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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Now TV through Chromecast frame rate

Hi,

 

I've been throug the forums and not found a post directly relating to this - apologies if it's been discussed before.

 

I've been using the Now TV app through a Chromecast for a year or so. When I first used it, I was pretty disappointed with the frame rate. Then the Chromecast firmware was updated and the 50hz switch did make a difference, but not much.

 

What I found was a constantly low frame rate. Note, this is not about colour depth or pixellation. The rate was just as if it were at 25Hz or something - not randomly jerky, but a constantly low rate that was enough to make watching uncomfortable.

 

Strangely, it only seemed to affect live transmission. Action replays, adverts, previews - content that wasn't transmitted live - were smooth as silk, as is everything else I view via the Chromecast.

 

Since then, I've got a new TV with intelligent frame rate (Panasonic), and whereas that also helps, it suffers the inevitable artefacts of shuttering, while the ball during a football match looks quite flickery a lot of the time. I also have a new Chromecast and even a new router, so essentially it's a completely new path (same ISP - BT) with exactly the same results.

 

Anyone else get this? Given that everything is different but I get the same results - and that everything else is fine - it does point to something not quite right with live Now TV transmission. I would consider getting a box but I'm not convinced this would fix it.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Ta

Brendan

3 REPLIES 3
SeeMoreDigital
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @Anonymous User,

 

All UK based streaming services distribute their content at 50Hz (25 fps). So if your output device (media player) or display device (TV/monitor) is set to a different frequency, you will see problems with motion.

 

For further improvements, it's recommended that you disable (switch off) your display devices post-processing features (if they're enabled), such as: Auto Motion Plus, Dynamic Contrast, Black Tone, Digital Clean View, MPEG Noise Filter, Sharpness, etc.

 

 

Cheers

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Thanks for the reply.

 

All post-processing is turned off, except intelligent frame creation set to max, which is absolutely necessary to watching Now TV live. Anything less and the frame rate issue is too noticeable.

 

I understand what you're saying about 50hz, which is why I mentioned the switch on the Chromecast device.

 

However, even with that set to 50hz, I experience this problem - and only with Now TV, only when showing live streaming content. Absolutely everything else, whether through Chromecast (eg BBC iPlayer, Google Movies, any Now TV content that isn't live), or whether through a Panasonic app (eg Wuaki, Netflix, YouTube) is as smooth as it should be, with intelligent frame creation set to min.

 

As I say, I had the exact same issue with a previous TV, which was a 'dumb' Samsung unit, so I didn't have any post-processing to switch on or off! 

 

 

This is clearly a problem unique to Now TV when streaming live, but I can't see how my situation is unique given that I can see the exact same issue in so many different scenarios.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I also experienced this watching Sky Sports 2 via Now TV and Chrome Cast. Try forcing 50Hz mode. That fixed it for me. See https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/6308937?hl=en-GB for more details. I guess one should switch it off again to watch content at other frame rates!