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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Sky Sports picture quality (Smoothness)

Hello, 

 

I'm new to NowTV having recenlty ditched my traditional Sky package. 

 

I realise there's already tons of threads about this going back years but watching SkySports on NowTV gives me a headache. The picture is just not smooth at all. Especially noticable on football games and on SSN when the yellow ticker at the bottom of the screen appears. 

 

I'm watching via 3rd gen (2013) Apple TV, ethernet, BT Infinity and tried fiddling about with the TV settings as suggested in previous threads and setting the ATV to 720p @ 50Hz. Nothing makes any difference. 

 

Streaming BT Sport matches from the app on my phone to the ATV via AirPlay is perfect.

 

This is obviously something at NowTV's end as it's too widespread of an issue. Is there any definitive answer or solution anywhere or are they basically saying 'tough, if you want better quality then pay more and watch via satellite'?

17 REPLIES 17
schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @Anonymous User

 

You could try switching on your television motion processing picture settings and experimenting with different options in the settings (if your TV supports picture motion adjustments) or even try disabling the post processing on the TV by switching to Game Mode.

 

I doubt it will make much of a difference, where it sounds like (just the same has me) that you dislike the look & appreance of 25 frames per second (fps) broadcasts.

 

Where fast moving sports with rapid panning camera shots such as football, where i tend to find that the picture looks un smooth, un natural with little detail in the moving image.

 

I am hoping when NowTV offer 1080p HD sometime this year that going forward 50fps will be part of their Sports broadcast PQ specification. 

 

I find i have no issues watching movies or entertainment content at 25fps on nowtv, where i would like to see 50fps introduced for sports in the future. 

 

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Thanks for your reply @schnapps

 

Yes I agree, entertainment, movies and kids are all fine, just an issue with the sport. Was kind of hoping I'd just get used to it after a few weeks but no joy. Although the £50 per month saving over my old Sky subscription does make it a bit more bearable! 

schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @Anonymous User

 

NowTV need to take a leaf out of BBC iPlayer book, where the BBC stream at 50fps and watching MOTD for example you can clearly tell which has the superior PQ for watching sports Smiley Wink 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

What brand TV do you have ? Some have a setting called " TruMotion " try altering this

schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @Anonymous User

 

That reminds me what @Anonymous User mentioned about Trumotion on some LG TV models.

 

I been watching a few YouTube video reviews on the LG OLED's and over at HDTV Test they mentioned that there is some weird picture oddity with duplicate picture movement when Trumotion is switched on that was noticed on things like football with the ball moving in the air (not sure if LG have fixed it yet via a firmware update).

 

NowTV must be aware of this LG bug in the Trumotion picture processing because they have an help article about it.

 

https://help.nowtv.com/article/duplicated-fast-moving-objects-on-lg-tv

 

If your TV is not LG or you don't see the duplicated oddity on fast moving objects then please ignore this post.

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi @Anonymous User

 

The TV's menu's seem to be a restricted as to what can be toggled.

 

I'm watching on the following:

 

1 year old Bush 55" LED (55-148F) via Apple TV

10 year old Philips 26" LCD (26PFL5522D/05) via Apple TV 

2x cheapo 4 year old Tesco/Technika 19's in the bedrooms. One via Smart Stick and the other via an updated white NowTV box.

starman73
Elite

https://www.which.co.uk/static/tools/new-reviews/tv-settings/tv-settings.html

 

May help in getting the best picture.  For my Panasonic TV setting Game Mode has helped.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

On my Panasonic I have all the jiggery pokery turned off EXCEPT IFC (Intelligent Frame Creation) which I have at Mid. Makes a huge difference on my set.

 

Unfortunately Game Mode on any tv makes the overall picture worse as "By enabling “Game Mode”, you are disabling certain features of the TV to reduce picture qualityhttps://displaylag.com/how-to-enable-game-mode-on-your-hdtv/

 

It's called Game Mode because it should only be used when gaming on your set. 

 

 

@starman73 I followed your link and checked out their settings for my tv. If I was to follow them I'd have the worst possible display you could imagine. Not only have I compared them to my current settings but also by checking all the major av testing sites whose settings were almost identical to mine. The ones on Which would leave me with a picture display a million miles away from being anywhere near accurate. They couldn't be further removed from D65 if they tried Smiley LOL

I only hope no-one uses that site to help them set up their displays Smiley Sad

starman73
Elite

@Anonymous User wrote:

On my Panasonic I have all the jiggery pokery turned off EXCEPT IFC (Intelligent Frame Creation) which I have at Mid. Makes a huge difference on my set.

 

Unfortunately Game Mode on any tv makes the overall picture worse as "By enabling “Game Mode”, you are disabling certain features of the TV to reduce picture qualityhttps://displaylag.com/how-to-enable-game-mode-on-your-hdtv/

 

It's called Game Mode because it should only be used when gaming on your set. 

 

 

@starman73 I followed your link and checked out their settings for my tv. If I was to follow them I'd have the worst possible display you could imagine. Not only have I compared them to my current settings but also by checking all the major av testing sites whose settings were almost identical to mine. The ones on Which would leave me with a picture display a million miles away from being anywhere near accurate. They couldn't be further removed from D65 if they tried Smiley LOL

I only hope no-one uses that site to help them set up their displays Smiley Sad


Game mode improved the live streamed channels for me but maybe not the others  What are the other sites that you have used with suggested settings?  Have to confess I didn't make all the settings on the link.  I like the idea of turning everything off and starting from there.