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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Now TV footy versus illegal streams...

Now TV sport is in 720p resolution. There are illegal streams available showing Full HD (ie 1080p) but I always pay to watch my team with a day pass or a week pass. Isn't it about time those of us who actually pay our way were rewarded with higher quality streams???

I have a Samsung 4k TV with the Now app built in but I refuse to pay for a sky/virgin subscription to each 1 game a week.

At £40+ a month, is it any wonder many people decide to watch illegally?

Mark
11 REPLIES 11
Anonymous User
Not applicable

I cannot agree more it's not just at least 1080P we want but adjust a decent frame rate would be great MOTD on iPlayer app is great you should be pushing at least equal quality to this please nowtv
Anonymous User
Not applicable

The streams may be 1080 but the bit rate is really low so the actual image is soft, I'd rather have 720 with a higher bit rate and let the tv do the upscaling and as the broadcast standard is 1080i they can't really be getting 1080p anyway.

commanda6
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Anonymous User wrote:

The streams may be 1080 but the bit rate is really low so the actual image is soft, I'd rather have 720 with a higher bit rate and let the tv do the upscaling and as the broadcast standard is 1080i they can't really be getting 1080p anyway.


@Anonymous User you got a thanks because you're correctSmiley Happy

 

Hi resolution is pointless unless the video bit rate is high enough to accommodate it. NowTV uses a variable bit rate system , which means their system can adapt very easily to a user's Internet connection The Max bitrate is currently 4865Kbps. That's actually quite high for 720p HD. If NowTV were to go to 1080p FHD I would say they would have to increase the bitrate to at least 8000Kbps

 

just so everybody knows the maximum resolution of BBC iPlayer is currently 720p HD. However, BBC does use a frame rate of 50 FPS on iPlayer

 

 


I do not work for Now . I am simply a Now customer trying to help I am a Community Contributor This means that I know a lot about the service. But just like you I am still a customer. This means I cannot help you with issues that would involve looking into your account directly. A member of the now TV forum team or live chat will need to assist you with these issues.
schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

I find the 720p internet stream with the bit rate on NowTV perfectly acceptable on my 50 inch TV when watching entertainment or cinema content.

 

It's only when you start going bigger on picture size (in my case on a larger projector screen) where you definitely need the 1080p resolution with a higher bit rate, where the NowTV stream looks more noticeably softer in the PQ compared to Netflix & Amazon Prime Video.

 

The biggest issue for me though is the 25fps whilst watching the NowTV Sky Sports broadcasts which looks unnatural with motion blur when the camera pans during the sports events (50fps IMO makes Sports Broadcasts more watchable where BBC IPlayer Sports streams and BT Sports over IPTV is in a different league to NowTV when streaming their Sports service).

 

 

SeeMoreDigital
Legend 5
Legend 5

@schnapps wrote:

It's only when you start going bigger on picture size (in my case on a larger projector screen) where you definitely need the 1080p resolution with a higher bit rate, where the NowTV stream looks more noticeably softer in the PQ compared to Netflix & Amazon Prime Video. 


When it comes to up-scaling images much depends on how people set-up their playback devices. And how good the up-scaler is in their display device.

 

I currently have a 65" LG UHD television and it's pretty good at up-scaling native 720p25 and 720p50 content to fill its 3840x2160 pixel panel. It's also pretty good at up-scaling 576p25 content.

 

Where a lot of people run into problems is when they enable say, the 1080p output option in their 'black' box. Then they run their 'black' box (via HDMI) through a surround sound amplifier, without disabling it's post-processing features. And then they select even more wacky post-processing features on their TV's. 

 

People need to find out which device in their set-up chain offers the best up-scaling and let that device and only that device perform the up-scaling 😉

 

Cheers

commanda6
Legend 5
Legend 5

@SeeMoreDigital wrote:

@schnapps wrote:

It's only when you start going bigger on picture size (in my case on a larger projector screen) where you definitely need the 1080p resolution with a higher bit rate, where the NowTV stream looks more noticeably softer in the PQ compared to Netflix & Amazon Prime Video. 

 

Where a lot of people run into problems is when they enable say, the 1080p output option in their 'black' box. Then they run their 'black' box (via HDMI) through a surround sound amplifier, without disabling it's post-processing features. And then they select even more wacky post-processing features on their TV's. 

 

People need to find out which device in their set-up chain offers the best up-scaling and let that device and only that device perform the up-scaling 😉

 

Cheers


Yep you will in effect end up with double upscaling/processing if you don't set things up properly, which is not good idea. This is the reason why I currently don't use NowTV hardware very much because two of the TVs that I use use NowTV with are 4K capable. Taking NowTV hardware out of the equation helps prevent double upscaling/processing. I mainly tend to use the inbuilt NowTV app on the TV itself or the Xbox one S, which of course has a 4K display mode. So in cases where the Xbox one S is used. That will handle the upscaling and as that's a PC under the hood, it does a good job of upscaling content . The TV won't touch the Xbox one S output because it's already been upscaled 4K.

 

If you're using a now TV box and it set to 1080p output and you have the box connected to a 4K TV. NowTV's 720p content will get upscaled to 1080p by the NowTV box. It will then get upscaled to 4K by the TV when this happens, the result is never great. Upscaling is fine, but things should only be ever upscaled once otherwise things look weird


I do not work for Now . I am simply a Now customer trying to help I am a Community Contributor This means that I know a lot about the service. But just like you I am still a customer. This means I cannot help you with issues that would involve looking into your account directly. A member of the now TV forum team or live chat will need to assist you with these issues.
stammie1609
Expert

Well I am constantly having friends who use illegal streams boast how their service is superior to my expensive Now TV sports subscription.

This is all because they come round to my place and see the picture freeze issue when their cheap as chips illegal iptv service works perfectly.

 

Now TV don't seem to want to address the issue in the 56 page long thread in the sports section of the forum but it has cost them many customers that I know of and it will now be costing them my custom as I am fortunate enough to have access to overseas (legal) services that are broadcast quality 1080P.

I've tried doing the right thing by paying for my sports and only using the overseas services for things not on British TV but have had enough when I and multiple users have been ignored over the bad service the most expensive OTT subscription I know of in the UK buries their head in the sand.

 

When you see what is on offer elsewhere in the world it opens your eyes to just how bad Sky/Now TV's sports service is.

Karl-F
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi All, 

 

Just a heads up to let you know that this thread is bordering on the edge  of breaking our forums house rules in regards to promoting illegal content. 

 

A majority of comments in this thread have promoted healthy debate in regards to picture quality and it's something that we're working very hard to improve on here at NOW TV. 

 

In regards to the thread you mentioned @stammie1609 We are looking into this issue very seriously and are teams are working to try to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

 

Keep it clean people 😉 

 

Thanks, 

Karl

stammie1609
Expert

@Karl-F wrote:

 

 

In regards to the thread you mentioned @stammie1609 We are looking into this issue very seriously and are teams are working to try to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

 

Keep it clean people 😉 

 

Thanks, 

Karl




@Karl-F Do you not think it might be an idea to address the many disgruntled customers in the 56 page thread I mentioned rather than just me here in this isolated thread?