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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Exceptionally poor audio quality on iOS and Android devices

I wanted to chime in to state the audio quality on both my android and iOS devices( ipad, iphone, and Galaxy Note 4) are extremely poor for all content streamed through NowTV.

 

I am on an un-throttled 30 megabit TalkTalk broadband conection, and the same streams are fine via Roku and PC.

 

On the mobile devices, all other streaming services are perfectly fine, offering crystal clear audio.

 

I suspect Sky's encoding technology is to blame, as they are trying to squeaze far too much over as narrow a pipe as possible, to save money.

 

This explains why, after 3 or 4 years, they have yet to offer 5.1 channel audio, and 1080p streams, unlike 100% of their content.

 

Yes, iPlayer and other 'catchup' services are stereo too, but there is a clear difference - they are free!  Sky ask for £7-10 a month for NowTV! 

 

The only improvements to NowTV I have seen is in the TV interface. They've done exactly zero development outside of that, despite offering more capable NowTV player hardware.

 

I would like a solid estimate of when this issue will be resolved.

 

It is hard to reccomend the service for mobile playback with this issue.

 

14 REPLIES 14
Anonymous User
Not applicable

I'll add to this as well....

 

I have the Now TV app on my iphone 6S+ and my iPad Pro. The video quality is sub par at best and the audio quality is very poor. With headphones it's akin to listening to something underwater. 

 

My broadband connection is BT Infinity unlimited and I always see +70Mbps down/19Mbpbs up via Speedtest. My router is a Netgear Nighthawk R7500, so I know for a fact it isn't my network or BB provider.

 

iPlayer and Amazon Prime are great on both devices so I know the issue lies squarly with the Now TV app. 

 

The quality isn't an issue via the Now TV box and is acceptable on my 47" Panny LCD via Wi-Fi

 

Getting back to the iOS picture quality, it's very blocky and lacks definition and detail - very poor indeed. 

 

There was an update to the iOS app this morning and I thought 'Finally, a fix for the video and sound issues'......

 

Nope.........

 

I am seriously considering dropping the whole platform. What's the point in paying for something that is basically unwatchable? 

 

If the Beeb and Amazon can do it, why can't Now TV/Sky? 

 

I know it's not entirely relevent here, but trying to watch Now TV on my iMac or MacBook Pro via Safari, Chrome or Firefox is a mission in itself. Again, iPayer and Amazon Prime, no problems. COME ON SKY, SORT YOURSELVES OUT. IT'S 2016, NOT 1996!!!!!! 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi @Anonymous User @Anonymous User

 

Thanks for getting in touch with us at NOW TV.

 

Sorry to hear you're unsatisfied with the audio/video quality on the iOS platform.

 

Quality is something that we are always looking to improve.

 

Thank you for your feedback if there are any further updates we will let the Community know.

 

Rob

NOW TV Team

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I have the same problem, with audio being unbelievably poor from the iPad.

This is when using the exact same wifi home network as with the NowTV box, where audio is excellent.

 

Cleraly the bandwidth apportioning between image and sound is entirely incorrect.

What does the audio get, 64kbit/s or even worse?

 

it is by far the worst audio I have ever encountered on any video source.

Please fix, as iPad viewing is what we do more and more (with iPlayer etc having no quality issues).

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi @Anonymous User

 

Many thanks for your feedback.

 

As @Anonymous User has mentioned we are always looking at ways to improve the service.

 

I will make sure your feedback is passed on.

 

Thanks

Andy

Anonymous User
Not applicable

"we are always looking at ways to improve the service"

 

Ok, but this isn't exactly rocket science.

It involves someone in charge of transfers/transcoding to change a value for audio bitrate from some silly unlistenable one to a slightly higher acceptable one. 128kbit for audio is an absolute minimum. I don't know what you currently use, but I've never heard anything on any MP3 player that sounds that bad. I don't think any audio player would ever offer such poor sound quality -not even in the infancy of compressed audio.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Poor quality really lets now TV down,well below other providers. Worse than YouTube.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Same problem here. There is a really poor sound quality when I stream on my Android devices (both phone and tablet).

 

This only affect my phone and tablet, as I have no issues at all when I stream to my TV.

And I have no issues either with other providers on my Android devices: Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer, Google Play Movies.... No sound quality issues. It seems to just be with Now TV on my handheld devices... 

 

This is really a shame; as far as I'm concerned, the service us unusable in these conditions. I use high quality headphone to really enjoy the movies I watch, but with this Now TV issue, I can't bear to watch more than 10 seconds.

 

Until this gets fixed, it'll be TV only for me...

 

The movie and TV selection is really great, so I'd be really greatful for the support.

 

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi @Anonymous User

 

We have started to work on improving the sound quality on our mobile devices.

 

I do know that it has started being pushed out to Android Devices, as you can imagine there is a lot of content that we need to work through so it will take a bit of time to get everything upto the new quality.

 

Thanks

Andy

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I experience the same - through Apple TV, Chromecast and iOS. It's hard to make out dialogue a lot of the time. The option of having subtitles would make things easier to watch!