Watching Spark Sport (including launch and pricing)

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#2295149 12-Aug-2019 21:40

Ok folks, we get it. The streams look fabulous on your six inch Smartphone. Because that is how people are going to watch the games at home.

tdgeek

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#2295152 12-Aug-2019 21:51

Deano004: Well credit where credit is due. Spark may not be engaging here, but it appears they are listening. The streams have most definitely improved. In my opinion anyway.

That WTA final does seem better. The Chelsea vs MCU game (that I'm watching right now, thanks to the dude who gave away the score earlier) seems significantly better than the Man City game when I watched it. Even the 2016 Belgium grand prix seems smoother. F1 still seems the worse for some reason.

Unless the source is extremely high quality I tend to watch everything with my tv's motion mode set to "standard". It is a little bit of black magic, but I think it adds a interpreted frame, and also a black frame which helps trick the eye into seeing smooth motion. It strikes a good balance between smoothing out the motion without introducing much artifacting, or that horrible soap opera effect.

Prior to tonight I couldn't find a motion setting that helped sparks streams. I think it is a good sign that the same settings I use for everything else now work with spark.

It isn't perfect. A higher frame rate would be nice. The flickering still fatigues me watching, but no where near as bad. I described it as unwatchable a couple weeks ago. Now, thankfully it is watchable, and dare I say enjoyable. That shocking judder seems to be mostly gone.

Couple things. I think the streams are the same on all devices, it is just that any problems are magnified on a large TV screen. I didn't really have a problem with the streams on my phone even earlier because judder and the like are, well smaller. Your eye can more easily fill in the gaps. I could still see the judder but it wasn't a real problem. On the TV it was exhausting to watch because your eyes and brain were working so hard to fill in the gaps in motion. Also, I have a feeling different people are more sensitive to the judder and flicker than others, more so when viewing on a large screen like a tv. It was so bad before that I thought that it must be my eyes that were the problem but my wife, who couldn't care less about picture quality couldn't watch spark sport either. Now she can (not that she will)!

I don't want to give too much praise because I think it could and should be better. It isn't on par with sky yet. But, Spark. If you are reading. Good stuff! Get 60fps back and you'll have the best looking sport content available

I concur with all that. Im seeing better content now than before, I assume the older stuff was already done at whatever means it was, but newer content is improved.

ianajmes

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#2295155 12-Aug-2019 21:56

@tdgeek.
Can I ask you what video setting you have your ATV4 on? And also, as someone pointed out earlier.. does it make a difference what it's set to? Am currently getting better viewing through the Samsung app rather than the Apple TV.

lxsw20

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#2295159 12-Aug-2019 22:02

ianajmes:
lxsw20:

Are you getting the Sky UK pundits as part of Spark Sport, or is it just the match?

Just the match.. no pundits, no analysis at all. I know last season BEIN had studio pundits.

Shame. Mourinho is with the Sky team this year, pretty insightful, as you would expect.

tdgeek

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#2295160 12-Aug-2019 22:03

ianajmes: @tdgeek.
Can I ask you what video setting you have your ATV4 on? And also, as someone pointed out earlier.. does it make a difference what it's set to? Am currently getting better viewing through the Samsung app rather than the Apple TV.

Its set to 1080p/50Hz. Looking at the latest content it doesn't mane any difference what the res is if I chose 1080p/60 or if I had the TV motion to OFF or ON. Older content it does matter.Which makes me feel that newer content is provided differently and better to older content.

And HDMI Outout is YCbCr

Match Content is off

ianajmes

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#2295163 12-Aug-2019 22:05

tdgeek:
ianajmes: @tdgeek.
Can I ask you what video setting you have your ATV4 on? And also, as someone pointed out earlier.. does it make a difference what it's set to? Am currently getting better viewing through the Samsung app rather than the Apple TV.

Its set to 1080p/50Hz. Looking at the latest content it doesn't mane any difference what the res is if I chose 1080p/60 or if I had the TV motion to OFF or ON. Older content it does matter.Which makes me feel that newer content is provided differently and better to older content.

And HDMI Outout is YCbCr

Match Content is off

Thanks, will have a play tomorrow.

tdgeek

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#2295164 12-Aug-2019 22:07

sbiddle:

I'm puzzled why everybody keeps saying all their feeds are 30 FPS. Surely most will be 25 since they originate in PAL countries?

My ATV4 has a setting for Resolution, it uses this and gets the TV to use this. Mine is set to 1080p/50Hz What if the content is 1080p/60Hz?

The setting states: We'll use your selected display format to play content without alteration. WE can also switch formats automatically to match the dynamic range and frame rate of the content

Us here tonight aren't video experts.

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Benoire

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#2295169 12-Aug-2019 22:18

dan:
Benoire: Is someone able to extract the latest android TV apk and post here?

here is the new 1.2.0 version (although it says 1.1.1 inside the app)

tested on SHIELD works OK

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ckfmd6v25jri5sz/nz.co.sparksport.androidtv-1.2.0.apk?dl=0

So they've now remved the beta tag from the logo... Heh I'm not sure the stream qualifies and the ui is certainly not intuitive

tdgeek

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#2295172 12-Aug-2019 22:25

ianajmes:
tdgeek:

ianajmes: @tdgeek.
Can I ask you what video setting you have your ATV4 on? And also, as someone pointed out earlier.. does it make a difference what it's set to? Am currently getting better viewing through the Samsung app rather than the Apple TV.

Its set to 1080p/50Hz. Looking at the latest content it doesn't mane any difference what the res is if I chose 1080p/60 or if I had the TV motion to OFF or ON. Older content it does matter.Which makes me feel that newer content is provided differently and better to older content.

And HDMI Outout is YCbCr

Match Content is off

Thanks, will have a play tomorrow.

Had a Google, I turned Match Content on, its off by default as a res change black screens the TV briefly until the newer HDMI standard is out. That helps motion with balls. And should be desirable as it will match the content's res and fps.

The match functions are deactivated by default because it involves a short black screen whenever the TV switches frame rate or dynamic range. This is a limitations of the HDMI standard that will be solved with the next generation of HDMI (version 2.1) and a feature called QMS (Quick Media Switching). However, it will also require a HDMI 2.1 compliant TV.

tdgeek

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#2295174 12-Aug-2019 22:29

Benoire:
dan:

Benoire: Is someone able to extract the latest android TV apk and post here?

here is the new 1.2.0 version (although it says 1.1.1 inside the app)

tested on SHIELD works OK

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ckfmd6v25jri5sz/nz.co.sparksport.androidtv-1.2.0.apk?dl=0

So they've now remved the beta tag from the logo... Heh I'm not sure the stream qualifies and the ui is certainly not intuitive

Me and others see a change. That can't be anecdotal or placebo. Lets see what happens.WTA tennis is now very good, the soccer is better (allowing that the fps was already low prior to this "60fps" issue. Something has changed. We have been told there was a change and why, now there has been another change, for the better, on later content.

networkn

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#2295176 12-Aug-2019 22:30

I am wondering how it's better for some and just as bad for others?

tdgeek

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#2295182 12-Aug-2019 22:39

networkn:

I am wondering how it's better for some and just as bad for others?

We have been told the frame reduction was to allow compatibility to some devices. Maybe the devices used are part of that group? I also see changes in latest content. I also see improvements on devices that are not to the TV, tablet, laptop. BUT, while I can improve matters with TV motion settings, on the latest WTA final, no settings matter, its all good. As it was before this all started. That tells me that new content might all be fine, but the older is already created as the lesser fps version. I checked Wimbledon, that wasn't great. But it supports my feeling that new content might now be ok, old is still what it ended up as. All supposition, but thats exactly what I see. You said yours is no better, can you check the WTA Final? Both on a tablet or PC and to a TV?

Deano004

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#2295228 12-Aug-2019 22:50

I'm not 100% sure it isn't placebo. All I've watched over the weekend has been spark sport. I expect that once I view other content such as Netflix or Vodafone TV I might remember what motion should look like on my TV. Then switching back to spark sport might be jarring again.

But, it does feel like something has changed for the better.

It should still be better. 60fps would do the trick. I don't really understand the excuse of suporting multiple devices being the reason to reduce the fps. All TV's with native apps can more than cope with 60fps. Surely given they built the apps, they could just code them to request a 60fps stream. Probably over simplifies view, but oh well...

networkn

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#2295230 12-Aug-2019 23:18

tdgeek:

networkn:

I am wondering how it's better for some and just as bad for others?

We have been told the frame reduction was to allow compatibility to some devices. Maybe the devices used are part of that group? I also see changes in latest content. I also see improvements on devices that are not to the TV, tablet, laptop. BUT, while I can improve matters with TV motion settings, on the latest WTA final, no settings matter, its all good. As it was before this all started. That tells me that new content might all be fine, but the older is already created as the lesser fps version. I checked Wimbledon, that wasn't great. But it supports my feeling that new content might now be ok, old is still what it ended up as. All supposition, but thats exactly what I see. You said yours is no better, can you check the WTA Final? Both on a tablet or PC and to a TV?

It doesn't make sense that some content would be ok and others not. They won't have been able to dictate to the original broadcasters to change anything, so they can only have manipulated the stream themselves, but it's less likely they did that and surely more likely they are just applying a filtering to the stream in some way. I can't profess to have internal knowledge of how they are handling it, but I guess you could check and see if content before the 30fps drop looks fantastic like it did before. I'll bet it probably doesn't.

Further more the content I was having trouble with was content from years ago.

I'll check that specific stream tomorrow evening if I get time, but logically I don't think it's going to be that content during certain timeframes should look different to others.

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#2295243 13-Aug-2019 04:12

niallm90:

sbiddle:

I'm puzzled why everybody keeps saying all their feeds are 30 FPS. Surely most will be 25 since they originate in PAL countries?

The streams indicate they are 30/60 FPS and so did Spark at the NZ NOG. Could just be that they use 30/60 even for 25/50 content though.

live channels
NBA channel 30
EDGE TV 25
MUTV 25

vod
2015 RWC Qualifier NZ v FRANCE =30 (29.970)
WTA ROger cup final =30 (29.970)

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