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How To Reduce Your Data Consumption on Netflix

Latest update on by Aoife McCambridge .

As you probably know, Netflix offers a wide range of films, series, documentaries and other programs all in HD quality. However a decent data volume is necessary to use the service and on average, the app needs approx 1GB per hour of standard quality television. This figure then goes up to 3GB per hour, should you choose to watch in HD quality. These consumption levels are almost identical for both streaming and downloading content.

Might it be possible to reduce the amount of data consumed by your Netflix addiction though? The service does offer different data plans where you can adjust your individual data-consumption levels and as a result, control how much the service will cost you. Below we list each option so you can make an informed decision.

Controlling your Netflix-data consumption on a computer

Netflix has several video quality options to choose from:

-Low: Uses approx 0.3 GB per hour
-Middle (SD): Uses approx 0.7 GB per hour (Standard quality of 720p)
-High (HD): Uses up to 3GB per hour (and up to 7 GB with Ultra HD)
-Automatic: Adjusts the video quality to the available speed of the internet connection.

Selecting the resolution you want on Netflix

Login to Netflix and click the Profile Icon in the top right corner. Select the profile for which you’d like to adjust the data consumption (you can adjust different settings/preferences in all profiles except the kids profile).Once you’ve selected the profile, go to Account:

Then select Playback Settings:

From here you choose one of the four options listed above and then confirm your selection/choice by clicking on Save.

N.B: Note that any changes you make will only come into effect after approximately 8 hours.

Changing internet consumption in your Netflix-App (mobile device)

When you use Netflix on mobile devices, you have the same four choices as listed above with computer use:

-Automatic: This setting combines sparse data consumption with Standard quality. With this setting, approx 1GB per four hours of television will be used.
-WLAN only: This option allows streaming only when connected to a WLAN network.
-Save/spare Data: As little data as possible will be used here, with approx 1GB for up to 6 hours of content
-Maximum data use: With this selected, your viewing will always be in HD quality. In order to ensure this, up to 3GB per hour will be used. Consequently, we recommend selecting this option only when you have unlimited data volume.

Customise Mobile data use

To customise the data consumption on your phone open the Netflix-App and click the Menu button (3 horizontal stripes). Click on App-Settings and then Mobile Data consumption. Then you simply select the the data plan you prefer.

N.B: Take note that you can only change the data settings when there are no ongoing downloads on the app. Some options will appear grey when a download is underway so in this situation, simply cancel the download and then reopen the app settings to continue.

Foto: © Kaspars Grinvalds - 123RF.com

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This document, titled « How To Reduce Your Data Consumption on Netflix », is available under the Creative Commons license. Any copy, reuse, or modification of the content should be sufficiently credited to CCM (ccm.net).

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