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In case you haven’t heard by now, back in January, Netflix announced it was upping the prices on all its plans here in the US and Canada — except for Canada’s Basic Plan.

With this most recent jump, monthly pricing for Netflix plans have jumped anywhere from 11 to 25 percent since 2020, depending on the plan in question. And, that got me wondering:

Could I save a decent amount by downgrading to a cheaper Netflix plan?

And, perhaps, just as importantly:

Could I tolerate the lower video quality and more limited features?

So, in February, I opted to downgrade to the cheapest of Netflix’s plans, the aptly named “Basic” option that tops out at sub-HD video resolution. And now, after several rounds of pixel peeping, penny pinching, and soul searching, I’m back with my verdict.

Netflix’s Basic Plan is… just fine for our household, but your mileage may definitely vary. Let’s dive in!

(Editor’s Note: This article is based on our recent video exploring the Netflix Basic Plan. To find out more, click on the video embedded below.)

Here in the US, Netflix subscribers can choose among three distinct tiers — each with its own features and capabilities.

The top-end Premium plan currently runs for $19.99 per month. That plan gets you 4K or Ultra HD streams for supported content. Plus, you can also watch on up to four different screens at the same time.

One rung is the Standard plan, which caps out at 1080p, or HD video quality. Here, you can watch on up two screens at any one time.

And then there’s the bottom-tier Basic plan that limits video quality to sub-HD resolution and only one screen at a time.

And according to the Test Pattern series on Netflix, which offers videos to calibrate your gear, the Basic Plan tops out at 960 x 540 resolution, otherwise known as qHD. That resolution features precisely one-quarter the pixels of Full HD, or 1920 x 1080, which obviously affects overall video quality.

As someone who’s stuck with the middle-of-the-road Standard plan for ages, the recent price hike offered an opportunity to explore other options. I wondered whether dropping to the Basic option would be worth it in terms of overall cost savings, as well as our enjoyment of the service’s content.

At its current pricing, the move from the Standard to Basic plans represents an extra $5.50 per month, or $66 per year.

Downgrading from the Premium plan all the way to the Basic option would save you $10 a month or $120 per year.

While that may not seem like a huge sum on its own, it certainly adds up if it’s just part of your overall cost-savings strategy.

When you’re signing up for a streaming service or considering a change in plans, a good starting point is to take stock of where, exactly, you intend to watch your content. In our household, we rarely (if ever) need more than one Netflix stream at any given time, so the multi-screen support of the Standard and Premium plans isn’t all that attractive to us.

And while we do watch some content on smaller TVs in an office or bedroom, the lion’s share of our Netflix viewing occurs on our 55-inch LG OLED 4K TV.

So that begs the question: How does non-HD content look on a large 4K screen?

The basic answer is: Definitely not as sharp and detailed, but perhaps not as bad as you’d expect.

Normally, we sit roughly 8-10 feet away from our 55-inch TV. And from that distance, the difference is noticeable if we’re actively thinking about it, but it’s not so distracting that we don’t enjoy what we’re watching.

Whenever we moved closer, we started to notice the lack of edge detail and blurry text much more. There’s a recliner in our living room just a couple feet away and if you’re watching from there, the resolution loss at 960 x 540 is difficult not to notice.

Despite the deficit, many 1080p and 4K TVs offer some level of upscaling support, so if you do opt for the non-HD plan, it’s worth exploring your set’s respective features to get the most out of those sub-HD videos.

If you want a very rough example of what it might look like on your given display, you can try out the quality settings on YouTube. Pick out a high-quality video, head into the quality settings, and then select 480p.

Video codecs and exact resolutions may vary, of course, but that should give you a fair approximation of what to expect, before making the plan change.

I’ve also tried out the Basic plan on secondary, 1080p TVs, mobile gear, and on laptops and the quality difference is less noticeable on smaller screens, especially if you’re not watching up close.

NVIDIA’s Shield TV line has been a popular streaming option for years, and it boasts some interesting capabilities that might come in handy for anyone viewing lower-quality video.

The Shield’s built-in AI-Based Upscaling feature aims to intelligently sharpen and enhance low-res video to improve quality. We published an earlier video exploring the topic and since we had a Shield TV Pro in house, we thought we’d give it a try.

The upscaling feature offers three different strength levels, and we settled on the Low strength as it offered a noticeable improvement over the basic upscaling, without looking too overprocessed and oversharpened. Your preferences may differ, of course, but if you have access to a Shield TV device, it’s definitely worth a try!

For some, the Basic plan might just be too limited, and that’s totally fine. But there certainly are use cases where this could be a passable, even enjoyable, option.

The most obvious use case is for subscribers who only view Netflix on one screen at a time, as opposed to, say, a house full of streamers.

And if a major portion of your viewing is done via mobile devices, or on your desktop or laptop, the Basic plan’s video resolution limit might not be that big a deal.

Conversely, multi-user homes, and those who place more value on HD and 4K streams probably aren’t the right folks for the Basic plan. Though, if you’re on that 4K Premium plan and you’re looking to save a little money now that it costs $20 per month, the drop down to Standard isn’t all that steep in terms of video quality.

Your mileage may vary, but 1080p video on a 4K screen can still look pretty sharp. And so long as you don’t need support for more than two screens at one time, the Standard plan could be a solid middle ground.

In the end, I learned that there is a noticeable drop in video quality not just from 4K down to sub-HD, but also from 1080p down to sub-HD. What really matters, though, is whether or not that difference is worth the extra monthly cost in your particular situation.

For us, we’re OK with the drop in quality since it helps save a few bucks each month.

As for your situation, if you weigh the pros and cons, and you come out thinking you can get by with the Basic level of Netflix’s plans, then definitely give it a shot.

Why are the engine and VIN numbers equally important? While purchasing a new or a used car from a dealer it’s difficult to tell whether it’s a one-year-old or six-month-old car that has been sold. This is when the engine and the VIN are important as it is a unique identification number of a car. The 17-digit VIN is unique for every car and helps identify the manufacturer, when it was manufactured, and other details. There will never be two similar VINs. But it is a challenge to find out where these numbers are on the car. Thus, it is necessary to know about car identifiers. Read on to find out how to locate the VIN and the engine number, and what each character signifies.

There are 17 characters in the VIN and each character signifies particular information, and these digits are standard for all vehicles and manufacturers. What each number and character represent is described below –

The first digit in the VIN represents the country in which the vehicle is built. The first character could be a digit or a couple of alphabets or a combination of both. For instance, in India, if any vehicle is built, the VIN will start from MA-ME and MZ. The second and third digits provide details of the manufacturer.

The combination of the first three characters is known as WMI (World Manufacturer Identifier) which tells about the manufacturer of the vehicle. In certain cases, the third character can also denote the manufacturer and also in some cases the type of vehicle. The first three letters also signify the division of the manufacturer in which the vehicle was made.

These denote the car’s brand, model, body type, engine type, engine capacity, and fuel type of the vehicle. In the VIN the eighth position is specifically used for denoting the type of engine of the vehicle.

The ninth character or digit denotes the security code given by the manufacturer or in some cases also denotes the month in which the car was manufactured.

The Tenth character or digit symbolises the year of manufacture of the vehicle. It is represented by an alphabet, allocated to each respective year since 1981.

This character symbolises the manufacturing plant of the vehicle model.

The remaining six digits are known as the unique serial number which acts as the next important detail of vehicle identification.

The VIN or the Chassis Number, is a unique identification number of a vehicle given by the vehicle manufacturer. The chassis number is used by the authorities at the vehicle registration office to register a vehicle. The 17-digit number of a particular vehicle helps to distinguish itself from other motor vehicle models and makes. The different ways to find the chassis or VIN number are given below:

After a new car is purchased, it has to be registered at the local RTO and this is when the RTO prints the vehicle’s chassis number on the Registration Certificate for the new vehicle. The information will be available on the Smart Card as well along with the other information of the vehicle.

In certain cases, some car manufacturers print the car’s VIN on the dashboard, usually found on the driver’s side.

A car’s chassis number can also be found printed on the driver side of the door and is always printed on a metal strip found on the B-pillar of the car. The chassis number on the metal strip is usually seen when the driver side of the door is opened.

The car’s VIN number is also present under the vehicle’s hood, located beside the car’s engine.

The chassis number of the car can also be located under the spare wheel of the boot.

In certain cases, some car manufacturers will print the chassis number above the rear wheel of the car.

To find the VIN number one can easily visit or call the car dealership branch from where the car was purchased.

When the car is insured or insurance is renewed, the VIN number is mentioned on the Insurance policy paper. With digitalisation, the insurance document is available in your email account as well and one can easily check the chassis number from the insurance paper.

One can also check under the front grille of their vehicle to check for the Chassis number as some manufacturers or car models who get the chassis number or the VIN printed under the front grille of the vehicle.

A car engine number is usually found printed on the vehicle’s engine chasing and is used for identification purposes. Here is how you can find the engine number of your car.

The engine number is seen on the body of the car’s engine and is clearly visible when one opens the hood of the car as it is printed on a metal sticker.

The engine number of a car is printed on the Registration Certificate when the car gets registered at the local RTO.

The car insurance policy has the engine number as well as with the chassis number.

One can also visit the car dealer from where the car was purchased to call the dealership to find information regarding the engine number as they would be able to track the engine number of the vehicle.

One can also refer to the owner’s manual for finding the location of the engine number as it might differ per model. One can find the engine number stamped by the car manufacturers on  the engine block of the vehicle.

The vehicle details can be located on the  parivahan website launched by the MoRTH where one can easily get information regarding the vehicle details online through the registration details in the vahan portal. But in order to protect the user data, the portal will never provide the entire engine and chassis number of the vehicle you will be searching for. Read below to find out how to proceed with the steps while trying to get information of a vehicle from the vahan portal:

The 17-character VIN number is important as it helps to track down the car in case one needs to. Also if one chooses to check the authenticity of the used car and the originality of the car’s engine, one can do it by matching it with the VIN that is stamped on the car. A VIN number also helps to understand important specifications of a car as the year of make, engine type, model, etc., and also comes as an important piece of detail while assessing the car’s insurance. The seventeen characters may seem to be a bit confusing to a layman but this article will help you understand how to decode each character, where to search for the VIN on the car, and what does each character signify.