Netflix is upgrading its Android app to stream in xHE-AAC.
Users need to be on Android 9 or higher to take advantage of the new feature.
The audio codec is scalable which means, if you are using a patchy cellular network, the audio will scale to a lower bitrate.
Netflix as a streaming service supports all popular audio and video formats, be it HDR and Dolby Vision for an immersive viewing experience or Dolby Atmos and 5.1 surround sound for the audio. Now it looks like Netflix is looking at enhancing the audio experience on Android devices. Netflix now streams using xHE-AAC on Android devices.
“Netflix now streams Extended HE-AAC with MPEG-D DRC (xHE-AAC) to compatible Android Mobile devices (Android 9 and newer). With its capability to improve intelligibility in noisy environments, adapt to variable cellular connections, and scale to studio-quality, xHE-AAC will be a sonic delight to members who stream on these devices”.
The best part about the new xHE-AAC is that it is scalable. Which means that it will offer the higher fidelity audio when your connection is good and scale back the audio when you are on a weaker connection. There is also Loudness management which as the name suggests prevents the volume from going extremely loud. This also helps with listening to content over the phone’s speaker adjusting the volume so that the dialogue is easily audible and the action sequences don't make the phone’s volume explode. This should help with understanding dialogues in an action movie without worrying about the explosions getting too loud.
To take advantage of xHE-AAC users will need to be on smartphones running on Android 9 or later OS. Netflix recently hit the 200 million subscriber milestone. You can take a look at how Netflix has evolved over the years here.
Netflix has a mobile-only plan for those that want to consume content on their smartphones only and you learn about the mobile-only Netflix plan here.
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