xbox and Wii apps both also let you do this by pressing a specific controller key on any video content (I've accidentally turned it on a few times)

Same with a Roku, if you press the asterisk before playing content

My TV (Vizio Smartcast) has an diagnostics panel that tells you your input resolution.

So -- assuming the input device isn't compressing and then upscaling, which a Chromecast wouldn't -- it's easy to see the resolution, for Chromecast, XBox, whatever.

That will tell the screen resolution, but not the resolution/bitrate of the video the Chromecast is decoding.

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