There are situations when you might want to restrict the bandwidth of content streaming on your TV.
The Netflix TV app doesn't have the option to switch to lower quality.
If you need to restrict data usage and streaming quality, here is what you can do.
I was recently caught in a situation where I needed to stream Netflix on my TV using a mobile hotspot from my Android phone. The problem is that there is no option to throttle internet speed on Android phones (although, Google might just add one on Android 13) and there is no option to reduce streaming quality on the Netflix TV app. This means you can exhaust your daily cellular data limit in a matter of minutes! However, there is a simple workaround you can practice.
How to reduce Netflix Streaming quality on your TV to save data!
Netflix allows you to cap internet usage and streaming quality on a profile basis, but you can access it from your web browser. Here’s what you can do.
Step 1: Open the browser and log in to Netflix.
Step 2: Next access your ‘Account’ from the drop-down menu in the top-down corner.
Step 3: You scroll down to the profile for which you need to limit streaming quality.
Step 4: You will notice the ‘Playback Settings’ option in the drop-down menu next to your profile icon
Step 5: Now tap on ‘Change’. Here you can change ‘Data usage per screen’ to low or medium from auto to restrict internet bandwidth usage. You can also disable autoplay for previews and next episodes to further save data.
That’s it. Now you can make your data last longer while streaming from Netflix on your TV, projector, phone, or any other device.
Alternative ways
Other than restricting internet usage from your Netflix account, you can also try switching your cellular connection from 4G to 2G or 3G to reduce internet speeds, which will make Netflix automatically switch to lower playback quality.
Google has also introduced an option to throttle internet speed in developer options for Android 13. This is primarily meant for developers to test their apps on poor internet connections and will not thus be a user-facing feature.
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Deepak Singh
Deepak is Editor at Digit. He is passionate about technology and has been keeping an eye on emerging technology trends for nearly a decade. When he is not working, he likes to read and to spend quality time with his family. View Full Profile
