Blotchy / Blocky Picture On Sports Channels

[Anonymous User]

When watching the sports channels with boost activated the picture has a blotchy / blocky effect. The stream is certainly 1080p and 50fps watching through my now tv stick. The same issue isn't present watching BT Sport through youview or other channels. Its very noticeable on green grass when the camera is panning around and even more so on darker backgrounds. This isn't something I've noticed on the Sky Cinema channels.

Anyone have an idea on the cause or a possible cure? I have a picture of the problem but can't see how to upload it. 

[gavs82008]

@Mattio 

Very odd! 
Did you say you unplugged your TV for a “reset” so to speak?

You could try your phone data briefly to test it out. 

Worst case scenario to set your TV back to factory settings. This happened a few times with my old LG TV with on demand content, then got fixed with a factory reset.

[Mattio]

@gavs82008 over time everything has been reset. I know it won’t work but I do it to stop them asking me to do it when I chat to them!

100% not the internet. As you can see from this thread there are loads of people with the same issue

[gavs82008]

@Mattio 

Agreed man, have no doubt in my mind it’s an issue with the stream from NOW. 
Not having a sports membership I can’t be much more help I’m afraid. Although I know there is many issues with Samsung TVs for the sports stream, don’t know why considering it supports boost!

[Mattio]

Thanks @gavs82008 

It’s actually a problem on loads of channels. Just shows up on sports the most as there is such a load of big solid colour (green). 

I’m sure it’s to do with the fact the tv’s are 4K but the fact NOW’s stream is crap shouldn’t be the TV’s problem. 

BT sport is only HD but their stream is fine!

[McClane]

Glad I'm not the only one still experiencing this. This is my third year of signing up to the 10/12-month season pass and it has been a off and on issue.

I find the greater the popularity of the event (i.e. United/Liverpool match etc), the more likely there is for a dropout in stream quality. I've  just watched the first half of Southampton vs United and the dropouts were becoming worse as the match went on. I'm watching on the NOWTV app built-in to my Samsung 4K TV. I've come out of the stream and returned to the TV guide several times to refresh.

I'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to streaming, but do we think this is NOWTV/Sky beng cheap and not boosting their streaming capabilities etc like bandwith? It would suggest why matches of more interest suffer.

[Mattio]

@McClane it seems to be worse in some views that others too. 
like in the football the wide shots where your looking at the game from the gantry the picture is awful. Where the tighter shots on a specific player seem better. 

not sure if that is just a perspective thing and bps much green is on the screen at the time. 

I have the same setup as you. Samsung 4K with the in built app. 

twice on live chat they’ve said ‘is it a Samsung tv?’  But they won’t elaborate on why they ask that. Next thing it’s ‘logout of the app, restart the tv, unplug all the cables’. Load of nonsense. Like speaking to 1st line IT support at work 😂 

it 100% is their stream. Trying to blame everyone and anything else but it’s them. All the other streams from other providers are perfect. 

[C3RBERUS]

Issue happens with multiple devices, now tv sticks, fire tv sticks, roku sticks and boxes, apple tv and apple tv 4k. Boost has zero impact problem is now tv and there streaming capabilities. They blame everyone else internet providers, users equipment, wires, the area you live and dont take responsibility for their own shoddy service what they need to do is offer HD as standard and boost for 4k and fix the quality its been 12 months now with this issue and they have the technical skills of a goldfish. They closed my case without resolving it and when i spoke to them they said it was escalated and finally resolved and i was like no it wasnt so took it to trading standards they are now under investigation with them and should get a response within next 28 days hopefully they can help sort this!

[Mattio]

Same with me @C3RBERUS 

they closed my case last week and I made the reopen it. All I keep hearing is ‘I assure you it will be fixed soon’. I pinged out to them that I’d seen people such as yourself saying it’s been a problem for a year. They just want to close chats off ASAP. So annoying. 

[Anonymous User]

I’ve seen the same problem. Have fiddled with various settings and I’ve altered the Settings in Apple TV 4K. Settings/ Audio-Video/ 4K SDR (from 4K HDR).  

That seems to have removed the blockyness. 
Not ideal, as you may have to revert back to 4K HDR for other providers, but it does seem to be a fix until Now transmit in HDR. 
Hope this helps. 
G.

[Anonymous User]

That sorted it for me; thanks very much!
Hopefully now will sort that bug at some point.