Watching Spark Sport (including launch and pricing)

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Networkn
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#2285723 30-Jul-2019 13:29

tdgeek:

Its commercial only. I assume pubs, clubs, motel/hotel accommodation. While they can all get up to speed streaming, Sky infrastructure is widespread in these businesses already

Would have been good to have extended that to all Sky customers, because in some areas people can get Sky but not really suitable internet... Oh well.

smidon

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#2285736 30-Jul-2019 13:52

niallm90:

smidon:

niallm90:

Press F12 in Firefox and go to the network tab.

And in Chrome?

I don't use Chome but I believe it has something similar.

Yes it's the same ... F12 then look at Network tab. I took a look at German F1, Qualy ... it's 1080P, 30FPS

never fear, smith is here

Oblivian

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#2285737 30-Jul-2019 13:54

Spark is going to show a RWC channel on Sky...

RNZ: Rivals Spark and Sky team up for Rugby World Cup

Edit: Fix link

This is where we get further muddled waters with separate threads for different sports (I've been handslapped too) on the same platform and conversations about platform hinging around a particular sport in this one

https://www.geekzone.co.nz//forums.asp?forumid=151&topicid=248913&page_no=15#2285558

niallm90

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#2285745 30-Jul-2019 14:00

Oblivian:

Spark is going to show a RWC channel on Sky...

RNZ: Rivals Spark and Sky team up for Rugby World Cup

Edit: Fix link

This is where we get further muddled waters with separate threads for different sports (I've been handslapped too) on the same platform and conversations about platform hinging around a particular sport in this one

https://www.geekzone.co.nz//forums.asp?forumid=151&topicid=248913&page_no=15#2285558

/shrug

I think the platform not being expected to deliver for RWC at commercial venues is relevant in this thread. Personally I don't care about RWC, I have it for F1, but I do care about the platform.

PolicyGuy

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#2285754 30-Jul-2019 14:15

tdgeek:Its commercial only. I assume pubs, clubs, motel/hotel accommodation. While they can all get up to speed streaming, Sky infrastructure is widespread in these businesses already

As it says in the press release, there are rural pubs, cafes & motels where the best Internet they can get is dodgy, i.e. satellite, marginal ADSL or edge-reception RBI. The ADSL might struggle to stream a decent quality, and they'd likely blow their satellite or RBI data cap if they used that for the RWC. So there's a market segment which prior to this deal, had a high demand for RWC but no method of feasibly (or even at all) getting it. A market segment that might get very, very loud if they couldn't watch their rugby.

Also, there will be quite a few, maybe lots & lots, of places which have perfectly good multi-screen Sky distribution setups, but their Internet access is the cheapest ADSL package they can buy, because it's effectively only used for EFTPOS and maybe a browser session for data input to Xero / MYOB. There may even be fibre just outside the door, but they aren't interested.
They may have been starting to worry about how they were going to "do the RWC", but they're probably already too late to find a competent supplier - their "TV Guy" may not he much help here - order and install fibre, design the changes, order the kit and get the cabling installed, it's only six weeks before the RWC starts. And they'll doubtless be horrified at the bill, too.

networkn: Would have been good to have extended that to all Sky customers, because in some areas people can get Sky but not really suitable internet... Oh well.

I'd guess the "Sky Commercial Customer RWC Access" package will be a significant multiple of the Residential price, plus there's whatever Sky charge for Commercial rather than Residential use.

And these unfortunate folks will now be able to go down to their local pub / club to see the RWC 😄

freitasm

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#2285778 30-Jul-2019 14:32

Back then I have separated "Watching Spark Sport" from "RWC on Spark Sport" because they are very different things. Please continue to use the separate threads to discuss these.

SKY/Pubs is a RWC thing so belongs to the other thread.

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#2286385 31-Jul-2019 12:46

Finally Got Around to watching the German GP last night. It was very disappointing to see that they had ended the stream before the end of the programming (post Race). A least 1 programme segment was teased but not in the stream and the normal end of program sting was not present (at least OD, but possibly Live also knowing how they create OD). I see this a subtle form of theft - I have paid for the content that they have described but they have not made it available. It not like this is not the same format every race. To be fair Sky used to do this sometimes also, but when you have an independent stream for each programme, why would you not play all of the content in the programme? Spark Sport Lift Your Game!

On a related issue I have noticed that the stream appears to be a lot more fragile, since they have changed the encoding, I had multiple instances of the stream dropping to 360P at random points while viewing, and it takes a long period to get back to 1080. (I am on Spark UFB 100/20 with Gigabit LAN and a capable router). Also had some instances of buffering on the Android TV App. On the Browser version I had several instances of Freezing / Jitter Video with incomplete picture. These normally cleared after several seconds (Note Audio continued but picture is frozen or jumping back and forward between 2 incompletely rendered frames).

Apsattv

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#2286758 31-Jul-2019 18:02

Spark TV channel streams have also been dropped to 25 fps!

What the hell are they doing!~

ockel

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#2286781 31-Jul-2019 19:01

Apsattv:

Spark TV channel streams have also been dropped to 25 fps!

What the hell are they doing!~

Revenue earned not justifying costs incurred.....

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niallm90

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#2286783 31-Jul-2019 19:06

ockel:

Apsattv:

Spark TV channel streams have also been dropped to 25 fps!

What the hell are they doing!~

Revenue earned not justifying costs incurred.....

The cost hasn't change, the bit rate is the same...

Apsattv

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#2286806 31-Jul-2019 19:49

But cutting the fps from 50/60 to 25 surely saves bandwidth?

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ockel

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#2286811 31-Jul-2019 19:55

niallm90:

ockel:

Apsattv:

Spark TV channel streams have also been dropped to 25 fps!

What the hell are they doing!~

Revenue earned not justifying costs incurred.....

The cost hasn't change, the bit rate is the same...

Lower development costs as Spark are only covering the lowest common denominator by covering the broadest range of supported devices but sacrificing quality to deliver. Imagine a world where only one platform was supported - CPE cost for the consumer but easily supportable at a high quality. [BTW the consumer has to acquire a Chromecast or an Apple TV or some CPE anyway, go figure]

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davidcole

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#2286816 31-Jul-2019 19:57

I tired the apple tv app for the first time yesterday, on some fremium content (German FP2)....I let it run for about 30 seconds to a minute, and teh picture never cleaned up, stayed in low resolution.

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richms

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#2286823 31-Jul-2019 20:09

Apsattv:

Spark TV channel streams have also been dropped to 25 fps!

What the hell are they doing!~

I would hope that their framerate is determined by the source broadcasters output, since they are not a slave to legacy video formats like sky are they can send whatever they get without having to allow for dinosaurs and their "pal" framerates.

Richard rich.ms

ockel

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#2286832 31-Jul-2019 20:25

richms:

Apsattv:

Spark TV channel streams have also been dropped to 25 fps!

What the hell are they doing!~

I would hope that their framerate is determined by the source broadcasters output, since they are not a slave to legacy video formats like sky are they can send whatever they get without having to allow for dinosaurs and their "pal" framerates.

The recent "dumbing down" of their framerate would suggest its not a source broadcasting issue.

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